KARATE: A diamond with many new facets
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
Generally speaking, everyone who has studied and practiced (or has been studying and practicing) a fighting discipline has clearly in his/her mind that any kind of discipline has its own culture, historical background, ethical rules, concepts and technical expertize and knowledge. However from ancient times till now all round the world, and expecially taking into consideration the East and the West, the approaches to fighting disciplines are very different, particularly such as in Japan. Japanese culture consists of many aspects under rigorous codes as abiding by severe rules of behavior or following strictly procedures - just think of Chado (tea ceremony), Shodo (art of calligraphy), Ikebana (art of flowers arrangements), Origami (art of folding paper), Bonsai (art of growing miniature trees), Karesansui (art of making and raking a Zen garden) and, the last but not the least, the Japanese martial arts (Karate-do, Kobudo, Judo, Aikido, Kendo, Kyudo, Iaido…). The martial arts, as any kind of art or discipline, have their own pillars rooted in tradition with their own doctrine, techniques, terminology, behaviours, rites and rituals, but, contextually, are subject to continuing enrichments, developments, individual interpretations and, sometimes, few changes… that is to say, an “evolution” over time. Karate, for exemple, had its origin in the Island of Okinawa (with just four schools and relative styles), and subsequently, after the acquisition of Okinawa and its arcipelago by Japan (1879), had itself undergone great development through the creation and development of furher styles reaching the number, more or less, of about twenty of them. After the end of the Second World War, due to a japanese political will, karate spread all over the world thanks to a great transfer overseas of japanese karate masters adding, over the years, more and more styles, some of them too much “Westernized” (in the opinion of many “purists”) because of the abandonment of traditions and technical dogmas of the early “Founders” of karate schools. At the moment in the world the most authoritative styles are about forty over a number of about a hundred, if not more. So how many types of karate do exist? Before addressing this issue, it is appropriate to make a few disquisitions as the Oriental people often say that karate is like a diamond: the core is unique but it has many facets all around. There are a few approaches, both historical and technical, that allow us to correctly frame the continuation of further considerations. There are various initial approaches that allow karate to be categorised in different ways, but mainly in accordance with: martial aims and purposes (Bugei, Budo and Kakugi concepts), ancient origins (Shorin and Shorei currents), ancient technical roots (Okinawan karate and Japanese karate schools and styles) and technical training and fighting rules (Traditional Karate and Modern Karate). As it is well known, each of the topics mentioned have an encyclopaedic dimension and summarising them in a few lines is not an easy task and a pragmatic approach is mandatory, even if it might sound superficial. Moreover, some of the topics which now are being considered are very argued topics and source of great debates and heated discussion among historians, scholars and pratictioners of all levels.
Bugei, Budo and Kakugi concepts. This is the approach by which a martial art is considered in accordance to the aims and purposes to be pursued: Bugei represents the practice of a martial art to achieve offensive skills and lethal capabilities for warfighting, that is to develop a combat discipline for the battlefield; Budo represents the practice of a martial art to achieve, as far as possible, the perfection of the balance of oneself through a rigorous discipline, hard training and physical conditioning, in order to became a better and strong human being; and Kakugi represents a far more recent concept that is the practice of a martial art solely and exclusively for sporting purposes.
Shorin and Shorei currents. These two ancient currents represent probably the origin of two main types of chinese fighting school, a synthesis of many other forms of fighting, which arrived in the Island of Okinawa and contributed to the creation of two different ways to teach (schools/styles) and practice karate: the Shorin-Ryu, from which arose all those karate styles that privilege agility and speed, and the Shorei-Ryu, from which arose all those karate styles that privilege muscular power and physical strenght. Indeed any karate style actually represent a harmonic fusion of all those features as agility, speed, balance, power, strength…and much more!
Okinawan karate and Japanese karate. Even though the Island of Okinawa (and its archipelago) has been Japanese for more than a century, there still remain many differences between Okinawan karate and Japanese karate. All those differences, that strongly affect descendant schools and styles, concern almost all aspects of karate: body conditioning exercises, traditional “basics” (kihon), body movements, training and “traditional forms” (kata), types of breathing, development of power, fighting techniques (kumite), terminology and combat tactics.
Traditional Karate and Modern Karate.The concept distinguishing a karate of tradition from a modern karate is a bit of a misnomer as the so-called “traditional karate” has also modernised itself and expanded considerably the fighting techniques, while remaining strongly tied to tradition. The main difference lies in the fact that “modern karate” means a karate aimed at sporting competitions which could also easily be called “sport karate”. In fact, sport karate has evolved as a sport strongly influenced both by the numerous types of encounters (inter-style, i.e. between different styles of karate, against other martial arts or fighting discipline), by the possibility of striking the opponent (controlled blow, semi-contact, full-contact...), by the constraints imposed (with protections, without protections, gloved hand, bare hand....) and by the relative rules of the various tournaments or championships (constraints, bans, prohibited techniques....). Furthermore, with the development of new forms of combat sports, such as MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), sometimes referred to as “Cage Fighting”, “Ultimate Fighting” or “No Holds Barred” (incorporating techniques from various oriental martial arts and from other different full-contact combat sports), there has been, even in some karate schools, a greater distancing from traditional forms of training in favour of a kind of more pragmatic and more immediate training for achieving quick results. For that reason it is no surprise if the new emerging karate styles or fighting systems do not give emphasis to the practice of ancient and traditional katas at the fact that many hightly effective fighting arts/systems do not include katas in their training programs (sometimes katas are unkown in nature). All that said, taking for granted the enormous value of katas for the development of karateka's concentration, strike control, breathing, rhythm, speed, balance, strength, and power. In Japan, in truth, there was already a form of mixed martial arts (for sporting purposes only) called Sogo Kakutogi where hitting, knocking down and hitting again an opponent (utsu-taosu-utsu) were envisaged in exactly the same way as now in MMA (defined “ground and pound”).
