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Karate EnglandKarate

EnglandKyukoshin WarriorSStteevvee AArrnneeiill’’ss LLiiffee ooff BBuuddoo!!

Kyukoshin WarriorSStteevvee AArrnneeiill’’ss LLiiffee ooff BBuuddoo!!

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As I write this editorial, it has been confirmed thatKarate England is officially no more, a sad end to avery sad chapter in Karate history. Now, while some

of you have made it quite clear that what has happened toKarate England is of no interest to you whatsoever, others havewritten in to declare their anger, frustration etc, at the situation.

Now, for the people that are interested, there is bound to be a mixof finger-pointing and recriminations, all the usual residue after amajor disaster, so with this in mind, we feature another in-depthinterview with a man who has been in the firing line, BrianPhilcox and his very candid answers might prove to be very illu-minating when it comes to understanding Karate England and thebigger picture. Read it and come to your own conclusions from avery interesting and thought provoking interview.

Over the last couple of months I have printed pieces from thosethat have kindly written in to me with their views on varioussubjects and this month I want to share a correspondence thatcould have alarming repercussions for a number of you.Intrigued? Then read what arrived on my desk this week-

“Recently one of my private students was arrested and taken tocourt for carrying a Kubotan keychain, he is now facing a fineor even possible prison sentence, even though he just used as akeyring and was not using it in any kind of threatening mannerthe police still decided to charge him without giving him thebenefit of the doubt.

As a martial arts instructor of many years I was astonished whatthe police told him that he can carry a three and a half inchknife but not a kubotan , as you probably know there has alwaysbeen a grey area within the law where the kubotan is concernedthis is branding martial arts instructors and students in the com-mon criminal bracket which as you know could not be furtherfrom the truth, the purpose of this mail is that other martial artistshould be made aware that the police are seeing these imple-ments as more lethal weapons than knives apparently, and donot view them as self defence items to fend off a much largerand stronger attacker.

So all you people out there that carry a Kubotan beware! you’renot allowed to defend youselves anymore and especially theladies that have attended courses on the kubotan throw themaway and let your attacker do what he wants its the law !

Again, I ask you, what do you think?

Malcolm

Page 4 April 2007 TRADITIONAL KARATE

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Vol.20 No.8 APRIL 2007

PUBLISHER/MANAGING DIRECTORPaul Clifton

EDITORMalcolm Martin

SENIOR DESIGNERMark John Davies

GRAPHIC DESIGNKevin ThompsonMatthew Riches

COLUMNISTSAlbie O’connor, Vince Cullen, Dr J. W. Titchen,

Scott Langley, Terry Wingrove, Simon Hazeldine, Don Heatrick, Steve Grayston, Darren Westwood,

Iain Abernethy

SPECIAL COLUMNISTSTicky Donovan OBE,

Geoff Thompson MBE, Robin Horsfall, Bill Burgar, Patrick Rault, Joe Ellis, Tatsuo Suzuki, Kuniaki Sakagami,

Bob Poynton, Gavin Mullholland, Gerry Coulter, Bill Evans,Paul Campbell, Mark Jennings, Peter Evans,

John Van Weenen, Martyn Skipper, Alun Evans

SPORT KARATE CONSULTANTWayne Otto OBE

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSCOACHING EDITORTicky Donovan OBE

WADO RYU TECHNICAL EDITORKuniaki Sakagami

GOJU TECHNICAL EDITORLeo Lipinski

SHOTOKAN TECHNICAL EDITORBob Poynton

HOW TO GET WORK PUBLISHEDTo have your submission published in Traditional

Karate couldn’t be easier. Supply your written materialeither on disc (ASCII), typed or on audio tape.

Send it together with a covering letter and some goodquality photo’s (digital pictures must be 300dpi) to the

Head Office (address below).

NEWS ITEMSFor all news related items, simply mark you envelope‘TRADITIONAL KARATE NEWS’ and together with a

photograph (if required) and a covering letter, send it toHead Office or E-Mail: [email protected]

CALENDARIf you have a forthcoming event that you would like

published in Traditional Karate calendar. Send your entry,giving dates, times, and contact numbers, to ‘Calendar’

Traditional Karate Head Office.

HEAD OFFICE:Traditional Karate, Regent House, 135 Aldridge Road,Perry Barr, Birmingham. B42 2ET. Tel: 0121 344 3737

Fax: 0121 356 7300E-Mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING DETAILSIf you would like to advertise in TRADITIONAL KARATE,

write or telephone the Head Office to obtain details, deadline dates and costs.

DISCLAIMERTraditional Karate is published by Martial Arts

Publications, Regent House, 135 Aldridge Road, PerryBarr, Birmingham. The publishers reserve the right to

reject editorial and/or advertising material as they see fit.The Publishers accept no responsibility for the return of

unsolicited material. However, the Publishers will endeavour to return such matter providing that it is

accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope. Anymaterial accepted by the Publishers shall be revised or

altered should the Publisher deem it necessary to do so.The act of submitting manuscripts and/or materials shallbe considered an express warranty that such material isoriginal and in no way infringes upon the rights of others.

It is expressly forbidden for any part of the magazine to bereported whatsoever without the permission of Editor/

Publishers. The views or comments expressed in thesepages are not necessarily those of the editor or Publisher.Distribution by COMAG, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road,

West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QE.

EDITORIAL & CONTENTS

ContentsCOVER STORY

REGULAR COLUMNS

FEATURES

TOURNAMENTS & COURSES

20 ALBIE O’CONNORTools of The Trade

22 LAWRENCE KANE & KRIS WILDERThe Way of Kata

24 DR J. W. TITCHENPractical Karate

27 BRUTALLY HONESTBy Matthew Sylvester

7 MARTIAL ARTS NEWSLINE

79 CLUBS DIRECTORY

29 THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SHOTOKAN KARATEBy John Van Weenen

30 STEVE ARNEILKyokushin Man

35 KARATE POWERBuild Strength & Stamina Into Your Karate

39 KARATE UNDER THREATStill on Honeymoon With Karate!

45 KATA CORNER - CHINTOBy Don Came

46 LAWRENCE KANETraditionally Modern Warrior - Part 2

50 DENNIS MARTINPractical Karateka

57 THE CHEIF INSTRUCTOR OF FINLAND VISITS KARATE ENGLANDSensei Willy Ortiz

59 FROM FUJIAN WHITE CRANE TO OKINAWAN GOJU RYUThe Transmission of a Martial Art

64 STANDARD APPLICATIONSLooking Deeper Into The Arts

67 SEIGANBy Frank N. Newton

68 ITOTSU RYU’S TONFA NO HAMAHIGAPart 3

10 BRIAN PHILCOXHis Report on Karate England

www.CIMAC.netFor all your Martial Arts needs.

Call Our Hotline On: 0121 327 8880

71 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

77 KEN TOH KAI KARATE UKJunior Championships

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TRADITIONAL KARATE April 2007 Page 5

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DOCTOR HOEHLE

Bernd Hoehle is headmasterof Martial Arts AssociationInternational and recently hetravelled to Beijing with hisassistant Dennis Diekmann onthe invitation of his teacher,Grandmaster Gu Ping. GuPing is in charge of BeijingUniversity’s Wu Shu facility,which currently has around20,000 students on its rolls!Naturally the University’s wushu facility is recognized bythe China Wu shuAssociation. Training consistsof traditional Tai Ji, Qi gongand Wu Shu. The daily train-ing schedule takes place inthe university and classes aretaught by Gu Ping and LiuPeng - the Ching I champion.

Bernd gave some demonstra-tions with and withoutweapons in front of theteachers, students, facultymembers and leading politi-cal personalities. His perfor-mances were greeted withmuch applause and later, hewas presented with the title‘Doctor of Wu Shu’ and theuniversity’s gold medal forsporting achievement.

This honour ranks withBernd’s others, conferred byThe White House and aSaudi Prince.

BRINGING YOU THE LATEST NEWS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE WORLD OF MARTIAL ARTS. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING WE DON’T THEN WRITE OR FAXIT TO US AT: 135 ALDRIDGE ROAD, PERRY BARR, BIRMINGHAM, B42 2ET. FAX: 0121 356 7300 E-MAIL: [email protected]

MARTIAL ARTS

NEWS & VIEWSMARTIAL ARTS

NEWS & VIEWSA WORTHY CAUSEGlen Corner was walking withfriends in South Shields whenhe was stabbed to death. Thattragedy happened on the lad’s16th birthday and it wasreported in the national news.Now, Glen’s mother - SusanneHilton - along with Barry Carr,her partner and the parents ofthree of Glen’s closest friends(Claire Carlson, Julie Walker,and Jennifer Brown) have setup a trust in Glen’s name. Theaim of the Glen Corner trust isto raise enough money to setup an office and a helpline forfamilies ripped apart by mur-der or manslaughter.

Barry is a karate dan gradeand he’s started the ballrolling by arranging a semi-

nar with Iain Abernethy toraise funds for the trust. Theseminar will take place 10amto 2pm on March 31st in theOcean Road CommunityCentre, South Shields. Theseminar will cost £20 and allfunds go to the trust. Allplaces must be pre-booked.Make your cheque payableto Glen Corner Trust andmail it to 136 Weston Road,South Shields, Tyne & Wear,NE33 3PF.

Contact Barry Carr on 0191-422-9761 or 0772-574-0158 if you need more infor-mation. Even if you can’tmake the seminar, you canstill make a donation to theGlen Corner Trust throughany branch of Lloyds TBS. Justask the staff for details.

FORTY YEARS OFTHE KUGB

You can buy the KUGB’s 40thAnniversary SouvenirPublication for £6 (includingpost & packing). The publica-tion contains 68 full-colourpages and it could wellbecome a collector’s item. Itincludes profiles on Sensei’sEnoeda, Sherry and all KUGB4th dans and above. There isalso a section on the keyevents, which shaped theKUGB since it began in 1966.

Make your cheque out toKUGB and mail it to PO Box3 Wirral CH43 6UU.

SPONSORSHIPNEEDED

The good news is that ChrisTully has been selected torepresent Great Britain at theWorld University Champion-ships, which are to be held inNew York during the summer.The bad news is that he hasto pay for the trip himself!This means raising around£1,000.00. The BWKU islooking at ways to help Chrisraise money - so please con-tact them if you can offer anyhelp or suggestions!

EGKA’S 24THEURO GASSHUKU

EGKA’s 24th EuropeanGasshuku will be held inBournemouth between July21st and 28th 2007. SenseiHigaonna (9th dan) will leadthe training. He will be assist-ed by Bakkies Laubscher (8thdan) and Europe’s mostsenior instructors.

AMA SPLITSFROM MASA

The AMA has reflected on itsmembership to MASA for itscoaching and decided toadopt its own programme forcontinuing development incoaching.

EKK NEWS

Sensei Enzo reports thatAndrew Kanias has opened asister club in Wales called‘Wales Karate Kan’ whileAnthony Everitt has openedanother club in Italy named‘Italia Karate Kan’.

TWENTY YEARSOF FSKThe Federation of ShotokanKarate celebrated its 20thanniversary with a ball heldat the Rutland Square Hotel,Nottingham. FSK was formedin 1986 when Aidan Trimbleleft the SKI. Since then theFSK has been very successful,having produced many cham-pions - some even worldchampions. For a relativelysmall group FSK has won areputation for quality both instudents and instructors.Instructors and guests to theblack-tie anniversary eventincluded those who havesponsored the teams over theyears. Each received a

coloured history of the last 20years and a presentation pen.

Aidan gave a welcomingspeech during which herecalled many anecdotes fromthe past two decades. Thenhe presented FSK instructorswith crystal trophies ñ tokensof his gratitude for their helpand continued loyalty. DaveOwen (5th dan), a seniorinstructor in the FSK took themike and gave an impromptuand emotional speech inwhich he complimentedAidan for his leadership. DebBeevers and Sue Bance pre-sented Aidan with a crystalsculpture created by a localartist as a gift from the FSKinstructors.

NEWS & VIEWS


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:36 pm Page 7

RODING VICTORIES Roding Karate Club won noless than 15 medals at the 2-day Junior BritishInternational Championshipsheld at Kingston College lastJanuary. This was the highestmedal tally of any associationcompeting. Over 50 associa-tions competed, including

entries from Germany,Denmark, France andSlovakia. Roding medal win-ners were C. Wallington, J.Wood, G. Smart, B. Vargas,C. Lynn, C. Wood, R.Steadman, J. Steadman, andS. Beezley.

Find out more by e-mailing Rayat [email protected]

NEWS & VIEWS

ABERNATHY INNORTHERN IRELANDIain Abernethy taught his11th seminar for ChujoKarate Association inNorthern Ireland. Venue wasthe Seven Towers LeisureCentre in Ballymena. Iain hasbeen coming to the provincetwice each year at the invita-tion of CKA’s Chief Instructor,Dan Redmond.

The seminar attracted a goodcrowd, many of whom wereveterans of Ian’s earlier cours-es. It began after a presenta-

tion Dan made to Iain and firsttopic was an explanation ofkata and bunkai. Next Iaindiscussed the role of grapplingin self-defence. Featured tech-niques included close-rangestrikes, throws, take-downs,ground fighting, chokes andstrangles, arm bars, leg,ankle, finger and wrist locks,neck wrenches, combinationsand live grappling drills.

Iain Abernethy plans onreturning to Northern Irelandfor his next scheduled semi-nar. That’ll be on Saturday3rd November, 2007.

JOHN HALPINJohn Halpin was the profes-sional treasurer of the WKFbefore he passed away, leav-ing a gap that will be veryhard to fill.

PATRICK MCCARTHYVISITS THE UK

There are few martialartists asfar-travelled and experiencedas Patrick McCarthy hanshi.The 8th dan has taught allover the world and has stu-dents that travel hundreds (ifnot thousands) of miles just tosee him. The flow drills thatMcCarthy hanshi teaches arebased on the responses to vio-lence. The fact that they alsohappen to look exactly likethe moves from popular katashould provide enoughgrounding and familiarity totickle the fancy of all karate-ka. This year, hanshi is onceagain visiting SENI and theday after, Monday 21st ofMay, he will be teaching aseminar in Devon for JohnBurke. The subject matter willbe the usual mix of katabunkai, flow drills and histori-cal content and it will be wellworth taking the day off andtravelling to Newton Abbot tovisit and train.

The seminar is set to com-mence at 6.30pm and goeson until 9.30pm. The seminaris only £20 to readers ofCombat and TraditionalKarate but as places are limit-ed, you must book in advanceby calling 01626 360999

BUSHIDO ACADEMYCOACHING AWARDSSenior members from BushidoJudo Kwai, Seghill Judo Cluband Battle Hill Judo Clubrecently gathered at SeghillJudo Club to take part in theBushido Academy of Judo’scoaching course and examina-tion. The course began at10.00am with a 2-hour firstaid course given by theAcademy’s medical advisor.Afterwards candidates taughtpre-selected techniques tojunior pupils from Seghill JudoClub and Bushido Judo Kwai.This allowed the panel to eval-

uate their skill and ability. Afirst aid examination followed.

The panel of examiners com-prised Barry McSherry (3rddan), Sharon May (4th dan)and Chris Dawson (6th dan).Successful candidates wereJimmy West (1st dan), KrisAnderson (2nd kyu), MickClark and Kevin Corden (both1st kyu). They received theClub Coach Award. MalcolmYoung (2nd dan) earned thehighest marks possible for hiscomposition on the benefits ofjudo kata. This earned himthe Intermediate CoachAward.

A TRIBUTE TOENOEDA

In conjunction with Kamae theKUGB has produced a DVDtribute to former ChiefInstructor, the late SenseiEnoeda. The disc containsinterviews with SenseiEnoeda, Mrs. Enoeda and theKUGB’s most senior instruc-tors. It contains much previ-ously unseen footage and is amust for all students of karate.

SCHRAMM SPORTSIGNS AGREEMENTWITH WTF

The World TaekwondoFederation recently signed a5-year contract withGermany’s Schramm SportGmbH on taekwondo supportprojects. Signing took placeat the WTF headquarters inSeoul and the men puttingthe ink to the paper wereWTF President ChungwonChoue and EdmundSchramm, President ofSchramm Sport. Schramm,which produces Taekwondoand other martial arts prod-ucts under the KWON label,will support a Taekwondodemonstration by athleteswith disabilities during theopening ceremonies of theWTF-promoted WorldTaekwondo Championshipsin 2007, 2009 and 2011.Over the next 5 years theGerman company will alsosupport Taekwondo practi-tioners with disabilities eitherthrough cash or in kind.

The agreement also requiresSchramm to provide financialand in-kind assistance tocountries where Taekwondo isnot well established.According to the contract,over 50 percent of Schramm’stotal support in this categorywill go to Africa.

Schramm will also pay theWTF 15% of its turnover ofWTF items such as shirts,hoodies, tracksuits and bags.But it doesn’t go all one way!The WTF, in turn, grantedSchramm the right to use thetitle of ‘official sponsor’ inconnection with the twoabove-mentioned projects.Schramm is also entitled touse the WTF official logo inits public relations and adver-tising purposes.

“The signing is sure to helpour efforts to includeTaekwondo into the officialprogram of the ParalympicGames and to contribute tofurther globalisation of taek-wondo,” said WTF PresidentChoue.

ON YER BIKE!

Aidan Trimble (7th dan) hasopened the new FSK Honbudojo in Nottingham. TheVenue is the former HumberWorks - a large factory builtduring the late 1800’s andfamous for making Humberbikes. The floor space hasbeen extensively re-habbedwith a new lounge, changingfacilities, a large mattedarea, air-conditioned halland reception. The dojo hasmirrors down one side of thehall and makiwara on theother. You can watch trainingfrom the lounge area thanksto cameras in the dojo.

IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING WE DON’TTHEN WRITE OR FAX IT TO US AT:

135 ALDRIDGE ROAD, PERRY BARR,BIRMINGHAM, B42 2ET. FAX: 0121

356 7300 E-MAIL: [email protected]


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:36 pm Page 9

With a bold Karate Heart, Brian Philcox is a no nonsense sort ofcharacter. Maintaining his beliefs that one day Karate will be includ-ed into the Olympic program of events, is most important to him,and his quest towards attaining that goal is always evident. Brianwas raised in Toxteth, Liverpool in his pre teen days, and moved toSpeke when he reached 12 yrs old. Streetwise from a very youngage, thanks to the friendship he struck up with people such as AndyPalmer, John Lalley, and other able bodied street fighters, his abilityto fight was a necessity in order to survive a rough childhood.

Ask about his approach to life and the changes he went through,he will give it to you straight. He certainly pulls no punches, thoughhe has the respect of many of this Country’s leading Karateka, andon a global capacity for his honest beliefs. Brian has also under-gone strict vetting procedures via enhanced CRB checking on atleast 2 occasions, the most recent being December 2006. He hasalso been subject to an Anti Terrorist Check due to his work in theAviation industry and knows his responsibility is one of NationalSecurity. This is his story about the recent happenings surroundingKarate England, and the problem area’s which he feels let downthe then Executive Officers of the Governing Body.

