March 2014 SECRET TECHNIQUES

                                                     SECRET TECHNIQUES

                                                 3/2014

 

In class the other day we were working on a movement out of a kata. The block we were on is the moroto uke (double block) this move is in a number of our katas. While it is call a block I tend to think of it as an attack.  Some of the students were having a little trouble understanding it and how it could be  both, a hit and a block. This lead into a discussion, and I told them a quote of Master Toyama’s:

Secret techniques begin with basic techniques; basic techniques end as secret techniques.  There are no secrets at the beginning, but there are secrets at the end.  The key to success is hard training.”

 

This really sums it up, by continually training the very basic movements are in fact the techniques. When I started karate I always wondered why we would take the time to learn and keep practicing blocks over and over, because when we sparred we wouldn’t use these same techniques.  When I would work out with other people that were not in Keishin Kan they knew and trained with these same blocks .  Almost all styles do the upper, the outside, the inside, and the down blocks.  They would all practice them as beginners and work on them when going through their basics, just as we do in Keishin Kan.  So why have these blocks made it to the 21st century if there is not something else to them?

As Master Toyama said in his quote: there are no secrets in the beginning but there are in the end.  So what does this mean?

I think the answer is in the last line of his quote –  Hard Training.    When we keep doing the same blocks or any techniques we look at them different as the years go on. This is what marital arts is really all about. We grow as karate-ka and are able to make the movements work according to the situation at hand.

After years of training the techniques become ours and we can see them and use them as needed.  This is why I stress the basics so much ( I know same old speech), but really it is all we need to know.  When we can make any block into an escape, a grappling, or a strike movement, then we have learned (know) the secret of Karate.  Just think how many techniques we do in our katas.  If we  applied these principles to them, there would be hundreds and hundreds of techniques.

The common thread that all the old masters spoke of was  hard training and never quit, just keep on keeping on.  Could this be the secret that we all are striving for?  Could it really be that simple?  I don’t know if simple is the right word… if all it takes is years and years, and by doing the techniques  hundreds of thousands of times.

So what is the best technique for you?

See you in the dojo

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US Branch of Japan Keishinkan Karate