Efficiency is king in Karate

Efficiency is king in Karate

                I was writing a speech for a karate event and something in the speech struck me. As I write I often just let the speech or article kind of flow out and then I edit it down. I was writing about my instructor and some of the things he imparted to me in private training and in talking with him and one of the things that he would always say was “efficiency is king in Karate”.  It’s a simple statement…but it’s a powerful statement and has a powerful influence on the Karate he teaches and the Karate I teach.

                When a student starts Karate often the body control they have is not great. They punch in a nonlinear way when wanting to do a straight punch, and rounder motions are way to direct and linear. They basically are doing Karate in a non-efficient manner.  But as they proceed in Karate and train at home and at the dojo they get rid of the extra movements, refine the ones they do need and create a very strong base for great Karate, but it all boils down to being more efficient at using techniques.

 

                So, when I was thinking of Efficiency and watching the white belts move in class the first thing that I noted was that efficiency is simplicity. By this I basically mean that when you are trying to be efficient you need to really be as simple in your movements as possible. Flailing arms and fancy movements are not efficient, if you control your upper body properly and your core then you will tend to be much more efficient than if you relax and move to relaxed.

                Simplicity does not always make efficiency but the more simple one makes a movement the more effectively they can perform it with practice.  By far a simple Oi- zuki jodan will end a fight much more effectively than a Mawashi Geri Jodan Urkaen jodan to Gyaku zuki.  Simplicity makes short and efficient work if don’t correctly.

 

                When I teach I often tell the story that compares Karate to art working with a slab of stone opposed to working with clay! When one works with Clay they start with a small amount and mold it, then add to that and remold it, then more clay and further molding till you have an 8 foot David or what have you to look at. It is beautiful but it takes a lot of molding, a exercise in reworking things and going back to nothing to reshape something.  It also means adding skills or movements that are not natural and forcing the body to accept them as natural. This type of martial art is hard on the body and often cannot be done for very long.

                The other type of work is to start off with a natural for or a 9 foot slab and cut away the useless movements (Stone) and polish the rough edges out. Take, carefully, away the big inefficient movements and  Polish out the almost complete edges and surfaces with creating a masterpiece by getting rid of the useless parts.  This means eliminating the useless movements, getting rid of the extra parts and focusing on perfecting your techniques.

 

                I was teaching the other day and one of the seniors was doing the Ippon Kumite that I was teaching and I noticed that he had a hard time catching people. I teach a rather linear style of Kumite with a focus on tsukkomi or rushing in and he was adding extra movements to the stepping in. A slight pulling back of the lead leg used to create momentum and pull him into the movement. This addition also meant he was not using his core properly or his back leg to drive at all. It slowed him down and gave anyone he was sparring with a subconscious “tell” as to when he was attacking.

                It took showing him that efficiency in movement means cutting out tells, going from A to B directly and trying to get rid of paced timing or thinking like movements A,B,C should be done 1-2-3 not 1-2 or even as one long movement with no in between time.  Lack of speed can also be perceptively lowered by removing the between count pauses.  The extra step that the student was making slowed him down as well by causing him to shift away from the attack prior to launching the actual attacking motion.

                Another student was doing Jun zuki/Oi zuki by moving her hand first across her chest then snapping the hand out to complete the punching movement. While her legs and body were traveling in straight lines her arm first crossed the center line and then extended out to the attack, thus traveling again through center line to end with the completion of the punch.  This both slowed the movement and also caused a definitive lack of power at the end of her punch.  Because the punch was traveling a horizontal line as across the body as well as a straight line from dorsal to frontal areas of the body it lacked the penetration and focus that a proper punch would make and potentially could end up as a hammer strike over a punching motion.

