Cayuga Karate
Orange Belt
Since I began training in the mid-70s, I have been intensely interested in the application of Okinawan kata movements in fighting scenarios.
I have had reasonably broad exposure to these kata, and the attempts by many to make sense of it all. My original system was Shito Ryu under Kuniba and Hayashi, and both of those masters were reknowned for application of kata. I have trained with Oyata's students, also devoted to bunkai. Patrick McCarthy has made efforts to share a broader range of application. And in more recent times, we have had a number of karateka doing the same including Iain Abernethy, Tony Annesi and Vince Morris. There are a lot of ongoing efforts of karateka trying to make sense of these strange sequences we know as kata. What we typically find is those with experience in other arts, especially grappling arts, find sequences of movements in kata that map quite well to the locks and takedowns they have learned in Judo, Jiu jitsu, Aikido, Tai Chi's Chi Na, etc.
I would argue the following regarding bunkai.
Regarding the application of kata to empty hand fighting:
1. The kata often do not provide complete sets of movements for application. Something often has to be added. Let's consider the first the first four directions of Bassai Dai as found in systems practiced by students of Itosu: Funakoshi, Mabuni, Toyoma and Chibana, who named his version "Itosu Passai". There are several series of two armed movements, often called blocks, with no corresponding strikes. One common application is to block twice, then add one or more counters. You can find this "adding of movements" to many systems' approaches to application. You find things not in the kata. There is nothing wrong with this. But it worth noting, it is common to find "things added" to actually make the kata movement work.
2. Many kata, especially in Shorin ryu, have long asymmetric sequences forward and back, often punctuated with symmetric patterns side to side and on angles. What I have found is that many systems have some fairly decent applications for the side to side movements. They often lend themselves to close-in fighting. However, for the long sequences to the front and rear, it is indeed hard to find something useful. What generally occurs is an application for short pieces of the forward sequence. The full sequence is rarely treated as a complete unit of fighting. What we often times find when the full sequence forward is treated fully as a unit, is an attacker who must retreat while punching. There are lots of examples on youtube of this kind of approach. The obvious problem is that under most imaginable realistic defensive scenarios in empty hand fighting, the attacker is arm's distance away. So there is a simple engineering challenge in attempting to respond to an empty hand attack while charging forward with three or four strides. The attackers body is in your way.
3. There are, in general, several problems with the way applications have been handed down from Okinawa. The first is the unrealistic attacking strike that occurs in much bunkai that is taught. A person charges in using a long, low stance, freezes at the end, and punches in front of his own solar plexus. Some have endeavored to add more realistic attacks, including Oyata's students who often attack as a boxer would with hands high, shuffling in, and attacking the head. It is my experience that there is far too little emphasis on common attacks, especially, the left jab-right-cross attack to the head, a basic unit of attack to anyone trained in a modern striking art. The big challenge here is that so much of karate kata have movements where the hands are down low, such as in a downward block position, with one hand on the hip.
4. The second obvious challenge to the way much application is taught is that it often revolves around a single counter attack, very often to the solar plexus. First, this is simply, the wrong target. And we all know it. In kumite, we often punch reasonably hard to the body, and aim for the solar plexus. It is very difficult to hit. And when you miss, you hit the sternum, pectoral, ribs, and abdominal muscles. Strikes to these areas, especially against larger attackers, are often not very useful. In addition, while your hand is low, at his solar plexus, your chin is open, leaving you vulnerable to his hook.
5. In addition, the lack of multiple strike counters is a fundamental challenge to the effective application of kata to empty hand fighting. The whole concept of one strike-responses in empty hand fighting is a myth, a fallacy. It has no place in modern training for self defense. One only has to look at kobudo kata where it is not uncommon to find the bo wail 5, 6, 7 times in one direction to recognize the Okinawans may not have fully bought into this whole one-strike concept. Kama kata can have up to a dozen cuts in one direction. Nunchaku kata can have numerous strikes before changing direction. If one needs to train to hit an opponent multiple times with a weapon, how could it possibly make sense to train to hit him just once with your fist.