All this has been said just to introduce the fact that there is another method for categorising karate (but also other forms of martial arts, of course), namely the one called “by aim”, bearing in mind what purpose karate is practised for. This kind of classification, attributable to an unspecified Japanese karate Master, is not to be taken as a tautology (that is “a truth by definition”) but it can be considered quite appropriate. According to this concept, karate can be categorised “by purposes” (imi), regardless of the style practised or school of origin, and can roughly divided into the following categories (some aspects of which are sometimes partially overlapping):
- Koryu karate: all styles that follow an ancient “martial tradition”, better known as Do, a way/discipline that tends towards inner perfecting, through spiritual, ethical and moral development by means of an assiduous, rigorous and hard practice of fighting arts;
- Senjo karate or Gunji karate: from Senjo (the battlefield) or from Gunji-teki (the military); any karate expression whose objective is to be applied in warfighting, in every combat situation, environment and weather conditions;
- Keisatsu karate: from Keisatsu (the Police); any karate application or expression where the use of force is necessary in Police/Law Enforcement operations. Usually techniques are strongly integrated with Judo and/or Ju-Jitsu techniques;
- Goshin-jitsu karate: karate applications mainly for self-defence purposes;
- Sento karate/Combat karate: from Sento (combat/battle), applications of karate aimed at the development of a “real and full-contact” combat fighting without making distinctions between styles of provenance (freestyle real combat). Combat karate should not be confused with “Karate Combat”, a brand/organization (just one among many others) which promotes professional full-contact freestyle karate tournements and competitions;
- Jissen karate/Kakuto karate: expressions of sporting full-contact karate sometimes practised with protections. Some schools also provide for the use of body armour and helmet with face-shield (Bogu-karate).
The fact of categorizing karate using those aforementioned “types by purposes” could appear as a purely academic and useless exercise, but it isn’t. So, to the representation of karate as a diamond with many facets, it can now be added the representation of karate as the peak of a mountain that can be reached via many different paths (schools, styles or types) that climb towards the top only to converge at the peak (the essence). Leaving aside possible “combat constraints”, which may distort for many reasons the conduct of the fighting, it is impossible not to observe lots of techniques, and their implementation, really very different from those ones considered by purists as “the only correct ones”. The basic rules that establish how a technique should be performed always have a theoretical basis as well as experience, but sometimes an “enrichment” from other combat disciplines requires a certain indulgence in favour of a further effectiveness and, more generally, for an improvement in one's own fighting style. No matter what discipline you are following or what style you are practicing, the important thing is to be able to fight, that is to be an effective fighter. It is important to consider that, with this mental approach, karate always remains a very concrete combat discipline and can also be perfectly integrated into a broader context of a generic “Combat System”, as in the case for military combat systems. Anyway, it is difficult to answer the question of how many styles of karate there currently are, apart from the most famous or most popular. All this birth and development of styles is part of an ancient, and little-known, concept of “one's own growth in the martial art” that goes by the name of “Shuhari”: Shu means “learning and following (the art)” that is following and mimicking the techniques and learning the concepts taught by the master; Ha means “trascending (the art)” that is learning and understanding deeply the nature of the techniques (how, where and when they work) and the true nature and mindset of the art; Ri means “to break away” (from the teachings to continue independently) that is to have the knowledge and skills that enable one to have one's own concept and interpretation of the art adapting the techniques in accordance with one's own body type and one's own physical capability. Shuhari is considered a natural process of personal improvement, both physical and mental, which allows one to achieve new knowledge through a personal development of techniques without ever forgetting the solid teachings of old tradition. In the end without wonder if there has been this great proliferation of styles and schools: it is the expansion of karate. Someone has found a new path to reach the peak of the mountain while someone else has added a facet to the diamond.
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
Generally speaking, everyone who has studied and practiced (or has been studying and practicing) a fighting discipline has clearly in his/her mind that any kind of discipline has its own culture, historical background, ethical rules, concepts and technical expertize and knowledge. However from ancient times till now all round the world, and expecially taking into consideration the East and the West, the approaches to fighting disciplines are very different, particularly such as in Japan. Japanese culture consists of many aspects under rigorous codes as abiding by severe rules of behavior or following strictly procedures - just think of Chado (tea ceremony), Shodo (art of calligraphy), Ikebana (art of flowers arrangements), Origami (art of folding paper), Bonsai (art of growing miniature trees), Karesansui (art of making and raking a Zen garden) and, the last but not the least, the Japanese martial arts (Karate-do, Kobudo, Judo, Aikido, Kendo, Kyudo, Iaido…). The martial arts, as any kind of art or discipline, have their own pillars rooted in tradition with their own doctrine, techniques, terminology, behaviours, rites and rituals, but, contextually, are subject to continuing enrichments, developments, individual interpretations and, sometimes, few changes… that is to say, an “evolution” over time. Karate, for exemple, had its origin in the Island of Okinawa (with just four schools and relative styles), and subsequently, after the acquisition of Okinawa and its arcipelago by Japan (1879), had itself undergone great development through the creation and development of furher styles reaching the number, more or less, of about twenty of them. After the end of the Second World War, due to a japanese political will, karate spread all over the world thanks to a great transfer overseas of japanese karate masters adding, over the years, more and more styles, some of them too much “Westernized” (in the opinion of many “purists”) because of the abandonment of traditions and technical dogmas of the early “Founders” of karate schools. At the moment in the world the most authoritative styles are about forty over a number of about a hundred, if not more. So how many types of karate do exist? Before addressing this issue, it is appropriate to make a few disquisitions as the Oriental people often say that karate is like a diamond: the core is unique but it has many facets all around. There are a few approaches, both historical and technical, that allow us to correctly frame the continuation of further considerations. There are various initial approaches that allow karate to be categorised in different ways, but mainly in accordance with: martial aims and purposes (Bugei, Budo and Kakugi concepts), ancient origins (Shorin and Shorei currents), ancient technical roots (Okinawan karate and Japanese karate schools and styles) and technical training and fighting rules (Traditional Karate and Modern Karate). As it is well known, each of the topics mentioned have an encyclopaedic dimension and summarising them in a few lines is not an easy task and a pragmatic approach is mandatory, even if it might sound superficial. Moreover, some of the topics which now are being considered are very argued topics and source of great debates and heated discussion among historians, scholars and pratictioners of all levels.
Bugei, Budo and Kakugi concepts. This is the approach by which a martial art is considered in accordance to the aims and purposes to be pursued: Bugei represents the practice of a martial art to achieve offensive skills and lethal capabilities for warfighting, that is to develop a combat discipline for the battlefield; Budo represents the practice of a martial art to achieve, as far as possible, the perfection of the balance of oneself through a rigorous discipline, hard training and physical conditioning, in order to became a better and strong human being; and Kakugi represents a far more recent concept that is the practice of a martial art solely and exclusively for sporting purposes.
