Training Notes
Sensei Iha’s Self Defense Karate Training Tips
Proper kata, makiwara, and partner practice are at the heart of Okinawan Shorin Ryu Karate.
When doing kata on your own, one must balance between complete exhaustion and a lack of outpower. Sensei says this balance is found in your own body only if you train to complete exhaustion much of the time.
He recalled that in Okinawa, he and his friends used isometrics, stances, and immovable objects to bring their bodies to exhaustion. The point was that growth requires regularly reaching one’s limit.
Kata is only kata if it is done like a spirit, not a marathon. The feeling in kata is called ijiki, lively action that lets onlookers sense that you are visualizing a fight. It combines breath control, a balanced rotating center, posture, and lower abdominal awareness so power comes from hips and spine rather than the shoulder and tricep.
Partner work is never about competition. After a few moves a person’s skill is very apparent. Partner work demonstrates the ability to control yourself and harmonize with your partner, an ability Sensei called kakehiki.
When students demonstrate strikes on the bag and board, distance and recoil control matter. Sensei said the ability to put power into someone else is primarily developed by makiwara. It is your other sensei.
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