6. The hands are simply in the sub-optimal positions many applications of kata. In modern fighting systems, fighters understand that while a punch thrown from the hand chambered at the cheek may not be the strongest punch, it is far safer than one thrown from the hip. That is the unfortunate truth. It is simply way too dangerous to have the hands away from the face. Your head is too vulnerable. It's a trade-off. You give up some power to ensure your head is fully protected.
This is not to say that there are no circumstance in which a punch launched from a hip-chamber is not optimal. There are many scenarios. For example, any time a successful initial counter momentarily prevents the attacker from counterstriking, you have far greater flexibility in how you continue your attack.
7. There are a few important components lacking in kata that are necessary tools in effective self defense training. First and foremost, there are no hooks in kata. There are hook-type motions. Naihanchi is but one example that has a number of these. But a hook has a distinct twisting motion that pretty much requires one to lift the back heel off the ground. Kata have heels on the ground. Second, as we all know, there are plenty of front kicks in kata, but no roundhouse kicks.
-------
I have been following these discussions on kata applicability on these kind of forums going back a decade when they were news-groups. (Can anyone remember alt.rec.martial-arts)
Let me give you a fictional discussion that includes bits and pieces from these types of posts.
Poster A: Okinawan kata are encyclopedias of self-defense movements for empty hand fighting.
Poster B: I gave up kata long ago. I didn't see any practical use for it. I find my training better suits me if I do more kumite, more striking work and a few grappling techniques for special circumstances.
Poster A: You must have come from a dojo where kata application was not taught.
Poster B: No, it was taught but it wasn't realistic. It didn't model fighting as I understand fighting to be. A big guy is pummelling my head. That's what I am training against.
Poster A: Well if you had gone to the right kind of dojo, they would have taught you useful empty hand applications from kata.
Poster B: I practiced for years in the xyz system. It's Okinawan. Shouldn't they have done it correctly.
Poster A: Well, that might be the problem. You see that in my system, our kata is the original kata, and that may be the problem. You see, the kata in your system is different. They must have been changed, and when that happened they lost their original applications.
Poster B: I don't know about that. I learned these kata were the ones that master ABC taught to master DEF. They must be old and original.
Poster A: Sorry to disappoint you fella, but it is widely know that master ABC changed the kata. My system is still the original way.
Poster B: I am still unconvinced. Can you share some ideas that you find useful.
Poster A: Go do a search on youtube. You'll find plenty.
Poster B: I did a search, and didn't find much. Can you give me a few links?
Poster A: Here are two links.
Poster B: I looked at these links and found movements that I find unrealistic. The attacker charges in with a single strike and freezes, while the defender does techniques with his hands down, not protecting his head. I don't believe those kinds of applications are good empty hand fighting. Can you share something that you practice in your dojo?
Poster A: Sorry, can't help you there. You see our system is very private, and we don't share on the Internet. (Or... our moves are secret. We don't share them.)
Poster B: Can anyone on this forum share some useful ideas they practice in their dojos
Other posters: S I L E N C E.
------
You can see this thing time and again on forum such as martialtalk. You have to look no further back than 8 threads ago when superfly posted a request for bunkai.
[URL="http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?98193-Bunkai-Applications"]Bunkai/applications[/URL]
-----
My purpose here was certainly not to argue that there aren't a lot of good applications out there. There are. And we should expect ever more as more people look to draw lessons from their training and come up with their own ideas. However, we should recognize that maybe, just maybe, there are sequences in kata that just might not map all that well to empty hand self defense. And you know what? That's just fine.