When did you begin your involvement with the unifica-tion process?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Some seven years ago now, and as FEKOChairman, I was one of the individuals who were invited to attend

a meeting at Sport England’s request in London. With me, repre-senting FEKO was our Hon Secretary, Alan Carruthers. We wererequested to attend discussions relating to forming a commonalliance where child protection policies were concerned. At thattime almost everyone was of a like mind apart from a few whohad written various policies, and were adamant that they weren’tprepared to have their work doctored after their years of hardwork in the compilation of these various manuscripts.

Seven years is a long time. In your opinion did KarateEngland solve the problem?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I’d like to think that the inception of KarateEngland was a smooth transition, but it wasn’t. For those Sevenyears there was constant wrangling between the various partiesinvolved, and being verbally abused from certain self- righteouspeople of the EKGB, made the position really difficult.

Can you expand upon that?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Well yes, of course. I was on the then EKGBExecutive and I, along with Mick Dewey the Chairman of theTechnical Committee, was given the mandate to attend discussionswith ETKB and NAKMAS in relation to establishing their require-ments in order to define what would attract them into becoming apart of the then Governing Body. After many hours of meetings, itwas agreed that the only thing that was preventing everyone unit-ing under one banner, was the voting structure. We returned to anEKGB Council meeting with the information to hand, and weretold by certain other Executive members (who I believe had per-sonal or paid interests in the EKGB) that the one person one votestructure would never be adopted. In fact as I recall, we were shellshocked to be treated in the way we were. I truly believe that afterhaving so much ado from the EKGB, and threats of libel that SportEngland had just about had enough and called for unification orelse Lottery Funding would be withdrawn from Karate.

Was there any “Bad Blood” still evident at the inau-gural meeting of Karate England?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Absolutely! I believe that after the Softly Softlyapproach by certain ‘Case Officers of Sport England’, there was abreakthrough only when Jeff Stimpson came along. He was strongand efficient, and had an uncanny ability to see from all 3 per-spectives. On many occasions, he would spend hours drafting updocumentation in order for the process to move forward, only tobe told by the EKGB Executive that they were unable to vote onthe issues due to having a different representative with them oneach occasion. Very convenient if you ask me! After Jeff wasrelieved from his position as liaison officer for Sport England,came the turn of Nick Halafihi. I thought after meeting Nick forthe first time, that he was a very strong communicator, and sovery well suited to bring an end to the nonsense which was evi-dentially preventing us from moving forward.


By Paul S Clifton

His Report on Karate Englandbrian phil c

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:36 pm Page 10


l coxCOVER STORY / BRIAN PHILCOX

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:36 pm Page 11

How did you rate Nick as the CEO for Karate England?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I’ll make no secret of it Paul. Straight after theMeeting of the 7th November 2006, I was concerned at his abilityto manipulate people. Alarm bells were going off in my mind atevery turn! I felt that his ability to get things done prior to theinception of the new Governing Body was remarkable, though ifhe were to apply for the position of CEO, I knew we would beheading for trouble. The first thing which alerted me was hismobile phone number which contained all the 8’s, and paid forout of our lottery award. Following on from there, I believe heduped the more trusting executive members into not seeking afinancial director for K.E., and in an effort to save money, he toldthem he was willing to take on the role himself. When this wasagreed, he promptly made a request for an additional £15k to beadded to his annual salary.

When I was told of this, (and I’m sure you can imagine) I wentballistic to say the least. None the less, I was calmed by the otherexecutive officers who explained that by doing this they had infact saved some £30k from the wage bill. Nick also requested thathis 3 year car allowance of £5000 per annum be paid up front soas he could buy himself a decent vehicle seeing that he would bespending so much time commuting up and down the Country. Heinformed the Exec that we had to spend money, and this would infact save money from the future resources from lottery funding.Effectively, he was given a cheque for £14,100 to allow his partexchange to be actioned.

As well as his garage conversion for £5,000, among other things,

the exhaustive list of his wants concerned me so much that inDecember 2006, I requested the remit from the executive to reviewhis Contract of Employment in an effort to tighten up and clarifythe duties and entitlements of the CEO with legal help. The bill forthis was in excess of some £3,000, but as far as I am aware, Iwould say it was money well spent. Else we could have been in aneven serious mess if you ask me. Nick was objectionable to virtu-ally every change and I have the emails from him to prove it!

I now resent his occupancy of the C.E.O. position, and feel that hehas been the cause of so much distrust from the membership. Nicktold the Board on several occasions that we knew nothing aboutCorporate Governance, and that he basically had Carte Blancheto run it as he saw fit, along with Philip Don the former case offi-cer with Sport England.

Did you state your future concerns to the K.E. Executive?

BRIAN PHILCOX: You have to realise Paul, that here was I sur-rounded by individuals who were deemed to be stalwarts of theKarate fraternity, so who was I to speak out against their deci-sions, but yes, I did. Immediately I was subject to criticism by virtu-ally everyone for requesting we monitor the CEO in his financialcapability. It hurt like hell to disagree, but I was genuinely worriedthat K.E. was going to be short lived. However, later in that samemeeting and under Any Other Business, the CEO tabled a requestfor over £100k for a video analysis system with ongoing costs ofsome £9k per annum. I questioned whether it formed part of theWhole Sport Plan, to which the other Vice President, Peter Allen,said it did. To be specific about this, Nick wanted clearance to


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:36 pm Page 12

purchase the equipment the following Monday, but never got it.This didn’t dissuade him from trying though, as at the next meet-ing he invited two of the “consultants” from Bath to do a presenta-tion on the subject matter. Later we were to discover that the twoGents in question were also involved with Nick in his rugby cir-cles. Draw your own conclusions here, but I thought back then thatsomething wasn’t right. Further to this, and after reviewing theWSP, I found that there was no provision made for the Equipmentat all. When I relayed this information back to the other VicePresident, he just replied, “Oh, I thought it was!”

Was there ever a split in the Executive?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I suppose that the rifts started to appear afterthe first few meetings. Saying that, of course there were disagree-ments, as you would expect there to be when certain individualshave a vested interest in their business enterprise, or other ulteriormotives. Take for instance the other vice president. I was alwayssurprised at his constant refusal to back up the President, whichnearly always seemed to be the case. Why he ever accompaniedme to Finland at the European Championships last year I’ll neverknow. However, I do know one thing that’s for sure, and that waswhen he asked Leon Walters to pose with the proprietor at a GiSuppliers Stall for a photograph with one of their Gi’s on, he toldhim it was to be inserted into the new Karateka Magazine. Ithought then “Wait a minute”, why not in his own Gi? When wecame back to England, I found an email requesting that I sendhim a copy of the photos, but after previously speaking to bothLeon, and Joe Long, decided not to for obvious reasons. I guessthis got up his nose to say the least.

Who did you find friendship with in Karate England?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Of course, I supported the President, as a VicePresident should. In Joe I saw raw honesty, and his driving forceas far as I am concerned was unequalled. We became friendsduring those early meetings, and I did warn him that he would betaking over a “wild animal” should he be elected into the presi-dency of Karate England. I knew that there would be oppositionfrom the old guard of the EKGB, and so stood by him. In fact Isupported him absolutely. He worked relentlessly some 30 - 40hours a week, and for what? Is this the thanks he gets? Shame onthose who contributed to bringing him down!

Joe was summoned by the WKF President and EKF President toattend the World Championships in Serbia last year, and I believethat whilst he was at that meeting, he was put on a spot, wherethe request that they made to him was that FEKO along with twoother groups that were in membership of Karate England at thattime, should be made to pull out of the WKC or else K.E. wouldnot be allowed into membership. I was in attendance at a FEKOExecutive meeting at the time where I received a call from Joeinforming me of this request and that we had only 24hrs to com-ply with it. Needless to say, after discussion with our other FEKOofficers, we agreed to comply. We did not want to be the cause ofany problems which ensued, and which could have affected ourathletes out there, even though we never had anybody from FEKOparticipating on our behalf.

Joe was under a lot of pressure from the EKF President I believeand we were informed that he made 3 further requests during thatvisit. The first was that K.E. was to sack Nick Halafihi, which atthat time I felt would have been just, though I thought it was noton for them to be telling us how to run K.E. The second was thatFive of the K.E. Executive be removed from office, namely VicCharles, Andy Sherry, Bob Poynton, Leo Lipinski and myself.Thirdly that Mike Dinsdale be elected into an Executive Positiononto the board of K.E. I was horrified to say the least. I supposethat most of the time we were fighting matters relating to becom-ing members of the WKF, we had our guard down on the home

front. Incidentally, the above issues were reinforced when MrDinsdale attended an Executive Meeting in Bisham, and becamequite abusive and threatening when he realised that we were notgoing to grant him the wishes of the WKF whether he was theirTreasurer or not.

Who did you / do you hold the most respect for on theBoard of K.E.?

BRIAN PHILCOX: At a recent meeting in Loughborough, a certainlady spoke out about Bob Poynton in his absence. She stated thatshe wouldn’t trust Bob as far as she could throw him. This angeredme immensely, as I feel that Bob certainly doesn’t deserve it. Ithink that at this point I would like the readers to take stock of the


COVER STORY / BRIAN PHILCOX

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:36 pm Page 13

situation I am about to describe. Bob has never taken a pennyfrom Karate England by way of expenses or anything else, and Idon’t believe he ever would’ve done, given the current state ofaffairs. I do know however that he has personally contributedsomewhere in the region of £8k out of his own pocket, as well asdoing the Company Secretary’s job to boot. Bob has always beena major contributor to charitable causes also. He even went out ofhis way to bring back a young Romanian child who was in a des-perate situation, and paid for her hospitalisation in order for herto survive. Does that sound like the actions of an untrustworthyperson? I know that Bob can be quite a strong character at times,but then it his passion for Karate which makes him that way. Giveme someone strong with the ability to lead in an unselfish manner,here you have my nominee.

I suppose I could say the same about likeminded individuals such asAndy Sherry, Leo Lipinski, and Mick Dewey who are staunch tradi-tionalists with so much passion. Ticky Donovan, Wayne Otto, andVic Charles for their experiences in World events, and also theirproven abilities to work as ambassadors for this Country. Eventhough I don’t necessarily see eye to eye with Abdu Shaher, I feelthe amount of work he has also put into KE, should be recognised.

When did you take over the role of C.E.O. from Nick?

BRIAN PHILCOX: To be honest with you, I never took over his role.The Board proposed that I assume a role to investigate certainirregularities, and since part of this role was to include the subjectmatter surrounding attempts to go against board policies for themaintenance and growth of our Member Associations, I wasassigned to correct these issues. It was only that I had done somuch work in keeping my finger on the pulse, and when Nick had

tendered his resignation to the Board of Directors on the 7th July2006, it left a void where the Board deemed me a suitable candi-date to take on his role also. This was a new position of ChiefExecutive Director, where I had to relinquish my position as VicePresident on the same day. Nick actually had the plan drawn upalready, according to the Deloitte Report, and presented it to themeeting prior to his leaving.

After my appointment on the 7th July 2006, I spent over 18 hrs aday including weekends, trying to make some sense of the mattersat hand. My first assignment was to clear the mess, which was leftbehind by the former Director who was responsible for deliveringthe Sport England “Clubmark” to the member associations. I dis-covered that we had spent Thousands of pounds in the creation ofa leaflet, which was destined for distribution to all clubs through-out Karate England. When I realised the content, I immediatelytelephoned the Company Secretary, and we had a meeting thefollowing day to look at the consequences of delivering the docu-ment in its present format. After discussing things in what wasclearly a stressful occasion for Bob, I decided that there was noother course for the leaflets than for them to be destroyed.

Why was this a stressful situation for Bob?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I don’t wish to go into Bob’s personal familymatters but his family were in mourning for his young nephew“James”. Bob was struck hard, James was only 12 yrs old whenhe collapsed while out walking with his father, “Jim Poynton”, thatsame week. Bob was in pieces, and also had to endure furtherproblems as his Mother having been in ill health, also passedaway toward the end of last year.

Why did you have to destroy the leaflets?

BRIAN PHILCOX: The consequences threatened the livelihood ofevery Chief Instructor who had built up any form of structure byway of their Associations. This threatened their very core in a bidto take every Karate Club from their Association directly into thenew envisaged “Super Association”. Thus being formulatedagainst the wishes of the Management Board of K.E. To be frank, Ilooked deeply into the consequences of a Karate Mark being pre-sented by K.E. and proposed that a better way to move this wouldbe via Associations who had been qualified to deliver the systemto their own Club memberships.

On my visit to Bisham Abbey on the Tuesday following our meet-ing of the 7th of July, I pointed out certain impurities in thestances, which were portrayed on the leaflet, and after debatingthe situation at length with Asterios Grekos, it was agreed that thewhole document should be both re-written and re-presented.However, when I realised that this would in fact cost us in theregion of £9,000 to replace, I realised this was not economic andcalled a halt to the situation until I was able to seek further advicefrom the Chairman, and Company Secretary. Quite a few otherissues turned up in the meantime which needed my urgent atten-tion. At times it seemed like I had taken hold of a runaway train,where I had to be quick and decisive in my actions.

At what point where you aware that K.E. had financialdifficulties?

BRIAN PHILCOX: After discussing various issues with Joe Ellis, andBob Poynton, surrounding my remit, I assumed a role in which, Iwas assured in Liverpool, that Karate England was viable. Thefinancial situation was verified by our new Finance Director, andall of the documentation, as it was presented, looked concise. At alater meeting in Bisham Abbey, I noticed the discomfort of TimShaw, who upon realising that Nick had left K.E. made it knownthat he was having second thoughts in remaining the FinanceDirector. I requested he stay to see it through and help me to inves-


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 14

tigate certain irregularities which had appeared whilst I was in theoffice at Bisham. Factually, I had to implore Tim to stay on andhelp me to see things through. He explained that he had not visiblyvetted the actual bookwork for K.E. and had been given a budgetforecast by Nick, which he would be able to present to the Board.He agreed to stay when I told him I had given everything up totake on the role of C.E.D. based on this report which he had pre-sented to our last meeting in the Cavern Suite, Liverpool Airport.

Tim was seemingly becoming more concerned with the financialoutlook, and informed me that he was having problems reconcil-ing the finances onto the sage accounts system. He requested meto notice that he was only employed for 3 days a month at“£700” per day (!) and that he only had half a day left for July inwhich to try and get anything done.

In that same week, I was working with Bob at his home when Joesent through an e-mail relating to a compromise agreement,which he had received from Collyer Bristow Solicitors on behalf ofNick Halafihi. I questioned the validity of the agreement, andquestioned Nick Halafihi directly at a further meeting at HartsHead Moor Services the following week. He informed me that itwas not a compromise agreement, but a severance agreement. Hewas requesting payment for 3 months salary in lieu, and for K.E.to drop any claim for the car allowance he obtained upfront.Without going into detail on this issue, I distinctly remember thatthere was no mention of any such agreement being agreed at thesame meeting where Nick issued his resignation, and I questionthe ethics of his actions.

At a later rendezvous with Nick in York railway Station with

Victoria Pace in attendance, Nick introduced me as the new ChiefExecutive for Karate England, and I felt that I had got off to a goodstart, being that I was able to communicate with her in an analyti-cal way with regards to my concerns relating to the Whole SportPlan. Nick at this time claimed that the W.S.P. was never written forKarate England, as it was ported across and previously written forthe EKGB. I noticed a vexation in Victoria’s approach from thatpoint, and realised that something was wrong. It was at this pointthat I was informed that I was to be afforded the help of PaulineHarrison, the former C.E.O. for Netball, whose expenses would bepaid for by Sport England. I can only assume that this was origi-nally planned as a guide for Nick, and maybe Sport Englandrealised that he needed help, or had difficulty in his function.

Further to this meeting, I reconciled the amounts (which I foundKarate England had outstanding) and discovered that initially wewere sold the Whole Sport Plan, even though Nick had identifiedthis as being written for the EKGB. Since the inauguration, K.E.had been collecting £1 per member for the privilege of belongingto the Gov Body. However, the criteria for receiving funding fromSport England, is that they would match any revenue raised by 2/ 1. In other words, we should have only been awarded, underthe present system of analysis, a figure more relative to £200k perannum, and not as we were led to believe £500k. Is it any won-der Sport England thought there was fraudulent activity going on?I just wonder if there has been a different agenda here, whichneeds to be identified. The question we must be asking of SportEngland is why were we afforded such an extravagant amount ofLottery Funding? I really don’t see how they can justify suspendingLottery Money, when it seems that they have been responsiblefrom the outset.



001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 15

I think we need to be directing questions elsewhere, and not to theK.E. Executive in determining our answers.

To whom then?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Sport England of course! Even if we did re writethe Whole Sport Plan, we will still need to get out of the quagmirethat we have been placed in, and find at least £250k to even startto consider our options. As the C.E.D. for K.E. I raised my con-cerns to the Executive accordingly, as we firmly believed that wewere financially stable when I took on the role, but I had to talkmyself into redundancy, even so, I have still not been paid anywages or expenses to date apart from my July salary, the same asthe rest of the staff.

I remember talking with Terry Wingrove, who I believetried to help save KE and he informed me that he hadseveral people who collectively offered more than£1,000,000 in order to establish a Governing body, Didany one come forward to help Karate England?

BRIAN PHILCOX: As far as I am aware, Terry tried his best andmanaged to sponsor the Squad for a trip out to the WorldChampionships at the end of last year. I believe that he paidsomewhere in the region of £20k. Further to this, at the recentEGM, which was forced on us last year, Terry proposed to try andhelp K.E. by way of a further donation of £150,000. This hedescribed as being “ring fenced” away from the existing debts ofKarate England, and was subject to Sport England committingthemselves matching this amount like for like. As far as I amaware, there has been no mention of £1,000,000 in any sponsor

or likewise. However, Terry telephoned me to ask me if I knew ofany outstanding Inland Revenue claim against K.E, to which Iinformed him that there was some £35,000 outstanding in unpaidPAYE alone. This verified information that he had already receivedfrom the I.R. and so he decided to withdraw his pledge.

Who brought Nick Halafihi into KE and what part didhe play in establishing the New Governing Body?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Sport England employed Nick on a consultan-cy basis. He set up the New Governing Body himself, and alongwith Philip Don the former case officer from Sport England, setup the offices at Bisham Abbey without proper consultation. Youmust remember that there was no Board of K.E. prior to this set-ting up procedure.

What is needed in order for Sport England to resumeits support for KE?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Joe Ellis and I were requested to attend a meet-ing with Sport England to identify six points on an agenda theyput to us before they could resume funding. At this meeting, oneof the points outlined is that we had to conduct an investigationinto an allegation of fraud. Sport England’s top- level representa-tives were there and we were accompanied by a representativefrom Collyer Bristow Solicitors. As far as I am aware, they wererequesting that the police be called in when finances were identi-fied, as until that time they would be unable to invest further pub-lic money into the Governing Body unless the matter had beenresolved. Prior to the meeting, the solicitors informed Joe andmyself that they had in fact written the Memorandum and Articles


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 16

of Association wrong and would be rewriting them free of charge.They also informed us that we were to refrain from sending outinformation about this too early, as it could cause further problemswith the membership that they hadn’t foreseen.