Shorin and Shorei currents. These two ancient currents represent probably the origin of two main types of chinese fighting school, a synthesis of many other forms of fighting, which arrived in the Island of Okinawa and contributed to the creation of two different ways to teach (schools/styles) and practice karate: the Shorin-Ryu, from which arose all those karate styles that privilege agility and speed, and the Shorei-Ryu, from which arose all those karate styles that privilege muscular power and physical strenght. Indeed any karate style actually represent a harmonic fusion of all those features as agility, speed, balance, power, strength…and much more!
Okinawan karate and Japanese karate. Even though the Island of Okinawa (and its archipelago) has been Japanese for more than a century, there still remain many differences between Okinawan karate and Japanese karate. All those differences, that strongly affect descendant schools and styles, concern almost all aspects of karate: body conditioning exercises, traditional “basics” (kihon), body movements, training and “traditional forms” (kata), types of breathing, development of power, fighting techniques (kumite), terminology and combat tactics.
Traditional Karate and Modern Karate.The concept distinguishing a karate of tradition from a modern karate is a bit of a misnomer as the so-called “traditional karate” has also modernised itself and expanded considerably the fighting techniques, while remaining strongly tied to tradition. The main difference lies in the fact that “modern karate” means a karate aimed at sporting competitions which could also easily be called “sport karate”. In fact, sport karate has evolved as a sport strongly influenced both by the numerous types of encounters (inter-style, i.e. between different styles of karate, against other martial arts or fighting discipline), by the possibility of striking the opponent (controlled blow, semi-contact, full-contact...), by the constraints imposed (with protections, without protections, gloved hand, bare hand....) and by the relative rules of the various tournaments or championships (constraints, bans, prohibited techniques....). Furthermore, with the development of new forms of combat sports, such as MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), sometimes referred to as “Cage Fighting”, “Ultimate Fighting” or “No Holds Barred” (incorporating techniques from various oriental martial arts and from other different full-contact combat sports), there has been, even in some karate schools, a greater distancing from traditional forms of training in favour of a kind of more pragmatic and more immediate training for achieving quick results. For that reason it is no surprise if the new emerging karate styles or fighting systems do not give emphasis to the practice of ancient and traditional katas at the fact that many hightly effective fighting arts/systems do not include katas in their training programs (sometimes katas are unkown in nature). All that said, taking for granted the enormous value of katas for the development of karateka's concentration, strike control, breathing, rhythm, speed, balance, strength, and power. In Japan, in truth, there was already a form of mixed martial arts (for sporting purposes only) called Sogo Kakutogi where hitting, knocking down and hitting again an opponent (utsu-taosu-utsu) were envisaged in exactly the same way as now in MMA (defined “ground and pound”).
All this has been said just to introduce the fact that there is another method for categorising karate (but also other forms of martial arts, of course), namely the one called “by aim”, bearing in mind what purpose karate is practised for. This kind of classification, attributable to an unspecified Japanese karate Master, is not to be taken as a tautology (that is “a truth by definition”) but it can be considered quite appropriate. According to this concept, karate can be categorised “by purposes” (imi), regardless of the style practised or school of origin, and can roughly divided into the following categories (some aspects of which are sometimes partially overlapping):
- Koryu karate: all styles that follow an ancient “martial tradition”, better known as Do, a way/discipline that tends towards inner perfecting, through spiritual, ethical and moral development by means of an assiduous, rigorous and hard practice of fighting arts;
- Senjo karate or Gunji karate: from Senjo (the battlefield) or from Gunji-teki (the military); any karate expression whose objective is to be applied in warfighting, in every combat situation, environment and weather conditions;
- Keisatsu karate: from Keisatsu (the Police); any karate application or expression where the use of force is necessary in Police/Law Enforcement operations. Usually techniques are strongly integrated with Judo and/or Ju-Jitsu techniques;
- Goshin-jitsu karate: karate applications mainly for self-defence purposes;
- Sento karate/Combat karate: from Sento (combat/battle), applications of karate aimed at the development of a “real and full-contact” combat fighting without making distinctions between styles of provenance (freestyle real combat). Combat karate should not be confused with “Karate Combat”, a brand/organization (just one among many others) which promotes professional full-contact freestyle karate tournements and competitions;
- Jissen karate/Kakuto karate: expressions of sporting full-contact karate sometimes practised with protections. Some schools also provide for the use of body armour and helmet with face-shield (Bogu-karate).
The fact of categorizing karate using those aforementioned “types by purposes” could appear as a purely academic and useless exercise, but it isn’t. So, to the representation of karate as a diamond with many facets, it can now be added the representation of karate as the peak of a mountain that can be reached via many different paths (schools, styles or types) that climb towards the top only to converge at the peak (the essence). Leaving aside possible “combat constraints”, which may distort for many reasons the conduct of the fighting, it is impossible not to observe lots of techniques, and their implementation, really very different from those ones considered by purists as “the only correct ones”. The basic rules that establish how a technique should be performed always have a theoretical basis as well as experience, but sometimes an “enrichment” from other combat disciplines requires a certain indulgence in favour of a further effectiveness and, more generally, for an improvement in one's own fighting style. No matter what discipline you are following or what style you are practicing, the important thing is to be able to fight, that is to be an effective fighter. It is important to consider that, with this mental approach, karate always remains a very concrete combat discipline and can also be perfectly integrated into a broader context of a generic “Combat System”, as in the case for military combat systems. Anyway, it is difficult to answer the question of how many styles of karate there currently are, apart from the most famous or most popular. All this birth and development of styles is part of an ancient, and little-known, concept of “one's own growth in the martial art” that goes by the name of “Shuhari”: Shu means “learning and following (the art)” that is following and mimicking the techniques and learning the concepts taught by the master; Ha means “trascending (the art)” that is learning and understanding deeply the nature of the techniques (how, where and when they work) and the true nature and mindset of the art; Ri means “to break away” (from the teachings to continue independently) that is to have the knowledge and skills that enable one to have one's own concept and interpretation of the art adapting the techniques in accordance with one's own body type and one's own physical capability. Shuhari is considered a natural process of personal improvement, both physical and mental, which allows one to achieve new knowledge through a personal development of techniques without ever forgetting the solid teachings of old tradition. In the end without wonder if there has been this great proliferation of styles and schools: it is the expansion of karate. Someone has found a new path to reach the peak of the mountain while someone else has added a facet to the diamond.
