A deep thank you to Sensei Hakki Güldür and the Ken Shi Kai in Zurich, Switzerland for hosting me last week at your karate dojo!
I enjoyed training and sharing some karate together!
I was incredibly impressed by the clean movement and beautiful Goju Ryu karate kata in the dojo. It is not surprising that you win so many competitions!
We discussed the differences between sports karate / combative sports and karate for self-defense:
- Range: self-defense is usually a much closer range than combative sports
- Objective: In self-defense, we use force to create an opportunity to escape. The engagement is usually very short. Combative sports engagements are designed to be long. Think about an MMA bout or a boxing match — the objective is a long match that entertains the audience and sells TV ads.
- Rules: In self-defense, there are no rules. Everything it “Kosher.” In fact, biting, eye gouging, groin shots, etc. are encouraged! Combative sports, on the hand, and for the sake of safety, impose rules. This allows for two competitors to engage in consensual combat with some measure of safety.
Self-defense is built into the original karate. This is the main purpose of the art, as Master Anko Itosu (1831-1915 and pictured below), the “father” of modern karate, said:
“Karate is not merely practiced for your own benefit; it can be used to protect one’s family or master. It is not intended to be used against a single assailant but instead as a way of avoiding injury by using the hands and feet should one by any chance be confronted by a villain or ruffian.”
We practiced the “self defense stance,” and several principals of self-defense combat. Those included the following:
- Distancing
- Use of overwhelming force to end the fight as quickly as possible
- Controlling the opponent right from the beginning of the engagement, so their posture is disrupted, and they are not able to effective hit
- Escape
Hope to see everyone again soon!
