Sensei Mattson’s seminar in Chicago at the end of March gave all of us the opportunity to go back to the essentials of Uechi Ryu Karate. Karate-Do, the path of the empty hand…path of the open hand. Based on this concept, Sensei Mattson, through his teachings and example, showed us that Karate-Do is essentially a way of life. Sensei has a great and honorable responsibility to share his wisdom and enlightenment to guide all of us, the Uechi family, towards that way of life. Sensei’s seminar renewed our knowledge and provided us with real understanding of the meaning of Karate.

The starting point on which everything else parts from is Sanchin. Sanchin kata is the soul of Karate Uechi Ryu. The flow of its circular movements should be used as a guide for all basic movements of the blocks and the Sanchin steps, in this way allowing us to reinforce the center of equilibrium. Sensei emphasized not only the physical equilibrium but also the mental one. His concept is one in which our task is also to put our brains to work and think of creative and innovative techniques that adapt to different situations but never losing sight of the basics, the original form.

The purpose of the continuous and rigorous practice, applying variations to the basics, changing the speed, strength, count and timing of the Sanchin kata, is to help the body and mind dominate those movements without having to think about them. It helps develop a natural and instant reaction to any kind of external stimuli, such as an attack. Through this training, we should reach a state in which thought is not necessary any longer to commit to an action. During the practice of Sanchin kata, the body should be relaxed yet tense at the same time. The flow of energy and strength travels in two steps through the body to the tips of the fingers, reaching its maximum power at the end of the strike, coming to this point through a continuous and homogeneous movement of every muscle in the body involved in such movement. Every movement should be performed as a flow of the body’s natural movements. The involvement of different muscles should be used in the application of every technique to help deliver a strong and powerful form that at the same time blends and links every move in unison without breaking the form.

I want to thank Sensei Mattson for coming to Chicago. I really liked the seminar. Even though I am only 8 years old, and most of the people in the seminar were adults, I also learned a lot.

One of the things I learned is: don’t pop your knee up when you are doing a kick. You said not to pop your knee up when you are kicking because that way when your knee pops down again you might have a knee injury. I think that is a good idea because it will be a little harder for you to fight if you injured something. I will remember that, and include that into my training because I don’t want a knee injury.

You also said that you shouldn’t pull your arm so far back while doing chops and hammerfists, because in that time your opponent could attack. You can do a chop when your arm is in Sanchin position. I will include this into my training as well, because if I was in a real fight, I would not want to get hit. You also said to accelerate while doing strikes and punches. If you accelerate then your punches will be more powerful. I think that is a good idea because if your muscles are tight, then it will be harder to throw the punch. I will include that into my training too, because I would not want to have a hard time doing something as easy as punching.

Finally, you also said to be relaxed while fighting and doing kata. I think that is a good idea because if you are not relaxed then you can’t be loose and easy, and you won’t be able to fight easily. I will also include that into my training for all of those reasons. Again thank you so much for coming and spending your time with us. It means a lot to me to be able to learn from you. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Jami Kahn

Dear Sensei Mattson:

I would first like to thank you for the wonderful seminar that you did for us two weekends ago. It still amazes me that almost one man started Uechi-ryu in the USA only at the age of 18! The things that you taught me will greatly help me with my karate. The hardest thing I have had trouble fixing is in Seisan–the elbow strike. You told me that my back foot’s heel was sticking up. I have been trying to fix this, but every time I try to put my heel down I feel pain, so I have been trying not to take such a big step to do the strike, and so far it has been working.

The easiest thing I had fixing was when you told us when doing any kind of movement, to start off slow then accelerate. I originally struggled a little bit, because I had always thought that if you started off really fast, that my strike would be very powerful. But now I have been accelerating and I have found my strikes to be much more powerful. During the seminar you kept on stressing that while doing a movement, your hands and arms should always be in that unbreakable Sanchin position. While doing the hammer fist strike, mostly every person in the class was starting with their fists right next to their heads and swinging it around.

