2025-03-10

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

We worked a lot on kumite tonight, in both classes. Specifically, we worked on maai (間合い). Maai is often translated as “distance” but it also encompasses the relative angles between opponents. Assuming a similarly sized attacker, if he’s in range, then so am I, but part of maai is getting to a place where it’s easy to apply my techniques while making it difficult for him to do so.

I often use the example of pre-modern naval combat to describe this “angling” aspect of maai. Naval vessels had more guns mounted on the sides of the ship and very few pointing straight forward or backward. Thus, the best strategy was get to a place where your enemy was to your side while you were to his front or rear. (i.e. You have more guns pointing at him than he has pointing at you.) Karate is the same way.

We used kihon ippon kumite to practice this idea, where the defender needs to step off the line of attack but not backwards, avoiding the attack, but keeping the attacker in range. This can get frustrating for students because, while I can tell them to step off at an angle, I can’t tell them what angle. They have to do that calculus themselves, based on the relative height of their attacker, and even then it’ll change depending on how deeply the attacker chooses to step.

To ease that frustration, I compare this drill to practicing in a batting cage. I can tell you how to stand, how to hold the bat, etc., but I can’t tell you exactly when or where to swing because the ball is going to have a slightly different position and speed each time. You need to be able to “read the ball.” Karate is the same way.