Those who know my background will understand that I have my own rather unique viewpoint on why I believe we shouldn't expect empty hand kata to translate completely into empty hand self defense. I do believ that. However, I also believe that every known movement from every Okinawan kata that likely was taught to Okinawans by Chinese people in Okinawa, make complete and total sense. I can't find a movement that is not useful. And thanks to youtube, there are perhaps 100 versions of these Okinawan empty hand kata that were likely taught by Chinese in Okinawa. I say likely, because it was all taught in secret so we can will never verify for sure. Motobu lists around 12 that were passed down. Funakoshi, a couple of more. Due to the variations found in these kata, that adds up to perhaps 80 unique kata on youtube. (Many, many, share many common movements.) These omit all the variation we have from Aragaki which number perhaps a dozen on Youtube.
-----
But that is another discussion, another thread, another time.
For those that doubt the effectiveness of kata, please accept that there's quite a bit of really good application out there being practiced, but not all that much on Youtube.
And for those that believe that kata are infallible textbooks of useful application, it might be worthwhile to reconsider whether that is truly the case. Don't believe everything your teacher tells you. Use critical judgment. After all, it's your head that needs protecting in a fight.
I am one of probably many that believe that much of the bunkai practiced today is more bunk than bunkai. Yes, it might work in the artificial world of the dojo, where the attacker is frozen, in a deep stance after a single strike. I have strong advice for those that have been misinformed by their teachers about the utility of these concepts in actual fighting. Please, please don't fall for some of the tall tales taught in many dojos. Any school that practices attacking with a single strike to the solar plexus, and defending with single strikes to the solar plexus are training their students in "dojo" fighting, something very different from actual fighting. Some of the body mechanics are transferrable, but it just makes no sense to limit your "application" training to poor defenses against unlikely attacks.
Yes karate kata doesn't have hooks. Use them anyway. Yes karate kata often requires you add something. Add a three strike combo before that armbar. Don't just really on single strikes. And while you are at it, put a hook in that three strike combo. A real hook, not in front stance or back stance, but just as it is supposed to be thrown.
After a kick to the groin, the attackers head just might sink a foot or two before rebounding. Hit him with that hook, right upside his head. Don't worry that it is not in the kata. Any good fighter will tell you it's an essential tool in your toolbox.
Cayuga Karate
I have had reasonably broad exposure to these kata, and the attempts by many to make sense of it all. My original system was Shito Ryu under Kuniba and Hayashi, and both of those masters were reknowned for application of kata. I have trained with Oyata's students, also devoted to bunkai. Patrick McCarthy has made efforts to share a broader range of application. And in more recent times, we have had a number of karateka doing the same including Iain Abernethy, Tony Annesi and Vince Morris. There are a lot of ongoing efforts of karateka trying to make sense of these strange sequences we know as kata. What we typically find is those with experience in other arts, especially grappling arts, find sequences of movements in kata that map quite well to the locks and takedowns they have learned in Judo, Jiu jitsu, Aikido, Tai Chi's Chi Na, etc.
I would argue the following regarding bunkai.
Regarding the application of kata to empty hand fighting:
1. The kata often do not provide complete sets of movements for application. Something often has to be added. Let's consider the first the first four directions of Bassai Dai as found in systems practiced by students of Itosu: Funakoshi, Mabuni, Toyoma and Chibana, who named his version "Itosu Passai". There are several series of two armed movements, often called blocks, with no corresponding strikes. One common application is to block twice, then add one or more counters. You can find this "adding of movements" to many systems' approaches to application. You find things not in the kata. There is nothing wrong with this. But it worth noting, it is common to find "things added" to actually make the kata movement work.
2. Many kata, especially in Shorin ryu, have long asymmetric sequences forward and back, often punctuated with symmetric patterns side to side and on angles. What I have found is that many systems have some fairly decent applications for the side to side movements. They often lend themselves to close-in fighting. However, for the long sequences to the front and rear, it is indeed hard to find something useful. What generally occurs is an application for short pieces of the forward sequence. The full sequence is rarely treated as a complete unit of fighting. What we often times find when the full sequence forward is treated fully as a unit, is an attacker who must retreat while punching. There are lots of examples on youtube of this kind of approach. The obvious problem is that under most imaginable realistic defensive scenarios in empty hand fighting, the attacker is arm's distance away. So there is a simple engineering challenge in attempting to respond to an empty hand attack while charging forward with three or four strides. The attackers body is in your way.