A better idea is that we are supposed to do start with our fist in a Sanchin position and thrust outwards and hit the hand. When in an actual fight, before it starts, the best way to defend yourself is the flinch. You told us to pretend that we were arguing with someone and all of the sudden they just throw a punch at you. What you have to do is quickly raise your hands into a Sanchin position, and most likely you have blocked the attack. While doing Kanshu and Seichin you had to stop us because we were doing the arm crossing, then breaking, wrong.

What happens is when you cross your arms too much, they end up becoming a target for your opponent to get a punch right into your chest. So when crossing your arms you are supposed to just barely cross, so your hands are back to back. I greatly admire all the hard work you have done over the years. I can’t imagine how long it takes to become a 9th degree black belt. This is because even though I am 13 years old, I have been doing Uechi-ryu for eight years, and I am now a brown belt.

Sincerely,

Corey Diamond

Dear Sensei Mattson,

I’d like to begin by first thanking you for your visit to Chicago to conduct the Friday night Dan testing, as well as the two day seminar. The lessons learned are indeed invaluable, and have truly shed new light on aspects of Uechi that mustn’t ever be overlooked or forgotten.

Such aspects boil down to the basics, combined with other fun and creative ideas found in our kata, bankai and kumite which you brought to everyone’s attention over the weekend. The basics should be important to all Uechi practitioners regardless of rank, duration of study, or skill level. For example, they should be focused on by everyone regardless of whether they are high ranking seasoned veterans, or white belts donning new uniforms for their very first lesson.

Much of what I gathered from the weekend all boiled down to such basics found in Sanchin. If an error is made in later kata, one can be assured that it’s (more than likely) being made in some part of Sanchin. To begin then, the foundations for proper breathing for example all start with good habits developed in Sanchin. I think students (myself included of course– and through no one’s fault but my own) get too distracted by too many concepts such as: do we breath on the strike, before the strike, a little air, a lot of air, etc; when in fact one should just be breathing naturally as one might do when swimming, running, walking, or even just talking.

My favorite example of breathing that you imparted to us occurred when you demonstrated the ability to have a conversation while doing Sanchin. In other words, I learned that if one is breathing naturally, one should be able to talk while doing kata and not be out of breath at the end of the kata, and perhaps in this case, not be out of breath while doing kata and conversing. Granted, some of this can be developed with proper conditioning and other exercise, but for the most part just doing Sanchin and breathing naturally will give a student all of the fundamentals necessary to breathe naturally.

I know that when it’s developed in Sanchin, proper breathing will find its way into sparring, and ultimately will give one an edge when faced with the real stress found in life-threatening situations. Sometimes it is breathe or die. Aside from proper breathing which I know I need to continue to develop, another concept that I learned over the weekend pertains directly to power and the ways in which it can be developed or harnessed. In sum, I realized that power is not developed by muscular strength or brute force– but by proper and efficient body mechanics.

For example, a major point that was stressed during the seminar (and is another basic foundation of Uechi) has to do with fluidity of movement and remaining tension free when performing blocks and strikes. I learned that the concept of tension free does not mean “loosey-goosey” for lack or a better term, nor does it mean to be weak or frail. To me it means to stay in Sanchin, to use a strong and rooted stance, to use the hips, to use the lats, and to develop it from the ground up. It also means stay athletic, stay ready, be poised, and yet remain flexible. I know that tension robs a person of his or her ability to be powerful regardless of the endeavor.

I know for example from playing golf that if my back swing or down swing has any tension in it whatsoever, I will have wasted all of my energy prior to that most pivotal and important point of the swing– the moment of impact when the club head meets the ball. Because I know that the power equals force times speed, one can conclude that power is notably gained with faster movements. Similarly, faster movements are only possible when the muscles are relaxed and not working in opposition to one another. Case in point: A skinny 155 pound Charles Howell III, the PGA golfer can hit a golf ball nearly 330 yards with his driver, and the big 270 + pound John Daily produces the same yardage off the tee.

The smaller man who can swing faster will hit the ball as far or farther than the heavier man who swings more slowly. (As an aside, I am a huge John Daily fan by the way. I hope he wins The Masters.) That said, my goal is to continue to stay as tension free as possible on my strikes (and blocks too) until the final moment of impact through the target zone. At that point (at the final moment of impact), I want to compress all of the energy (power) gained from what I mention earlier: speed, Sanchin stance, hips and lats all connecting and flowing and working in timely, synchronized, coordinated movements from the ground up. But yet, what is power without precision?