What would you like to see happen now?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I would like people to realise that though wereally tried our best, (Well some of us did!) that we all need tocome together in our common beliefs for the good of Karate.This constant attacking between individuals who have the samegoals in causing disruption needs to stop. Its so easy to blamesomeone else, but if the same people could look in the mirrorand say that they had never placed absolute trust in someone,had they themselves never done any wrong to anyone, thenaccept that we all make mistakes, then we are halfway there.You know how much I have done for Charitable causes Paul, butwhen I get messages on my mobile from certain people such asthe other former vice president which are condescending e.g.“Brian, you are the partner in crime, you and Joe had yourchance, you need to step down!”, it sickens me to think there arepeople out there like that who call themselves Karateka. This andother text messages have been authenticated and logged forfuture reference, should I decide to take legal proceedings fordefamation of character.

How much money came into KE in licence money ?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I am not entirely sure on this Paul, but of thesupposed £130,000 income expected from the membership, I canonly approximate that K.E. was in receipt of somewhere between£50k to £75k, if that.

Do you actively participate in any other Associations?

BRIAN PHILCOX: I have my own small Association called “TerakaKarate Dantai”, which is quite happy to hold membership withinFEKO whether I am its Chairman or not. Of course, I am its ChiefInstructor, but with people like Fred Fawcett 6th Dan, and AndyCusic 5th Dan sharing similar beliefs, I am happy in my efforts,and also that we have a good working relationship between us.We’re purists in Shotokan, but believe that other styles can becomplimentary to our freestyle training methods, as well as otherthings. Meanwhile FEKO consists of some 76 memberAssociations who are all pulling in the same direction, and infriendship with each other. Okay, we may have a couple of prob-lems now and then, but will always be acting in the best interestsof our members.

Incidentally Paul, and to let you have a historical insight, It was Iwho suggested all 3 Bodies (EKGB, ETKB, and NAKMAS) haveequal rights initially at the earliest meetings with Sport England. (Itook a photo of the whiteboard!) and that they should all form anew body called Karate England in a similar capacity to that ofthe Government. However, the EKGB Executive refused to godown that route, as it insisted that it should be called the ‘EKGB2’. There were such farces Paul, believe me. Needless to say, ifthis route would have been adopted, then we could have set upKarate to be governed by all 3 larger groups, which I believecould have been successful. Instead, the members representing theEKGB who had smallholdings resented the fact that the powerwould be taken away from them. Too many megalomaniacs outthere Paul, which led to the ultimate Gigamaniac coming along inthe guise of Nick Halafihi. In my view, I never wished to see thedemise of the EKGB and neither did NAKMAS or the ETKB. Drawyour own conclusions here, but if they would have heeded mysuggestion, I feel that the Karate scene would have been sortedlong ago and we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now.

Why did/do you do so much for karate ?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Hey Paul, it’s not what I did, but what I still do.To me it is a way of life. For me, a religion, pastime, a necessity.Do you know what I mean?

Why do you look after your Kids and Family? If you can answerthe same question, then you have the answer Paul. I think it’s allabout love, respect, honour, and the like. Do you get paid forlooking after your kids? Would you give them up for a Million?There you have it Paul, Neither would I!

If you could have one wish, what would it be for thefuture of karate in this country?

BRIAN PHILCOX: Can I have two? Contrary to the beliefs of GavinMulholland who had a piece in the TRAD Editorial of the Februaryissue, firstly, I would wish for an eventual Unified Body who arenot control freaks made up from people in the Karate Fraternitywho are just out to seek Kudos for themselves. In this we couldmove forward and determine safe practise for the youngsters oftoday at grass roots level. They are after all, our entire future her-itage should we ever achieve our Olympic Dreams. Secondly, weagree to agree in adopting future policies surrounding coachingand safe practise in an effort to discourage fragmentation andmaintain that we have Karate Instructors in this country who arelikeminded individuals who cater for their own individual styles,and associations.

Any Clubs out there who wish to have more information on join-ing Teraka can email Brian on [email protected] or if you havean association of your own who wishes to join FEKO direct con-tact the FEKO Hon Secretary [email protected] they would certain-ly look forward to hearing from you. No Politics, just Karate!



001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 17

Often banded around oriental martial arts is the conceptof mystical philosophy. In the west, many TV viewerswere captivated by the 1970’s series “Kung-fu”, were Kwai

chang Cain was lectured by Master Po on the principles of enlighten-ment, doctrines and the harmonies of life. Philosophical works havebeen carried out by many Chinese sages including K’ung Fu Tse(Confucius), Mencius, Lao Tzu, Chang Tzu and Guigu Tzu. But weare not limited by eastern philosophy; the ancient Greek and Romancivilisation had many philosophers in their midst, among themHippocrates, Theophrastos, Plato, Epicurus, Socrates, MarcusAurerlius and Virgil to name but a few. Relatively modern philoso-phers include Machiavelli (1469-1527), Nietzche (1844-1900),Descartes (1596-1650), Hegel (1770-1831), Leibnez (1646-1677),Spinoza (1632-1677), Berkeley (1685-1753) and Reid (1710-1796).

So what is philosophy? Well in my Thesaurus the words beliefs,viewpoint, thinking, values, attitude, ideas, and way of life are men-tioned. Over the years I have collected and documented notes andphrases I have found interesting or inspiring. Below I have listed afew from my records. Whenever I could I have noted the author, andin some cases I have added a personal analogy of my interpretation.Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.No one can be happy without a friend, nor be sure of them till theyare unhappy.

“You cannot teach an old dog new tricks”. What this means to mar-tial arts are the practitioners who are “set in their ways”. They can-not/will not change the way they have trained over x number ofyears. How can they progress? Without constantly improving(changing) their martial art, their martial art will stagnate.

“Speak of the modern without contempt and the ancients withoutidolatry; judge them by their merits, but not by their age.”

- Lord Chesterfield

“That, which does not kill you, makes you stronger”. - Nietzche

Mastering mere technique without theory, you will end up merely asimple recorder.

People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.

A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.

If every man would help his neighbour, no man would be without help.

If you want to do your duty properly, you should do just a little morethan that.

You can acquire a lot in life, if you are prepared to give up a lot toget it.

A man is born to achieve great things, if he has the strength to con-quer himself.

A goal is not always meant to be attained; it often serves simply assomething to aim at.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

He who wants to succeed should learn how to fight, strive and suffer.

If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.

Self-education makes great men

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit to them.

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made of.

Someone who wastes your time is stealing your life, for time is lifeand life is time.

When the World is at peace, a gentleman keeps his sword by his side. - Wu Tsu

A man can only be as good an instructor as he is a student. If hedenies himself further knowledge and endeavour, his way will be lostand he returns to the lower levels of student-hood.

The iron-ore thinks itself senselessly tortured in the blast furnace, butthe tempered-steel blade looks back and knows better. -Tibetan proverb.The process of Martial art training is often difficult to endure, but oneshould realise they are undergoing an apprenticeship. So if a studentthinks that they are suffering during training, they should realise thattheir Sensei has probably suffered also, if not more so.

“Judo is the way to the most effective use of both physical and spiri-tual strength. By training you in attack and defences, it refines thebody and your soul and helps you make the spiritual essence of Judoa part of your very being. In this way you are able to perfect your-self and contribute something of value to the world. This is the finalgoal of Judo.” - Jigaro Kano. This should apply to all Martial Arts.

The ways of the gentleman are three. In humanity he has no anxi-eties, in wisdom he has no confusion and in courage he has no fears.

- Confucius.

“Karate is based on attempts to avoid all trouble, so as not to be hitby others and not to hit others.”

“Harmoniously avoid trouble, and abhor violence. Otherwise youwill lose trust and will perish.”

In Dojo practice, the student you are partnering is lending/trustingyou with their body to help you improve your skills. This is a con-siderable privilege, and should never be exploited in either frustrationor anger, and especially never to bolster your ego.

“The greatest masters are also Students!”

Are there any secrets to Karate?“I’ve been trying to find those secrets all my life. Sometimes I’ve felt

Tools ofThe TradeWith Albie O’Connor

Wise Words

The Thinker


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 20

that I’ve had a glimpse, but then I’m in the dark again. Perhaps thesecret lies in the search itself, that to reach for the unobtainable isthe secret. Maybe that’s a kind of enlightenment. But I still want toprogress. I’m still struggling to the top of a high mountain.”

-Hidenori Otsuka 10th. Dan Wado ryu

Karate is a strive for perfection. What is perfection? Who knows?To strive, endeavour or work hard at is possibly a start towards per-fection. Now and then something “clicks”, comes together but does-n’t seem to be consistent. Try harder!

“The gentleman seeks things in himself; the inferior man seeks thingsin others.” Analects. Get the most from yourself. Don’t be content toadmire others for their abilities, obtain your own abilities to yourmaximum potential.

If one will fix his heart in such a way and assist the world and its’people, he will have the devotion of the men who see and hear him.By being kind and helpful to others one will gain respect.

Perfection should be tempered with humility. “Meng Chih-fan wasnot boastful. In a retreat, he took up the rear position. As he wasabout to enter the gate, he whipped his horse and said, “It’s not that Idared to be last, the horse just wouldn’t go.

Be subtle and play down your brave or good deeds, being careful notto be over-modest. Compliments sound so much better coming fromother mouths rather than your own.

It is the nature of this world we live in that, of our desires, not oneout of ten comes out the way we would like. - The Chikubasho.

“Just as water will conform to the shape of the vessel that containsit, so will a man follow the good and evil of his companions.”- Imagawa Ryoshun.

As hard as we try not to, others influence us, choose your companycarefully.

The optimist creedTo be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimismcome true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expectonly the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are aboutyour own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achieve-ments of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every livingcreature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you haveno time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, andtoo happy to permit the strong for fear, and too happy to permit thepresence of trouble.

Children learn what they liveIf a child lives with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility, they learn to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule, they learn to be shy.

If a child lives with shame, they learn to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance, they learn to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement, they learn confidence.

If a child lives with praise, they learn justice.

If a child lives with security, they learn to have faith.

If a child lives with approval, they learn to like themselves.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, they learn to find lovein the world.

Shaolin principleLearn the ways to preserve, rather than destroy

Avoid rather than check, check rather than hurt

Hurt rather than maim, maim rather then kill

For all life is precious, nor can any be replaced.

“The ability to survive is the most important, a valuable thing youcan give to somebody”. - Anon. This is what Instructors should giveto students.

“Seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions”.(Chinese proverb)

I liken the learning process of Martial Arts to the learning process ofswimming. By all means strive to improve your technique, for thiswill improve your Martial art or swimming, but in the meantime youhave to avoid “drowning” in both.

That is when you have to defend yourself, technical correctness helpsa great deal, but the correct attitude is far more important. Such as: -Determination, spirit, will-power or guts, call it what you will, if youhave not trained your mind to be strong as well as your strength andskills, the outcome of a confrontation may not turn out the way youwould wish.

If you are interested in philosophy, there is a whole heap of informa-tion on web sites and books. And to finish with one of my favourites“Do not take my politeness for weakness”.

Many thanks to Andy “The Thinker” Butler

For further information on Karate, Kobudo seminars please write toSKK/IOKA, 33 St. James Ave. West Stanford le Hope, Essex, SS177BB. Phone 01375 640609. Email [email protected] www.sessenryukarate.co.uk

REGULAR COLUMN / ALBIE O’CONNOR

Shaolin Monks arefamed for their wisdom


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 21

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This is the tenth of several articles exploring the hiddenmeaning of karate kata. This material is an excerpt of varioussections from the book The Way of Kata: A Comprehensive

Guide to Deciphering Martial Applications by Lawrence Kane and KrisWilder. The purpose of these articles is to unveil some of the methodsof analysing and understanding kata applications to make them relevantand meaningful for modern karateka-both in self-defense and in tourna-ment conditions.

Principles deciphering kataIn previous articles we briefly discussed the first six of the 12 rules ofkaisai no genri, the theory of uncovering hidden techniques in kata, andhave now shifted our focus to some of the principles that form thephilosophical context within which valid kata applications can be iden-tified. These principles apply to most any martial art form that useskata, particularly striking arts such as karate. These principles differfrom the rules previously discussed in that they apply broadly to alltechniques rather than to deciphering an individual kata movement.

To put it another way, the aforementioned rules are tactical in nature,deciphering practical applications from the specific movements of anyparticular kata. The principles we’ll delve into now, on the other hand,form a strategic context within which practitioners can identify whattypes of applications work and thus weed out invalid interpretations ofbunkai (fighting applications) from any kata. In order to make full usethe rules, one must understand the principles, the foundation uponwhich they are built. This article covers the fifth of 15 principles.

Principle 5 - Work with the adrenaline rush, not against it“As someone who has worked with thousands of soldiers, I venture tosay I am the only man on earth who was given a paratroop brigade totrain single-handedly. I have come to the firm conclusion that a rule Ilive by called the principle of uniformity is valid and critical for sur-vival in conflict. I am convinced it can only help you under the stress ofconflict; it certainly cannot get you killed. The principle of uniformityis actually only a practical off-shoot of the time-honoured concept that,‘what you train is what you do under stress.’ Under stress, we tend todo what we have been trained to do.”

- Eugene Sockut

Once a confrontation escalates into combat, adrenaline rushes throughyour system. This dramatically increases your pain tolerance and helpsyou survive in fighting mode. This “fight or flight” reaction instantlysupercharges your body for a short period of time, increasing pulse rateand blood pressure, while making you faster, meaner, and more imper-vious to pain than ever before. On the upside, embracing your fear in afight can help you survive, channelling your adrenaline rush into pro-ductive energy.

On the downside, the adrenaline rush severely limits your fine motorskills and higher thought processes. It also supercharges your opponentwho will have an equal adrenaline rush! The techniques you employ inreal combat, therefore, must be straightforward and simple to execute-requiring neither fine co-ordination nor complicated thought. They alsomust cause incapacitating physiological damage to stop a determinedaggressor who is hyped up on the natural stimulant of adrenaline.Proper techniques must take advantage of natural physiological reac-tions such as the flinch. Imagine a time when you were driving downthe highway and a rock hit your windshield, or, if you do not drive, atime when a hornet buzzed past your ear. That natural flinch reaction

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 22

sends your hands racing toward the threat while your body tries to getsmaller or get out of the way. As we have previously noted: hands rise,body drops.

This natural response is triggered in the lowest level of the brain. Theprimitive “lizard brain,” or (to be more scientific-like) the archipallium,is the centre of self-preservation and aggression. When a person feelsthreatened, the archipallium takes over. If it could talk, the lizard brainwould articulate its function with this simple statement: “Stay out ofthe way, I’ll handle this!” At this point you become a non-thinking rep-tile. You no longer think; you simply act.

While the ancient masters may not have understood brain chemistry aswell as scientists do today, they were certainly very familiar with theeffects of adrenaline. None of their kata had applications that relied onfine motor skills to work properly. Further, they trained realistically andrepeatedly such that high-level cognition was no longer necessary. Theyreacted instinctively, utilising pre-programmed techniques in a strategicand systematic manner.

For example, as most practitioners know, there are a lot of grabs andpulls in karate kata. Most do not require (nor do they show) wrappingthe practitioner’s thumb around an opponent’s limb as a conventionalgrip might imply. Not only can it be difficult to get a solid grip in theheat of battle that way, but your fingers may not find adequate purchaseon a fast moving, sweaty or bloody limb. Latching on high up on thearm (toward the elbow) then sliding your hand forcefully along it towardthe opponent’s wrist while progressively tightening your hold is a rea-sonably good way to secure a grip. Even so, it does not always work.

Rather than grabbing with the fingers,we often use a hooking techniquewith the whole hand or execute asimilar pressing technique withthe palm. Either way this con-trols the opponent throughdownward pressure calledmuchimi or “sticky” hands.By pressing against anattacker’s limb andsimultaneously drop-ping your bodyweight, you candrive an oppo-nent toward

the ground whether or not you wrap your fingers around his or her arm.This type of pull is generally much more effective than a traditionalgrabbing technique that requires a successful wrap with your thumb.

Applications like muchimi work with the adrenaline rush, enhancing itsbenefits and minimising its detractors. Trying to grab an opponent’s lit-tle finger to perform a lock in the heat of battle, on the other hand,would be just plain silly. Simple, straightforward techniques that can beexecuted using gross motor movements with minimal thought are ideal.A great example would be cutting down a punch with muchimi to tem-porarily post an opponent’s weight while simultaneously blowing outhis or her knee with a joint kick. Shift/block/strike/incapacitate-it reallyis as simple as that.

About the authorsLawrence Kane is the author of Martial Arts Instruction (2004) andSurviving Armed Assaults (September, 2006). Kris Wilder is the authorof Lessons from the Dojo Floor (2003). The two collaborated on TheWay of Kata (2005), the book from which this information was sum-marised. If you’d like to obtain a copyof The Way of Kata book the easiestway is to order it fromAmazon.uk. Lawrence can becontacted via e-mail [email protected]. Kriscan be contacted via e-mail [email protected].

REGULAR COLUMN / THE WAY OF KATA


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 23

Unless I have made a tremendous mistake in my use ofMail, this article appears as one of my regularcolumns in Traditional Karate magazine. As a result I

assume that almost all of the readership practise Kata as part,possibly the main part, of their syllabus.

Drawings do not convey the movements of martial arts in a veryuseful form, even if done by highly skilled artists. The sheernumber of drawings required to accurately convey the angle andspeed of movement would be unwieldy, even if flicked through athigh speed to create a moving cartoon. Photographs are a signifi-cant improvement on drawings, but they too lack the accuratetransformation that video provides. Video teaches us much, but itlacks the tactile information and sensory feedback that an instruc-tor can provide. In the absence of a practical alternative torecording syllabi, Kata seem to have been created as mnemonicsof a teacher’s repertoire.

These days most Karate styles have their syllabus divided into 3main elements: Kata, kumite and kihon. The Kata represents thehistory of the style and its traditional combinations of techniques,the kumite consists of the paired drills of the style, teaching tim-ing and distance, the kihon represents the physical exercise of thestyle, drilling different combinations of techniques taken from theKata and elsewhere. The Kata are no longer used for the purposeof Kihon because they are less space efficient when performed intheir entirety, kihon seeming to be a development of the largeUniversity Sports Dojos of Japan or the educational system ofOkinawa where class sizes forced a rethink of the older methodsof training.

Where do Bunkai and Oyo fit into this pattern? Both terms seemto have a variety of accepted English translations, the most com-

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mon of which seem to be that Bunkai is standard application ofKata techniques whereas Oyo is the more personal creative appli-cation of techniques. This is all really a matter of perspectivesince I have seen many books containing ‘Bunkai’ that is soimpractical, relies so heavily on foreknowledge of exactly howyou are going to be attacked at long distance by Karate tech-niques, that it becomes so creative, so ‘Oyo’ as to be both fantas-tical and farcical. Bunkai, as both Kata and Kumite, seems tohave been sidelined by both. The skills it aims to develop seemto be overlapped by the other elements of training.

As a result, despite the availability of lots of good bunkai teach-ers (several of whom write for this magazine), it often seems rel-egated to the extent that it is not always practised in class. Ofcourse many Karateka organise and attend Bunkai specific cours-es, but if the knowledge gained does not form part of regulartraining then I would argue it is near useless I’ve attended regu-lar classes over different periods of time with 5 differentShotokan associations, in a few of them I never witnessed anyBunkai being taught, in others it might be the feature of a lessononce every month, in others yet it might make up fifteen minutesevery month. This is not enough. “We do not rise to the level ofour expectations. We fall to the level of our training.”

