Spirit first, technique second. A great martial artist once said that!
You can have perfect techniques and fail in a confrontation. I’ve had many students that when they performed their techniques they had perfect form, stance and execution but no spirit. Yes that can make a difference! In a fighting situation sometimes the one who goes crazy wins. There’s a movie that one of the leads says, “I don’t know karate, I know karazy”. All things being equal, often the one with the most enthusiasm will usually win.
In police training they use a sliding scale to show the difference between size and strength and training. It would be impossible to factor in the enthusiasm or the spirit factor. In self defense, you can’t give up. Every woman says, I’ll kick them where it hurts. Then, no woman should ever get attacked right? We know the fallacy of that statement. Then why do we occasionally hear stories about a grandmother who defends herself against a larger and younger and obviously stupider attacker or intruder? Spirit!!! She said no way! She said get out and meant it! She was willing to fight till she couldn’t fight no more.
Then why do young, strong and sometimes trained people get overcome? Sometimes it’s surprise, but often it is spirit.
I teach students, that if you know how to deliver a proper karate punch that a punch to the solar plexis is the best one to deliver. When you can’t breath you can’t fight. You can’t even stand after a well placed blow to that spot! I call it the easy button! A punch to the solar plexis makes you feel like you are going to die. Kinda takes your spirit right out of you! However, punch someone in the nose and often you’ll kickstart their spirit. Even if they don’t fight back you may see their bigger brother or cousin the next day. It’s funny that when a kid tells his big brother that he got punched in the stomach, the reaction is often laughter.
In Shotokan Karate, students are taught to Kiai. One meaning of Kiai is Spirit Wind. When an attacker hears a kiai they know they are encountering a trained martial artist. They also can tell from that yell the level of spirit in that person. There is a term in Shotokan Karate, Zanchin. It means to utterly cut your opponent down or utterly defeat your opponent. Hmmm? Must be that spirit thing. No it’s the result of spirit!
When you look at that police chart, that many experts on confrontations have put together there is no factoring of spirit. How come the little 115 lb former student of mine resisted the efforts of 1, then 2 cadets at the NYPD police academy to finally be taken down when a 3rd cadet joined in. Wonder what would’ve happened if the trainers would’ve said we don’t care how bad you hurt them. I think you would’ve had 3 people in the emergency room. Why? That doesn’t fit the chart. How could this happen. Even with her years of training the difference in size and definately being out numbered should’ve outweighed her knowledge. Sometimes there’s no accounting for spirit. You can’t factor it in. If you have it though it sure does help.
Spirit wins the day!
Written by: Sensei Perry Culver 6th dan Shotokan Karate, Chief Instructor of Culver Karate in Connellsville.
