伝統空手の回し蹴りは、水泳の平泳ぎの足の動きにそっくり

首里手の回し蹴りを教わった。
ひざは、前蹴り同様に上げ、そこから回し蹴りに移行する。
そうすれば、相手は、何の蹴りが来るのかが、予想できなくなる。
ふむふむ。

ん～
あれっ、これって水泳の平泳ぎの足の動きにそっくりだ。
しかも、僕が稽古している道場の首里手の蹴りは、上地流と似ているつま先蹴り。

面白いっ！
個人的には、すっげぇ発見！！

首里手では、引手は、肋骨の下あたり

沖縄空手の首里手系では、引手は、肋骨の下の脇腹の部分。
何故か？
底の部分が、相手から攻撃されたときに一番弱いところだからだ。

剛柔流（那覇手）では、引手は、脇のできるだけ高いところに引く。
何故か？
突きを行なう軌道が、ぶれずに、一直線に力を集中できるからだ。

そうすると、首里手は、突きの軌道が、ぶれてしまうじゃないか。
首里手では、腰を振らない。
（微妙な振動は、起こすが、目に見えて振ったりはしない。）
だから、突きの軌道は、ぶれない。

こういう合理的な論理を、人は、奥義と言う。んだな、きっと。

How to make the fist of Karate, Not from a pinky finger. Don't trust a urban legend of Karate

In the Japan mainland Karate like Shotokan, all of Senseis / Masters / Instructors said “To make a strong fist, please fold your fingers, from pinky finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger, and thumb, which may be a lie or urban legend in Karate world.

Have you ever asked yourself the question “Why?”.

Do you have enough time to do that to make your fist in front of a bad guy or opponent?

No way.

In Okinawan Karate, 4 fingers are folded at the same time and immediately, and use thumb to fix the index finger and middle finger like a lid.

You need to make a fist as immediately as possible for a street fight. Right?

I hope this helps.

Aki

What is Gamaku in Karate?

What is Gamaku in Karate?

Roughly speaking, Gamaku is inside of a body around your waist above your hip, and below your rib bones or lungs.

This Gamaku is a terminology of Okinawan Karate and Okinawan dialect.

They said that “Gamaku wo Ireru(bridge)” which means “Connect bones and muscles, especially around the area of Gamaku.

In the center of Gamaku, we have an imaginary center of energy generator called Tanden which we feel the size of an egg in the small bowel. The position of Tanden is 3 fingers width down from the belly button and 3 fingers-width inside of your body towards the center of your body.

Using Gamaku actually means how to use mainly Quadratus Lumborum muscles (QL muscles). We have 2 QL muscles on the right and left in our body.

To move, we need to move other muscles around QL muscles too, but the main muscles are QL muscles.

For example, to maximize the power of the right arm punch, we used the right-hand side of the QL muscles. The movement around the QL muscle is moving from the right back hip up to the lower back, to the front, and downward towards the front surface of the right leg. It is a circular movement around the QL muscle if you look at it from the right side.

This hip rotation makes the right arm move forward to push out the punch. Hip rotation is like the trigger of a pistol and connected internal parts to push out a bullet. The hand is like a bullet. The hip rotation moves the elbow forward and pushes the arm forward, which makes a punch.

I hope this article helps you.

Aki

Knee Dropping Kobudo / Karate

In Japanese Kobudo (Traditional Martial Arts: 古武道), they have a technique called Hiza-Nuki (膝抜き). Let's name it "Knee Dropping". In some Katas of Karate, they used this technique. For example, in the Kata called Seisan, we can recognize a strange movement of a foot. to move forward, we need to lift the front foot backward, which makes the entire weight of the body fall toward the floor. Knee Dropping Technique used this shit of weight and the falling movement to move forward instead of moving to the floor.

Do you imagine why?

Usually, to move forward, we used the back foot to hit the ground to get the power to move forward.

Knee dropping does not use the power generated by the leg to hit the floor.

Knee dropping just tries to use the dropping weight shift to move forward, which is actually faster than hitting the ground with the back foot.

I have been practicing Okinawan Shorin(小林)-ryu Karate and other Okinawan Shorin(少林)-ryu Karate. I recognized this Knee-Dropping technique when I saw the Kata called Seisan. My reaction was like, Oh my god, for the long time of my practice, I have not thought like this!

I started to look into the Knee-Dropping technique by watching some YouTube videos, they I recognized again that the technique was applied to any kind of sports, like baseball, succor, Ping-Pong, etc., in Japan.

I reviewed the Kata that I learned and noticed the technique of Knee-Dropping is used for the Kata of Naifanchi/Naihanchi. Even if the Kata moves right to left and left to right, and all of the instructors/senseis/masters said, Keep your head level at the same height from the floor, both shoulders should the even level all the way performing the Kata.

But I think that is not 100% true. We need to use a subtle shift of our weight for each foot movement.

In most of the styles of Okinawan Karate, Naifanchi is practiced to follow the counting of 1, 2, 3, …

Actually, that is not the proper way to move your body. Kata should flow like the flow of water. The disconnected move is not what Karate is aiming at.

Thinking about the flow of water, the pressure of water in the ocean is changing always, it has a low-pressure part and the water in the high-pressure part naturally flows into the low-pressure part. I believe we can see the common part between Knee Dropping and this flow of water.

What do you think?

Aki