Hip use in Karate

Koshi Kaiten, Gyaku Kaiten, Jun Kaiten, Shindo Kaiten, Tsukidasu Kaiten! Some of these we hear a lot in class, others we hear nothing about and some we only hear in English (regional language) and never are they really all explained! They are all ways to use the hip to generate power!

Koshi Kaiten means Hip Rotation and it’s a very important and basic part of generating power in karate for both kicking and striking. With proper hip rotation (Jun Kaiten) and reverse rotation (Gyaku Kaiten) you will generate more snap and more power. Jun Kaiten means to rotate with the techniques, this would be similar to rotating the hip into the techniques and Gyaku Kaiten away from a technique. It actually has little to do with position (hanmi, Shomen and Gyaku hanmi).
Jun Kaiten is when your hip rotates with the movement. So when you are performing Gyaku zuki or reverse punch you will rotate your hip into the movement by rotating the back hip along with the arm into the target. This generates a great deal of power as you rotate and also use the back leg to push with off the floor. This power full technique will generate a huge amount of power as you move from position to position.

Some JKA groups suggest that Gyaku zuki will move from Hanmi to Shomen as you punch some groups barely move into Hanmi when they start the punch and others stay Shomen when moving and punching. I advocate a full range of motion from Hanmi to Shomen and finishing in Gyaku Hanmi. This serves multiple purposes from martial power improvement to a more natural movement process and also strengthening and creating flexibility in the hips. This is a great example of un Kaiten, the hip is going the same direction as the technical movement.

Gyaku Kaiten is the opposite of Jun Kaiten in that the movement of the “power hip” goes the opposite direction as the technique being applied. A good example is a Gedan Barai or Uraken with the lead hand while standing still. The rear hip moves away from the front line so your hip/body goes from Shomen to Hanmi position to give snap and power to the front hand. In this case a Hidari Gedan braai Zenkutsu dachi is done ( left side down block in left front stance) the rear power hip rotates away from the down block powerfully and the front hip thrusts into the movement.

Some JKA groups again don’t use a Hanmi position for the Gedan Barai, but most advocate this movement to that position. I also feel that leaving the hips Shomen as long as possible will add rotational power to your techniques and you should remember that this is a thrusting in movement with the hip.

A similar movement is the Uraken done with the left hand when in Left side Zenkutsu Dachi. As your arm extends out you will quickly rotate your back hip away, thus making Gyaku Kaiten, and then as the technique is being whipped back you will rotate the hip back to assist with drawing back the hand.

Shindo Kaiten is the vibration that is used by the hip when executing a technique. Again, many trains of though when doing this power generation and many ways to do it exist. Some will do the “vibration” similar in motion to Gyaku Kaiten or Jun Kaiten, others will wiggle, some move the hand the opposite way from the hip movement then try to catch up to the arm movement with the hip and “piston” the technique.

My thoughts on Shindo Kaiten are that you should launch the arm movement with a hip vibration. This means if you are standing in natural position and punching with your right hand, your right hip will start the small vibration by moving forwards into the target then move back to the Shomen position before impact. Because the movement of the hip is literally a inch or two your arm will not lose any momentum from the reset of the hip to Shomen, or it shouldn’t unless you rotate and don’t vibrate.

Shindo Kaiten also has one other factor that some groups do not focus on. The vibration is not just with the hips, the support leg also pushes into the ground to generate drive, and the arm must punch out fast and focus the whole body on impact.

Tsukidasu Kaiten means Hip Thrust or push forwards and it is actually done with the rear leg pushing in and the pelvis forced forwards so you do not lean in. Some groups do not focus on this at all and you see students leaning when they move forwards or back and you find that its normally the least flexible students that have the biggest issue with this.

Tsukidasu Kaiten is also used in conjunction with shindo Kaiten in Mae Geri, as the back leg transitions into a front leg for the mae geri the rear leg forces into the floor and the hip rotates forwards hard thrusting in. This kind of movement in combination with Atoashi Suiryoku or rear leg thrust will generate a great deal of power. Kicking and striking can benefit from this technique when working for more power.

Shisei or Kata Dachi means general posture. It can mean how your feet set in stance, knees bent or straight, alignment of your spine, shoulders, the way you hold your arms, were your head is tilted or straight ext and so on. For my purposes in this I will be focusing more on the stance itself and spine! Generally I suggest that the ear, shoulder and hip should always be aligned. This way you know your posture is good, some people lean to much front or back when moving and it will throw off your balance as well as your power.

When you are off balance your body will react in a strange way, you lose the ability to direct power away from your body. A good punch or front kick will lose power and will be ineffective if your balance is off. In Judo the use of off balancing or Kuzushi is used to assist in a throw, in karate it is important to have great balance, but when you note that the aggressor is off balance you should be focusing on attacking at that moment.