3. There are, in general, several problems with the way applications have been handed down from Okinawa. The first is the unrealistic attacking strike that occurs in much bunkai that is taught. A person charges in using a long, low stance, freezes at the end, and punches in front of his own solar plexus. Some have endeavored to add more realistic attacks, including Oyata's students who often attack as a boxer would with hands high, shuffling in, and attacking the head. It is my experience that there is far too little emphasis on common attacks, especially, the left jab-right-cross attack to the head, a basic unit of attack to anyone trained in a modern striking art. The big challenge here is that so much of karate kata have movements where the hands are down low, such as in a downward block position, with one hand on the hip.
4. The second obvious challenge to the way much application is taught is that it often revolves around a single counter attack, very often to the solar plexus. First, this is simply, the wrong target. And we all know it. In kumite, we often punch reasonably hard to the body, and aim for the solar plexus. It is very difficult to hit. And when you miss, you hit the sternum, pectoral, ribs, and abdominal muscles. Strikes to these areas, especially against larger attackers, are often not very useful. In addition, while your hand is low, at his solar plexus, your chin is open, leaving you vulnerable to his hook.
5. In addition, the lack of multiple strike counters is a fundamental challenge to the effective application of kata to empty hand fighting. The whole concept of one strike-responses in empty hand fighting is a myth, a fallacy. It has no place in modern training for self defense. One only has to look at kobudo kata where it is not uncommon to find the bo wail 5, 6, 7 times in one direction to recognize the Okinawans may not have fully bought into this whole one-strike concept. Kama kata can have up to a dozen cuts in one direction. Nunchaku kata can have numerous strikes before changing direction. If one needs to train to hit an opponent multiple times with a weapon, how could it possibly make sense to train to hit him just once with your fist.
6. The hands are simply in the sub-optimal positions many applications of kata. In modern fighting systems, fighters understand that while a punch thrown from the hand chambered at the cheek may not be the strongest punch, it is far safer than one thrown from the hip. That is the unfortunate truth. It is simply way too dangerous to have the hands away from the face. Your head is too vulnerable. It's a trade-off. You give up some power to ensure your head is fully protected.
This is not to say that there are no circumstance in which a punch launched from a hip-chamber is not optimal. There are many scenarios. For example, any time a successful initial counter momentarily prevents the attacker from counterstriking, you have far greater flexibility in how you continue your attack.
7. There are a few important components lacking in kata that are necessary tools in effective self defense training. First and foremost, there are no hooks in kata. There are hook-type motions. Naihanchi is but one example that has a number of these. But a hook has a distinct twisting motion that pretty much requires one to lift the back heel off the ground. Kata have heels on the ground. Second, as we all know, there are plenty of front kicks in kata, but no roundhouse kicks.
-------
I have been following these discussions on kata applicability on these kind of forums going back a decade when they were news-groups. (Can anyone remember alt.rec.martial-arts)
Let me give you a fictional discussion that includes bits and pieces from these types of posts.
Poster A: Okinawan kata are encyclopedias of self-defense movements for empty hand fighting.
Poster B: I gave up kata long ago. I didn't see any practical use for it. I find my training better suits me if I do more kumite, more striking work and a few grappling techniques for special circumstances.
Poster A: You must have come from a dojo where kata application was not taught.
Poster B: No, it was taught but it wasn't realistic. It didn't model fighting as I understand fighting to be. A big guy is pummelling my head. That's what I am training against.
Poster A: Well if you had gone to the right kind of dojo, they would have taught you useful empty hand applications from kata.
Poster B: I practiced for years in the xyz system. It's Okinawan. Shouldn't they have done it correctly.
