San Ittai Me

                Learning Karate you come across plenty of Karate theories, ideas, principles and strategy. I think it was when I was a brown belt that someone started teaching Go-no Sen and Sen-no-sen to me, I figured it out pretty quick and really did not even give a second thought to why they needed fancy names to describe waiting to counter and attacking first…hey it was basic info we were given….., but things of course are much more complex than this and one learns so much more from training that just hold off and smack them after they are done or get them before they are starting to attacking.

                Recently someone has presented me with a new ideology to look into, its more about movement principles in Kumite and its called San Ittai Me. San Ittai me means three displacement principles (loosely) and it has more to do with creating an advantageous position in a fight than really guiding you through how to move. The concept is very well used in most martial arts, even if they don’t call it this, but Wado, a off shoot of Shotokan uses this ideology to explain the movements and techniques used to defend oneself properly.

                San Ittai Me is basically the three phases of defensive movement that when done properly will take a person from a disadvantage position to an advantage position. Now as with most “Deep Karate thought” it’s a cerebral exercise in physical movement that only means anything if you can rationalize and then go and do it. Most people by the time they get to this point are old dogs like me who are thinking more about how to make others better and less about what we are doing on our floor when we do Kumite. However I started reading this and found right off the bat that it helped me when teaching and when doing Kumite to realize why I was doing things the way I was…not just because that’s how “Sensei taught me” kind of thing.

                The first thing to consider is an example of a person who is standing in natural posture and is being attacked by an aggressor who is doing Oi-Zuki. The attacker is rushing in with Zenkutsu-Migi Oizuki! Or right side attacking front stance lunge punch…with gusto! I like to think of it this way as it’s a “get the hell out of the way or be run over” situation” and emphasizes the principles very well in this case.

                Now the goal of San Ittai Me is to use three phases of movement and defense in this case to go from a horrible spot to an advantageous position at the end.  The first thing or phase to call up is the Ten I phase or Change of position phase. Tan I means to move linearly away from the reach of the opponent. So the student shoots back away from the punch. This can be straight back, but I would rather suggest a slight shift to the “outside” of the attack meaning towards the attackers attacking arm so the reverse punch follow up is not as easy for them to accomplish, this movement away is Ten I or to change position.

                Next up is Ten Tai, this means to change the position of the body. This is Karate 101, we don’t leave a big target for the attacker so we rotate the body not just for defense but to create power into the defending “arm” (in this case the blocking arm. So, I suggest that the slight shift leaves you right side forwards, slight angle and facing their right leg, slightly behind their power line (see previous posts about power and lines of power). The Ten Tai creates more power and also limits the impact zone if you have not moved enough to avoid the punch.

                Last is Ten Gi. Ten Gi is the actual blocking movement that causes the opponent to miss the attacked target. The blocking motion is not just a block, it’s a deflection or redirection of the initial attacking  weapon.  Far to often we see students who are defending attack the initial movement like they are trying to meat force with more force and that carries over into all blocking movements, including Gedan Barai vs Mae Geri. The bones in the forearm are relatively small compared to those in the Shin, a force on force block ends with the defender breaking their arm! Ten Gi tells us that you must redirect the attack and then take advantage of the sudden off balance (mentally or physically) of the attacker and redirect a counter at the aggressor.

                San Ittai Me may seem like an exercise in just breaking down the basic moves done in a blocking sequence and using fancy Japanese to do so, and for the most part it is. But if you truly study it and then apply each of the three phases you will realize that most people miss one or two and it will help you both as an attacker and as a defender if you study the three phases of defensive movement.