Kata Dachi includes aligning the body so that the hip is ready for use and the use of the rotations or vibration will be at its maximum efficiency, the use of bad Kata dachi will throw your body off and you can actually harm yourself if you execute a rotation with bad body alignment.

Bushido, the warriors code and modern Karate training

In the west we use terms like Martial Arts, Martial Spirit and concepts like Warriors way…oh, I mean Budo, Bushido and Bujutsu….and to be frank….most of us are giving lip service to old ideals that we don’t follow, don’t understand and most of us don’t benefit from other than using a fancy term that amazes students and makes them think we are some kind of Samurai…which we also only understand from 1950’s movies and movies like the last Samurai!

 

First off….Samurai is the modern version of “Saburai” the correct way to say “one who serves” A samurai was actually a servant to the royal family or nobility…but they were an upper class member of Japanese society! The better term for them perhaps was Bushi or Buke, which means warrior. If you called someone a Samurai, it only meant they were serving their Daimyo or lord, and perhaps they were Bushi or they could have been a rice counting accountant that happened to belong to the upper crust of the serving staff of a noble Daimyo.

 

Anyways the term Bushido comes from the Bushi or warriors and it meant warrior way, or way of the warrior! The code of the warrior included several codified tenents or subjects that the Bushi had to understand. The code was actually an unwritten work prior to this and passed down from one Bushi to another over hundreds of years.

 

During the 17th to 19th Century the island of Japan stopped warring with itself long enough to actually write stuff down. This included the passing on of the code of Bushido in many books such as the Go Rin No Sho by Miyomato Musashi, Budoshoshinshu by Taira Shigesuke and Hagukure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. All these books kind of skirt the code but outline the way they think and act and how a warrior was expected to act…which by the way is very much different than what we think of these days.

 

Samurai were human just like you and me, they had good ones and they had bad ones. But they also had higher cast Samurai (who were allowed to ride horses) and lower cast (who had to walk). They had Samurai that adhered to the unwritten code…and others that cut down innocent people in the street and got away with it. Like 007 they had a license to kill, but the difference was those that killed just because they could…well their career path was kind of set as warriors and not true Samruai of the higher level.

 

So, in the 19th to 20th century the code was further codified but actually hijacked by the new militant regime that actually did away with the samurai cast. The old third class of people, the rich merchants, took over Japan and cast out the samurai way. But during world war II they grabbed ahold of the code of Bushido and basterized it into a nationalism that met their needs and basically used the code to push their people into fighting a losing battle saying the spirit of Samurai would prevail….the fact is that Samurai in Japan were never more than 8-9% of the population at any given time, even times of war when they recruited rice farmers and gave them titles to bring them up from a lower cast to fight for the royalty or warlord in the area.

 

At that point many “Creative” families suddenly started saying they had ties to famous Samurai or simply said they were descendants of Samurai…so who could tell if they were or were not!

 

 

 

The Code of Bushido boils down to seven virtues of the Bushi and three associated virtues. All of which you can find in the code known as the Dojo Kun and or Niju Kun written by Okinawan warriors on a island run by those that the samurai ruled…its not a far reach to say that the code of the warrior in Japan influenced the code of the warrior of the Ryukyu islands.

Rectitude (gi)- Rectitude means being Righteous or having Righteousness as your theological concept in life. It is a term that has been used to belittle others like saying “Why do you act so self -Righteous”! Rectitude means to act in a justified manor and live a life that would please the gods (God) depending on your belief system. Basically this means to me that you will act in a way that your conscience can live with. Don’t do things that you will feel sorry for later and you are aces!

Courage (Yuki)- Courage means different things to different people. The ability to confront pain, fear, danger and or intimidation and not back away is one definition. Sometimes courage can by physical like confronting an aggressor or going and getting surgery you know is going to hurt. Or it can be mental, like facing depression, loss of loved ones or other psychological pain and challenges. For me the most courageous people are those that face their own death with dignity and sobriety! I also know of a lot of people who face their life this way as well. Physical courage to me is fleeting…you face down the bully and you step up! Its done and its over. Facing a loss or facing your own issues goes on for a long time and those that face these day to day or end of day events…well they are the truly courageous Samurai in my mind!

 

 

 

Benevolence (Jin)- Benevolence is also a very misunderstood concept. Basically it means the practice of charity and voluntary giving of your self to others. In Karate we see seniors that give their time away from family to help teach, promote a club and run the organization. They don’t ask for any consideration other than to see the club grow and be stronger. The instructors work hard to run the club but the seniors often work harder. Its part of Filial Piety, but to be honest their offering of time and work is Jin! A true sine of Bushi is that they offer something of themselves and they don’t ask for anything in return.

