Tai Sabaki – Body Managment

Hi all,

At yesterday’s session we had a look at ways of unbalancing our opponent, clip below is result of our discussion at the club.

This is one of the possible uses of the Tai Sabaki

Kind regards,

About the author: Les Bubka is an experienced martial artist, personal trainer and therapist who specialises in posture, mobility and Karate.  Les works with a wide variety of clients including martial artists and athletes as well as those suffering with postural dysfunction or those who wish to improve their fitness and wellbeing

Karate Confirmation Bias

Browsing through the vast amount of articles, clips and conversations on forums and Facebook groups about martial arts I have noticed that a significant amount of the material covered is influenced by confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is a fault in our thinking process. It makes us find and accept favourable information to confirm our pre-existing beliefs. Usually it is a belief that our [insert your style or system here] of martial art is superior to all of the others.

We have three major camps trying to discredit others – the traditional camp, the self defence / combat camp and the sport camp. There are as well cross overs and mixes between these camps all claiming that their stuff is the best. I have noticed only a handful of people who use critical thinking and accept facts as they are and do not try to stretch them to fit a pre-existing belief.

Martial artists display this behaviour when they research or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The bias is stronger for desired outcomes, emotionally loaded issues and for deep beliefs.

All of the camps tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their techniques or methodology. For example, selective biased searching, interpretation and memory have been used to explain opposing views and belief perseverance even when evidence for them is shown not to be true.

Due to the fact that we all have a similar physique – two arms and legs, there are a lot of similarities between martial arts. Yet  instead of finding a common ground practitioners often prefer to close their mind and look for “evidence” to support their superiority. In response to evidence provided to the contrary they discard given information. “I don’t trust books.” “I have never seen it happen therefore it does not exist.” “My master said this and that…”

I’m fortunate that at the beginning of my career in martial arts my teachers introduced us students to the concept of keeping an open mind and exploring other styles. Encouraging us to test, search and implement evidence from different martial arts. This has resulted in modifications in my Karate, where I’m constantly searching for better ways and implementing them. These modifications have come about as a result of influences from Wrestling, BJJ (sports camp) to law enforcement (combat camp) and obviously Karate (traditional camp) to improve my own efficacy.

I don’t see differences between martial artists but commonality and prefer to think about us as one Tribe rather than separate camps fighting each other.

About the author: Les Bubka is an experienced martial artist, personal trainer and therapist who specialises in posture, mobility and Karate.  Les works with a wide variety of clients including martial artists and athletes as well as those suffering with postural dysfunction or those who wish to improve their fitness and wellbeing

Bigger and Stronger Opponent

HI all

 

In this clip I address this comment

 

“I prefer to see usage of technic on a bigger and stronger opponent, because it will be the case on street”

 

Is it really always bigger and stronger attacker? Do we have to train with bigger partner in order to get ready for fight?

 

 

About the author: Les Bubka is an experienced martial artist, personal trainer and therapist who specialises in posture, mobility and Karate.  Les works with a wide variety of clients including martial artists and athletes as well as those suffering with postural dysfunction or those who wish to improve their fitness and wellbeing

From Kata to Fighting

 

Kata (form) – Karate shadow boxing. The mention of Kata evokes all sorts of emotions in people. From passion to laughter everyone has an opinion ranging from a functional self defence training tool to merely a comical dance performed by kids in pyjamas. Unfortunately over the years this picture of a dance has been painted by an ignorance of Karate teachers. This has led to the display of unrealistic applications for the moves within the forms with a total disregard for anatomy, physiology and common sense. As a result we see demonstrations of techniques out of this world which have no real chance of working

Kata is an essential part of the Karate. Most masters agree that the pure essence of Karate are its forms, but forms that are understood and studied not just copied and mindlessly repeated.

“Like textbooks to a student or tactical exercises to a solider, kata are the most important element of Karate.” Gichin Funakoshi

“In karate, the most important thing is kata. Into the kata of karate are woven every  manner of attack and defense technique. Therefore, kata must be practiced properly, with a  good understanding of their bunkai meaning.”  Kenwa Mabuni

For me kata must be functional, not necessarily looking very crisp with structured timings. The latter attributes are great for sport competition and aesthetics, but when I look at that type of performance I can see that often performers don’t know why they do all of the moves within the given form. It is a very athletic and eye pleasing performance but function is left behind.

“Never be shackled by the rituals of kata but instead move freely according to the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.”Nakasone 

I value more a kata where I can see that the person executing it knows why he does what he does. The movement may not be so precise but it screams that I’m doing ‘this’ now.

“We must be careful to not overlook the fact that kata, and the body positions that comprises them , are just templates of sort; it is their application in combat which needs to be mastered.” Choki Motobu

At my club beginners don’t start with learning the form pattern, they are introduced to the principles and partner work along side the kata. In my experience it is easier for students to learn a form if they understand what they are doing.

When students grasp the basic concepts then we can focus on technical aspects of a kata and polishing technique. The next step is to introduce partner work with little resistance, so the practitioner can find the right technical pathway to make a technique work. When this is achieved we add another layer whereby the compliance is decreased, but trainees are sticking to the structure of one attack one defence. In this way they have a basis of understanding ingrained for an application of an element of a kata and they can follow closely the kata’s path.

Evolving on from a low level of resistance we move on to pressure testing where a student will still stay with a given application but wears protective gear and resistance is applied. There is no continuity after the initial attack, students focus on one given attribute and try to make it work under pressure. The next step is full interaction with a live resisting opponent who is allowed to fight back. The “defender” at this stage is still trying to make the chosen application work. The last stage of this learning is a free work where one partner is the attacker and the other is defender. The defender has the kata available to use and can use freely parts of the form depending on the need in the moment.  For example he can choose to start with an opening section moving on to the last part of the kata as circumstances change and follow that with the middle part of the form if necessary.

The final stage is sparring – not the sport style of sparring but starting from a dispute and then one partner decides to attack. The defenders target is to fight back and try to use the kata’s tools to achieve an opportunity to escape or disable the opponent’s ability or will to attack. In this stage we don’t worry about which kata part is used or joined together if it’s effective.

Les Bubka

About the author: Les Bubka is an experienced martial artist, personal trainer and therapist who specialises in posture, mobility and Karate.  Les works with a wide variety of clients including martial artists and athletes as well as those suffering with postural dysfunction or those who wish to improve their fitness and wellbeing

Wrist Grab Defence – Why bother?

Hi all

On one of my videos someone posted this comment,

“Can anyone post applications where it is not someone grabbing the wrist..this is a very clear and well executed video… I have never known someone to grab the wrist …but as I say excellent and clear thanks you”

I made a shot clip explaining my position on this subject, do you agree with me or in fact there is no point teaching defence agaist wrist grabs?

Kanku Dai – Hopping

In Kyokushin version of Kanku Dai there is sequence of (depending on organisation) six or seven jumps in morote ashi with double shuto gedan uchi.

This short clip shows my approach to this sequence and options available to explore.