This omission of regular Bunkai teaching seems to me to be aterrible mistake. Due to changes in teaching methods many ofthe Karate styles today no longer have access to the knowledge ofwhat the original bunkai of their Kata were, but that should notbe an issue. If there is Bunkai available that teaches effectiveand realistic ways to utilise the actual techniques taught in Katathen surely it should be taught as the core of the syllabus, for arenot the Kata the prime element of your style? Without suchtraining there is little to distinguish your likely application ofyour art from Kickboxing other than the regular wearing of whitepyjamas and a belt. As for Oyo, every student should be encour-aged to develop and demonstrate their own applications for theirKata as this must be one of the best ways for them to show their

instructors just how deeply they understand the mental and physi-cal principles of their system.

Whenever I teach close range Bunkai for techniques such asGedan Barai, Shuto Uke, Age Uke, Uchi Uke and Ude Uke, tech-niques that you never see used in Jiyu Kumite, I see the looks ofpleasure on the faces of students who find that what they havebeen drilling in class has an effective and realistic martial appli-cation (particularly against habitual acts of violence). One of thebiggest turn offs for Karate students is the realisation that theycan’t use the majority of their core techniques under pressure.The regular teaching of decent Bunkai corrects this false Kumite-related assumption.

In an ideal world I would like to see Bunkai brought into the centreof the Karate syllabus, it works Kata techniques against partners,teaches effective timing and distancing, works both percussive andgrappling techniques, and develops stronger basics. In such a train-ing regime Kata would make up quarter of training time, allowingstudents to run through sequences both slowly and at full speed andpower, Bunkai would take up half the training time - developing thesystem and practical fighting knowledge through paired work,Kihon and Kumite would fill up the remaining quarter along withpad work - Kihon giving the students opportunity to isolate anddrill weaker techniques while through kumite they can work on themore imaginative application of Karate movements.

There is so much good information out there for instructors toteach, it is time to take action to break away slightly from theignorant practices of an early age so that we are teaching our stu-dents what they want: real karate.

Coach John Titchen can be contacted for seminars via his web-site www.d-a-r-t.org.uk. His new book on using the Heian as aprogressive training and fighting system through the medium ofbunkai drills will shortly be available through Martial ArtsPublishing.

REGULAR COLUMN / DR J W TITCHEN


001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 25

Brutally HonestBy Matthew Sylvester

REGULAR COLUMN / BRUTALLY HONEST

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The Way Of Kata By Lawrence Kane

Who is Lawrence Kane? Lawrence is the author of best-sellingbook ‘The Way of Kata’ and has pub-lished numerous articles about teach-ing, martial arts and countervailingforce. With more than 30 years ofexperience in the martial arts (bothwestern and oriental) and stadiumsecurity he has been involved in hun-dreds of armed and unarmed con-frontations.

What’s Good?Back in the days of old, when I first started martial arts if you want-ed to find out the application for a specific technique or even how tofind out the application for a specific technique you had to findsomeone who had already done something along the same lines andask for a few pointers. I was lucky in that I found Prof Rick Clark,from America no less.

What Lawrence does in this book is make things much easier forthose who wish to do the same thing. This book is the bible of katainterpretation and almost leads the reader by the hand, almost ‘Katainterpretation for Dummies’.

Lawrence’s style is such that each section of the book can almost beread in isolation of the rest of the book, allowing you to approach itin your own way. This is very conducive to learning, as wadingthrough this amount of information can be very hard indeed.

Despite the constant references to Goju Ryu, (which is much morepopular in the States than over here) whatever your background, beit Pyong-Ahn, Tul, Poomse, Forms, Heian or Pinan, Karate, KungFu or Tae Kwon Do you can’t fail to learn something from it. Unlessyou’re so blinkered to the truth that you just don’t want to learn thatis. If that is the case this book isn’t for you.

What’s bad?That this book wasn’t around when I was struggling to find applica-tions, pressure points and people who thought along the same linesas me back in the days of yore.

Apart from that the only ‘niggle’ I have is that they used hand-draw-ings rather than photos for much of the book. I don’t like outlinesketches and much prefer photos as you can learn a lot more fromthem.

SummaryThis book is quite simply the bible of kata interpretation. Packagethis with a book on pressure point applications and ‘Five Years, OneKata’ and you need look no further. This is vital reading for anyonewith an interest on actually studying kata rather than practicing themto look good.

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The Beginner’s Guideto Shotokan KarateBy John Van WeenenMorote-Zuki - Double Punch

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Very few men deserve the accolade living legend but in Karatecircles few will disagree that Hanshi Steve Arneil has rightlyearned such a reputation. He was the first man inducted into the‘Combat’ Hall of Fame, and the first man to complete the infa-mous 100 Man Kumite under the tutelage of the legendary MasOyama. This interview was conducted on the eve of the twentyfirst (1996) British Kyokushinkai Championships at Crystal palace,London. I had wanted to meet Steve Arneil for many yearsbecause he is, and has been, a very important figure both inBritish, and Kyokushinkai karate history. As well as being theleading figure in British Kyokushinkai since 1965, he was thecoach of the British Karate Team in a golden era, which saw it winthe World Championship and become a major force in tourna-ment karate.

His life has been “a life in Kyokushin”. He started training at thefamous “Oyama Dojo” when the style itself was only a few yearsold , lived through its development into a real power in the karateworld, and saw at first hand the problems which later set in. Theseproblems led eventually to his break with the honbu (head-quqrters), but his emotional links with Mas Oyama, and his rootsin Kyokushinkai continue to run deep. After the interview, whenwe talked about the passing of Mas Oyama, and the circum-stances which followed, he was close to tears several times.

I really enjoyed my short time with Steve Arneil and his group.The tournament, which I attended, has a deserved reputation forhard fighting, respect, and sportsmanship. My thanks to LiamKeaveney for his hospitality and help in arranging the interview;to Pete Rippin for making the initial contacts and for ferrying meabout; and to Steve Arneil himself, for his friendliness, honesty,and straightforwardness.

MEETING MAS OYAMAOK, Steve, if we can go back to when you first arrivedin Japan.

STEVE ARNEIL: I arrived in Japan late 1960.

Did you go there specifically to learn karate?

STEVE ARNEIL: Hmmm, not really. Coming to Kyokushinkai seemedone of those things in your life which is fated. I never planned it.Actually I had trained before in Africa in Shorin Kempo with aChinese teacher. I liked that very much. At that time I was alsoinvolved in judo, and I liked boxing, but because of the problemsin boxing, I concentrated on judo, then kempo. This was inNorthern Rhodesia. I also used to travel down to South Africa. Atthat time, there was rather a lot of emigration from Japan toBrazil, and when they stopped over in South Africa, we’d meetthem and if any had martial arts experience we’d take them to thedojos in Durban. So I was learning karate from this one, from thatone, from all kinds of people. I just wanted to learn, and I seemedto be very much attracted to the Eastern forms.

Finally, I decided I wanted to go to the East. My ambition was to goto China, and I did go there and studied in China for a while but wehad problems there and had to get out. So I went back to Kowloon,but I wasn’t too happy with the teaching there, it wasn’t what I’d hadin the beginning. Then I was told that I would be suited to a strongform of karate taught by a man called Mas. Oyama, in Japan.

So he was well known even then?

STEVE ARNEIL: He was heard of. So then I worked my way toJapan and arrived in Yokohama. I didn’t speak any Japanese.The only Japanese I knew was “kodokan”, (the headquarters ofJudo) so I went there and did some judo, and that is where I metmy friend, Bob Bolton. I also met Donn Draeger, a great budo-man, and we became friends I tried some karate dojos. I went tothe Shotokan dojo, the JKA, which was just below the kodokan,and I met people like Kase and so on. It was great, and they werevery nice, but it’s difficult to explain but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Ialso trained with Yamaguchi, “The Cat”. I didn’t know it at thattime but Yamaguchi had been closely linked to Mr. Oyama. And Ithought it was quite good, I liked it.


Steve Arn eKyokushin manPart 1 - By Graham Noble

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 30


n eilFEATURE / STEVE ARNEIL

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:37 pm Page 31

What was Gogen Yamaguchi like?

STEVE ARNEIL: Oh, a very nice man. When I knew him, he wasan excellent karate man.

Did he actually teach at the dojo?

STEVE ARNEIL: Yes, he taught the classes.

Was the kumite hard?

STEVE ARNEIL: In those years, yes. With both Yamaguchi andKyokushin it was budo, it wasn’t classified as a sport. And sothe dojo fighting was fairly realistic. The object was to develophigh level character as well as how to fight, how to protect your-self. Anyway, I spoke to Donn, and he said he knew Mr.Oyama! So he took me up to the first dojo of Kyokushin. Thatwas behind Rikkyo University. When I arrived there it was just asmall place, but you could feel the atmosphere. Donn introducedme to my first contact with Kyokushin, Mr. Kurosaki, a brilliantkarate man.

Could you tell us something about Kenji Kurosaki. Hewas known for his strong spirit, wasn’t he?

STEVE ARNEIL: Oh, tremendously strong spirit. He never askedfrom anybody anything unless he did it himself. He was thattype of man. And he was a tremendous motivator, very disci-plined, a fine character. Donn introduced me to him and then Isat down to watch the training. After the training had finished,Donn said to Mr. Kurosaki that I wanted to meet Mr. Oyama andtrain in Kyokushin. Mr. Kurosaki replied saying that Mr. Oyamawasn’t there, he was away teaching in America. But if I wanted Icould come and watch. To me this was a bit of a shock as I’dtravelled all this way looking for this and now I was told I couldjust sit and watch. The other clubs wanted me to join straight-away. I thought it was strange.

What struck you about the Kyokushinkai dojo? Whydid you feel it was different from the others?

STEVE ARNEIL: Discipline. Discipline on a very high level, andrespect and friendliness. They would talk to me. I felt theyweren’t trying to impress me, they were just strong karateka.Anyway, I said OK. But Donn said, “You have to come everyday to watch”. I asked when Mr. Oyama was coming back butthey said they didn’t know. So I continued to watch, and what Isaw I liked. The training was strong. It had rhythm, it was“punch-punch-punch”, the sensei was never quite satisfied. Andthen the fighting started and I was impressed by that. I won-dered why they didn’t get hurt, but their bodies were condi-tioned. And never, ever, did they abuse their position. They knewhow far to take it.

We sometimes hear stories about bullying inJapanese dojos.

STEVE ARNEIL: I have heard stories like this, but I can put myhand on my heart and say that I never saw that in theKyokushinkai dojo of that time. I was treated absolutely fairly asa kohai, (junior student). It didn’t matter about colour or religionor anything. I was a kohai, and I had to do my duties as akohai. I was treated exactly the same as everyone else. Nobodyever tried to take advantage. What the Japanese white belt got,I got. I’ve heard stories later on which sadden me, but when Iwas in Japan everyone was treated fairly.

So how long did you sit watching the classes?


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STEVE ARNEIL: About a month. I went up there regularly and satand watched. Then finally this man walked through the door and Iknew immediately it was him. It was just his aura, his personality.And then Donn Draeger was called because Mas Oyama didn’tspeak English very much. Donn explained my situation and Mr.Oyama said, “Fine, but you know, if you train with me, you trainfor life. Think about it. A lot of things can go wrong in life, butyou almost train in what I teach you”. And I said, “Yes, I’ll take iton”. Then he said, “You start as a kohai, and you must train regu-larly. If you stop training we’ll kick you out”. I said I understood,then he said that as a mark of appreciation, he would give me myfirst karate gi. And that’s where it started.

As a kohai, I had to go in and clean the dojo. It was an olddojo, but man it was spotless. The sempai (senior students) wouldjust put their gis on the floor and the kohais would pick them upand it was their responsibility to wash and iron the gis and hangthem up on a peg the next day. And if all the gis weren’t wellcleaned all the kohais would get it in the neck. And then therewas cleaning the toilets out. The first time I had to clean the toi-lets out, I got the shock of my life. You know Ashihara, thefounder of Ashihara karate? We were kohais together in thedojo. We had to go and clean the toilets, and they weren’t flushones. The toilet then was just a big bucket, and we had to takethese buckets out, walk down the road, and throw them in a spe-cial area where the truck would come and take it away. Andthen we had to wash the buckets out with our hands before weput them back. Even to this day, I still shudder when I think aboutit. (Laughing)

But then as time went on we trained hard ~ and it was hard train-ing. But it was beneficial training, because we didn’t do anythingwithout a reason. It was said to me, and I say this today to mystudents, “I can teach you, I can help you, but there are two thingsI can’t do: think for you and do it for you. That’s your job, and ifyou can’t do it, get out of the dojo.”

Could you tell us a little more about Mas Oyama. Forexample, how big was he; five foot seven, five footeight?

STEVE ARNEIL: Yes, around that he was a little bigger than me.But at that time he was just a very powerfully built man, he reallywas.

He did quite a bit of weight training at one time?

STEVE ARNEIL: He did weight training to supplement his karate,by himself. You know, we’d be doing our punching training, andhe’d be lying at the back of the dojo pushing a weight “Uss! Uss!Uss!” while we’d be punching.

He’d be bench pressing while shouting the commandsfor punching?

STEVE ARNEIL: Yes, while shouting and encouraging us to trainharder. That’s the way training was with him. Then he’d do squats,and so on.

What kind of weights did he use, heavy? light?

STEVE ARNEIL: The weights were fairly heavy. He always said thatthe body itself is very strong. But you should train with weightswhich supplement your training. You know, he wasn’t talkingabout being a muscle man, posing, or getting cut up. He built hisbody for power in karate.

I spoke to Bobby Lowe on the phone once and he toldme that he’d seen Mas Oyama bend a coin.

STEVE ARNEIL: I have seen Sosai bend a Japanese coin with his fin-gers, although I can’t vouch for the strength of Japanese coins then.

But still a terrific feat of hand and finger strength.

STEVE ARNEIL: Yes, still a terrific feat.

Bobby Lowe also told me that Mas Oyama was thestrongest man he had ever met, not only physically butmentally.

STEVE ARNEIL: There’s no doubt that Mas Oyama was a verypowerful man, physically and mentally, but I wouldn’t say he wasthe only man in the world with these qualities. I also met somepeople in China who impressed me tremendously with theirwillpower and their strength, and I’ve seen others in my travels.But yes, I would say Sosai was one of the exceptional people.

I’ve been told that around the late 1950’s, early1960’s, Mas Oyama challenged all the other schools totake part in a national contest to decide which was thestrongest style. Do you know anything about that?

STEVE ARNEIL: I’ve also heard of that, but I wasn’t aware of anychallenge when I was in Japan. The only time when we were partof a challenge, as far as I know of, was when we were challengedby the Thai boxers. That took place when I was in Japan.

So to your knowledge, he never badmouthed the otherkarate styles.

STEVE ARNEIL: No, he never badmouthed any style. All he saidwas, “We are the best!” He said, that “We are budo”, and evenat that time, the art was changing into a sport. He said that intime to come, a sports-only karate man would find it difficult todeal with a street situation. And his prediction came true. A boymay be excellent at the sport, but not able to deliver in a street sit-uation. Although of course it will help them to some degree.

Next month Steve discusses his time training at the Kyokushinkai


FEATURE / STEVE ARNEIL

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The following are suitable for develop-ing strength and endurance in martialpractice, though they are far from beingan exhaustive list. We are going tobegin by looking at whole-bodyendurance exercises and the first one thatsprings to mind are kata. Perform yourbasic kata, one after the other and with-out a break. Add on at least oneadvanced kata such as Kanku Dai, or itsequivalent in your art. Measure yourpulse over a 6-second period. Multiplythe number of beats by ten. To find outapproximately what effect practising katahas had on you, add 25 to your age inyears and subtract the total from 220.So, if you are 18 years old, then adding25 makes a total of 43. When this is

subtracted from 220, the answer is 177.If your heartbeat is above 177, then youare into the fatigue-producing anaerobicband whereas if it is below, then you areworking within the aerobic band.

Repeat the sequence of kata, adjustingthe pace of your performance until youare into the aerobic band and can con-tinue practising for a full 20 minutes.Your heart and lungs will benefit if youkeep up the activity for 20 minutes ormore each day. Always adjust yourpace of training so you can last the fullperiod. It may be that you don’t likekata. In that case, practise basic tech-niques, alternating kicks with punches toget a spread of muscular involvement.

Try shadow- boxing against a mirror, orworking out on a suspended bag. Itdoesn’t matter which techniques youchoose as long as you work hardenough to raise your pulse into the aero-bic band.

It must now be clear to you that usingtechniques taken from your martial art toimprove stamina means you canimprove your skill at the same time. Thealternatives of running, swimming andcycling may well improve aerobic fitnesstoo - but there are no other useful spin-offs. Though the body’s anaerobic ener-gy systems engage at an early point inyour training, the aerobic system initiallypredominates and fatigue producing

Build strengthand stamina into your Karate!

FEATURE / BUILD STRENGTH AND STAMINA INTO YOUR KARATE!

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April 2007 TRADITIONAL KARATE

end-products of anaerobic activity donot accumulate above the body’s abilityto deal with them. Increase the pace oftraining and/or the loadings on musclesand the anaerobic system comes to takea greater and greater role in energyproduction. This leads to high concentra-tions of lactic acid in the muscles.

Train your body both to reprocess thiswaste product as quickly as possible andto tolerate higher levels of lactic acid.The way to do this is by working outharder on the bag, raining barrages ofhard punches and kicks into it. Take yourpulse and check whether you are nowinto the anaerobic band. If not, thenincrease the pace of training yet further.Remember, the maximum safe pulse ratethat you can sustain is 220 - your age inyears (i.e., 202 beats per minute for our18 year old). See if you can keep this upfor about three minutes without a break,then slow your techniques right down forup to three minutes, so your pulse ratedrops back into the aerobic band oncemore. This phase is termed ‘active rest’.You may find that it drops back quickly(i.e., you are relatively fit) in which caseyou can resume working flat out withless active rest time. Repeat thework/rest cycles, aiming towards cuttingthe active rest periods back to one

minute, whilst increasing the flat-outphases to your own personal maximum.

A different version of this trains the ini-tial energy supply system, whichengages when we launch into flat-outwork from a rested state. Kick a bagflat-out for about 15 seconds, then dropback to very light work for a couple ofminutes. This gives the body’s instantenergy supply system time to pump backup again, ready for the next onslaught.Repeat the sequence several times eachtraining session, alternating kicks withpunches to get the best training effect. Ifyou get fed up of using martial art tech-niques, then select from the large arrayof exercises available. These may provemore efficient at developing generalendurance than martial art techniques,though they obviously don’t have thespin-off of improving skill. For example,you might try burpees.

Drop down into a crouch and lean for-ward onto your fingertips. Shoot bothlegs out behind, so you adopt a press-upposition. Spring forward into a crouchagain and jump into the air, so both feetleave the ground. Do at least twenty rep-etitions and check your pulse rate to seehow they are affecting you. Performthem at less than maximum effort over a

longer period for a possible aerobiceffect, or more quickly and with maxi-mum power to engage the anaerobicsystem. Burpees are also good for pro-moting agility and coordination.Another plus is the explosive way theywork the leg muscles.

