2022-09-21

2022-09-21, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Today we spoke at length about the need to trust your training partners. Oftentimes I’ll tell students not to move before executing a technique in their direction and, while experienced karateka have no problem with this, beginners almost always do something: take a step, flail their arms, dodge, etc.

Because much of karate practice involves stopping a technique just short of the target (this is called “sun dome” 寸止め in Japanese) it’s important that you know where the target is and, when beginning, it’s important that the target not be moving. This requires trust on both sides. Uke (the “target”) has to trust that tori (the one executing the technique) has the control to stop the technique. Meanwhile, tori has to trust that uke won’t do something unexpected. After all, any motion on uke’s part will either make it difficult for tori to judge his accuracy or (possibly) result in injury.

Students need to build up a record of success and a “reputation” for accuracy because mistrust can be a vicious circle. No one wants to hold still for the guy who’s always hitting people by mistake. Likewise, students who lack the confidence in their own ability to stop short will often compensate by increasing the “buffer” distance or decreasing their speed, both of which have a negative effect on actual performance.