Ah yes, as the old saying goes, there’s a lot of long ball hitters off the tee, but too bad they’re all in the woods! Misdirected power achieves no real end. Perhaps it feels good—but in combat it’ll cost a person dearly. With that in mind…… precision of movement and targeting is another valuable lesson learned over the weekend. Accuracy, exactness, and targeting are all of the essentials that should be developed before concepts of power are really explored. (Perhaps I should have even mentioned precision first in this essay, but its positioning in this paper takes nothing away from the fact that it should developed before power in my opinion.)

Sensei, with regard to precision then, I really enjoyed the example you provided us when you said to imagine that we have long knives in place of our hands on each and every strike that we make through the target. I really love this imagery as it pertains to our strikes be they in kata or in sparring. This is something that I now constantly envision in my mind’s eye. It really makes me think of penetrating the target, and allows me to stay focused with each and every movement.

In sum, when precision is developed first and then applied with force, precision then becomes force in its exactness. And finally, some overall and general comments are as follows: When doing kata, I learned that it is essential and important to vary the speed and duration of movements from set to set. By vary I mean that kata should not all be done the same way over and over again. A great example that you shared with us is to do Sanchin slow and easy in one set, then in another set fast and hard, then in another set fast and easy and so on and so forth. Not only does this break students out the “mold” of doing things just “one way,” but it forces them to use muscle groups at different rates of speed and tension– or “no tension” as the case may be.

I feel that varying kata in such ways will help to develop smooth, free-flowing automatic performances in all kata, bankai and kumite. In terms of kumite—the same concepts should apply. Dan kumite or any kumite for that matter should never be done just one way simply because the real world dictates that “fights” are never just one way. Some kumite should be slow, some fast, some hard, some soft. The point is to mix it up while still maintaining the precision of movement described in the foregoing section.

The same holds true of sparring and even bankai applications like Seisan Bankai or Kanshiwa Bankai. I feel that mixing it up forces one to think outside of the martial arts box. In addition, I really am looking forward to adding new techniques and attacks to the aforementioned bankai and kumite as furtherance to thinking outside of that box as it is often stated. Moreover, this keeps Uechi fresh and alive with new ideas and techniques making it even more fun and creative. If we keep it fun and creative this will lead to longevity of study and commitment to excellence. Sensei Mattson, all of us would like to thank you once again for a wonderful, fun and enlightening weekend. I know that as we advance through the ranks, there will be even more to learn in the process of what I like to call a never-ending process. In other words, on-going learning gives rise to fun learning that should be perpetual and continual.

I also understand that the basics, the core, and the foundation of what we do as I described herein, must always continue to be focused on and developed as we progress in our studies of Uechi-ryu Karate.

Dear Mr. Mattson:

First, let me say that I truly enjoyed the two days of Uechi-Ryu seminars that you provided to us here in Chicago. Your knowledge and years of experience are greatly appriciated.

Second, in response to your request to write down our thoughts on what we learned at the seminars, I would like to share with you the following thoughts:

The first thing that you emphasized was “A Return to the Basics.” constantly throughout the seminar you always wents back to the very basics of Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do and its Katas. Proper form in Sanchin was always stressed in regards to arm positioning, whether the Sanchin stance was too wide or too narrow, and whether one was properly balanced in his/her Sanchin stance. We all know what proper form is, or at least we like to think we know what it is, but as you pointed out at the seminar one has to constantly be aware of proper form and stance or bad habits creep in over time that later on become very difficult to correct.

Next, was proper body mechanics, or the execution of strikes and stepping in Sanchin. Again, emphasis was put on form, but also something else that I found very easy to understand, but very difficult to execute to, although Mr. Kahn has worked very hard with me to develop, and that is one’s strength and proper stance comes from locking into proper Sanchin positioning, and not from any muscle strength we may, or may not, have. For example, my shoulder’s pop-up because I like the feel of generating power with my shoulder while executing my Sanchin strikes, which then translates into the rest of my strikes in all my Kata. However, what you emphasized is that shoulders must be down and power generated from the hips as well as appling the principles of TC (i.e Tourque & Compression).