Squats are yet another form ofendurance-building exercise though youshould perform either the explosive ver-sion, or the standard version with highkicks added. Drop down into a halfcrouch but don’t go any lower or youwill unnecessarily stress your knee joints.Straighten both legs forcefully, so bothfeet clear the ground. Build elasticstrength into the muscles by using themalmost like rubber bands - they stretch asyou sink down, and abruptly contract asyou shoot back up again. Do not pausein the squat position!

Next, kick high as you straighten up,using each leg in turn to deliver the kick.This aids both skill acquisition anddynamic mobility - especially in the hipjoint. Any jumping exercise can be usedto build elastic strength and localendurance. It also improves generalendurance if you repeat it over a longenough period at sub-maximal perfor-mance, or flat-out over a shorter period.

Try one-armed press-ups, or explosivepress-ups that thrust both palms clear ofthe mat. These build elastic strength inthe shoulders and upper arms. Alternateseries of explosive press-ups with normalones, using the latter as active rest peri-ods. Alter the position of your arms, tak-ing them forward, spreading them wide,or bringing them together. These differ-ent placings alter the loadings on specif-ic muscle groups and each produces adifferent training effect. Chins are anoth-er excellent shoulder and upper armexercise. Alter the training effect by grip-ping the bar with underarm and over-arm holds and at different positions.

A good active rest exercise to fit betweenactive press-up sessions is called the ‘cat’.Take press-up position. Skim forward anddown between your hands, droppingyour thighs to the mat and arching yourbody. Then push your body back andup, so your elbows straighten fully andyour backside rises high.

Work your stomach muscles with sit-ups,though always perform them with kneesbent. This is because straight leg sit-upstilt the pelvis to pull the upper body clearof the mat and put a great strain onto thelower back. Vary the training effect bybending the knees to different degrees.

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Bringing the heels close to the backsideloads a different set of muscles moreheavily than those used when the sit-up ismade with nearly straight legs. Use thesame training format as for the press-upsabove and when you can manage 100sit-ups without a break, then switch to sit-ting-up on an inclined surface, or cuddlea weight to your chest.

Up to this point, we have been con-cerned primarily with using exercises todevelop the correct kind of endurancefor our training. But what about improv-ing strength? Well, first of all the repeti-tion of any exercise that loads a musclewill ensure that the muscle becomesstrong enough to accomplish that partic-ular action. For martial activities, thisstrength is normally quite adequate.However, there are certain situationswhere you may wish to develop yourstrength yet further. The first is when youhave reached your maximum limb speedand can punch and kick no faster.

Bear in mind that powerful techniques aregenerated not by one, but by two factors.The first is rate of change of speed (i.e.,acceleration); the second is strength of thefast muscle contraction. Where speed ofcontraction peaks early on, strength ofcontraction is more open-ended and pro-vides you with the potential for furtherimprovements in power. How do weachieve these more powerful contrac-tions? The simple answer is to load thecorrect muscles and then make them con-tract quickly. Many of the exercises givenabove load the muscles to the requiredextent - inclined sit-ups, press-ups withthe feet on a chair etc - but you don’thave to rely solely upon bodyweight.Weights can produce a marked improve-ment but bear two factors in mind.

The first is that the weights must be lightenough for you to move quickly, other-wise you will develop a slow, strong con-traction rather than a fast one. The sec-ond is that weights work certain musclegroups more than others, so you mustlook carefully at the exercises to makesure you are working on those that areappropriate for producing powerful tech-niques. Before passing on to look atsome exercises using weights, I want justto mention that you can also use weightsto improve local muscular, aerobic andanaerobic endurance. Simply select theexercise and adjust the loadings againsttime, much as you did for the body-weight exercises given above.

Bicep curls are the first weight-assistedexercise to be considered. Hold the baragainst the front of your thighs, flex both

elbows and bring it to your chest. Lowerit back and repeat the exercise. Don’tcheat by thrusting your thighs forward tobump the bar into upward motion.Upright rowing works a different set ofmuscles and you should draw the barupwards, holding it close to the centreand raising your elbows.

The press is performed from a proneposition - preferably from a weightsbench. Hold the bar across your chestand thrust it up until both elbows lockstraight. Always use a spotter to takethe weight of the bar when you becometired. Use weights to make squats into amore demanding exercise but do not flexyour knees more than 90-degrees. Holdthe bar behind your neck for one set,and in front of your neck for the next.

Jump squats build explosive strength in theleg muscles but use a lighter weight, whichallows you to perform them properly. Usethat same weight for split squats. Beginfrom a forward stance, holding the weightbar across the back of your neck andjump into the air. Change your feet overso you land with the other foot leading.

Dead lift is a good general weight trainingexercise. Bend forward and lower theweight bar to the floor, then lift it bystraightening up. Do not flex your elbows;rather use your back muscles. Squat downin front of the weight bar and grasp it withboth hands. Straighten your legs and liftthe bar, then flex your elbows, lifting itacross the front of your chest. Press itabove your head, locking both elbowsstraight. Then lower it to the floor.


FEATURE / BUILD STRENGTH AND STAMINA INTO YOUR KARATE!

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Since the article ‘Campaign Puts NGBs onMat’ appeared in the December 2006 issueof ‘Traditional Karate’ a remarkable explo-sion of nationwide proportions has takenplace in the campaign ‘Save IndependentJudo’. The campaign has taken on a life ofits own, extending far beyond the originalintention, involving other martial arts. Weare into our second year with a simpletheme and clear objective. As in many mar-tial arts the term ‘judo’ covers different kindsof activity. The highly-competitive, Olympic-orientated form taken by the British JudoAssociation (BJA) is for ambitious champi-onship-seeking people. Beyond these21,000 BJA members are 150,000 judoplayers and their instructors who choose toenjoy a less competitive judo as a pleasur-

able and healthy activity independent of theBJA.

The BJA threatens the independence of thisvast majority by using its power as thenational governing body for judo in a bully-ing fashion. The BJA maintains that anational award, the UK Coaching Certificate(UKCC) has to be achieved by all judoinstructors but will only be available tomembers of the BJA. Sport England confirmsthis. They have written to me, “As governingbodies are autonomous we do not controlthe rules of association.” That’s it then?

When asked what would happen, in hisway of thinking, to the other 150,000 judoplayers, BJA chief executive Scott McCarthy

says they will not be missed. He publicly, inthe press, calls judo instructors outside theBJA “pirates” and “outlaws” and accusesthem of falsifying their qualifications. Full ofbombast McCarthy tells another newspaper,“There should be regulation in coaching.This may prevent perfectly good coachesfrom working unless they join the BJA, but itwill also stop bad coaches.” No bad coach-es in the BJA then?

The Save Independent Judo campaign waslaunched to challenge this ridiculous butdamaging attitude. We all, of course, lookto improve standards. Teachers/instructors/coaches involved in the martial arts, regard-less of art or affiliation, have the welfare ofparticipants in mind, at all times. Does the

Karate Under ThreatCampaign ignites national fury over human rights issuesBy John Goldman

Katie, Matthew and Josh, three young judo buffs, giveMr McCarthy and the BJA the thumbs down. They say,“Leave us alone. Bullying is wrong and is not allowedin martial arts. Mr McCarthy should go back to school.”

FEATURE / KARATE UNDER THREAT

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BJA think they have a sole mandate in thisarea? Independents, outside of NGBs, fullyqualified in their discipline, have everythingin place that is legally required of them, andoften more; insurance, first aid qualifica-tions, CRB checks, child protection, safetypolicies etc. etc.

And what if there is no NGB for your art,kickboxing, hapkido, thai boxing, savate,budo, escrima, to name a few? Are practi-tioners of these arts to be branded as‘McCarthy’s’ “Outlaws and pirates” too,because, through no fault of their own, letalone choice, they do not belong to a gov-erning body? One such non-NGB instructor,a fully qualified Black Belt 3rd Dan, haswritten to the Minister taking up this point.He writes, “I refer to the quote of ScottMcCarthy of the British Judo Associationcalling independent instructors in judo out-laws and pirates. It would not be too much

of a leap to make that reference to all inde-pendent instructors, regardless of the art. Ifind his remarks both insulting and offen-sive.” And McCarthy’s open hostility is dam-aging too - and not only to judo players.We are hearing of those in other martialarts being questioned about their member-ship, or non-membership, of an NGB fortheir discipline, when applying for the use ofleisure facilities.

I have challenged the BJA, Mr McCarthy, hischairman Mr Densign White, and the boardof directors, to either substantiate MrMcCarthy’s claims or withdraw them andapologise. We have had no reply. Nowanother prominent figure in the martial artsworld has thrown in his lot with our cam-paign, bringing in many thousands of newsupporters. Andy Davies a 49-year-oldexponent of Taekwondo, has started the

campaign ‘Saving Martial Arts and YourRight 2 Choose’.

Andy, a professional teacher of martial arts,Black belt 8th Dan, who lives in Bristol says;“I read John Goldman’s article ‘Campaignputs NGBs on the Mat’ in ‘TraditionalKarate’. What John said about the BJAsmacked of my dealings with martial artNGBs and sports authorities and theappalling way they behave. Having hadgood cause to complain to the Minister forSport, Sport England and sports coach uk, Ihave met with similar hostility and indiffer-ence. I thought by linking with John wecould pool our efforts and ensure that ourrights are maintained. To widen the sphere Istarted the ‘Saving Martial Arts & Your Rightto Choose’ campaign. John had lit the fusewith ‘Save Independent Judo’ and now, withthe two campaigns working in co-ordina-tion, the fuse is burning brightly.”

“I contacted many colleagues in the martialarts world and it wasn’t long beforeenquires were pouring in. One call camefrom one of the county’s top martial artist,Hapkido Master Fred Adams. He wasappalled to hear what was going and con-tacted Tom Hibbert, MBE FSMA, highlyrespected and well-known for his work inthe martial arts world. As executive directorof the Amateur Martial Associations (AMA),the largest independent martial art group inthe British Isles with 90,000 members, andPresident of the World Association ofKickboxing Organisations (WAKO), Tomhas given full support to both campaigns.He said ‘Instructors of Taekwondo andJujitsu are telephoning me on the same sub-ject. They are being told they will have tojoin a governing body to teach’”

In a different capacity Hugh Robertson MP,Shadow Minister for Sport and Don FosterMP, Lib Dem and Hugo Swire MP, Con, bothShadow Secretaries of State, Culture, Mediaand Sport for their respective parties, are giv-ing support and time to the campaigns, per-sonally tackling the Minster for Sport. Dozensof other MPs and councillors have taken ourcomplaints up too. One of the main frustra-tions has been that while Sport England,sports coach uk and the BJA have informationofficers; the last thing you can get from themis reliable information. They contradict eachother and sometimes themselves.

We asked sports coach uk for informationabout their role in the administration andimplementation of the UKCC. Helen Davey,executive director, sports coach uk saidsports coach uk were not responsible forwhat happened to the certificate; “Theadministration, implementation and otherresponsibilities for the certificate are those ofthe BJA.” Sport England distance them-selves from any responsibility too. TheirSenior Client Manager, George Wood,wrote to one complainant, Jan 2007, “If youhave any issues surrounding UKCC within

Andy Davies leads ‘Saving MartialArts Your Right 2 Choose”. Hesays, “The UKCC may be a laud-able idea, but the authorities did-n’t do their homework beforeinvolving martial arts.Consequently we are being deniedaccess to a national award andfreedom of choice as to whichassociation we belong.

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:38 pm Page 40


judo you should refer to the BJA them-selves...” That’s a stock answer - exactlywhat a Sport England client manager forjudo told me a year ago (and there’s beenthree different client managers for judo inthe past year)

Helen Davey, sports coach uk, was recentlyapproached by Alison Seabeck MP, forinformation. Her reply to Alison Seabeckbegan: “I have led the development andimplementation of the UKCC since its incep-tion.” She goes on to say she has met withthe chief executive of the BJA and others todiscuss the development of the judo UKCC.So much for non-involvement. Adding to the‘confusion’ Helen Davey subsequently writessaying she cannot respond to the issues Iraise until she has met with the BJA? When Iwrite back pointing out that she has alreadymet with the BJA, why can’t she answer myquestions, she writes, “You will receive aresponse in the near future.”

In a telephone conversation with HelenDavey, she admitted to me that there is a lotof confusion at her end. I wrote to ask her if,“It might have occurred to you that one ofsources of confusion was yourself.” Thestory of a change from the word “will” to“may” is even more revealing. The BJA puta policy statement on its web site ‘Coachingand the Law’. This related to the award ofthe UKCC. Julie Moores, BJA Head ofMembership Services said, “it will affectthose who wish to coach in local authoritypremises, in other words you will have tohave it (UKCC) to work in them.” The word“will” was later changed, in both instances,to “may” but the date on the entry wasunchanged, to make it look as if the word“may” had been there all the time.

Helen Davey writes, “The change in wordingindicates that the BJA recognises that choiceof whom to employ/deploy or indeed hirehall space rests with the localauthority...”The change in the website wordfrom “will” to “may” is meaningless withoutexplanation; the “explanation” given so faris sheer waffle, and leaves BJA able to denyany change in attitude. The first surprisingthing about this is that the blustering BJAhas suddenly become quiet and withdrawn,leaving sister organisation to give what goesfor an explanation of change in thinking.This is out of character for the BJA

And why, after all this time, has the BJAbecome anxious to make it known to all thatits attitude is one of complete objectivitywhen leisure centres, schools etc are consid-ering applications for facilities from groupseither within or outside the BJA? What hasmade the BJA wish to display its noble sensi-tivity? This sensitivity is not reflected in theBJA’s open hostility to non-members, which isfiltering through, leading to instructors beingquestioned about their non-membership ofthe BJA by leisure centre managers. And, asI mention earlier in this article, it doesn’t stop

there - other martial arts instructors are alsobeing questioned by managers of leisurecentres about their membership, or non-membership, of an NGB.

A legal situation could well arise out of localauthorities refusing facilities to martial artsgroups who remain independent of NGBs.This could be through the little-knownWednesbury principle. This old-establisheddoctrine decided that when local authoritiesformed policies they must be reasonable andnot interfere with human rights. TheWednesbury principle was weakened by aCourt of Appeal decision which made it diffi-cult for local authority policies to be success-fully challenged. At the same time the AppealCourt made it clear that it was not adminis-tering the burial rights to this principal.

With current awareness of the importance ofhuman rights here and in Europe, theWednesbury principle could well be due fora revival; if, for instance, a martial arts gov-erning body was shown to have influenceda local authority in barring a fully-qualifiedinstructor in the martial arts from theirleisure centre. Additionally, the Equality Act2006 establishes the Commission forEquality and Human Rights (CEHR) whichwill come into practice October 2007. TheCommission has put out a call for groupsand organisations, with issues in this area,to contact them in advance. Andy Davieshas registered the concerns surroundingour campaigns.

What baffles me is the waste of money, timeand self-defeating effort, that goes into theill-thought-out changes. For generations themartial arts, with their many different formsof practice, have, reasonably comfortably,lived alongside each other. What’s the senseof disrupting this community, which givespleasure and healthy exercise to millions ofyoung people and incalculable benefits tothe whole community? If things are goingwell leave ‘em alone.

Perhaps the Minster should be turn his atten-tion to where all is not well - the way somemartial art NGBs operate and are allowedto operate. Why doesn’t he look in his ownback yard? With Sport England saying,“We do not control the rules of NGBs mem-bership/association and therefore these mayvary depending on the organisation” NGBscan do and say what they like with taxpay-ers money. It wasn’t so long ago the BJAstated they were technically insolvent andreported, “Little John Fraser who audited theBJA found there were some serious weak-ness in the way the Association had beenmanaged.” All’s well in the way NGBs areadministered, is it?

In recent months we have seen the sheerchaos, and worse, in two other martial artNGBs. Everyone is aware of the situation ofKarate England. Judo Scotland (NGB) hasfound itself in difficulties too. The following

is taken from the BJA web site Jan 2007, “Iam shocked to see the application pack forthe CEO state: ‘Whilst the sport continues tothrive, the last six months has been a partic-ularly difficult time for the governance andmanagement of the governing body. It hasbeen necessary to hold disciplinary hearingsinto the conduct of some directors; a secondchief executive within two years hasresigned; there has been an absence ofproper financial control resulting in a seri-ous deficit...’”

The Minister for Sport has already acknowl-edged that our campaign has opened a canof worms in the martial arts; we may bewell on the way to releasing a cartload offerrets in the wider world of human rights.

Our two campaigns, working together, will,with your support ensure that the rights ofall independents are maintained. We arewinning, our voice is being heard and wewill keep speaking out for what is right, fairand proper. We are looking to hold a rallylater in the year at the offices of SportEngland and this and other information ofwhat we have done, and what we aredoing, can be seen on the website:www.r2choose.co.uk which Andy Davieshas up and running or e-mail JohnGoldman : [email protected] And have a chat with your localcouncillor or MP, and contact your localpress - it all helps - helping to maintainyour rights.

I would ask that everyone who reads thisarticle does something. One very simplething everyone can do, with access to theInternet, is add their name to the official on-line parliamentary petition which takes ourconcerns and complaints about he UKCCand governing bodies directly to the PrimeMinister. And ask your martial art col-leagues, students and families, to sign too:http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/UKCCert/ends

Campaign office: 41, Willow Walk,Crediton, Devon, EX17 1DD. e-mail [email protected]: 01395 265532

John Goldman, campaign leader ‘SaveIndependent Judo’ says, “All involvedin teaching martial arts, regardless ofaffiliation, look to improve standards

with the welfare of participants inmind at all times. Do NGBs think they

have a sole mandate in this area?

FEATURE / KARATE UNDER THREAT

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All of the applications presented in thisseries are suggestions only, it is importantto realise that there are a myriad of possibil-ities and that anyone interested in effectivebunkai should seek out appropriate instruc-tion as well as doing their own research.

In all applications throughout the series,acupuncture nomenclature is used as thepreferred method of highlighting theanatomically weak areas for striking. Thebunkai will still be effective whether youbelieve in pressure points or not.

Remember that each application shouldgive you far more in the way of striking/finishing techniques than you will everneed, providing a built in fail safe if the ini-tial techniques are less than 100% effective.

Chinto/GankakuThis time we will look the opening movesof chinto as a defence against a leadpunch. The flinch response parries the

attack, deflecting/striking the limb (pic.1)and moving diagonally away we pull theattacker of balance (pic.2). This provides apossible kote-gaeshi, or we can continuewith the sequence from the kata.

We strike the scm/jaw with the forearmwhile keeping the opponent off balancewith our withdrawing limb (pic.3) and driveour seiken through stomach 5 on the jawline or gall bladder 3 on the temple/zygo-matic arch (pic.4). A word of caution - donot strike the temple in practice!

To finish we strike into gallbladder 31/32on the ilio-tibial band (pic.5) with theknee/low roundhouse and take down withthe gedan barai (pic.6)

It is important to remember that once youhave developed some confidence with theshape of the sequence, it should be per-formed in a continuous flowing mannerrather than the ichi ni san we find in the

kata. Always remember to put safety firstin your training and have fun!

Don Came has been training in the mar-tial arts for 30 years and is a 5th danwith the Kissaki-Kai Karate-DoInternational. He is the European repre-sentative for ISOK (the InternationalSociety for Okinawan/Japanese Karate-Do) and has an honours degree in sportand exercise science. A certified coachwith L.E.T.S UK (Law Enforcement TrainingServices), he teaches seminars on theeffective application of kata and personalprotection.

