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THE FOUR CORNERSTONES
Sensei Peter Lindsay, 5th Dan.
Westshore Karate Inc, British Columbia

As with anything of substance Shotokan karate is based upon a strong foundation.

Like a forty-two story office building standing tall and proud, Shotokan karate is supported by four cornerstones without which it could not have stood the test of time. These four building blocks are: a proper stance, proper posture, proper balance and proper "kime" or focus.

Without these four basic building blocks working in harmony with each other, equally weighted, and equally given their due, you will never learn to develop your techniques to their full potential, and thus you will never have any hope of truly understanding let alone mastering, the art of Shotokan karate.

STANCE :

Your stance is the platform upon which everything else is built.

It is the beginning, middle, and end of all that you will do as a Shotokan karate-ka. More than any other style of karate Shotokan is noted for it’s long low stances which, when practiced correctly, are very effective at creating a low centre of gravity, promoting good stability, and fostering strong muscular development.

Early on in your karate training you will quickly be made aware of the fact that landing in a poor stance, however momentarily, will create a level of instability that will prevent you from making any effective defensive or offensive movements, while at the same time you will be leaving yourself open to a successfully attack or counter attack from your opponent.

Given such an opening even a junior belt properly trained will seize upon the moment and may be virtually assured of victory due to your lack of stability and strength.

Without a proper stance nothing else is possible.


POSTURE :

Your posture says it all.

From walking down the street, to sitting in a business meeting, or simply driving in your car. In your daily life how you carry yourself says a lot about who you are. Throughout our early childhood we were all told to sit up straight, to stand up properly, to keep our head up, and to watch where we were going. Today how you personally hold yourself, how you carry yourself when you move, and how you focus on your surroundings, depends largely on how well you have taken these early lessons to heart.

In Shotokan karate it is vital that you learn to always center your torso over your hips when you move. If you can remain conscious of this fact, especially when shifting from one stance to another, then by combining good hip movement with proper posture and balance you will create a strong vertical center, thus making smooth rapid movements possible and effective.

The hips should be considered the steering wheel of your body.

You will quickly come to learn that poor posture equates to poor everything else.


BALANCE :

Good balance is the result of a proper thought.

In karate from the moment you start to move from one stance to another, or from one technique to another, you are essentially risking all that you have in the hope of achieving something better. This period of transition often lasts for less than a split second of time, a time in which balance plays the role of the sun, acting as the center of your universe around which all of your other actions must revolve. Without proper balance a successful out come in anything karate related is virtually impossible.

Balance, however, can never be achieved unless the scales are even. While your technique and skill will weigh heavily on one side of the scale, they must in turn be equally balanced by the mental and spiritual side of your being. In karate trying to perform any movement or technique requires a level playing field, one in which each function must be awarded just the right amount of concentrated effort necessary to make the whole thing work as you intended it to.

Balance is the sum of all movement added together.

Only when the body, mind, and spirit are in complete harmony can proper balance be achieved.


KIME :

Kime is the sum of all your efforts.

The concentrated focus of all your physical, mental, and spiritual actions combined at a specific moment and place in time is called kime. The moment you make any kind of movement in karate your true level of kime will be reflected in the accuracy and quality of your techniques and any errors in judgement will then be clearly visible for everyone else to see. If your kime is found lacking then in effect nothing you just did should be considered real. No amount of strength, no amount of speed, and no amount of kiai can ever make up for a lack of kime.

In your training you must believe in what you are doing, and that belief must have a definitive beginning and ending, an ending that you will find you can only reach by putting all of your other thoughts aside and focusing for as long as it takes to achieve your goal. Without this all encompassing belief in the success of what you are attempting to do your techniques will become nothing more than physical actions without any mental substance, in a world where mental substance is often the difference between victory or defeat.

Without kime your karate has no value.

Kime is only effective when nothing else matters.

This article reprinted by kind permission of Sensei Peter Lindsay, (5th Dan). Westshore Karate Inc, British Columbia

Traditional Karate-Do Federation Martial arts practice can be identified in documentation dating back nearly six thousand years in China. The transfer of information throughout the years coupled with individualization of its teachers has allowed development of many systems. Japanese empty hand martial arts are said to be founded out of necessity for survival due to a weapons ban.

It was through this necessity that empty hand martial arts were kept in secrecy and written information was not allowed. It was not until the early 1900's that concealment of training was felt to be no longer needed. At this time in history, the roots of Japanese empty hand martial arts were finally allowed to be analyzed. While there are many martial arts styles and systems, it is obvious that there are several techniques that traversed the bridge between the various systems. The following is a brief exploration of one of these techniques.

Reverse punch, or in Japanese, Gyaku-zuki (pronounced yaw-koo-zoo-key), can be found in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and many other martial arts systems. While its application and formulation may be taught differently in various styles, its value as a mainstay technique is universal.
Master Gichin Funakoshi, known as the founder of modern karate and the Shotokan Karate System, believed that the mastery of the reverse punch was essential to any martial arts practitioner. Additionally, Master Funakoshi felt that reverse punch, while a very basic technique, will take years to master.
It is said that Master Funakoshi once stated "I have practiced reverse punch for over forty years, and I think that I am just beginning to understand it". Master Funakoshi's hypothesis of the reverse punch was founded in basic physics and anatomical dynamics principles.
He believed that utilization of the entire body to perform a technique, rather than a single body part or muscle group, would generate more power and stability of that technique. Essentially there is strength in numbers.