Further, powerful Sanchin strikes are also produced from acceleration, which I understood it as different from speed. Speed as I understand it usually I aasociate with muscle force and, sometimes, lack of focus in the strike. However, what you were teaching us was that we needed to be relaxed. That our strikes needed to accelerate with power that then culminates at the end with a focused attack that has behind it all of our generated strength and power. Yet, all of this is performed with no muscle strength.

A point you made continually through the seminar is that its ok to be powerful when you are young because a young practitioner needs to get it out of his system so to speak. That it is when you are young that one can muscle through Karate, and have the strong strikes and kicks, but when you get older and more experienced in your Karate power can be generated, and I would argue more power, through proper Sanchin form, rotation of hips, bladding of Sanchin strikes and accelerating one’s punches and kicks into one focused attack.

It is these basics that you taught us, and brought as back to, as well as putting a new and fresh perspective on proper Sanchin form and the generating of power through focused acceleration that made a very great impressing on me.

Next, I liked what I termed “Reality Katare.” What you taught us is the same thing Sensei Kahn has been teaching us, which is, that in a fight our big beautiful flowery blocks will not block nothing. With the rush of adreniline and the suddeness of your opponent’s attacks, one’s blocks must be short, sweet and effective. A circle block on an initial attack, as in Kyu Kumite, becomes simply one’s arms popping up into Sanchin position protecting your body and face. We execute big circle block because in the heat of battle that big block will compress into a small block, but whether big or small it MUST be effective!

The exercises we performed, through the use of Kyu Kumite, showed us the suddeness of attacks and the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of our blocks when we attempted to protect ourselves against attacks we knew were coming and from what side of our opponent’s body. I learned that one must “Get His Arms Up” and into proper position, i.e. Sanchin Arm Positioning, so as to execute a proper block.

Further, you emphasized that in our guide blocks, we must not break the center-line of our bodies as this takes us out of Sanchin, which decreases our power, as well as not to block with our palm, but our whole forearm.

After, these concepts and principles were hammered home with Sanchin and the Kyu-Kumite exercises, we moved into Kata.

When it came to Kata we again returned to the basics in perfoming, and making sure we performed, traditional katas. This was very much welcomed as Sensei Kahn has always emphasized that good traditional kata must be perfomed with varying levels of acceleration and intensity. Kanchiwa is only perfomed a certain way, Seisan is only perfomed a certain way, etc. This is what we at Chicago Uechi-Ryu have constantly been working on, i.e. to perfect our Katas as much as possible.

Yet your approach to Kata was predicated upon your teachings on Sanchin. Foe what we do in Sanchin translated to our Katas. If we cannot generate power and proper acceleration in Sanchin we will not do it in the remainder of our Katas. This means that if we have been muscling it in Sanchin we will do the same in Kanchu, Seisan, etc. Thus, all goes back to Sanchin.

What impressed me the most is the porper body mechanics and balance one gets from Sanchin, which you showed us, and how this flows into all aspects of our Karate. In fact, what came through the seminars, from day one, was that you were teaching us from the ground up. Proper Sanchin means proper Kata. Proper Kata means properly executed strikes, blocks and kicks. Properly executed techniques means properly executed free fighting (i.e. sparring). Finally, proper free sparring means proper Karate-do that will protect you if the need arises, which will then allow you to live and go home in one piece.

Also, the over-arching theme, at least as I interpreted it, was acceleration and fluidity. Blocking and countering as one sigle flowing movement, and being able to sustain this fludity and acceleration from technique to technique. Further, what I also noticed that was taught, but may have not been called this, was “Imagination.” What I mean by this is that many of us get “Locked” into doing Kata and Kumite and Bunkai a certain way. We anticipate certain punches coming from certain sides as well as certain kicks coming at us with a certain speed. That locks us into many bad habits.