                Watching a orange belt move in Heian shodan I saw that they were “swaying” their hips with the step of the movements. It was especially obvious when the student was performing the three Age uke and three Jun zuki/Oi zuki punches.  They seemed to let their hips move towards the support foot (front foot) as they moved and then reset to the center as they completed the stance. This sway both slowed them down and also made movements much more complicated than was necessary, they also aligned their punching as they swayed with their hips, the result was the same kind of punching that the previous student was doing…more of a hammer strike at the end of the movement. To avoid this one needs to narrow the stance and suggest that the student not think so much moving with the hips as much as simply scissoring the legs. Get rid of the sway and keep the important idea of closing the legs tight at the midpoint before exploding out into the next stance.

Efficiency in movement is often achieved by different means. Removed pauses, taking away extra movements or simply streamlining the moves that you currently perform are all ways to improve the efficiency in movement.

 

Have you ever watched a black belt kick, then have them kick next to a white or yellow belt!  The particular thing that you need to watch is the upper body and the knee of the kicking foot.  A good front kick is simple. Chamber, kick, recoil, place the foot down…..no upper body!  A black belt will snap the knee up with the foot as tight to the back of the thigh/butt as possible, use their hips to snap out the kick by rotating the pelvis forwards, then snap it back sharp while not dropping the leg. And then place the foot back on the floor. Upper body is straight and arms relaxed or tight at the sides.

A junior belt however looks MUCH different! The knee does not come up, often the toes are pointed and the lower leg is far away from the thigh/butt. They snap the leg out and the arms flail around like a bird during takeoff and before the leg can recoil its dropped like a stone!  Not only does this put the knee in great jeopardy when it comes to damage from impact with the floor when the foot strikes it uncontrolled but it also could damage the muscles of the lower back that have to counter the movement created by the arms and a lose control of trunk muscles.

In general the extra movements that students make when moving or performing keri waza or tzuki waza hamper speed but often they can lead to injury of themselves or sparring partners or even those that are training near them.

                 I once had a student training at the Sgt. Park JKA who flailed when they kicked and the student once smacked a partner standing next to them and caused an eye injury.  As an instructor there are many reasons to remove extra body movements but you have to be careful to not stiffen up the student to much as well. When they get to the level of kicking and punching while moving, especially from jui gamae you will need to have some flexibility and fluidity in movement of the upper body so you are not to tense and again hampering movement.

 

                One point about being to tense and using smaller movements, this can also work against efficiency.  Efficiency in movement is achieved when you move the parts of the body that need moving and avoid moving those that don’t need to move. The body parts that are not being moved or used to move should be lightly held by the body, not squeezed or contracted in.  This creates a smaller technique and slows you down as well. Also, it is much harder to work with proper distance (Ma-ai) when you are to tense as your distance will vary far to much to be judged.

                It is far better to start off your movement training as a white belt using longer stances, longer distances and movements and then contract them down to a normal distance as you move to brown belt or even purple belt. The longer the movements and the more relaxed the movements in the beginning with just enough control and body tension to keep from flailing or over extending movements the better.

                Some people are more naturally tense when they move. Generally they have much lower levels of overall flexibility and cannot stretch out well or if they have good “apparent” flexibility the muscles themselves are naturally tenser than others, This means that they will lack in the ability to totally relax and contract muscles, thus slowing them down.  With all people it is best to use bigger movements but with as much direct use of efficiency as possible.

 

                So, what do you get rid of and how. Well the first thing you get rid of is fancy moves, the next are moves that actually slow you down or make you move in any way other than a direct line between A and B. Shotokan Karate is about creating straight lines for linear movements and accurate and tight angles or crating a proper degree of rotation for movements that are circular.  The movements are controlled and accurate, efficient and practiced so that even a slower person can get to a target first if the inefficiencies of the attacker are taken advantage of.

                Some of the tools one can use for removing these extra moves and inefficiencies by working with partners and or in front of a mirror, under the watchful eye of a trained instructor.  If you notice that you are not able to catch a partner at least once out of ten attacks then you are probably suffering from inefficient movements. Practice trying to tag your partner with Jun zuki chudan. If they can block you 10 out of 10 attacks you probably need to work on efficiency of movement.  Get infront of a mirror and watch from the side and back as to how you are moving.  Have a senior pin point any extra movements and try to get rid of them. Relax and try it a few times while focusing on your whole body movements.