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Military Close Combat Systems. Prerogatives and requirements
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
In modern times, doctrinally speaking, the term “Close Combat” mainly refers to a short range
unarmed combat (or “hand-to-hand” Combat) even if firearms and/or other kind of weapons are
indeed involved in that criteria. The Close Combat is the basic concept of the so-called “Close
Combat Warfare”, where converge:
- the “Hand-To-Hand” (HTH/H2H) Combat;
- the “Close Quarter Combat” (CQC);
- the “Close Quarter Battle” (CQB)…..
...depending on the “combat scenario”, and not really on the presence/absence of weapons…. “cold
weapons” (white arms) or “firearms” (hot weapons) they could be!
Anyway, as is well known, for a number of centuries prior to the advent of firearms, forms of close
combat, “man against man” to be clear, were essentially based on two pillars, which indeed
currently still are:
- use of ones own body as a weapon, using “striking techniques” (employing arms, legs and head to
strike and knock down) and/or “grappling techniques” (employing wrestling techniques to down,
block, immobilise, fracture, strangle);
- use of cold weapons, exploiting the specific cutting, piercing, fracturing, tearing effect (depending
on the type of weapon used) ... or exploiting a “mixed effect” to cut, slash, break through.
The skill in “hand-to-hand” combat, intended as a lethal capacity, was therefore determined by the
sum of the dexterity and ability with which a fighter was able to fight totally unarmed (“bare-
handed”) and his dexterity and ability to handle different cold weapons, whether long or short they
could be.
The subsequent evolution of firearms, which were moreover considered “more humanitarian” than
bladed weapons (due to the types of wounds inflicted by bullets compared to wounds inflicted by
blades), had necessarily brought the combat concept to increase long range fighting, thus
overshadowing the direct physical confrontation of the short range fighting.
After the Second World War, a number of western Armies, believing that technological warfare at
great distances would completely obliterate physical combat, wrongly neglected the methodical and
rigorous training of their soldiers in physical close combat training and collateral activities. In
recent years, however, with the new types of threats and new types of military and law enforcement
operations, the need to use the close combat has strongly re-emerged and some Armed Forces and
Police Forces had to reorganise themselves, properly and quickly, to resurrect and simultaneously
improve the “individual hand-to-hand combat skill” of their soldiers, sailors and policemen.
Many western Nations have been able over the years (obviously some of them much more than
others) to cultivate and develop their own combat systems, implementing them, necessarily, with
those combat disciplines that have always guaranteed technical/tactical solutions with a high level
of lethality, both for purely war and/or police uses. Indeed, Far-Eastern peoples have never
abandoned the development of their own individual fighting arts, their own “Martial Arts” (the Arts
of War) and for that reason many of the asian martial arts, Karate, Ju-Jitsu, Muay Thai and Tae-
Kwon-Do first amongst others, have proved to be the solid basis of many current western military
combat systems. However, it is necessary to point out that when we speak generically of martial
arts, perhaps due to excessive globalisation, we include disciplines that are very different from each
other and that do not provide a significant contribution to the art of a real combat in a warfighting
environment, or, at any rate, they are not suitable for a specific military/law enforcement use:
sometimes we can find “arts”, or their “interpretations”, that are mainly valid in a gym or in a sports
competition (with particular regulations) or, vice versa, interpretations that range from particularly
spectacular fighting performed just by acrobats/tumblers to excessively cruel fighting, as performed
in illegal “clandestine cage” competitions. In short, “combat interpretations” unrelated to
warfighting, albeit also violent and with very few rules of chivalry to abide by.
Given that premise, belonging to a certain “Combat School” of a certain “Combat Discipline” takes
on great importance, especially in the initial phase of learning a combat discipline, when the basics
must be properly learned by a neophite. Just a school-life exemple to clarify the concept: when a
pupil learns a language, he studies on a grammar book that is very unlikely to be the same on which
is studying another pupil coming from another instutite, but both the pupils, at the end, are able to
speak to each other. Despite the difference of grammar books the pupils are able to communicate.
The same concept applies to the study of a combat discipline: no matter what discipline you are
following or what style you are practicing... the important thing is to be able to fight! In fact,
generally speaking, there is no one discipline that is better than another one. Of course, probably
there is a discipline that is better suited than another one for real combat, but it is always and only
the individual fighter who makes the discipline effective and lethal. Modern forms of military
combat usually present themselves as a true mixture of techniques that almost always come from
different disciplines, if not from different styles within the same discipline. This is why such forms
of combat are called “Combat Systems”. Incidentally and as an example, just think of the ancient
Greek “Pancrazio”, which was a mixture of boxing and wrestling techniques, or think of the
Japanese “Bugei Juhappan” (Eighteeen kinds of martial arts), which was a mixture of techniques
from different martial arts.
As a preamble to any further disquisition, three clarifications must be made that will stigmatise the
modern mental approach to real combat:
- there are drugs (i.e. Captagon and its derived) under the effect of which those who have taken
them develop immediately a certain level of ferocity and are able to feel no pain whatsoever, which
means that, in order to stop an eventual attack by those addicted guys, is mandatory to employ
specific techniques able to take down the opponent immediately..but “biomechanically” (and not
just for pain), avoining all those techniques that produce pain only;
- there exist violent and unscrupulous guys, with ancestral darkness in their eyes, endowed with a
crude and prehistoric strength, looking like true and self-propelled “Gargoyles”, capable of striking
with kicks and punches as hard as concrete... that can only be countered and knocked down by
possessing an adequate physical conditioning and possessing a full mastery of resolutive combat
techniques taken with extreme power and determination;
- today's society is very reluctant to recognise the level of violence and viciousness that is readily
apparent in the daily news. This attitude, which is naturally also promoted by many qualified
“pundits” (talking from comfortable TV lounges with biscuit crumbs on their jackets) leads to a
general and dangerous “loss of threat perception”.
Turning now to the specifics, the ultimate goal is to establish what requirements and prerogatives
must possess a “Combat System” to be defined as “Military”.
In principle, after rigorous training, operational soldiers, due to a variety of circumstances, will no
longer have as much time as necessary to maintain a regular training programme and their ability to
express lethality must surely remain overtime. For that reason, a combat system must necessarily
select and establish which techniques can be employed in different tactical contexts, must maintain
lethality (taking into account the scarce time for training opportunities during “long period”
missions or operational activities) and must be effective in different operational contexts with
different clothing, different equipment and different individual-carried weaponry. “Cold weapon
attack techniques” and “defence and disarming techniques” must certainly find a place in the
training, but all those techniques must be “technically effective” and “genuinely implementable” in
different operational contexts (avoiding those defensive techniques particularly complex, risky and
dangerous for all!).