Constantly throughout the seminar you taught us that if your hands are up and in proper Sanchin positioning it should not matter what the technique is and off of what side it comes–YOU WILL BE ABLE TO BLOCK IT! This is imagination. It forces the student to think on his feet and act on the fly. In fact, this is the very essence of our Karate. We do not do the Katas and the Bunkais for the sake of doing them, but to learn the techniques they give us and to apply them in avarity of ways in any given situation and altercation that may arise.

This is why, I believe you gave us all a piece of Seisan Bunkai and told us to put a variation on that piece of it that you gave us. One Bushkin to the face turns into many bushkins to the face, nose or throat. Also, after performing the Bushkins, you opponent is now dazed as well as injured, and, if the situation calls for it, add a take-down with a finishing move, etc. This is where the student’s imagination is allowed to run free and it must run free otherwise they are just fancy looking techniques that are not applied in the real world (i.e. Reality Karate) nor applied properly (i.e. Basics). In fact, I would argue that a student’s imagination, in the application of his Karate, is the very goal in the practice of Karate.

This is what I got out of the seminars Sensei Mattson. I hope I understood what you were attempting to teach us, and I will endeavor to apply what you taught us in my Karate. However, Sensei Kahn does a good job of keeping us all on the right track.

Very Truly Yours

Peter A. Papoutsis

Kenji and George E. Mattson

Presented by Kenji Higashi

1470 Cypress Ave.

Hanover Park IL. 60133

Sensei Mattson.

Mr. George Mattson’s special training session was held in Chicago from March 26 to March 28, 2004. I met him on March 27 for the first time. He is one of the first Americans to learn Uechi-Ryu Karate from Okinawa, Japan and well known for introducing Uechi-Ryu Karate to USA. He is an author of a book titled Uechi-ryu Karate Do. This book was written in 1974 and the book is used as a basic text book for most of Uechi-Ryu Dojo through out USA.

In the book, there are many photographs of American persons practicing Karate. I was wondering which of the American person in the pictures was Mr. Mattson. There are many young and handsome men in the pictures, but time to time there are one tall and skinny person showed up in the pictures. I have to admit that somewhere deep inside of me, I had a bias opinion about what Karate body should be. So I made up my mind that the famous Mr. Mattson who is our highest teacher of Uechi-ryu Karate in USA must be very tough looking muscular person. I had ignored the tall skinny guy in the picture until I met real Mr. George Mattson. He was the guy! This was first lesson for me. Now I know Karate is for all body shapes.

He is tall and skinny, but very healthy. When he showed us his Kata, it was same sensation that I felt as I saw an original paintings of master artist. His hand movement and body movement are all in unity and very smooth. Immediately I realized that how lucky I was to be there.

Techniques.

Wa-Uke

As Mr. Mattson began the class, he asked us to move shoulders a little bit while doing Wa-Uke (Circular motion block). It was a little surprise for me, since I though we are not allowed to move the shoulders. As I tried the way he descried, it was much smoother and natural. I can make much better Wa-Uke. I realized the moving shoulders a little bit will give more power and smoothness. Later he emphasized to use hip a little bit for hit. I though this shoulder movement has same principal to the hip movement. It gives more thrust, power and smoothness. This is more natural.

Hammer hit.

He also taught us hammer hit. Most of us were hitting from the side of our body. If we looked at it, it was more like 90 degreed from target. But Mr. Mattson corrected that. He indicated to hit from Sanchin posture. Indeed this makes more sense. While hitting from 90 degree the side of the body is wide open, but with hitting from Sanchin posture, there is no opening. Also I felt more power doing the Sanchin posture. Throughout his training, he emphasized the importance of Sanchin and it’s application. This was one of the good examples of importance of Sanchin.

Hips thrust.

We exercised Katas and he asked us use hips to give more thrust. But he also warned us not to twist our body too much. It should be more natural when using hips. I felt there are fundamental principal in Uechi-ryu.

Down block.

We were doing Kyu-kumite and he had to stop us twice. He showed us how to down block kicks. It was not like normal down block, but more like diagonal block. It was just good enough to protect the body yet ready to attack the opponent. He showed us this movement in Seisan. It was very important lesson but difficult to break old habit. I have to practice more on this block.