 

Samurai used to do lots of work for the Daimyo, but they also fed the poor and injured and took care of war veterans with “jobs” that amounted to them showing up for their pay day! They used to organize food delivery to the poor and help run the country. Our Samurai, or our seniors run fund raisers and often help by giving time they could use with their family or doing other work to help run the organization.

 

The Niju Kun says “Karate wa, gi no tasuke" or Karate stands on the side of Justice!

Respect (rei)- Karate-do wa rei ni hajimari rei ni owaru koto o wasuru na! Or for those that don’t know what this means…..Karate begins and ends with Respect! This goes FAR beyond bowing to each other and placating our fantasy about living in feudal Japan with top knots, Swords and Japanese pajamas! Respect is something that you earn by treating people correctly, not something you ORDER others to give you! You have to give respect to get respect and todays world of Karate do we see far to many people just scare people into fearing them, then feel that its respect they are getting!

 

One way to give respect is the bow, but it also includes the way you treat others, the way you act towards them, address them and treat them in general. Use of Shogu and other titles is secondary. I have seen plenty of people who were incredibly disrespectful of others never miss a beat when using a Shogu for a person and slapping out a sharp bow!

 

For me Karate is ALL about respect and how you earn it, maintain it and encourage others to cultivate it in their daily lives. After all “dojo nomino karate to omou na” or Karate goes beyond the Dojo! (another line from the Niju kun)…..ever try working with someone that does not respect others, has a bad attitude and basically treats everyone like a stepping stone….well I have and its hard to try and respect someone that trys to rule by intimidation and then calls the fear they get back respect! Managers with this issue are horror shows and need to be asking “ would you like fries with that” and not “ would you like your next pay check”.

 

Respect in Karate dojos is one of the most important aspects of a healthy dojo. If you end up with someone that has an ego, has issues with people not BOWING down to them or has a big head…well it’s a cancer that will rip apart a Dojo fast! Respect is earned by your actions, not by your requesting it or ordering others to give it to you!

 

Honesty(Makoto)- Makoto no michi wo mamoru koto! Many people think that this simply means “be faithful” but that is the English version and it only tells part of the story. Makoto means Honesty! A Better interpretation would be to honestly guard the way of loyalty and truth!

 

The term Honesty was important to a bushi that was going into battle. They had to be honest with themselves and also with their Daimyo about their ability and many stories exist about samurai stepping aside for those more skilled at strategy and the war being won, or those that thought better of themselves than was true and or lying to their Daimyo and the war being lost because of them.

 

Makoto in Karate is more a personal thing. I mean its important to be honest with others, but even more so with yourself. Know yourself well and don’t lie to yourself about your ability or your goals and you will go far in Karate. Being honest also allows us to set new goals and to push ourselves to reach them…if we lie and say Black belt is a sign of perfection….I am a black belt…ergo I am perfect…well you will dwindle and die on the vine when you could bloom into a much better Yudansha if you only were honest with yourself!

Honor (Meiyo)- Honor is hard one to grab a hold of, it probably means different things to different people and the concept of honor or Honour is very transient! Honor is accepted as meaning a quality of worthiness and respectability of an individual. A specific “code of honor” needs to be established, or an understanding of what someone feels is honorable before Honor can be understood by an individual.

 

Honor is a hard modern concept as we have endeavored to do away with lots of the old medieval ideals of chivalry and often think of Chivalry and its code as a dated and sexist ideal; however Honor is a big part of that code! The simplest way to conceptualize Honor as an ideal is to throw it against its opposite, Shame! Essentially if you live a life filled with honor then you will never cause Shame to yourself. Again, its not perfect but seeing as we have kicked our medieval ideal of chivalry to the curb generations ago to create a feeling of equality…it’s a good start!

 

The Code of Bushido and the code of Chivalry have a common and important concept in honor! One should live life in such a way as they know they have never done something to shame themselves and they must view all actions with others in this light. Have you shown your instructor and seniors the proper respect? Are you a good parent and child to your parents? Are you a hard worker at work? Do you honor you work by not just working hard but representing the employer who gives you your wages in a justified and positive way? Are you a good friend, are you honest, are you a good person? All of these outline what Honor is in the modern times to me…and I probably missed a bunch!

 

 

 

Loyalty (Chugi)- The Encyclopedia Britannica defines loyalty as “personal devotion and reverence to a sovereign and royal family”. A more specific idea is that a Bushi in the employ of a Daimyo would fight to the death for the lord and would not give up or change sides, they would not turn tail and run unless ordered to do so and many failing campaigns saw huge numbers of dead because the samurai would not leave the battle field unless a Daimyo told them to…and the Daimyo had left a long time ago!