If you would like to discuss any aspect offunctional karate, arrange a seminar orrequire further information on the Kissaki-Kai or ISOK, please email Don [email protected] or visit our web siteat www.karateacademy.org.uk Don’t forgetto check out the main Kissaki-Kai site atwww.kissakikarate.com

ChintoKata CornerBy Don Came

FEATURE / CHINTO - KATA CORNER

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Lawrence KaneTraditionally Modern WarriorPart 2 - By Matthew Sylvester

Lawrence Kane started judo as a kid in 1970 because he wasa scrawny little ‘beanpole’, who got bullied in school and wasamazed to find that a little guy could defeat a much larger guyby using his strength against him. Lawrence enjoyed the compe-titions most of all, performing was a big boost for his self-esteemand the trophies were an added bonus. As he got older he trieda variety of other arts, some traditional (e.g., karate, kobudo)and some not (e.g., knife, gun) and over the years his emphasishas shifted. He has stopped competing entirely, focusing primari-ly on perfecting traditional kata and exploring practical applica-tions with an emphasis on self- defence. He believes that there isso much to cover in martial arts that it can become a never-end-ing journey, with some pretty cool stops along the way, ofcourse, but you’re never really done so long as the desire tolearn remains strong.

Do you think that the founders of martial artare very special people? Do you think theyhave all died out now? If no, then whatdoes it take to develop a new tradition?

LAWRENCE KANE: There are tons of excep-tional martial artists out there today, butonly a handful that most everyone canname. Similarly, the founders of the tra-ditional arts were not only amazinglyskilled practitioners, but also mar-keting geniuses as well. Weknow their names and theirstyles because they built effec-tive organizations that carriedon beyond their lifetimes. Inevery generation there are afew talented folks who riseto the top of their industryand martial arts is no dif-ferent than any other inthat regard. We’ve seenseveral relatively “new”arts come to the fore-front lately, stuff like

MMA, Krav Maga, Brazilian ju-jitsu, sambo, and so on. There are also a variety of tal-ented individuals who have championedrelatively “new” trends such as IainAbernethy has done with the practicalapplications of traditional karate kata,Peyton Quinn had done with adrenalstress conditioning, or Marc “Animal”MacYoung had done with no-nonsenseself defence.

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At what point does a personal interpretation of a tra-dition become a distinct style in its own right?

LAWRENCE KANE: Hmm, that’s a tough one. I think it is incumbentupon practitioners of traditional styles to pass along what theyhave been taught without changes, particularly when it comes tokata. Once a student understands the form, however, experimen-tation ought to be encouraged. There is almost always more thanone “correct” interpretation of each movement. Consequently whatworks best for one practitioner may not be what’s best for anotherwho has a different body type, or personality. With thatapproach, it is possible to “personalize” a traditional style withoutmaterially changing it. If you’re truly going to create a new tradi-tion it must be much more than simply compiling a collection ofyour favourite techniques. Picking and choosing individual appli-cations from a variety of different styles is almost always sub-opti-mal as there is no strategic concept binding them together.Consequently I think that creating an entirely new a new art wouldbe a very big challenge indeed. A “distinctive style” can be a verynuanced thing.

How important are titles such as ‘sifu’, ‘sensei’ ‘sabom’and ‘shihan’ to you?

LAWRENCE KANE: These terms can be quite useful to help putmartial arts training into the proper context. All martial arts areboth broad and deep. There is so much information to master, infact, that it can literally be a lifelong pursuit. The word sensei,which we typically think of as “teacher,” literally translates fromJapanese as “one who has come before.” Your sensei may or maynot know everything there is to know about your martial art, buthe or she most certainly has travelled much further along the paththan you have and will continue to progress over time.Consequently it is useful to think of your instructor as a guide,someone who can help focus your goals and feed you logicalblocks of information that will eventually coalesce into a masteryof your chosen art. While I’m not so big on titles, particularly out-side the dojo, I like to think of honourifics such as hanshi (modelteacher), kyoshi (master teacher), renshi (senior expert), and shi-han (expert teacher) as “lifetime achievement awards” which rec-ognize exemplary instructors. It’s nice to have a structure in placewithin martial arts organizations to express special appreciationsuch individuals.

Who are you inspired by now? You mention both RickClark and Iain Abernethy in your books, how did youcome across these amazing gentlemen?

LAWRENCE KANE: We’ve been blessed to live in an informationrich age where the secret knowledge of just a few years ago isubiquitous today. I’ve found that the internet has proven a fantas-tic resource to bring like minded martial artists from all over theworld together to share ideas and learn more about their arts. I’mparticularly inspired by those who have dedicated themselves tosharing their knowledge with the rest of us through books, articles,websites, and DVDs, folks like Iain Abernethy, Dan Anderson,Loren Christensen, Rick Clark, Marc MacYoung, Martina Sprague,Kris Wilder, and Yang Zwing-Ming. I’ve read and very muchenjoyed all of Rick’s work but unfortunately have never met him. Idiscovered Iain’s book Bunkai Jutsu many years ago, loved it, andsubsequently found his web site. We approach kata analysis insimilar ways so I asked him to write the foreword for my book,The Way of Kata (co-written with Kris Wilder), which impressedhim and we have corresponded regularly ever since. I am hon-oured to have become the co-moderator of the community forumon his web site as well.

Do you believe that pressure points work?

LAWRENCE KANE: Yes. When done properly, most people will

react strongly to pressure point techniques. Some will react to afew, but not all pressure points. Unfortunately there are also asmall number of individuals who do not respond to most points atall. Logically, if professional acupuncturists need several pointsand several treatments to affect their healing, it seems improbablethat we can stop a determined attacker in his tracks with damagefrom a single pressure point strike. I think it would be folly, there-fore, to rely solely on this method to stop an attacker. It is best tothink of pressure point manipulations as an extra bonus that goesalong with your physiological incapacitation techniques. If itworks, great! If it fails, you’ve lost nothing by trying.

Do you think pressure points are the be-all and end-all or the poison on the tip of the arrow?

LAWRENCE KANE: Definitely the poison on the tip of the arrow.Nerve strikes are pretty cool but they simply do not work everytime on everyone. They also become much less effective if therecipient has trained to “seal up” certain points, has certainmental disorders, or is in an altered state of consciousness dueto drugs and/or alcohol. While they are by no means the end-all be-all, they are, however, a wonderful addition to your mar-tial repertoire.

Do you agree with pressure testing techniques?

LAWRENCE KANE: So long as it’s not abused, yes. After all, if youever need to apply your martial skills on the street you will becombating the affects of adrenaline, both within your attacker andyourself. Your heart rate can jump from 60 or 70 beats per minute(BPM) to well over 200 BPM in less than half a second during aviolent encounter. Without prior training, most people cannot func-tion at that stress level. Even highly trained practitioners tend toexperience degraded performance.


FEATURE / LAWRENCE KANE - PART 2

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Are the oyo derived from bunkai valid or should weonly practice that laid out by the masters?

LAWRENCE KANE: Sure. I’m only a purest when it comes to thekata themselves. I strongly encourage advanced students to playwith any variety of applications for each movement so long asthey strive to find techniques that are strategically sound.

Do you believe that the addition of pressure points andgrappling to Karate is true to the style or a corruption?

LAWRENCE KANE: Pressure points and grappling techniques havealways been a part of classical karate. While much of that washidden from the general public for a variety of historical reasons,it has been broadly rediscovered today. Without it the art isincomplete.

Do you believe that patterns are the heart of karate/TKD?

LAWRENCE KANE: Absolutely. Each kata is a wholly self-con-tained fighting system. Once you know how to interpret them cor-rectly, you can discover everything you need to know for realisticself-defence in each of the forms. They teach stance, movement,breathing, body mechanics, and strategy in addition to the moreobvious fighting techniques.

Would you still do your art if there was only one pattern?

LAWRENCE KANE: Hmm, that’s a tough one. Many of the ancientmasters only learned a few kata. In Goju Ryu, for example, it

would have been sanchin kata plus one or two more. With onlytwo kata I’d personally be happy. With only one it’d have to besanchin kata since it forms the basis for everything else and stillcontains a number of practical fighting applications. I could behappy with just that one for five or ten years but would eventuallywant more.

Do you agree with Bill Burgar in that people should bepracticing their own kata rather than those of theirpredecessors?

LAWRENCE KANE: The strongest practitioner I’ve ever met onlyclaims to know two kata. He can perform more than a dozen, buthe’s spent over 20 years learning every aspect of just two. If youwholly grasp all the knowledge that’s baked into any given katayou can become a very powerful fighter indeed. I think that youneed to start with the core kata of your style, learning the patternsand common applications of all of them so that you’ll not onlymeet all your promotional requirements but also have an solidunderstanding of the system’s overarching strategy and commontactics. Once you have them all down though, I feel it’s veryimportant to pick a few to study in-depth and truly understand.Since it can take several years to internalize the meaning andidentify the optimal application(s) of every movement any givenkata there’s almost certainly enough that comes with the systemthat you won’t have any need to develop your own. There’s noth-ing conceptually wrong with creating your own kata, but it’s amonumental challenge to do it properly. It’s got to be more thanjust a jumble of techniques.

Lawrence can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].


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Dennis Martin is well known to readers of Combat magazine,having had a regular self-defence column in our sister publica-tion. A prominent and respected figure in the field, Dennis hasquite literally been there, seen it, done it, bought the t-shirt on thefront line but what some people may not know is that part of hisbeen there, done it experiences are as a Karaeteka of note, hav-ing met and trained alongside some of the art’s legendary names.In this incredibly in-depth interview, Graham Noble returns tothose the early days with Dennis and discusses his career inKarate.

Dennis, let’s go back to the first time you heard aboutkarate.

DENNIS MARTIN: I guess I heard about it the same way mostpeople did, just from books and movies, and the bits that were ontelevision at the time. There’d be these either serious or comicaldemonstrations of breaking wood. I was actually doing Judo,which I’d started as a schoolboy, but I’d always been interested inkarate, and I’d read things like R. W. Smith’s “Complete Guide toJudo”, which mentioned karate, and E. J. Harrison’s book, and allthe books that were out at the time. But the biggest problem wasfinding out where karate was in Liverpool, and I walked the lengthand breadth of this city finding Ju-jitsu clubs where people hadtold me there was a karate club. Then I was doing Judo one night,in Prescott, and a guy came in and put a poster up about a karatedemonstration. The guy was Frank Vernon, and the demonstrationwas by Masters Kase, Shirai, Kanazawa and Enoeda. So I wentright over to him to find out about the demonstration, and wherethey trained, which was the Red Triangle. I went to the demonstra-tion, which was amazing, a fantastic demonstration -

What do you remember about that? What did youthink about it then?

DENNIS MARTIN: Karate... That was my first sight of karate,apart from the clips you’d get on television. But this was properkarate, and probably what impressed me most was the dynamismof it, and just what it was - it was something totally different, total-ly different from Judo. This amazing power output from these guyswho were able to move and react in this completely unusual way.And each one of them, any one of them, would have been atremendous sight, but to see them altogether - in fact, we were abit spoiled because now those top Japanese never do demonstra-tions anyway, and we had them all in one go. You probably won’tsee something like that again. It was very, very good.

So you joined the Red Triangle after that?

DENNIS MARTIN: I went the following Sunday, which was a train-ing day, and I was told that there was a waiting list and I’d be puton this waiting list and contacted when there was a vacancy. Ithink someone had to die before you got a place. And then Iheard and got told I could come down at such and such a time,

otherwise my vacancy was gone. Turned up with my five pound inhand, filled in a form, which was about twenty pages of oaths -this was the BKF in those days -

Vernon Bell?

DENNIS MARTIN: Vernon Bell. I’m still sworn to secrecy, so I can’treally tell you much about it. And then I actually managed to setfoot on the dojo floor, at which time I was bawled out by one ofthe blue belts for not bowing.

Karate must have been pretty rudimentary then.

DENNIS MARTIN: Not really, because almost immediately we hada course with Master Kanazawa, and then soon after, MasterEnoeda came and lived in Liverpool. So I got in at probably avery good time to do it, when the standard of instruction wentright up.

He must have had quite an impact, Enoeda.

DENNIS MARTIN: Yeah, literally. I think he suited us and we suitedhim. He was a very hard trainer and the guys in the Red Triangleliked hard training.

What was typical training like then - the standardKihon, Kata, Kumite?

DENNIS MARTIN: Very standard Shotokan.

What about jyu-kumite? I recall reading in that oldmagazine “Karate News” about 1966 that in one ofthe early championships, the Wado people were prettymuch on top of the Shotokan guys.

DENNIS MARTIN: I don’t know, but you’d have to remember whowas doing the refereeing; it would be all Wado referees. But Ithink it was a fair point. We didn’t start sparring till quite late on.You went through a progression of prearranged sparring to semifree to free. But the sparring under Master Enoeda was veryintense. It was very serious; it wasn’t the light sparring you tend toget now. It was never the whole class sparring. It was two guys inthe centre, very serious. And he tried to inject his fighting spiritinto it. We had some good guys, guys who are still there now, likeAndy Sherry and Bob Poynton, obviously, but there was [also] aguy called Alan Smith who fought on the first team, and he was afighter, he was a street fighter anyway, and he was very good.And then you had Terry.

You said you more or less drifted into Goju. How didthat happen?

DENNIS MARTIN: Basically, I’d read a couple of articles aboutGoju. I guess I was really intrigued by Okinawan karate, more so


Dennis M aPractical KaratekaPart 1 - Interview By Graham Noble

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M artinFEATURE / DENNIS MARTIN

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than just by one style of it. But the most available style ofOkinawan karate turned out to be Goju. And looking back, yourquestion has triggered a memory that a book that influenced me alot was “The Karate Dojo” by Peter Urban, which I still have a lotof time for. I was looking at it again not so long ago. Althoughhistorically the accuracy is terrible, I think it was a very goodmotivational book, and it pushed me in the direction of Okinawa.I’d heard a few other things about the power levels on Okinawa,and I was quite intrigued by it. And then a couple of articles in“Karate and Oriental Arts” magazine, the one about Brian Waitesin Japan, I thought, “This really looks good”. I eventually got incontact with Brian. I met him at one of the championships wherehe and Steve [Morris} did a demonstration, kept in touch, broughthim up to Liverpool to do some training.

Had you met Gary Spiers at that point?

DENNIS MARTIN: My memory of that time is a little vague but Ithink that when Gary arrived I’m pretty sure I was already in con-tact with Brian. Then Gary came and of course he was on the spotthen, here in Liverpool staying with Terry. So I trained with him.

Did you find Goju more suited to you?

DENNIS MARTIN: Looking back, at the time it suited me. It wasn’tbetter [than Shotokan], it was what I was looking for. I’ve neverbeen a very good kicker and Goju is formally low kicks. Althoughhaving said that, Brian Waites had some of the best kicks around.He was very flexible, so he tended to emphasise the kicks. Theshort range ...... I wanted a good arsenal of techniques, like theelbow strikes, the fact that they emphasised the open hand strikes.One of the things about training in Goju-kai with the guys at thetime, was the conditioning. We used to do an exercise - this wasbasic level, white belt guys - you’d stand facing each other in catstance, and you’d just kick to the inner thigh and try and make theother guy flinch, or try to do it without flinching. And looking backnow, you couldn’t pay me to do that. I don’t think it’s very goodfor you, but it was a good physical, mental conditioning drill. Butit was hard very hard.

Hard how? In terms of repetition, body conditioning?

DENNIS MARTIN: Pain, because the inner thigh’s a soft area ofthe body. To get an instep kick in there, and the idea was to keepyour knee in position so your groin wasn’t exposed, to keep thiscat stance - I’m sure there’s a lot of people carrying injuriesbecause of that. Now they didn’t used to do that in OkinawanGoju at the time.

By that time were you working on the door?

DENNIS MARTIN: Yeah, I’d been working on the door for a while.

Did the Goju help you on the door?

DENNIS MARTIN: Yeah, I started using elbow strikes, and thatprobably became one of my main techniques, and which I think Iprimarily got from Goju.

Then you went to Japan. Had you wanted to go therefor a while?

DENNIS MARTIN: Yeah. I’d probably had an ambition to go toJapan ever since I started in karate, but it was a vague, unspeci-fied ambition. And then, I can still remember it now, one day Iwoke up, it was April, and I said, “I’m going to Japan”. I made aserious commitment to go, and I was there in October. I got themoney together and I went in 1973. I was there six months.

And did you go specifically to train with Morio Higaonna?

DENNIS MARTIN: Yeah. I’d already met him. Terry met him in‘70, sent me a postcard saying he’d met this fantastic Okinawan.Came back full of him, saying what a great guy he was, whichtended to reinforce some beliefs I had about Okinawan Goju.Because when Terry said somebody was good, the guy was good.Gary [Spiers] didn’t teach Okinawan Goju. I used to call it Gary-ryu. It was a mixture, which is very good. Gary’s stuff is excellent,better oriented to the street than a strict style.

Gary was teaching that kind of street Goju then?

DENNIS MARTIN: More or less. Gary also really taught - apartfrom kata, which you’ve got to teach - he’d tend to practicalise it, if that’s a word. he had youfighting from guard positions rather than with your fist in a cham-bered position. Anyway, in ‘72, we went to the WorldChampionships in Paris. Higaonna Sensei was there en route toSouth Africa with Hugh Thomson, who was head of our associa-tion. And he brought him to Liverpool, and he did a class. Hedemonstrated kata and sai kata just for a small group of guys,which was such a rare thing, so again, we was the best.

So what was it about Morio Higaonna?

DENNIS MARTIN: I think Master Higaonna just was the epitome ofthe martial arts master. He was very modest, very polite, veryeasy to get on with, and yet he was an awesome martial artist. Itwas the two things together. He was what people think martial artsinstructors are, but most of them are not.

In Japan, how often did you train at the dojo?

DENNIS MARTIN: Basically, every day it was open; used to do mul-tiple classes. I had a vague idea about easing myself in, but the firstday I went there, I did two sessions back to back, just because thefirst session was taken by one of the seniors. I had to wait to sortsome things out with Master Higaonna, so I waited and then hecame in and did his class, and I did that and then I thought, well, Idid two classes on my first day, so I might as well keep doing that.

Harry (Cook) told me Higaonna’s classes were somewherebetween Japanese and Okinawan. There was a lot ofdrilling, but then you were expected to do a lot yourself.

DENNIS MARTIN: That’s probably true. He would break it downinto groups. I think he gave us, because we were the short termforeigners, there was Bakkies Laubscher there the same time asme, from South Africa, and an American called Pat Telsrow, and Ithink he tailored stuff for us. But when we went to Okinawa, therewas a big difference to the way they trained. I’ll give you twoquotes, one from a guy who came to look at how we trained, anAmerican. But he was there to study Go, the game of Go, and oursessions interfered with the time he was doing Go. So he wentsomewhere else [to train]. And then towards the end of my stay hecame back and watched again. We said hello and went for a cupof tea. And he said, “Just seen your training, and we don’t trainanything like as hard as that.” There’s no comparison”.

On my second trip to Okinawa, we went as a group to attend theChojun Miyagi Memorial demonstration. While at the Jundokan,Higaonna Sensei put our group through a Yoyogi style session,and Mark Bishop watched us, then came over and said to me, “Icouldn’t do that”.....