As with any discipline in which one wishes to engage, it is necessary to possess and cultivate all
those individual faculties and qualities that enable the individual to achieve significant results,
namely: discipline, determination, willpower, energy, commitment, constancy, perseverance, spirit
of sacrifice and courage.
Having thus highlighted the right individual approach, the “Combat System” must mould the future
fighter, essentially “must forge the future blade”.
In this perspective, two different methods of “physical conditioning” must be practised:
- generic conditioning: this is a physical training aimed at stimulating and strengthening all the
muscles, bones, nerves and tendons in a correct manner in order to be able to face and sustain those
motor and neuromuscular exercises and activities that will be required by training in combat
techniques. Strength, power and agility are increased;
- specific conditioning: this is a physical training aimed at accustoming the limbs, joints, nerves,
tendons and muscles to perform those specific movements and efforts that will be required for the
acquisition and correct execution of the various combat techniques, including falling techniques. In
this phase, agility of movement, resistance to articular levers, dodging speed, speed and explosive
power of the single blows are also taken care of, and the conditioning of the limbs to the hard
impact on materials of various nature and consistency can also be envisaged.
Moving on to the study of a “Combat System”, the deep acquisition of techniques must be trained
in different situations and with different sequential concatenations. In this phase, the following
aspects are particularly taken care of: concentration, movements and changes of direction, balance,
stability, different kind of breathing, muscular contraction, capacity of immediate reaction,
resistance and duration in time, perception of space and distance, accuracy and precision of strikes
(or moves), timing, reflexes and rhythm of combat. As a matter of fact, during the application of
high-speed techniques, a form of “physical-mental conditioning” is activated through the very high
number of fast repetitions of techniques: that practice will create the individual skill in mastering
very fast combat techniques, both in action and reaction. Shortly, actions and reactions must flow in
an “automatic manner”.
The training then moves on to an advanced phase in which, through different types of combat,
providing for unarmed/ armed and disarming techniques in different combat situations in order to
gain confidence in different operational contexts: in “combat full gear”, with different equipment
setups, acting in uncomfortable environments, on uneven terrain or surface, with low visibility, in
confined spaces and in severe weather conditions.
In this context, by analysing a number of “Systems” currently in use at various Armed Forces, we
can be reasonably assume that a complete cycle to obtain a soldier with a so-called “operational
readiness for hand-to-hand combat”, (that is achieving a combat-oriented physical fitness, a mental
attitude for fighting and achieving the skill to master at least about thirty techniques) should have an
average duration of one year. One year structured in order to guarantee two training sessions per
week, each one desirably lasting about two hours (with half an hour dedicated to fighting).
As mentioned, a wide number of combat systems have within them a selection of techniques from
different disciplines, but mainly from Karate, Ju-Jitsu. Muay Thai and Tae-Kwon-Do, as said
before, and from western Boxing and (western?) Mixed Martial Arts. Each instructor in charge of a
given “System” will rightly tend, by reason of his/her personal and professional experiences, to
implement that selection of techniques that he/she considers to be the best or at least the most
suitable “for the accomplishment of the assigned mission”. After all, this is precisely the way by
which the different combat schools and styles were born and developped in the past of the martial
arts.
To close, a small goliardic note: the famous British 22nd SAS Regiment ironically and amusingly
named its own combat system as …..“The five Japanese slaps”!
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
In modern times, doctrinally speaking, the term “Close Combat” mainly refers to a short range
unarmed combat (or “hand-to-hand” Combat) even if firearms and/or other kind of weapons are
indeed involved in that criteria. The Close Combat is the basic concept of the so-called “Close
Combat Warfare”, where converge:
- the “Hand-To-Hand” (HTH/H2H) Combat;
- the “Close Quarter Combat” (CQC);
- the “Close Quarter Battle” (CQB)…..
...depending on the “combat scenario”, and not really on the presence/absence of weapons…. “cold
weapons” (white arms) or “firearms” (hot weapons) they could be!
Anyway, as is well known, for a number of centuries prior to the advent of firearms, forms of close
combat, “man against man” to be clear, were essentially based on two pillars, which indeed
currently still are:
- use of ones own body as a weapon, using “striking techniques” (employing arms, legs and head to
strike and knock down) and/or “grappling techniques” (employing wrestling techniques to down,
block, immobilise, fracture, strangle);
- use of cold weapons, exploiting the specific cutting, piercing, fracturing, tearing effect (depending
on the type of weapon used) ... or exploiting a “mixed effect” to cut, slash, break through.
The skill in “hand-to-hand” combat, intended as a lethal capacity, was therefore determined by the
sum of the dexterity and ability with which a fighter was able to fight totally unarmed (“bare-
handed”) and his dexterity and ability to handle different cold weapons, whether long or short they
could be.
The subsequent evolution of firearms, which were moreover considered “more humanitarian” than
bladed weapons (due to the types of wounds inflicted by bullets compared to wounds inflicted by
blades), had necessarily brought the combat concept to increase long range fighting, thus
overshadowing the direct physical confrontation of the short range fighting.
After the Second World War, a number of western Armies, believing that technological warfare at
great distances would completely obliterate physical combat, wrongly neglected the methodical and
rigorous training of their soldiers in physical close combat training and collateral activities. In
recent years, however, with the new types of threats and new types of military and law enforcement
operations, the need to use the close combat has strongly re-emerged and some Armed Forces and
Police Forces had to reorganise themselves, properly and quickly, to resurrect and simultaneously
improve the “individual hand-to-hand combat skill” of their soldiers, sailors and policemen.
Many western Nations have been able over the years (obviously some of them much more than
others) to cultivate and develop their own combat systems, implementing them, necessarily, with
those combat disciplines that have always guaranteed technical/tactical solutions with a high level
of lethality, both for purely war and/or police uses. Indeed, Far-Eastern peoples have never
abandoned the development of their own individual fighting arts, their own “Martial Arts” (the Arts
of War) and for that reason many of the asian martial arts, Karate, Ju-Jitsu, Muay Thai and Tae-
Kwon-Do first amongst others, have proved to be the solid basis of many current western military
combat systems. However, it is necessary to point out that when we speak generically of martial
arts, perhaps due to excessive globalisation, we include disciplines that are very different from each
other and that do not provide a significant contribution to the art of a real combat in a warfighting
environment, or, at any rate, they are not suitable for a specific military/law enforcement use:
sometimes we can find “arts”, or their “interpretations”, that are mainly valid in a gym or in a sports
competition (with particular regulations) or, vice versa, interpretations that range from particularly
spectacular fighting performed just by acrobats/tumblers to excessively cruel fighting, as performed
in illegal “clandestine cage” competitions. In short, “combat interpretations” unrelated to
warfighting, albeit also violent and with very few rules of chivalry to abide by.
