March 4, 2024
These new techniques, footwork, steps, mindsets, strategies, tactics, and positions used in today’s sports-karate’s kumite illustrate best the discipline’s far-reaching separation from karate-jutsu’s kata: there is no kata anymore in sports-karate’s kumite.
7 Min. Read
February 19, 2024
Advanced level karateka understand concepts, including all their hidden options, and realize all the big pictures in combat where these concepts may be applied, whereas beginners narrowly see a technique to be used for only one specific application.
9 Min. Read
December 4, 2023
Reflections from Dr. Hermann Bayer and his attendance at “Day of Karate” October 25, 2023 Naha, Okinawa, Japan.
September 11, 2023
“It is a common fact―and mistake―that someone, who supposes his/her knowledge being insufficient, chooses to study “broadly,” i.e. to study another related subject, instead of deeper penetrating the subject at hand.”
August 21, 2023
In the early 1980s the unique selling position of Japanized Karate-Do (with Shotokan as its prototype) was well established and further initiatives focused on stabilizing its market position and its organizational structure which was remarkably successful in both preserving its Japanese identity and protecting copyrights and financial interests.
Unless in military combat, it looks like males have game-like rules of engagement that ultimately dictate dominance, but, in contrast, women fight male attackers not to dominate but to survive.
To correct mistakes, something has not just to be modified, but habits have to be completely unlearned before something new can be learned.
Karate’s sacred principle should be rephrased into ‘karateka aim at not to attack first, but they may move first’, when a not yet physical attack is underway as a clear indicator for an immediately following use of physical force.
Because Karate is such an essential pillar of an autonomous Okinawan subculture, its Japanization from Karate-Jutsu into Karate-Do became the mainland’s priority not just for militaristic purposes, but also to create cultural homogeneity across the nation.
Stressing Karate’s possible use for supporting Japan’s armed forces was Itosu Sensei’s pragmatic strategy to secure sufficient funds for his educational campaign by tapping into Japan’s funds for its militarization―whereas the final and underlying goal of this educational campaign was not to create the raw material for the nation’s military forces, but something different, something nobler.
Through building up physical and mental strength, inappropriate overcompensating and aggressive tendencies lessen and eventually even vanish, since traditional karate training creates new self-definitions of capability and new self-perceptions of being able to successfully defend oneself and others. Unavoidably, self-confidence and courage eventually will improve and reduce feelings of inferiority.
Outwardly, the two societies are integrated, but the Okinawan people have proven masterful at the remaining cultural differences and attaching new importance to them genuine Okinawan karate being one of those cultural symbols.”
“Japan’s militaristic and nationalistic attitudes before WWII and its strategies to establish an Olympic sport after WWII explain why the mainland took over Okinawa’s unique fighting art.” Hermann Bayer, Ph.D.
Japanization” changed many techniques of genuine Okinawan karate radically, and the essence of the original, Itosu-based style, which is self-protection, was lost in its transition from Okinawa to mainland Japan.
Applying a comparable argument, an existing Okinawan martial art with its clear intention and purpose of self-protection integrated foreign (here: “Chinese”) knowledge and skills as a useful improvement into its existing system, into its existing idea, its existing concept and intellectual framework.”
The axiom that street violence is volatile and unpredictable could not hold truer than when facing multiple assailants. Facing multiple assailants, let alone multiple armed assailants, is an extremely dangerous proposition. Try to recognize the situation as soon as possible such as if two people are walking towards you and they suddenly fan out to your left and right. Running and escaping is your best solution.
Street violence is volatile and unpredictable. An attacker will seek every advantage including ambushing you in concert with multiple confederates. You may well find yourself in a "negative five" position or initially unprepared for the fight of your life. Krav maga (Hebrew for "contact combat") developed for the Israel Defense Forces will provide you with the instinctive tools and ability to fight for your life and win.
A combative strike will have optimum force if you accelerate your strike in combination with correct body mechanics. Principally, this involves a total body weight shift through the target. Physics teaches that acceleration times mass equals force. Your strike will generate more force if you accelerate your speed as you extend your arm and put all of your body weight (mass) behind your strike. This requires proper body positioning and technique.
The key is your mind-set: to neutralize an opponent quickly and decisively. In fighting sports, the following tactics are generally banned: eye gouges, throat strikes, head butting, biting, hair pulling, clawing, pinching or twisting of the flesh, striking the spine and the back of the head, striking with the tip of the elbow, small joint manipulation, kidney and liver strikes, clavicle strikes, kneeing or kicking the head of an opponent on the ground, and slamming an opponent to the ground on his head. These are exactly the combined core tactics krav maga emphasizes.
Footwork and body positioning combined with timing, whether standing or prone, allow you to simultaneously defend and attack, leading to seamless combative transitions essential to retzev or "continuous combat motion."
Krav maga is designed around a few core tactics to counter a myriad of attacks. Defenders get tools for their toolboxes along with a general blueprint for how to use them. Imi's goal was survival in any defensible situation. While there are no set solutions for ending an armed confrontation, there are preferred methods using violence of action combined with retzev, or "continuous combat motion."
No matter what levels of force you need, the players stay the same. It is critical to be able to read the players. The threat dictates the situation. You must understand the problem before you can choose a solution. A charm predator is one thing. A drunk wanting to show off for a girl is an entirely different problem. You must learn to read threats and threat dynamics.
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 18,000 people a week are victimized by some sort of workplace violence in the United States. In fact, although industrial accidents abound, homicide is actually the leading cause of death among female workers and the second leading cause of death for men.
How do you know when it is legal to get physical with an adversary? Learn the I.M.O.P. (Intent, Means, Opportunity, and Preclusion) principle. All four of these criteria must be met before you have a good case for taking action. If one or more of these conditions are absent, you are on shaky legal ground.
When I took a defensive handgun course several years ago, I was taught to train for handling the survival-stress reaction commonly associated with actual combat. To simulate the reaction, we had to do as many pushups as we could as fast as we could for one minute.