It was harder?

DENNIS MARTIN: Oh yeah.

In the Jundokan, wasn’t it the case you’d turn up andmore or less train as you wanted?


FEATURE / DENNIS MARTIN

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DENNIS MARTIN: It’s nice. It’s an Okinawan cultural thing whereyou go on the floor and one of your seniors will grab hold of youand put you through something, might be makiwara, might be kata, might be conditioning, using trainingequipment. And then one of his seniors will come over and grabhold of him and do the same, and then you’d be left to continueon your own. And it’s great for the handful of people who cantrain that way, but for most of us, myself included, the drilling isbetter, and particularly on a short stay like I was, six months.

What did you learn exactly when you were at theYoyogi dojo?

DENNIS MARTIN: I’d been through the kata with Hugh Thompsonup to Sanseiru, I think. And I was happy because when I wastraining with Hugh I said, “I’d like to learn it the way it is inJapan”, and I was very happy when I got to Japan I found it wasexactly the same. And then I learned Seisan, Sepai, and probablyKururunfa when I was there. I definitely didn’t learn Suparimper.We did some Tensho, but not a lot, in the classes while I wasthere. And we did sai kata.

A little after going to Japan, you wrote an article onconditioning methods - chishi, makiwara and so on.How important was that as a part of Goju?

DENNIS MARTIN: It was important. But I’ve got deep reservationsabout a lot of the conditioning now. The hard body - to - bodyconditioning, I disagree with now. I did it, enjoyed it while I wasdoing it, but looking back now, I wouldn’t do it, I wouldn’t teachif, I wouldn’t let anybody do it to me. I think it’s bad for you, theude-kitae that kind of thing.

Why’s that? Is it breaking down the body, somethinglike that?

DENNIS MARTIN: Yeah and it doesn’t relate to anything I’m doingnow, which is close quarters combatives. You can train hard andyou can go through pain barriers, without the concomitantinjury factor. The makiwara - ok, great, I enjoyed makiwara train-ing. But looking back now, is the makiwara the best device fordeveloping punching power? Does it resemble any kind of humantarget? Does it give you the same kind of resistance a humanbody does? And I just automatically assumed the makiwara wasgreat.

But, I don’t punch any more, and I don’t use the makiwara. Theother stuff, the chishi and the sashi, are very specific for karateand I think they’re excellent because of the leverage: you get a lotof advantage from quite a light weight. But to be frank, we didn’tdo a great deal of that at Yoyogi. We had them there and I usedthem sometimes, but I was more or less left to my own devices. Isaw them being used more in Okinawa, but it was only after-wards that we really got into it, when Goju developed in the UK.When Higaonna Sensei started coming over, he started doing aformalised hojo-undo. I think there was a lot of Japanese influencein Yoyogi. It was a Japanised Okinawan Goju.

Incidentally, did you ever meet Ken Ogawa? Wasn’t hesupposed to be Higaonna’s top student?

DENNIS MARTIN: No, I never met him. Terry trained with him in1970 and rated him. He went to Orlando before I got to Japan. Iseem to remember hearing he died quite young. The senior when Iwas there was Mr. Ito, who was well-respected, he’d beaten theJKA Champion in an open tournament, so even the Kyokai guysrespected Ito. He seldom trained as he was setting up a business.The next in line was Tadano-san a 4th dan at the time. The Deshiwas Kokubo-san, who later went to Peru.

Did you see any other Japanese styles when you wereover there?

DENNIS MARTIN: Saw the Kyokai [JKA], went there two or threetimes. Went to a few competitions. Never got to see Kyokyshinkai.You weren’t allowed.

You weren’t allowed?

DENNIS MARTIN: No. Mas Oyama wouldn’t allow visitors. Even ifyou had a note from Steve Arneil, you couldn’t get in toIkebukuro. Not that I particularly wanted to anyway, but I wouldhave liked to have gone along and seen Mas Oyama’s dojo. Butyou couldn’t do it, so I didn’t bother. Went to the Goju-kai, andthe opening of the Karate-do College. Met Master GogenYamaguchi, and Master Inoue, the weapons expert, who did ademo. That was a nice day. Went to see a man, out in err ...I’llremember his name, you’ll know him, Graham. He was a Gojuguy, trained by Kanki Izumigawa. Used to be in lots of movies aslike a samurai. Had these strange nunchaku. I used to have hisbook in Japanese.

Arakawa Busen?

DENNIS MARTIN: Arakawa Busen, that’s it.

What was he like?

DENNIS MARTIN: Quite interesting, he had a lot of knowledge ofvarious things, unorthodox stuff. Like ..he’d heard about nunchaku- and he said this himself - he’d heard about nunchaku but sort ofgot it wrong. And he had these nunchaku, the string was long andthe sticks were short, instead of the other way round. But heturned that to advantage: he had knots in it and he had ways ofusing it. Terry interviewed him. It must be on file somewhere.

Next month Dennis discusses Master Nagamine, Donn Draeger,Steve Morris, Joe Lewis and Terry O Neil


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Shotokan Karate England was verypleased to welcome the Chief Instructor ofFinland, Sensei Willy Ortiz, to itsChingford Dojo in North East London.Sensei Ortiz is well known for his strongand uncompromising approach to karate,he is also well known as an author and his-torian of Shotokan karate. His latest book‘Funakoshi ~ Father of Modern Karate’ waspublished in 2006 and is now selling wellthroughout the world. The book has nowbeen re-written and reprinted with the helpof Rod Butler the SKE Chief Instructor.

Willy Ortiz, originally from Peru, spentseven years in New York training withSensei Mori. During that time he met SenseiEnoeda, the dynamic and charismaticinstructor who later went on to settle inEngland as the Chief Instructor for the KUGBeventually becoming the Chief instructor ofEurope. After visiting Finland in 1968 andagain in 1971 Sensei Ortiz grew to love the

people and the country. He moved therepermanently in 1975 has lived there formore than thirty years now. He is the ChiefInstructor of the country with a strong teamof instructors and students. He is marriedand has a grown up family as well as twoyoung daughters. His adult sons are alsokarate instructors and have achieved greatsuccess on the competition circuit.

The visit to England was arranged by Rodafter travelling to Finland to train withWilly. “We struck up an immediate friend-ship straightaway and talked for hours asif we had known each other for years. Iliked his strong but open minded attitude tokarate and his enthusiasm for the history ofShotokan”. Rod was a guest instructor forWilly Ortiz at the JKA Finland Gasshakuand was greeted with an enthusiasticreception. “It was right to reciprocate theinvitation and Sensei Ortiz was greatlywelcomed at the Chingford Dojo.

The two classes consisted of kihon tech-niques and kumite with special attention todistance and hip technique. The advancedBlack Belt class also worked on generatingand maintaining power. There was alsowork on kata and kata application. This iswhere Sensei Ortiz came into his own,with applications for basic kata that werepractical and imaginative. Even the basicGedan Barai in Heian Shodan was usedas an attack to the groin, whilst the firstthree techniques of Heian Nidan complete-ly immobilised the ‘victim’ who was attack-ing with a headlock.

After the course there was a traditionalintroduction to English beer and food atthe local restaurant and conversation aboutkarate well into the night.

You will be able to find details of othercourses and events on the websitewww.shotokan-karate-england.co.uk


The Cheif Instructorof Finland visitsKarate England

FEATURE / CHEIF INSTRUCTOR OF FINLAND VISITS KARATE ENGLAND

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China is an ancient civilisation and theability to fight effectively has been part ofChinese culture from the very beginning.From the earliest times, various forms ofshamanic Daoism formed the spiritualfoundation for martial practice. It wasbelieved that to fight effectively, one’s char-acter had to be aligned with the deepestaspects of nature. The human mind andbody was viewed as a conduit for univer-sal energy (i.e.’qi’). By focusing the mindand disciplining the physical body, throughthe various movements of the many martialstyles (either armed or unarmed), this livingchannel is opened and purified so that theqi flows freely - and all can be achieved.This is, of course, an idyllic state that is theculmination of many years of practice andexperience, brought to a fine focus of per-sonal development.

China’s cultural influence has spread farand wide throughout Southeast Asia. Andof the many martial transmissions,arguably one of the most interesting has tobe that of Fujian White Crane (Bak Hok)kung fu, taken to the island of Okinawa,where it evolved and is practiced today asGoju Ryu Karate-do (Hard/Soft EmptyHand Way). What is of interest is not justthe physical movements, but also the histor-ical circumstances that led to, and allowedsuch a succinct transmission to occur. Thememory of any martial transmission invari-ably rests in the ultimate destination of thetransmission. As styles spread and diversi-fy away from the original blueprint, it isusually the case that the parent style isnever fully aware of the true impact it hashad, far away from the place of its birth.This does not have to be necessarilybetween two countries - in China it is wellknown that many northern originatingstyles spread southward, throughout China,undergoing physical changes in technicalpresentation - changes that essentially cre-ated new and effective styles, separatefrom the root style in many cases.

Couple these changes with the staunchadherence of the ancient Chinese people tothe Confucian clan system, and each andevery style would become a well guardedfamily secret, taught only to members ofthe same clan, down through the ages.Many such styles would have entirely new

origination myths and legends ascribed tothem, usually to fit into an already existingclan history, that would tell how the clanname came into existence, and why theclan name was important. The style wouldbe attributed to a clan name, and if thenotion of ‘face’ was to be upheld - the stylewould have to have an origination as aus-picious as the clan name itself. Of course,many clans did indeed ‘invent’ their owncombat systems in antiquity.

Combat experience served as the blueprintfor such a development. And a style ofkung fu was a method that ‘recorded’ suchwisdom and knowledge into a set of‘forms’. The ‘form’ is an ancient recordingdevice, whereby a number of movementsare placed together for the student to learnand practice over and over again. Formsare multi-layered, and the longer a studentpractices the more hidden wisdom isrevealed and understood. As warfare hadnumerous and disparate circumstances sur-rounding it, the many different styles thatdeveloped from its experience, reflect thatno one method of combat stood supremeto anyother, but all styles were relevantwithin the context of battle that formedthem. Every traditional style has somethingvaluable and interesting to offer the aspir-ing martial artist. Fujian White Crane is avery unique style and its formulation as astyle has to be assessed within he contextof Fujian province itself.

Fujian Province. The name itself means ‘Happy Place’. Andyet its geography is very mountainous andmarshy. Lying on China’s southeast coast,with a population of some 30 million,Fujian province has also been called MinSheng, after the original tribal Min peoplewho use to populate the province. TheRiver Min runs west to east, across the cen-tre of the province, separating the two dis-tinct subcultures; the Northern Min and theSouthern Min. In fact, up until recenttimes, as a place, it has been difficult toaccess. Even today, Fujian province is richin Daoist temples and Daoist ritual - includ-ing Shen Gong, whereby the spirit of amartial character from Chinese literature,or the spirit of the local Daoist deity -‘enters’ and momentarily possesses themind and body of the adherent. For the

time of the possession, the adherent per-forms many and varied martial movements- afterward, when the spirit leaves, theadherent returns to their natural state,unharmed and at peace.

Difficult to access from the Chinese hinter-land and relatively easy to access from thesea, the blend of Fujian culture and theincoming seafaring cultures has producedsome very unique cultural and linguisticdevelopments - distinct from those develop-ments on the Mainland of China. The twomain dialects that prevail in Fujian are‘Min Bei’ (Northern Min), and ‘Min Nan’(Southern Min). The former is the dialect

From Fujian White Craneto Okinawan Goju RyuThe transmission of a martial artPart 1 - By Adrian Chan-Wyles

FEATURE / FROM FUJIAN WHITE CRANE TO OKINAWAN GOJU RYU

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spoken around the capital city of Fujain -Fuzhou, and the latter is the dialect spokenaround the southern city of Xiamen (some-times called Amoy or Hokkien). The twodialects are considered unrelated to oneanother. This process of ‘distinctiveness’may well have been compouned by thefact that directly to the east of Fujianprovince, lies the island of Taiwan (i.e. theRepublic of China), one of the many areasthat Min Nan is spoken. Another distinc-tive ethnic group worth mentioning is thatof the Hakka, who migrated into theprovince from the latter 1600’s onward,bringing their own unique language andculture into the area.

The Development of White Crane Kung Fu.As with virtually all Chinese fighting styles,many are based upon animal movements,and there is usually more than one origina-tion story, Fujian White Crane is no excep-tion to this. The animal ascribed as thebasis of any martial art, is thought to con-tain the essence of that art, in all its behav-iour and demeanour. Indeed, in manyDaoist temples, adherents are encouragedto allow the spirit of a particular animal totemporarily enter their minds and bodies -perhaps this is why so many Chinese stylesare attributed to animal or insect behav-ioural patterns. The physical movements ofthe White Crane, make full use of theanatomical spaces in and around the limbs,

torso and head. The human body, beingessentially ‘rounded’ in nature, allows for atremendous amount of movement within thespace it already occupies. The joints of thelimbs, particularly of the ankles, knees andhips, give an upright flexibility that canevade a blow, in such away, and at thesame time creating a counter penetratingforce (that travels up from the feet, via theknees and through the hip, spine, shoul-ders, neck, elbows, wrists, hands and fin-gers) that immediately strikes the opponentat the exact point of their greatest extensionof the particular attack, whether it be apunch or a kick, etc.

At this point, the opponent’s power dimin-ishes and the blow has to be withdrawn.The White Crane, with the various finger,knuckle, wrist, elbow, (or with the numer-ous kicking and leg strikes in its arsenal),lashes out with a ferocious and pin-pointaccurate strike to the opponent’s weakanatomical points. The opponent is ideallycaught off balance (between strikes as itwere), and the strike aims to hit the nervebundles beneath the outer layer of muscu-lar protection. A nerve strike literally dis-rupts the opponent’s ability to controlhis/her body in a combat situation. Asthe White Crane evades whilst hitting, it isvery difficult to counter such a techniqueeffectively. Not only this, but the WhiteCrane practitioner is taught to make use of

their full height (from a crouch to standingin high stances), and to make use of theirfull range of arm and leg- extension, fromclose range to far.

The White Crane practitioner can movethrough a tremendous amount of anglewhilst standing on the spot, evading andstriking in the process. However, a sophisti-cated and agile stepping serious is part ofthis style. If the White Crane needs to, itcan move very fast and with accuracy.There are two broad origination stories withthis style. Both involve a similar incident,which showed the Crane’s effective martialprowess. One story has the style originat-ing in Tibet. Whereby a Tibetan Buddhistpriest (i.e. a Lama), witnessed a WhiteCrane bird fighting with an ape. The ape,despite being bigger and presumablystronger, and despite continuous attacking,could not dislodge the Crane from itsstance. The Crane bobbed and weaved,blocked and redirected with its strong wingedges. It also struck with blinding speedand accuracy at the ape’s face, cutting thesoft tissue as it went. Eventually, the apetired and left the White Crane alone.

The other story says that the style wasfounded in Fujian province in the 18th cen-tury by a woman called Fang Chi-Niang,who was drying grain on the floor in themid-day sun. A large White Crane camedown and started to eat. It did not seem tobe bothered by Fang’s presents. Fangmade noises, shouted and banged objects,but the Crane took no notice. She thenpicked up a bamboo stick and tried topoke the Crane away from the corn. Toher astonishment, the Crane deflected thestick with its wings, and pecked it with itsbeak, The sharp beak was able to breakthe stick in places, but at no time couldFang make effective contact with the stick.The Crane side stepped, and swayed andmanaged to neutralise Fang’s best efforts!The Crane looked fragile, but with theproper use of its body, it was able to turnweakness into strength.

Fang is said to have taken this knowledgeand developed the basis of the WhiteCrane kung fu. Her father is said to havebeen an accomplished martial artist, whomay have learnt kung fu at the FujianShaolin Temple. The Fang family lived inand around Fuzhou, the capital city ofFujian province. Of course, the differingorigination stories could well refer to differ-ing ‘strands’ of the art, and both could betrue within there own particular context.And (as a speculation) it could be thatFang’s father had learnt the Tibetan formof White Crane, before passing it one tohis daughter - who moulded it into today’sFujian White Crane. This system has fourbasic and foundational schools of martialprinciple; The Vibrating Crane, CryingCrane, Eating Crane (sometimes referred

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to as ‘Morning Crane’) and Flying Crane,each emphasising a different aspect of theWhite Crane’s behaviour in combat.Whatever the truth about the origins ofWhite Crane kung fu - it must be acknowl-edged that both Chen and Yang styles ofTajiquan (both from north China) containsmovements carrying the name ‘WhiteCrane’, which might suggest that WhiteCrane is intended as an internal style.

Certainly, the martial expression of theCrane seems to have come down to thepresent time, in to distinct categories ofpractice - one category emphasising fast,fluid and relatively light movements,designed to fight many opponents in var-ied circumstances (Tibetan White Crane isan of this method), and then there is theCrane practice that involves primarily theinternal energy production method - manyFujian versions of the Crane have concen-trated exclusively on the development ofinternal energy production. As a conse-quence, many Fujian systems appear to becomprised of powerful, jerky, small circularmovements. This energy productionmethod, after years of training tougheningthe ligaments, tendons and musculature,combined with the development of fullbody relaxation, is then applied to combatsituations in training.

The northern versions of the style, havetended to maintain a fine balance betweenthe internal energy production method,and apparent combat effective movement -hence their fluidity. And, I think that bothexpressions of White Crane ideally conveythe polar opposites, which are complimen-tary, in the ancient Chinese science ofyin/yang energy measurement. And alsoemphasises the sheer adaptability of theWhite Crane style and method. As a style,it has influenced martial styles extensively,but often unobtrusively, working in thebackground oand inspiring technical inno-vation. White Crane is found in widelydiverse arts such as Wing Chun Kuen, andYang Style Taijiquan.

The Island of Okinawa.Okinawa is the largest of the RyukyuIslands, (the name ‘Ryukyu’ literally trans-lates as ‘a rope tossed into the water’) andis believed to refer to the narrow, twistinggeography of Ryukyu islands - as if it werea rope resting on the ocean surface. TheRyuKyu Islands lay to the southeast ofChina and the south of Japan. In fact, theEast China Sea links the Ryukyu’s directlyto Fujian province. The idigenousOkinawan people themselves, are thoughtto be of possible ‘Ainu’ descent’, and thebasis of their language to be ‘Ogen’.

From at least 605AD, the people ofOkinawa have paid tribute to China’sancient imperial system - and from 608AD,they paid tribute to the Japanese imperial

court. Okinawa was independent until theJapanese militarily invaded the RyukyuIslands in 1611AD. Prior to this date, theOkinawans travelled widely and tradedfreely with the other peoples of the region,including trade missions to Java. It becamea melting pot of diverse culture. So muchso in fact, that China sent missions toOkinawa - that were both of a military andcivilian nature. The Nine Villages ofChinese settlement developed on the islandof Okinawa. With the settlement ofChinese people, came the propagation ofChinese martial culture. It is believed thatthe Okinawans integrated Chinese martialelements into their own indigenous combatarts. Indeed, the generic name forOkinawan combat arts was ‘To-te’, or ‘TangHands’, presumably developing during theChinese Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD), atime of great Chinese cultural development,exportation and expansion.