Principals.

Center.

Time to time, he emphasized hitting center line. This gives unnecessary movement in both block and hitting. I realized it is also very important lesson that all form and kata is center around this principal.

Sanchin

Every time we did something wrong, he always go back to the Sanchin form. He explained the importance of Sanchin and it’s principal. If we are in Sanchin, we are targeting the center and we are more natural yet we can defend and attach at same time. I felt this is a work of art. This simple principal is basic and foundation of everything we do in Uechiryu-Karate.

Practice.

Variations.

He showed us several different ways to practice. Even simple as arm wrestling, he used the Sanchin principal and all sudden it became very good exercise. I did not know how much variation we can use if we followed the principals. He asked us to do three different way of Sanchin practice. It was very different, but the unique variation helps us to over come from our own mold. The most importance thing is to follow the principals.

Slow practice.

As we are doing many variations in the practice, all suddenly Mr. Mattson asked us to do very slow practice. It was like a slow motion film. I remember when I took Gojyu-ryu back in 1983, my instructor who was Japanese constantly asked me to slow down and do kata like a slow motion pictures. Since then, my other instructors did not emphasize the slow movement, but after 20 years later, I heard same things from Mr. Mattson. The slow movement helps us to understand our weakness. I think this is very important especially when we do many variations from our Kata. It is very easily for us forget the principal and do our own way, but the slow movement will show us our mistakes.

White belt and Black belt

As we were practicing, Mr. Mattson indicated difference between White belt and Black belt practice. It is more important for White belt to understand the principal, but for Black belt, it is important to apply the principals. This difference will create different practice and expectation between White belt and Black belt. For White belt, they should learn the basics and especially Sanchin. As became higher ranks, we must became more relaxes and soft yet accelerate on each every movement end with power. This is difficult to describe, but all these are based on the principal we learn. This acceleration is naturally created by the hip or shoulder movement.

Principals versus Practice.

Since I was in elementally school, I have had opportunities to take various martial arts. First one was Kendo, then Judo, Gojyu-ryu, Tai-Kwan-do, Aikido-do then Uechi ryu. Unfortunately other than Uechi-ryu, I had to stop the other martial arts at around green belt level. Now I am in brown belt in Uechi Ryu, but if I call the between White-belt and Black belt level as a PRACTICE stage, all others were the Practice stage. In the Practice stage, it is important to understand Kata and each movement correctly.

However, since there were many Black belt participants in Mr. George Mattson’s Chicago seminar, he emphasized more on Principals. Maybe I call that PRINCIPAL stage. Black belt and above are the stage to apply the Principals. The exercise became more different and exciting. More variations in the Katas. But time to time we must slow down to correct ourselves. I believe I have learned very important lesson from the tall skinny American Sensei. If someday I have a chance to teach, probably I will mention about Sensei Mattson and things he taught me on this seminar.

Thank you for teaching me very important lesson.

By Ethan B. Miller

Among the discussions that commonly come up about Kyu and Dan Kumite is the effectiveness of the kumites as tools for training towards real confrontations. Sometimes the commentary seems to negate the worthiness of these drills entirely. This seems to me to be completely wrong-headed. If you take a commonsense approach to analysis the drills you might see what I mean. Both Uechi-Ryu kumites are in the mid-range of complexity in terms of the rank they were intended for – by this I mean the Kyu Kumite has a duration that is not the longest and not the shortest in comparison to other systems. The same goes for the Dan Kumite, which while more complex for the Dan grades, is of a medium duration. Anyone who remembers the Fukien fighters from the Year of the Tiger Summer Camp can remember the lengthy two-person sets they demonstrated. On the other hand many Japanese systems have individual sets of only 3 moves.

The intention of these two kumites is to bring about a physically better prepared karate student. It also does a few others things to a lesser degree. I believe the physical karate skills are what it teaches the best. What you learn in Kyu Kumite is basic Uechi-Ryu punching, kicking and blocking applied in a controlled fashion against another person. The kumites teach neuro-muscular programming and response to stimulus. They teach understanding distancing, and focusing on targets. Out of necessity they teach cooperation with a partner. If your blocks are lousy and punches are often off target the increased stressors of working with a partner will show it clearly – and allow an opportunity to correct it. They also stress the need for good body mechanics;

Hip motion, connectedness of hand to hip, hip to foot, general body control and efficiency.

