Keep Your Hands Still While Round Kicking
When you are performing kicks stepping forward from one front stance to another, it is typical for your arms to become over involved in the activity and swing one way and the other. This is especially true when round kicking. Try this exercise:
- Fill two cups with water
- Hold one in each hand
- Perform 20 stepping round kicks
- Do not spill a drop of water
This exercise will teach you to keep your hands still while your lower body is active. The more you can isolate your upper body from your lower body, the more individual control of each limb and every motion you will have until it becomes second nature.
Every truly masterful karate technician and fighter has the ability to perform one action with one arm, one with the other, and not have them tied together.
This concept is lost on most karate players. They learn early to strongly pull back their draw hand and punch at the same time. This is OK for beginners, but more advance students must learn that the draw shoulder is very tight in the back and stretched in the front, while the punching shoulder is very relaxed all the way around throughout the motion. This is a basic of body dynamics.
This becomes more serious when you consider sparring ability. When you step in and punch, frequently your opponent will retaliate simultaneously. To develop the ability to continue your attack with full commitment and also block his incoming fist, you must be able to isolate right from left. Otherwise, you will choke when you see his incoming attack, and you will back away.
This inability is the reason you see so many people sparring by throwing a single failed technique before they duck back away from their opponent. They look as though they will be electrocuted. But the greats all dive in and throw three techniques and usually no less during their attacks. They are doing two different activities at once.
Try the basic exercise of kicking with two cups of water in your hands. See if you can do it.
And before someone asks, no, you do not need to swing your arms to throw a round kick. Moving your arms to help the kick is quite useless and adds nothing. When I see the arms move, I see an opening to exploit. I see someone who cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.
by Rob Redmond
his is a great article written by a very good Shotokan stylist and writer of karate articles. TI’d like to add that, I’ve expressed many times in class how important it is that we keep out hands in front of us. If you don’t you cannot follow up with hands effectively or block a counter attack. This author feels so strongly about this that he has developed a special exercise to work on this habit. A great friend of mine and fellow martial artist Mr. Twenty Twenty, once said, it’s all about elimination of bad habits. Keep your hands up. You’ll block more punches by mistake than on purpose if you just keep your hands up! Shihan Culver