Poster A: Well, that might be the problem. You see that in my system, our kata is the original kata, and that may be the problem. You see, the kata in your system is different. They must have been changed, and when that happened they lost their original applications.
Poster B: I don't know about that. I learned these kata were the ones that master ABC taught to master DEF. They must be old and original.
Poster A: Sorry to disappoint you fella, but it is widely know that master ABC changed the kata. My system is still the original way.
Poster B: I am still unconvinced. Can you share some ideas that you find useful.
Poster A: Go do a search on youtube. You'll find plenty.
Poster B: I did a search, and didn't find much. Can you give me a few links?
Poster A: Here are two links.
Poster B: I looked at these links and found movements that I find unrealistic. The attacker charges in with a single strike and freezes, while the defender does techniques with his hands down, not protecting his head. I don't believe those kinds of applications are good empty hand fighting. Can you share something that you practice in your dojo?
Poster A: Sorry, can't help you there. You see our system is very private, and we don't share on the Internet. (Or... our moves are secret. We don't share them.)
Poster B: Can anyone on this forum share some useful ideas they practice in their dojos
Other posters: S I L E N C E.
------
You can see this thing time and again on forum such as martialtalk. You have to look no further back than 8 threads ago when superfly posted a request for bunkai.
[URL="http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?98193-Bunkai-Applications"]Bunkai/applications[/URL]
-----
My purpose here was certainly not to argue that there aren't a lot of good applications out there. There are. And we should expect ever more as more people look to draw lessons from their training and come up with their own ideas. However, we should recognize that maybe, just maybe, there are sequences in kata that just might not map all that well to empty hand self defense. And you know what? That's just fine.
Those who know my background will understand that I have my own rather unique viewpoint on why I believe we shouldn't expect empty hand kata to translate completely into empty hand self defense. I do believ that. However, I also believe that every known movement from every Okinawan kata that likely was taught to Okinawans by Chinese people in Okinawa, make complete and total sense. I can't find a movement that is not useful. And thanks to youtube, there are perhaps 100 versions of these Okinawan empty hand kata that were likely taught by Chinese in Okinawa. I say likely, because it was all taught in secret so we can will never verify for sure. Motobu lists around 12 that were passed down. Funakoshi, a couple of more. Due to the variations found in these kata, that adds up to perhaps 80 unique kata on youtube. (Many, many, share many common movements.) These omit all the variation we have from Aragaki which number perhaps a dozen on Youtube.
-----
But that is another discussion, another thread, another time.
For those that doubt the effectiveness of kata, please accept that there's quite a bit of really good application out there being practiced, but not all that much on Youtube.
And for those that believe that kata are infallible textbooks of useful application, it might be worthwhile to reconsider whether that is truly the case. Don't believe everything your teacher tells you. Use critical judgment. After all, it's your head that needs protecting in a fight.
I am one of probably many that believe that much of the bunkai practiced today is more bunk than bunkai. Yes, it might work in the artificial world of the dojo, where the attacker is frozen, in a deep stance after a single strike. I have strong advice for those that have been misinformed by their teachers about the utility of these concepts in actual fighting. Please, please don't fall for some of the tall tales taught in many dojos. Any school that practices attacking with a single strike to the solar plexus, and defending with single strikes to the solar plexus are training their students in "dojo" fighting, something very different from actual fighting. Some of the body mechanics are transferrable, but it just makes no sense to limit your "application" training to poor defenses against unlikely attacks.
Yes karate kata doesn't have hooks. Use them anyway. Yes karate kata often requires you add something. Add a three strike combo before that armbar. Don't just really on single strikes. And while you are at it, put a hook in that three strike combo. A real hook, not in front stance or back stance, but just as it is supposed to be thrown.
After a kick to the groin, the attackers head just might sink a foot or two before rebounding. Hit him with that hook, right upside his head. Don't worry that it is not in the kata. Any good fighter will tell you it's an essential tool in your toolbox.
Cayuga Karate