What don’t they do? Well, they won’t teach you how to do a big back flip off a high board. And it won’t train you to fight in a NHB match. Since by nature the exercise is cooperative, it is not the best for contact sparring of a competitive nature. It is not going to harden your forearms or in do much in the way of increasing your flexibility. However, with certain enhancements that some gifted instructors are already doing you can work your mastery of these kumites to your advantage. Recently, we saw Sensei Jimmy Maloney demonstrate his enhanced Dan Kumite as an extremely efficient self-defense application enabling greater speed and effectiveness of his strikes and blocks – with a few surprising adaptations which you would have had to see to believe. Also at the “Hut” in Newton instructors are demonstrating an evolutionary adaptation where the competent Dan Kumises practitioner extends the steps in the Dan Kumite to expose different applications, again increase the mental and physical challenge that the kumite presents. So it is really in the hands of the practitioner once they have a good understanding of the drills.

Here is an application for the contact fighter who needs to practice rhythm and awareness training. Rhythm is often forgotten or misunderstood, but as a tool to get to be a more complete fighter it is one of the most cheaply bought – at least to a certain level. Here is the exercise. Before starting the kumite with your partner, demonstrate three speeds you will be working with – slow, medium and fast. Medium is your normal (comfortable) speed for the kumite. I would stress that this is an exercise that you should do with a partner with whom you have experience and both partners must be honest when they demonstrate their 3 speeds. With the beginning of each set in the kumite the adversaries start from a complete standstill. The Defender must be ready for whichever speed the Attacker chooses. For the attacker it is his or her opportunity to be Pedro Martinez and “catch” his opponent. Pity the poor defender who gets caught by a good old fashioned “change-up.”

The idea behind this exercise is to enhance the difficulty and add a degree of competitiveness while not sacrificing the integrity of the movements or wasting the advantage of having learned such a valuable set in the first place! When the idea of three separate speeds and good “catching” of the same is mastered you can add another evolution: A new technique….

Best wishes training,
Ethan B. Miller

By Ethan Miller

Nukite training, or spearhand training is probably one of the more underestimated strikes in Uechi-Ryu and other styles of Karate. In sparring it’s generally not permitted or adaptable, while it becomes more accessible to the advanced user it appears to commonly become a grey area in usefulness. I had often downplayed its’ usefulness in the past. Partially this is due to the westerners’ overwhelming bias to the Seiken or closed fist (not always a bad thing). Partially, it is the result of lack of appreciation of the technique.

An innocuous Nukite strike without enough force to pierce a sheet of paper can cause significant distress and even damage to an adversary’s larynx. Imagine the reaction to such a hit: the assailant has trouble speaking, breathing and coughs. The hands fly to the throat, the chin tucks and often the eyes water. What has happened, is the assailant has become open to a number of other techniques and decisions by the defender.

This is not to downgrade the importance of hand toughening drills; such as the makiwara or thrusting hands into beans or sand, or piercing drills. I’ve heard of someone practicing a piercing drill on a stretched deer hide – in order resemble the act of hitting harder targets on the human body with confidence. I stress the with confidence part. What you are doing is adding an enhanced ability to a weapon.

In the opening of Sanchin kata the Nukite shows up very strongly. I like to think of this an excellent strengthening tool and also a good way to focus attention at the hip level. Repeating the Sanchin opening over and over is a very useful drill. On the other hand, often in Kata we emphasis hip movement to the detriment of the strike – by accident. I don’t believe that the hip movement in the Seiken strike is the same for the Nukite whether it is overhand or underhand. In fact, I think the mechanics for the lower body ideally should be adapted (maybe subtly) for whatever hand strikes are applied. I see it as adapting the force continuum for different weapons.

