Cheetahs and Gazelles The cheetah is known as the fastest animal on land, able to sprint at 96 kph / 60 mph. The gazelle is a common target for the cheetah. Gazelles have horns that are of limited defensive use against a cheetah attacking from the rear or side. The gazelle is agile but […]
Chickens As many readers are already aware, there is an interesting website devoted to Shotokan called “24fightingchickens”. This article has nothing to do with that… Chicken Head What I refer to as “chicken head” is the tendency for the head’s forward movement to precede the rest of the body when stepping or shifting forward. […]
Lining Up and Bowing In The procedure of lining up and bowing in or out at the beginning or end of a training session may have seemed completely foreign to some of us when we first saw or experienced it. While its practice is usually understood, or at least accepted, by almost all karateka, […]
Embusen – The Demonstration Line(s) An embu (sometimes written enbu) is a “demonstration”. Sen means “line(s)”. Embusen, therefore, refers to the line(s) that is(are) followed during a demonstration of movements, such as in kata. When we perform kata in a test or tournament, as well as during regular class training, most of us invariably […]
Kokutsu-dachi – Back Stance Kokutsu-dachi is one of the basic Shotokan stances. For information about zenkutsu-dachi/front-stance and kiba-dachi/side-stance, please see other articles. General Stance Configuration Kokutsu-dachi should be approximately the same length as zenkutsu-dachi, but with no significant width. The forward foot should be pointing straight ahead (towards the opponent) with the rear foot […]
Contraction/Expansion First of all, let me point out that muscles do not “expand” so much as they “lengthen” and “contract” is slightly misleading as well. What is often meant by contraction/expansion in Karate, however, is not so much an explanation of what the muscles do, as a relational description of the movements of various parts […]