Given that premise, belonging to a certain “Combat School” of a certain “Combat Discipline” takes
on great importance, especially in the initial phase of learning a combat discipline, when the basics
must be properly learned by a neophite. Just a school-life exemple to clarify the concept: when a
pupil learns a language, he studies on a grammar book that is very unlikely to be the same on which
is studying another pupil coming from another instutite, but both the pupils, at the end, are able to
speak to each other. Despite the difference of grammar books the pupils are able to communicate.
The same concept applies to the study of a combat discipline: no matter what discipline you are
following or what style you are practicing... the important thing is to be able to fight! In fact,
generally speaking, there is no one discipline that is better than another one. Of course, probably
there is a discipline that is better suited than another one for real combat, but it is always and only
the individual fighter who makes the discipline effective and lethal. Modern forms of military
combat usually present themselves as a true mixture of techniques that almost always come from
different disciplines, if not from different styles within the same discipline. This is why such forms
of combat are called “Combat Systems”. Incidentally and as an example, just think of the ancient
Greek “Pancrazio”, which was a mixture of boxing and wrestling techniques, or think of the
Japanese “Bugei Juhappan” (Eighteeen kinds of martial arts), which was a mixture of techniques
from different martial arts.
As a preamble to any further disquisition, three clarifications must be made that will stigmatise the
modern mental approach to real combat:
- there are drugs (i.e. Captagon and its derived) under the effect of which those who have taken
them develop immediately a certain level of ferocity and are able to feel no pain whatsoever, which
means that, in order to stop an eventual attack by those addicted guys, is mandatory to employ
specific techniques able to take down the opponent immediately..but “biomechanically” (and not
just for pain), avoining all those techniques that produce pain only;
- there exist violent and unscrupulous guys, with ancestral darkness in their eyes, endowed with a
crude and prehistoric strength, looking like true and self-propelled “Gargoyles”, capable of striking
with kicks and punches as hard as concrete... that can only be countered and knocked down by
possessing an adequate physical conditioning and possessing a full mastery of resolutive combat
techniques taken with extreme power and determination;
- today's society is very reluctant to recognise the level of violence and viciousness that is readily
apparent in the daily news. This attitude, which is naturally also promoted by many qualified
“pundits” (talking from comfortable TV lounges with biscuit crumbs on their jackets) leads to a
general and dangerous “loss of threat perception”.
Turning now to the specifics, the ultimate goal is to establish what requirements and prerogatives
must possess a “Combat System” to be defined as “Military”.
In principle, after rigorous training, operational soldiers, due to a variety of circumstances, will no
longer have as much time as necessary to maintain a regular training programme and their ability to
express lethality must surely remain overtime. For that reason, a combat system must necessarily
select and establish which techniques can be employed in different tactical contexts, must maintain
lethality (taking into account the scarce time for training opportunities during “long period”
missions or operational activities) and must be effective in different operational contexts with
different clothing, different equipment and different individual-carried weaponry. “Cold weapon
attack techniques” and “defence and disarming techniques” must certainly find a place in the
training, but all those techniques must be “technically effective” and “genuinely implementable” in
different operational contexts (avoiding those defensive techniques particularly complex, risky and
dangerous for all!).
As with any discipline in which one wishes to engage, it is necessary to possess and cultivate all
those individual faculties and qualities that enable the individual to achieve significant results,
namely: discipline, determination, willpower, energy, commitment, constancy, perseverance, spirit
of sacrifice and courage.
Having thus highlighted the right individual approach, the “Combat System” must mould the future
fighter, essentially “must forge the future blade”.
In this perspective, two different methods of “physical conditioning” must be practised:
- generic conditioning: this is a physical training aimed at stimulating and strengthening all the
muscles, bones, nerves and tendons in a correct manner in order to be able to face and sustain those
motor and neuromuscular exercises and activities that will be required by training in combat
techniques. Strength, power and agility are increased;
- specific conditioning: this is a physical training aimed at accustoming the limbs, joints, nerves,
tendons and muscles to perform those specific movements and efforts that will be required for the
acquisition and correct execution of the various combat techniques, including falling techniques. In
this phase, agility of movement, resistance to articular levers, dodging speed, speed and explosive
power of the single blows are also taken care of, and the conditioning of the limbs to the hard
impact on materials of various nature and consistency can also be envisaged.
Moving on to the study of a “Combat System”, the deep acquisition of techniques must be trained
in different situations and with different sequential concatenations. In this phase, the following
aspects are particularly taken care of: concentration, movements and changes of direction, balance,
stability, different kind of breathing, muscular contraction, capacity of immediate reaction,
resistance and duration in time, perception of space and distance, accuracy and precision of strikes
(or moves), timing, reflexes and rhythm of combat. As a matter of fact, during the application of
high-speed techniques, a form of “physical-mental conditioning” is activated through the very high
number of fast repetitions of techniques: that practice will create the individual skill in mastering
very fast combat techniques, both in action and reaction. Shortly, actions and reactions must flow in
an “automatic manner”.
The training then moves on to an advanced phase in which, through different types of combat,
providing for unarmed/ armed and disarming techniques in different combat situations in order to
gain confidence in different operational contexts: in “combat full gear”, with different equipment
setups, acting in uncomfortable environments, on uneven terrain or surface, with low visibility, in
confined spaces and in severe weather conditions.
In this context, by analysing a number of “Systems” currently in use at various Armed Forces, we
can be reasonably assume that a complete cycle to obtain a soldier with a so-called “operational
readiness for hand-to-hand combat”, (that is achieving a combat-oriented physical fitness, a mental
attitude for fighting and achieving the skill to master at least about thirty techniques) should have an
average duration of one year. One year structured in order to guarantee two training sessions per
week, each one desirably lasting about two hours (with half an hour dedicated to fighting).
As mentioned, a wide number of combat systems have within them a selection of techniques from
different disciplines, but mainly from Karate, Ju-Jitsu. Muay Thai and Tae-Kwon-Do, as said
before, and from western Boxing and (western?) Mixed Martial Arts. Each instructor in charge of a
given “System” will rightly tend, by reason of his/her personal and professional experiences, to
implement that selection of techniques that he/she considers to be the best or at least the most
suitable “for the accomplishment of the assigned mission”. After all, this is precisely the way by
which the different combat schools and styles were born and developped in the past of the martial
arts.