This premise is best proven through taking time to breakdown this technique to its simplest form.
The first step in understanding the reverse punch begins at ground level. As with building any withstanding structure, a strong foundation needs to be established. A proper stance, allowing firm contact and solid support of the feet to the ground is necessary.
This stance while firm and strong in nature, must allow freedom of movement and flexibility to facilitate effective completion of any technique. Shotokan practitioners are noted for their long stable stances and linear movements.

Front stance, (Zenkutsu-dachi), is commonly utilized to build strength and musculature while performing basic techniques. Front stance can be easily accomplished by; having the feet positioned shoulder width wide, two shoulder widths long (deep), the front knee bent (not farther than above the front ankle), the back leg straight, with all toes on both feet facing the front, the hips driven down and forward, and with the eyes and head facing the front.The center of gravity while in front stance should be maintained even in movement.

Training with a solid front stance allows the karateka to make an easier transition to a relaxed fighting posture.
This fighting posture can be utilized for tournament or self defense application.Once the feet are firmly planted on the ground and a strong stance is accomplished, the progression of this technique moves to the hips. The hips will be responsible for driving the chest, shoulder, arm and fist toward the target. To facilitate this, the hips must rotate toward the target while maintaining the same height within the stance. This rotation must be kept parallel to the floor.
Failure to add hip rotation decreases power and forces the muscles in the arm and shoulder to carry the burden of the workload.

Changing the height of the hip rotation slows the technique down and neutralizes the amount of power that can be generated. Hip rotation should continue forward with the technique until the chest and shoulders are positioned square with the target. Over emphasis of hip rotation causes unnecessary hip, back, and leg strain. Additionally, this over rotation will cause the target to potentially be missed.
Moving upward within this technique, the chest, shoulder and arm will move in conjunction with the hip rotation. The chest should swivel level with the floor, allowing the shoulder height to remain unchanged throughout this technique.
Shoulder tension, as with all muscle tension, should begin in a relaxed state, progress to a tense state only for the moment of impact, then immediately return to a relaxed state.
The ability to control this tension is key in performing any technique.

Breathing should be controlled and directed to the abdomen during this technique. Holding one's breath is not an option, as it decreases the ability to relax ones muscles through decreased oxygenation. The arms, as attachments to the shoulder, should remain close to chest, allowing the elbows to brush the side through the technique. The punching arm and the pullback arm work together in opposing directions,assisting the hips in their rotation.
Careful attention should be paid to the pronation and supination of the arms, completing these rotations just before impact. These rotations allow increased power though proper alignment of the bones and musculature of the arms and fists. Additionally, studies were done by Chinese martial artist Bruce Lee, that analyzed the importance of linear alignment of the shoulder and arm combination. These studies measured force of impact with different arm and shoulder alignments. Punches that went high, low, or off to the side generated less force that those punches that remained as a straight extension of the shoulder. The combined effort of the shoulder and arm muscles will hold the arm in straight alignment, while the hips and chest are squared toward the target. Thus the power that is generated from the lower body is transmitted to the upper body.

Finally, in the breakdown of reverse punch, the point of impact is reached. The fists are made into properly formed karate fists, with the thumb tightly compressing the first two digits. Both the punching hand and the pullback hand remains in straight alignment to protect the arms and wrists from potential injury.

Caution should be used to make contact with only the largest two knuckles on the punching hand. The fist should become an extension of the entire body.In essence, reverse punch, when properly performed, generates power and energy beginning at the ground. This energy passes through the legs, hips, chest, shoulder, arm, and fist.
Likewise, upon impact, the energy cycle is reversed back through the body to the floor. It is important to recognize that Newton's Law of Motion is applicable in this technique. Energy that is delivered to the target can be somewhat dispersed, but there will be some equal and opposite reaction as well. The body should be prepared to accept this energy return.In summary, reverse punch should be an anatomically correct technique. Through total analysis of reverse punch, it is easily seen that Master Funakoshi's hypothesis is correct.
The body as a whole will generate more power than utilizing one body part alone. Synchronization of the human body requires countless hours of training, and with close attention being paid to the details of each technique.
Anatomical dynamics and body alignment are required to allow the body to form a solid mass, thus allowing maximum power to the point of impact. All martial artists should recognize that training the human body to work in harmony is essential to development of the reverse punch.

Selected Readings
Karate-do Nyumon : The Master Introductory Text , Gichin Funakoshi, translated by John Teramoto
Dynamic Karate : Instruction by the Master, Masatoshi Nakayama, translated by Herman Kauz
Black Belt Karate, Jordan Roth, foreword by Tsutomu Ohshima
Bruce Lee's Fighting Method : Basic Training, Bruce Lee and M. Uyehara
Best Karate (Series), Masatoshi Nakayama

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