Even in modern South Korea today, thereexists an art called ‘Tang So Do’, (Chinese:‘Tang Shou Dao’), or ‘Tang Hands Way’.As Chinese dynasties came into power, theChinese state would be known by thename of that particular dynasty. So thename ‘Tang’ literally came to mean‘China’. The Okinawan martial art of To-tebecame understood as ‘Chinese Hands’.Much later, during the early 20th century,the Japanese changed the Okinawan char-acter ‘To’ (pronounced ‘Kara’ in Japanese),to a character that was pronounced in asimilar manner (i.e. ‘Kara’), but meant‘Empty’. Master Gichin Funakoshi suggeststhat the term was chosen by himself afterreading the Heart Sutra - where it is saidthat; ‘Form is void. Void is form’

Despite the use of weaponry in traditionalKarate-do, in Japan it became known as‘Empty Hand Way’. Following theJapanese invasion of Okinawa in the 17thcentury, Okinawans were forbidden by lawto carry or use traditional weaponry.Instead, they adapted the use of farmingimplements for martial purposes. Theseweapons, which included the three-pronged bludgeon, rice flails and millgrinding sticks, were developed to counterthe Japanese samurai sword. And it is atthis time that it is believed that Karate mentoughened their hands in training, so thatthey might smash through the woodenarmour worn by the Japanese soldiers.

The Development of Goju Ryu.Like the origins of many great martial sys-tems, the Okinawan system of what hasbecome known today as Goju Ryu(Hard/Soft School), has developed andgrown out of the human need to travel andexplore. The martial arts that served as thebedrock for the template of Goju Ryu, werethemselves developed in ancient China, andperhaps outside of China, over a time spanof perhaps hundreds or thousands of years.

The spirit of exploration and daring wasfurther personified by an eminentOkinawan, namely Kanryo Higaonna(1853-1915). Okinawa, since the 1400’s,had benefited from highly favourable trad-ing rights with China - and very close cul-tural links. As a result, there was manyOkinawans who travelled to China to estab-lish direct commercial links for trade, and ofcourse, to study within the Chinese educa-tion system, including the martial arts.Chinese people also emigrated to Okinawa,and many of them settled in the Naharegion of Okinawa. Here, Chinese martialsystems would have been observable by theOkinawans, and many Okinawans wouldhave been students of Chinese teachers. InOkinawa at this time, the Chinese culturalinfluence was extensive and the primarysource of outside influence, although ofcourse, not the only influence.

Kanryo Higaonna grew-up at a time ofgreat cultural upheavel in Okinawa.Japan was in the ascendency of imperialpower at this time, and exercised ever-greater political and cultural control overOkinawa. And despite Okinawa’s closecultural and historical ties with China,China was unable to project any realdiplomatic or military power beyond itsown borders. China at this time, underthe Manchurian Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was suffering from internal disinte-gration, as various political and ethnicgroups sort to overthrow the Qing rule,and assert their own dynastic ambitions.

Next month, Goju Ryu practitioner of 28years (24 of those years spent teachingGoju Ryu in the UK), Mr Tony Smith (4thDan), takes up the story, allowing me thebenefit of his extensive experience andinsight into the Goju style and historicaldevelopment, during an interview inAugust 2006.

FEATURE / FROM FUJIAN WHITE CRANE TO OKINAWAN GOJU RYU

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As the ‘warrior competitors’ of yesteryeargo beyond their competition careers, it isonly natural that those who love their mar-tial arts will look deeper into them. Nolonger content with scoring points (and insome cases no longer able, through disease,injury, or fading fitness levels), there arethose who remember that sensei said Karatewas for life. They plumb the depths of theirart for something to continue training with.They find meditation, and they find bio-mechanical principles that govern move-ment, a certain economy of motion inherentin experience over enthusiasm and within allof this they begin to wonder what thosefunny looking postures in their kata are for.The applications that some sensei teach areobviously built around a kumite (sparring)distance and an application that encouragesmovement to full extension (the ‘form’ of themovement). The experienced martial artists(and not a small number of inexperiencedones) then ask “but what if it was a ‘street’sort of attack?” Then the subject of ‘appli-cations’ becomes a hotbed of conversationand not a few arguments.

There are people out there writing books andmaking videos promoting their interpretationof what the ‘real’ applications are to themoves from kata (set forms). Not that thereis anything wrong with that in itself, just that

we must put a little bit of context on thesekata before we look at what the moves do.Sometimes I have heard students say “Itdoesn’t work” to other instructors. Theirreply has often been ‘You need to work hard-er at it” or (the worst one) ‘You’ll be able todo that one when you are a [insert levelthree grades higher than current, here] thDan”. Sometimes it just doesn’t work for you.

The applications that you use have to work‘for you’. This is why in my books, dvds,and seminars, I will show multiple applica-tions to moves. Some of them are not foryou. By this I mean that some applicationsmay not be appropriate. They might not beappropriate for your body type, they mightnot be appropriate for your mind-set, andthey might not be appropriate for the kindof situations that you are likely to find your-self in. Over the next few articles, we’ll beshowing how an application can fit withyour needs, rather than you having to fit ‘it’.

The RulesThe first thing to establish is that the move-ments of kata were never meant to bematched against the attacks of another mar-tial artist. This was a civilian method of self-defence, to be used against an attacker whowas unlikely to know martial arts them-selves, and unlikely to know that their

intended victim did martial arts. As such, wemust understand the range that these tech-niques were useful in. It was not announcedat 6’ away, but sudden and close in. Therewas no time to stand and prepare to block.The attack would be one of very few ‘com-mon attacks’. (Patrick McCarthy refers tothese as the ‘Habitual Acts of PhysicalViolence’.) As such, there are various, pre-dictable, actions and reactions that occurwith the human body. These ‘flinches’ canbe used to the martial artist’s benefit.

Whatever retaliation was used would haveto prevent further attack, or at very least,leave the defender in an advantageous posi-tion. This makes a mockery of movementsthat appear to block attacks that then haveno obvious retaliation to them. It is onlylogical then, that the blocks do not just wardor parry, but are excellent fight-stoppers intheir own right.

Principles are more important than postures.The masters of old are known to havechanged kata depending on who they wereteaching. It would seem that they wereimparting the principle over and above theidea of a set position. Today we have to tryto piece together what those principles areto get the same messages across. With thesein mind, we can look at kata moves and the

StandardApplicationsPart 1 - By John Burke

yama kanji pic 1 pic 2

Looking deeper into the arts

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situations they might be applied to. We’llstart with a posture from Jitte which is oftensubject to misunderstanding. The position iscalled ‘yama uke’ or ‘yama gamae’, whichmeans ‘mountain block’ or ‘mountain pos-ture/guard’. The descriptive use ofJapanese merely tells you that when youstand like this you look like the kanji(Japanese calligraphy) for ‘mountain’. Itdoes not indicate that you are blocking withthe strength of a mountain or that you looklike you could lift a mountain.yama kanji

This move is sometimes shown as blocking astraight punch. pic 1 This application shows the posture meetinganother karate-ka’s attack, and as such itdisobeys our rules of attack type, distance,commonality, and prevention (as the defend-er is no better off). Applications like thisteach you how to perform kata (as theyteach the movement ‘as it’s written’; they’renot for self defence.

Body TypeEven where the application is more realistic, itmay not be appropriate for your body-type. pic 2 A move that looks like it lifts an opponentonto your shoulders might be great for thestrong judo-ka type of body with good stabil-ity, but that 5ft tall lady at the back there isn’tgoing to be able to heft me (at 6’2) onto hershoulders with any amount of will-power.

pic 3 She might be better served using that samemovement against the common hook punchas a simultaneous block and strike to theface. This type of application fulfils certaincriteria that mark it out as useful to us.pics 4-5 The attack is realistic: The hook punch, par-ticularly from a right fist, is the most com-mon attack. pic 6 And it is being met in a manner that allowsthe attacker’s force to continue (and even beaccelerated) in a direction that preventsharm to the defender and makes the attack-er land even more heavily on the retaliationpic 7 The technique does the work: She isn’tmeeting force with force, but is rather usinga circular deflecting motion that uses herwhole momentum to escape direct impactand it is the strength of her legs behind herimpact on the attacker’s face.

The distance is realistic: There is very realdanger, not just of an opponent scoring apoint, but of imminent harm, if the karate-kadoes not respond.

The shape of the kata: The posture shows herusing her size to her advantage. If it hap-pens to look like the ‘mountain block’ fromJitte, then we have found something useful.pics 8-9 If we have the coordination we might evenget in the rest of the technique, with the lift-

ing of the knee (hizageri - strike to thegroin) and the stamp down (fumikomismashing the knee of the attacker).pic 10 The same principle, applied to a bigger man,shows the defence in a slightly different form.

It still has the incoming hook punch met bya deflecting forearm that sweeps the oppo-nent’s power past us, and it still has theattack with the whole forearm (albeit with alittle less circularity). But the size of the per-son receiving the attack dictates that the armcannot be in the yama uke position becausethen they would still get hit by the attack.

If the variation happens to look like themove from Sochin then we might discoverthat form fits function rather than the move‘having to’ perform a particular action.

In the next part we will look at how yourmindset can change the nature of aresponse in application.

Thanks to Richard Carrick sensei and GillianMay sensei for posing for the shots. Thosewilling to learn are always welcome at mydojo. Anyone who would like a FunctionalKata Application Seminar at their dojoplease contact [email protected], call01626 360999, or write to John Burke,Martial Arts World, 36-38 Market Walk,Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 2RX. Booksand dvds are available from www.john-burke .info and www.karateacademy.co.uk


FEATURE / STANDARD APPLICATIONS

pic 3

pic 8 pic 9 pic 10

pic 4 pic 5 pic 6

pic 7

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Seigan is a Buddhist term, meaning vow.Vow translates as a solemn promise ofpledge to undertake, or promise, toaffirm that one will make an obligation orsacrifice to do something without fail, toact on the vow without thought of failureand promise to fulfil the promise. Onesuch vow was Shakyamuni’s vow to obtainenlightenment or a Bodhisvitta’s vow tosave all sentinant beings. In martial artsparlance, one can make various seigan.One such vow can be to undertake withoutfail to do 1000 days practice on a particu-lar technique.

This could be a vow to do a 100 or morepunches a day, 500 kicks a day, or if prac-ticing Iaido or Kendo to do a 1000 strikeswith the bokken, a 1000 strikes on themakiwari etc.

No matter what difficulties during the 1000day period, whether one is away fromhome, on holiday, suffering from flu, or adamaged or bruised body, one still has tomake the supreme effort and get out andpractice. This in turn will help build amighty and unyielding spirit. Each repeti-tion of the practice has to be in good form,it is no good if you practice in a sloppymanner, practice does not make perfect, asShihan Kanazawa states, only perfectpractice makes perfect. This type of prac-tice is known as Uchi-Komi or attack train-ing, pure repetition, over and over again,until the technique becomes second nature.One loses oneself into the technique and itbecomes one with the body. One has toforge oneself and spirit to meet any chal-lenge without thought of defeat.

Other seigan, can be undertaken especial-ly for karate kas, to fight 100 opponentswithout stop. This happens inKyokushinkai karate. One has to defeateveryone without losing a single match. Ofcourse this could be extended to 200 or500 bouts, or cut to 30 or 50 but the 100man kumite is the most popular.

Whatever you decide will be your ownpersonal seigan- make it one that you willdo, do not make an impossible vow, as thiswill cause a feeling of complete failure. It is

better to make a vow that one knows willbe kept than go over the top and statesomething that you know you cannot hopeto complete. When one has completed thefirst seigan, then go ahead and do anoth-er, all the while building good spirit andpositive emotions. In today’s relatively com-fortable world, this kind of austere trainingor practice is not popular. It is too hard formost people. The discipline required isbeyond the means of the majority of mar-tial artists of today. It is really for the tra-ditional schools of martial arts, those thatgo beyond the mere physical and into thespiritual aspects of Budo and Bugei that itwill appeal to.

It is not something to be taken lightly orboasted about, but something to do forones own satisfaction or mind. To be doneto improve ones marital spirit.

The majority of today’s schools are actuallyonly peripheral, teaching just various phys-ical techniques or moves, most of theinstructors are at the same level and havenot or cannot go beyond. One must havea deep love for the martial arts, and notjust see them as a means of making moneyor becoming famous in martial circles.

So are you man, enough to take a seiganand will you succeed in it? I hope so. Donot make it too easy a challenge, not toohard, find something that will improve yourown particular martial art and go aheadand do it. It is a bit like making a NewYear’s resolution, but much more serious,and how many people actually carry outtheir resolutions? Not very many I know.

Well good luck and may the forces be withyou, both in mind, body and spirit.


SeiganFrank N. Newton Menkyo Kaiden

FEATURE / SEIGAN

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In this article I will continue to look atthe popular tonfa kata called ‘Tonfa noHamahiga’. It is from Itotsu ryu kobudo,but variations of the same kata are foundthroughout Japan and Okinawa. It isusefull to have a reference source for thiskata, as many people have learned it atone point or another. In the last kobudoarticle we finished as the exponent wasfacing the front having struck with bothtonfa-bringing them together in extendedgrip. Flick both tonfa back into defensivegrip with the handles facing out horizon-tally to the left and right. (pic 1) Followthis by striking down with both weaponsvertically to the front changing to offen-

sive grip. (pic 2) Now change directioncircling both tonfa in to the middle beforestriking out to the rear with both simulta-neously (pic 3). With the left tonfa this isa clockwise motion, whilst with the rightthis is anti-clockwise. When striking backthe blades of the tonfa are on the outsideand to the rear. Finish this sequence byflicking both tonfa up into defensive gripblocking to the front with both weaponsat the same time. (pic 4)

Now step forwards with the left leg andchange direction to the rear blockingdown with the right hand and up with theleft. (pic 5) The right leg should be in the

front, and facing the rear. Step forwardswith the left leg, repeating this doubleblock with the left leg forwards. (pic 6)You should still be facing the rear. (pic 11shows the application of this move)

Now repeat the nine move combinationthat you executed in part two of thekata. This begins with a chudan oi-tsukistrike to the solar plexus with the tonfaheld in defensive grip. This is followedby four flowing strikes in figure of eightfashion with the blade of the tonfa. (pic12 shows one possible application ofthis circular strike). After the fourthstrike from the left, strike to the right rear


Itotsu ryus’ Tonfa no HamahigaPart 3

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and then up to the front. Follow this bystriking round from the right, and thenforwards in kizama-tsuki to suigets tocomplete the nine move combination.Repeat this combination with the lefthand with the left hand forwards. Finishthis section by stepping forwards withthe right foot and punch three times tothe solar plexus-right, left, right.

Next complete the long combinationagain with the right hand, but withoutthe initial punch. Execute the same com-bination, again with the right hand, but

this time to the front with the right legforwards. The turn is made in time withthe initial strike by pivoting on the spot,and then stepping back with the left leg.

Bring both tonfa together in front of youwith a loud snap, as you bring the rightfoot back into necko-ashi-dachi (pic 8).With the right foot forwards complete adouble gedan barai. (pic 9) Now stepforwards with the left leg into higo-shizen-dachi and perform a doubleinside block. (pic 10) Finish by bringingboth hands down to ‘yoi’ and then step

in with your left leg, transferring the lefttonfa to your right hand and bow.

This is a long kata with a staggering133 moves.

I teach Itotsu-ryu Kobudo in a small dojoin Edgware, North London. Anyoneinterested in learning Iaido or Kobudo inNorth London, or organising seminars,can phone me on 07958995979 oremail info @northlondonbudo.co.uk orcheck out the web site at www.northlondonbudo.co.uk


FEATURE / ITOTSU RYUS’ TONFA NO HAMAHIGA

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001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:40 pm Page 69

Sat 16TH December 2006 saw the firstpart of the 1st Ken Toh Kai KarateJunior Championships (Harehills,

Leeds 9) with the final being held on ourannual presentation evening onWednesday 20th December. The competi-tion was the first time we have held our owncompetition, but was also the first time a lotof our pupils have entered a competition -which was a great confidence booster forthem because this was a club run competitionwe had quite a few awards to present for the18 categories.

The competition was run under WKF rulesand refereed by Les Carr 6th Dan and RandyWilliams 6th Dan, Paul Lynch 4th Dan, CarlHerbert 4th Dan and David Sissons 3rd Dan.K.T.K.U.K was lucky enough to have suchhigh quality referees as Les, Paul, Randy andDave, they helped make our 1stChampionship a great success. The TableOfficials were Paul Wilkinson, FionaWilkinson and Jo Bentley - who all attendeda Referees, Judges and Table Officials Courseto enable them to assist at the competition.

Full Details of our Competition and our clubevents are on our website www.leedskarate.com

KATA 9 Yrs & Under 9-7 Kyu1st Simba Munemo2nd Leila El-bourkadi 3rd Place Imraz Hussain & Hannah Shann

6-4 Kyu1st Ashley Deighton 2nd Yahiya Ahmed3rd Lauren Samuel & Zak Gurnah

3rd Kyu + 1 St Cameron Bentley2nd Ethan Parsons 3rd Janae Walters & Dylan O’boyle

12 Yrs & Under 9-7 Kyu1st Sophie Olivant2nd Adam Bryan3rd Dean El-bourkadi

6-4 Kyu1st Nadia Begum2nd Kieran Wilkinson3rd Luke Quashie-stewart & Ishaque Ahmed

3rd Kyu +1st Dylan Connolly2nd Eliott Parsons3rd Ben Walton & Daniel Woodhead

15 Yrs & Under 6-4 Kyu1st Richard Green2nd Callum Armstrong3rd Habibur Rahman

3rd Kyu +1st Mobeen Hussain2nd Kyle Batt3rd Muhammed Hussain & Nathan Lynch

KUMITE 8 Yrs & Under 9-7 Kyu 1st Ellie Mannion2nd David Visockis3rd Simba Munemo & Raheem Hussain

6-4 Kyu1st Kwasi Sarkodee-adoo2nd Lauren Samuels3rd Tushan Josephs

3rd Kyu +1st Ethan Parsons2nd Janae Walters3rd Cameron Bentley & Aaron Connolly

10 Yrs & Under 9-7 Kyu1st Luke Haywood2nd Imraz Hussain

6-4 Kyu1st Ryan Deighton

2nd Nadia Egum3rd Ashley Deighton & Ethan Armstrong

3rd Kyu +1st Dylan Connolly2nd Jack Harrison3rd Ben Walton & Luke Quashie-stewart

13 Yrs & Under 9-7 Kyu1st Sophie Olivant2nd Adam Bryan3rd Dean El-bourkadi

6-4 Kyu1st Richard Green2nd Habibur Rahman3rd Saidur Rahman & Ishaque Ahmed

3rd Kyu+1st Eliott Parsons2nd Rachel Lynch3rd Josh Jones & Sacha Robinson

15 Yrs & Under Open Grade1st Callum Armstrong2nd Dom Walton3rd Mobeen Hussain & Nathan Lynch

All entry fees and money raised from both thecompetition and the presentation eveningwere put towards our forthcoming Europeantrip, for which we are raising funds to ensurethat as many people as possible are able tocome with us. Our club enters as many com-petitions as possible and are always interestedin any WKF run competitions. Please E-MailDetails to [email protected]


Ken Toh KaiKarate UK

FEATURE / KEN TOH KAI KARATE UK

001_084_Karate0407 14/2/07 6:40 pm Page 77

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