To close, a small goliardic note: the famous British 22nd SAS Regiment ironically and amusingly
named its own combat system as …..“The five Japanese slaps”!
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KARAMBIT:
A SMALL AND LETHAL WEAPON FOR MARTIALISTS AND WARFIGHTERS
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
The “Karambit” is a small knife, of Southeast Asian origin, whose appearance vaguely recalls a small sickle and it is easily recognizable thanks to its curved blade, which resembles a big talon, and for a ring positioned at the end of the handle. For that reason the word karambit is commonly translated as “The tiger’s claw” (from “Kuku Macan”, one of the many karambit’s nicknames, as an homage to Sumatran Tiger) even if the word “karambit” really comes from the two Indonesian words “karam” and “ambit”, whose combined meaning is “to grab something/someone” (prey, opponent or enemy). As often it happens for many Asian Martial Arts, not always all historians and scholars agree about themselves and, also in this case, there is no one version about the karambit’s origins, employments, and diffusion. Anyhow, for the most reliable hypothesis, the karambit firstly manifested its presence during the 11th century in the Indonesian archipelago (Java island or Sumatra island) as a farming multi-purpose knife, that is “an agricultural tool” used for harvesting rice, racking roots, cutting meats, fruit and forage. Afterwards karambit became also a utility knife for common tasks in everyday use. During the 13th century, because of its power, versatility, precision and efficiency, from agrarian peasantry underwent a changing process, a “weaponizing” process for its employment on the battlefield. The karambit spread quickly throughout Southeast Asia as a self-defence knife and/or fighting knife and made its way to Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Dai-Viet (Vietnam), Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand) and the Philippines. All those mentioned countries had already their own numerous, traditional and famous “cold weapons” (e.g. Kris, Kujang, Balisong, Baraw…), most of which are very different in size, lenght and weight when compared to the karambit. For that reason, the karambit was (and it is) generally used just as a defensive weapon or a backup weapon (last-ditch weapon / last resort weapon / last line of defence weapon) for extreme Hand-To-Hand (HTH) combat or Close-Quarter Combat (CQC). Due to its great geographical spreading, there are many types of karambit, a lot of many regional and subregional variants across all South-East Asia: the lenght, the edge, the shape and the curved/hooked geometry of the blade, the handle and the ring, for exemple, can differ from village to village, from island to island or from blacksmith to blacksmith. For that reason the karambit has also many names (Karambit Besar, Kuku Macan, Kuku Bhima, Garab Karm, Celurit, Sabit, Klurit, Rajawali, Lihok, Sanggot....) and many different pronunciations (Kerambit, Kurambot, Korambit, Kerambet…). Of course, traditional karambits are mainly handmade with very expensive materials (wood and steel) and are highly prized. Anyway, to confirm all those many types, the current industrial production of modern and technologically advanced karambits is greatly influenced by “ancient” versions and variants, taking into maximum account the needs and the specific requirements requested by the different users. Karambit’s versatility is recognized by various users for everyday common tasks, outdoor and utility, agricultural use, hunting and fishing chores, self-defence applications, combative and battlefield use. Doctrinally speaking and in the current martial context, the karambit’s practice (and training) is included in four main combative disciplines: the Indonesian Pencak Silat, the Filipino Martial Arts (and specifically Kali, Eskrima, Arnis de mano, Doce Pares), the Malaysian Bersilat and the Malay-Singaporean Kuntao. Due to its unconventional design, its versatile and highly functional blade, its concealability, precision and recognizing its offensive and lethal nature also, karambit entered both the “martialists” community and the “military” community, also becoming an unofficial “battlefield mate” at many élite Regiments and Units… not only in the Southeast Asian and Far Eastern Armed Forces and Police Forces. For both the “Martialists” and “Military” communities the karambit is generally considered as a “fighting knife”, even if in some versions it could be considered as a “combat knife” (a knife designed and crafted solely for fighting [“for battlefield-use only”]) and in some other versions, it could be considered as a “tactical knife” (a knife designed and crafted for tactical situations, military-utility, and fighting). Unluckily also “Bad Guys” (thugs, evildoers, delinquents, bandits, criminals, terrorists...) use the karambit and, perhaps for that reason, another karambit’s nickname is “cheating knife” because it is quite difficult to see in the hand of a skilled user (almost invisible in someone’s hand or covered/hidden by fingers) and it is so easily concealable to become an immediate dangerous threat held in wrong hands (Sudden Materialisation Of The Threat – SMOTT). As it is known, there are generally two ways for handling and wielding the so-called “melee weapon” (“any handheld weapon used in hand-to-hand combat”), fighting knives at first: in a static matter (the user’s hand never leaves the complete grip of the weapon’s handle) and in a dynamic matter (the user’s hand has to leave, generally less than parts of a second, the grip of the weapon’s handle to allow quick moves, changing of direction, spinning and flipping moves, extensions and dynamic transitions of the weapon itself), All those moves are “effective techniques” to reach properly the intended vulnerable target and possible “strange movements” are deliberately performed to create confusion or distraction in the opponent’s mind: no movement is pointless, superfluous or showboating. The moves employed for a karambit are different from the usual stabbing actions with other fighting knives and an opponent may have difficulty understanding what is really happening and consequently reacting and countering. Racking and tearing (just like the claw of a tiger), slashing, hooking, stabbing, flailing and punching are all moves deployable and a well-trained user can transition very quickly between all those technical movements with a very high speed. There are many possible transitions and variations, spinning moves and combined techniques. The blade’s arc offers the ability to fluidly attack and counterattack in a single motion and to change directions of movement with ease. It also allows striking from multiple lines of attack at once and devastating applications of leverage. A “razor-ultra-sharp” blade can tear through flesh like paper, cut off fingers, cut throat, carotid artery, limbs, femoral artery, tendons, nerves and can disembowel a human body with just one swipe (almost as Japanese Tanto, Kaiken and Kozuka are able to do). Furthermore, a skilled user can switch hands with the karambit or is formidable in using two karambits in pairs, one in each hand. Among other considerations, in the past the cutting edge of the blade (or the tip) was often smeared/doused with some types of deadly poisons derived from various species of poisonous snakes, spiders, frogs and scorpions. Some of those poisons act almost instantly upon entry into the bloodstream via a very small laceration or even a light scrape of the flesh.