 

                The idea behind Karate and most Japanese martial arts is to create maximum results with minimum efforts.  This is best shown in the Jun zuki techniques.  You launch your body at a target and if you are correct in your attack, techniques and movement skills then then the power generated at the end of the fist will be maximized…and if you add extra movements in your techniques or you are to tight in your movements, use shortened techniques…you lose power generation and the impact will be much less.

 

                Lack of efficiency and effective form is often due to mental blocks or hurdles that students have. They think that it is necessary to draw their punching arm back before stepping in for Oi zuki to generate power or they fail to see and or understand how important recoil is in Keage movements that require maximum snap to create speed and power.

                Mental tricks often help students, especially younger students, understand the dynamics of movement and how to effectively and efficiently move.  When teaching Oi zuki an instructor I trained with once said that its just the art of straightening the arm. You have to picture water, lots of it…pressurized, flowing down a hose. The arm will naturally straighten. You have to also get rid of the extra movements, the elbow flaring out the rounding shoulders and the strange snap or whip like movement that the upper body of some people makes. It’s all about making it more direct, easier and more powerful.

 

                Often I watch students performing a movement and I note the extra movements and the over emphasis on power. When you focus so much on generating power and not enough on techniques it’s a waste of your energy. What ends up happening inevitably is that you bleed off extra power and have to add more just to make the techniques better. If you have the ability to put 100 pounds of force into a target, but poor technique bleeds off 30 pounds of force you end up with a strike that only lands with 70 pounds of force because of poor techniques. Bleed off of energy occurs when you don’t apply it on a straight line at the perfect distance from the source or the start. So a Gyaku zuki that does not travel a straight line from hip to target will lose about ¼ of the force that can be exerted into a target. However, good form will bring that down to a loss of about 10 pounds of force, leaving 90% of the original force.

                Students who bleed off power also tend to use to much body or over exert themselves to create more power and they end up getting tired from using too much power. If it takes 70 pounds of power to knock someone out the person with good form and techniques will do so with less effort! If the person who has good form generates 80 pounds of force, with the bleeding off of energy they will still have the 70 pounds at the point of impact. Someone with poor form will have to generate 120-140 or more of force to maintain the end pounds of force required to knock someone out. This idea can be applied to any techniques and any situation.

 

                So, what do you do to increase the power and efficiency of a technique. Well the simple answer is to practice; the longer answer is to practice correctly.  The devil is in the details as it were. If you don’t focus on the whole chain of motion from the way your body relates and interacts with the ground to the way your legs translate energy, your hips rotate, the proper rotation of the upper body with the hips to the snapping of the arm, the trajectory of all those things, the focus of the body and the different planes that the body rotates through…like I said the devil is in the details.

                Its often better to have someone familiar with efficiency in techniques to view your form and to help you improve your skills over just doing repetitions. Work on the form with a mirror if you can as well and take notes in class, monitor your progress and keep an open mind when you hear your instructor telling you how to improve your form. There are plenty of tricks and details that are often forgotten in a movement and these details can make or break a person’s success in generating efficient power.

 

                So, what is the secret of learning or developing efficiency…..practice. And not just practice, but proper practice of correct movements. This means having the right mentality and starting off at a good club with an instructor who knows this is important. You need to work on effective form and efficiency early on to build your techniques and form and it is very important to start this process early on.

                I have seen far to many sport Karate people who trade in efficiency and proper form for flashy point getting techniques and they fail to see that they have left training in traditional Karate all to score a few points and win a trophy. Now, not all sport Karate is not efficient, but the goals are very much different. You have to realize that each movement you make could mean your life is on the line. You have to focus on better power, stronger form and really work on developing a solid base for you to grow off of.

 

                To develop true Budo Karate you must remember that Efficiency is KING in Karate, you may have to deal with more than one person at a time and you also don’t want to play with your opponents. Remember what Dingman Sensei said….Efficiency is King in Karate!