In a tie-up for instance a Nukite to points under the jaw line is very painful and requires smaller “thrusts” like a spear. While the training and confidence to use the technique requires time the actual conditioning of the hands (toughening) is not as necessary. The strike is going to hurt like hell.

Another thought on the matter is that Nukite hand shape is a good place to keep your hand while fighting. Good for defending, striking, moving into a kansetsu (jointlockng) approach or moving into Ukemi (falling) drills. So it can be used very successfully as a transitional shape. This can be over used, and over relied on, but it works in many situations.

Also, an application for fighting with the Nukite, which calls for the practice of hand toughening drills: This is an application you might not have considered. In a barroom “negotiation” a cowardly attack from a person sitting next to you would be to pin your hand flat out and bring a beer bottle down on it. (The assailant hoping to shock the defender with the first few strikes, then attempting to break the bottle on the hand in order to begin cutting) The trained Nukite practicioner might have valuable seconds to respond because they have conditioned their hands to withstand severe treatment – less feeling of shock. Similarly, a barroom altercation that goes to the ground, or a pile up, could result in an additional assailant getting it in their heads to stomp on a defenders’ free hand. The value of hand conditioning might save you valuable time and help maintain a cooler head. Though, I’d avoid that particular bar in the real world.

Best wishes training,
EBM

By Ethan Miller, nidan

While testing for my shodan test in 1994 one of the questions I was asked by the test board was to name a strike that was being shown. It was the hiraken, and I was then asked to explain how it was used. After I did this, I of course wondered. What was I missing? The hiraken strike often shows up as a single or double strike to the temple area. This is convenient, because the trusted “iron arm” position also acts to deflect a strike or lift the arms of an opponent. My experience with the hand position is that it is much more versatile. In fact it seems to me to be the most composite of the strikes seen in Uechi-Ryu. I have seen the hiraken demonstrated two different ways by very senior practitioners. I call the first “flat” and the second “closed”. The flat position has a gap between the top thumb knuckle and the fingertips. The closed position has the fingertips tucked behind the thumb knuckle tightly. These two positions alter the fist shape and stress one weapon over another. In fact other styles may name the two positions differently.

Here are the five weapons for the hiraken position: 1) A strengthened but shorter ridge hand strike. 2) A strengthened but shorter knife edge hand. To me the both these positions are best used in the “flat” position. 3) A very durable percussion strike surface in the closed position with the front of the hand. 4) A stronger middle knuckle punch in the closed position and a weaker knuckle position in the flat position. 5) A “cutter” position.

Some of the applications of the strikes are easy to see, the “ridge” hand strike, (1) is effective as an attack, the arm makes a hooking motion targeting the neck area. Less intuitive is the short knife edge (2) to the neck in the following scenario: The defender gets caught in a bear hug with at least one arm free, and the adversary’s head is often lower and to the side of the arm that is intending to defend with the hiraken. The defender can attack the head and neck by actually striking as he is pulling his arm to himself. This technique would require a lot of confidence with the hiraken.

The face (3) of the hiraken position is very strong and it can be used to glance off the head in the temple area or higher. A direct strike to this area would rattle the opponent’s brains enough to create other openings. It is advantageous in a situation where one faces a helmeted opponent. Another shorter technique from a tie-up could be bringing it down on the bridge of the nose – possibly causing facial fractures.

Hiraken strikes, because of their design are good for many close in techniques, semi-grappling situations. The closed position in an uppercut mode is effective in this on the ground scenario: Many ju-jitsu practitioners when in the guard position favor pulling the adversary into them. Since I have a wrestling background I have never been that comfortable on my back for very long. However, an alternative for the practice of pulling the adversary into the guard would be to attack the floating rib area of the mounted adversary with short hiraken uppercuts, which would cause significant pain and reaction, while still allowing one to guard.

The “cutter” hiraken as I like to call it is evident when the practitioner runs the knuckles against the soft-tissue areas of the human body. The jagged knuckles are not unlike the serrations found in many fighting knives these days. This is a disrupting strike though the pain level is not always evident. It is dangerous to the neck and other areas – using this strike requires a significant level of knowledge and consistent practice.

Best wishes training,
Ethan Miller