Sunday, March 3, 2013

Learn Techniques Thoroughly - Chief Instructor's Blog March 2013


To truly understand the various techniques practiced and used in Han Moo Kwan you must learn every aspect of them. This includes the mechanical, practical, and experimental.


The mechanical aspect will ensure you are throwing the techniques correctly to maximize the benefits of the technique and to ensure you perform it safety. The mechanics of each technique are thrown in a precise manner that aligns the body’s skeletal structure with the muscles to get the maximum force without injuring oneself. An example would be alignment of the first two knuckles with straight wrists in punches to ensure any recoil force goes through the alignment of bones so no torque in the wrist results (severe sprains or a break). Some of the preciseness is to ensure the technique is as powerful as possible and less likely to be detected or blocked. This is why we throw our techniques linearly (with a few exceptions). So, it is important students are diligent in practicing and learning the mechanics so they are performed precisely.

The practical is the actual application of the technique. It is one thing to practice against air and just moving forward and back. It is not until you hit something or someone or use the techniques in sparring or self-defense that you get the feedback that the technique is being thrown properly and you can understand the practical application. It is good from time to time in self-defense or sparring to focus in one technique so you can practice that one technique and feel more comfortable in using it if you needed to in an actual self-defense scenario. The practical also includes knowing the targets and distances that are most useful for each technique. This information will also maximize the benefits when using the technique and keep you safe. For example, spear hands are effective against soft tissue areas (trachea, lower end of sternum, groin, carotid artery, eyes, armpit, etc) as a penetration strike. If you throw a spear hand against hard targets like the sternum you could injure your hand including breaking your fingers.

The experimental aspect is also important to understand the techniques. The experimental aspect can be discovered when you practice and “play” with the techniques to determine for your body, against certain opponent’s body build, or in certain ways of being attacked, a techniques is most beneficial and can be used safely. This is where you can be as imaginative and creative as possible in testing theories of how a person may move or react to certain techniques. For example, if you throw a hard medium block against a cross arm grab, most people will turn such that their ribs and kidneys are an open target. This is valuable information in that if you had to use the technique on the streets, you can predict what may happen when you throw the medium block from a cross hand grab and can be already prepped and ready to throw that second technique to the open kidneys. And since you already know that punches and knife hands are every effective against the kidneys, that is the technique you are ready to throw.

I encourage all of you to study and practice each aspect of the techniques thoughtfully and diligently so you gain the maximum benefits from the techniques and remain safe in doing so.

Regards,
Kelly

“Practice each of the techniques of karate repeatedly, the use of which is passed by word of mouth. Learn the explanations well and decide when and in what manner to apply them when needed. Enter, counter, release is the rule of releasing hand." ~ Anko Itosu (1830–1915), Okinawan Karate Master, from his letter 10 Precepts of Karate written in 1908