Tag: chudan

Viewing 1 - 3 out of 3 Blogs.

For most of my martial arts career I have known (and practised, on and off) the orthodox kote kitae or "ude tanren" - forearm conditioning. An example can be found here and below:


Master Higaonna Morio and Sensei Falcone practising orthodox kote kitae

A variant on the theme can be found here.

Without wishing to go into the merits or necessity of forearm conditioning to any great extent in this article, I would like to point out that I feel some conditioning is essential... Read More

Those of you who have read my article on Why blocks DO work will recall that I mentioned there that every basic block in karate contains 2 movements - the primary block (a larger movement) and a secondary block (a smaller movement) in the "pullback" arm (what some people call the "crossing hand"). I am astounded as to how few karateka today are actually aware of this fact.

So what is the function of these 2 movements? Well first, the secondary movement can operate as a deflection entirel... Read More

Introduction

Karate employs many techniques categorised as "uke" meaning literally "block". It is fashionable in some circles to deride traditional blocks as "unworkable" or "ineffective". The principal arguments in support of this proposition are that -

(1) there is little value in just "stopping" an attack - rather you should use other means to set up an effective counter; and

(2) in any event, the movements constituting traditional blocks are "too large" for practical us... Read More