 

In modern Karate terms the ideal of Loyalty is that of a student joining a club and training for a long time, they now owe the club and instructor their loyalty. Once you join a club and rank to Yudansha level you have learned for four or five years from an instructor and shown your dedication to the art, your now given the opportunity to grade for Dan level. Once you pass you now represent that instructor and or organization, your loyalty is fit with them. If you choose to leave, you are leaving your rank at the door and you may join another club, but you should start from scratch or at least with a white belt worn till that instructor offers you a dan level under them.

 

Now a days we see students leave instructors or chase them out of organizations, accept higher rank than they were given to leave, or set up shop for themselves and not show any loyalty to the instructor or the seniors that they once learned from. This kind of ego move shows more than just a lack of loyalty but it really illustrates a sad character in people.

 

We also see instructors showing no loyalty to students. They have a student that works hard in class and helps the organization grow, and the first “champion” that comes along userps the attention of the instructor and they forget about the other students because a specific student will bring them attention. They charge more money than they need to, move clubs 10,000 times and don’t care about students other than as a revenue stream!

 

Myself and several other seniors stuck with our Sensei when he was forced to leave a large organization, we worked hard to maintain our now smaller group and eventually worked our way back to a larger group. We stay with him because he is our Sensei! We treat the students fair and we all train as a family. When someone shows lack of loyalty to that group I get upset and when former students that left my instructor show up with fancy titles, higher ranks they got by prostituting their membership to others, well it reinforces my feeling of loyalty to my instructor!

Filial piety (Ko)- respect for ones parents and ancestors. In Samurai times the respect one paid to the ancestors of the family would bring luck and would show loyalty to ones roots. The act of honoring the parents and grandparents served many purposes. Not only had they been around for some time and offered up knowledge and wisdom to a samurai, they also often retired from active life and raised your children! The saying it takes a village to raise a child, well the Samurai truly believed this…actually this is a very Japanese thing.

 

Filial Piety in society is lacking, we see kids disrespecting parents, elder abuse, grave sites defaced and the youth running around abusing older members of society and the lessons of “take care of those that came before” are lost on most of society. The term “those that came before”….in Japanese…is Sensei!

 

Filial Piety for me means that you will be loyal and treat those that came before you with the respect they deserve! One day, if you are lucky enough…you too will earn that status and I would hope you want the youth (juniors) to treat you well!

Wisdom (Chi)- “the Judicious study and application of knowledge” So, how did they gain Wisdom and Knowledge? Well they trained with martial arts instructors! Sword masters and other martial arts specialists would have schools or clubs and would teach Bushi their trade…then the Bushi would seek out other masters, like Buddhist teachers, Shinto instructors and others that were thought of as knowledgeable and they would study…..and after years and years of training, if they lived through wars and bloody battles, they eventually may become masters themselves and start teaching others.

 

Modern ways to develop knowledge is the same. You find someone that has something to teach you in martial arts and you train with them, grow with them and try to become as knowledgeable at the arts as them, then you move to other training to reinforce or augment your training.

 

I am a big believer that your Karate training should be strictly Karate till you reach about shodan then you can branch out to study, part time, a complementary art. You should also look for things to study that help your Karate. I studied sports med and massage so I could understand the human body as much as I can and I still research and read about things that will help my Karate training!

 

The most unwise thing you can do is take up an art, study it blindly and just keep repeating what you have done year in and year out. Seek out other ideas, while respecting your roots and your Sensei, look to other instructors for their ideas…but look to grow as a individual and eventually you will also get to that level in martial arts that you are now able to be seen as having knowledge and wisdom in your art.

Care of the aged (tei)- Tei is similar to Filial Piety but in this case its more intimate. It means taking care of those who are aging and helping them move to the next life. We should not be good to those that have had a long life, learn from them and respect them. We should also make their last years as easy as we can, and pray that our kindness is repaid in turn if we reach their age.

 

In Japan those that reach an elevated age are respected and treated with revere! Here in the west, well….often not so much! When Funakoshi was an elder statesman of Karate his students bestowed the greatest respect for him and would carry him up stairs, pay his rental on his home, showed respect at every pass and made sure he had new clothing and was fed well. Here in the modern west we house our elders in retirement homes and watch as they decay and die.

 

Bushido stipulates that we have a responsibility to those that paved the way to where we are today and we need to take care of them.

 

 

 

Someone at some point in the scheme of things created an English “Dojo kun” for Bushido that goes like this:

• Loyalty is the essential duty of the soldier!
• Courage is essential since the trait of the fighting man is his spirit to win.
• Valor is a trait to be admired and encouraged in the modern warrior
• Faithfulness in keeping ones word
• Simplicity is a Samurai Virtue.

 

 

 

This is fine, but the meaning of Bushido is to act in a specific and Noble way, to bring back Chivalry and to not embarrass yourself by reaching for to much and not earning your way, you must show respect and remember that the only reason you are where you are in life is that those that came before you gave you a helping hand and now not only do you owe them…you have to do the same for the next generation!