Currently, to deal with the various requests and requirements, the modern karambits are crafted in two main and distinct configurations (both of which have their benefits and drawbacks): with a fixed blade (immediate deployment, possibility of double-edged blade version) or with a folding blade (for a fast and easy blade deployment needs a small hook on the spine of the blade to snap it into position, compact size, only single-edged blade version [to avoid injures for users], more options for concealment and without the need of a sheath…..).
The modern and upgraded karambit, like its ancestor, is composed of three parts: the blade, the handle and the ring.
The blade. The blade, in its ubiquitous curved shape (usually created with different variety of high-resistance steels or carbon fiber) can take different geometry and colour (gloss, matt, burnished for a “low level visibility”), aggressive design and fanciful forms related to the manufacturers’ creativity and to the different fighting-habits of the users. The blade strongly contributes to giving the whole shape of the knife due to the “tilt angle” (inclination) between the handle and the blade itself. Furthermore, taking into account the type of constraint between the blade and the handle, the knife can assume the definition of “fixed (blade) knife” or “folding (blade) knife”. The knife, as already mentioned, can be a “single-edged” blade or a “double-edged” blade (not for the folding blade type). As far as the size (lenght) is concerned, there is no one size able to fit all tasks: there are different lenghts (overall knife lenghts roughly from 4 to 10 inches, that means from 10.5 cm. to 25.5 cm., and blade lenghts roughly from 1 to 4 inches, that means from 2.5 to 10 cm.).
The handle. Karambits, not only traditional but also modern ones, can have handles made of hardwood or animal-bone (horn), but the main commercial production prefers to use metals and/or syntetic advanced materials (e.g. titanium, G-10, micarta, polymer, carbon fiber…), with ergonomic and functional shapes, that give the handle a more comfortable and firm grip, also in extreme conditions and in different fighting situations (even underwater).
The ring. The ring is positioned at the end of the handle (some types have a secondary ring located near the handle just below the blade) and it is being considered as a “security grip” however, because the ring can perform various functions, it takes different names: security ring/retention ring (to prevent the blade from sliding back through the user’s hand), finger ring (allows the user to insert a finger in the ring: the index or the pinky, depending on the type of grip chosen) The (finger) ring makes difficult to disarm the user, allows the karambit to be manoeuvred in the finger without losing the grip and permitting various dynamic and fast transitions without dropping the knife or, even worse, avoiding to have the karambit taken away from an opponent. Furthermore, the ring is generally large enough to wear on gloves, the knife can be used in a punching motion as a knuckle-duster or, if the ring is provided of protrusions or spurs, can be used as a hammer (as an “impact weapon”) hitting the opponent with the spur-skullbreaker.
There are mainly two gripping choices to determine how to hold a karambit (plus some intermediate variations) and each one of them offers different techniques, applications, manoeuvreability, power and effectiveness: the “Reverse grip” and the “Forward grip”.
The “Reverse grip”, also called “Traditional grip”, “Combat grip”, “Tactical Grip” or “Pikal”, is the most commonly used and recognized grip. The karambit is held by sticking the index finger in the ring and then the blade is stretched down into the lower part of the fist pointing the tip upwards An unusual application is the “Extended grip”, just “extending” the blade forward by holding the karambit from the ring, without moving the body or the arm, to gain distance.
The “Forward grip”, also called “Straight grip”, “Hammer grip”, “Positive grip”, “Instinctive grip” or “Sak Sak”. The way to hold the karambit is instinctive because the karambit is held like any other knife: the blade is protruding from the upper part of the fist and the pinky (little finger) is tucked inside the ring. Furthermore, the handle can be used as a hammer and the ring as a skullbreaker. Just for information, an unusual application is the “Mantis grip” or “Reaper grip”.
Both the grips, of course, can generate transitions, spinning motions and dynamic techniques usefull for fighting. Anyway, The karambit is a very demanding weapon and it takes careless, patience and more time, than a conventional knife, to learn and master the techniques. Must be underlined, at this time, that a beginner must pay enough attention to avoid serious self-injuries by lacerating cuts. As any lethal weapon, it demands respect, dedication, concentration and if you make a mistake the karambit will make you understand.
To counter a well-trained karambit user is not a walk in the park, and skilled karateka have to improve their ability to react immediately as soon as the threat appears. Some karate instructors, experienced in countering karambit attacks (mainly from Police/Law Enforcement), advise to forget defensive tactics applying instead an “aggressive overwhelming counterattack”. The training of their men is mainly based on quick body movements and changing directions (foot work: “ashi-sabaki” and specifically “tsugi-ashi”), evasive body movement (“tenshin” / “tai-sabaki”), dodges (“kawashi waza” / “furimi”), distance control (“maai shihai”), attack/counterattack in depth (“no-tsukomi waza”) and low kicks (“gedan geri” / “keikotsu geri”).
Hard training but easy fighting… and good job everyone! OSU!
A SMALL AND LETHAL WEAPON FOR MARTIALISTS AND WARFIGHTERS
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
The “Karambit” is a small knife, of Southeast Asian origin, whose appearance vaguely recalls a small sickle and it is easily recognizable thanks to its curved blade, which resembles a big talon, and for a ring positioned at the end of the handle. For that reason the word karambit is commonly translated as “The tiger’s claw” (from “Kuku Macan”, one of the many karambit’s nicknames, as an homage to Sumatran Tiger) even if the word “karambit” really comes from the two Indonesian words “karam” and “ambit”, whose combined meaning is “to grab something/someone” (prey, opponent or enemy). As often it happens for many Asian Martial Arts, not always all historians and scholars agree about themselves and, also in this case, there is no one version about the karambit’s origins, employments, and diffusion. Anyhow, for the most reliable hypothesis, the karambit firstly manifested its presence during the 11th century in the Indonesian archipelago (Java island or Sumatra island) as a farming multi-purpose knife, that is “an agricultural tool” used for harvesting rice, racking roots, cutting meats, fruit and forage. Afterwards karambit became also a utility knife for common tasks in everyday use. During the 13th century, because of its power, versatility, precision and efficiency, from agrarian peasantry underwent a changing process, a “weaponizing” process for its employment on the battlefield. The karambit spread quickly throughout Southeast Asia as a self-defence knife and/or fighting knife and made its way to Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Dai-Viet (Vietnam), Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand) and the Philippines. All those mentioned countries had already their own numerous, traditional and famous “cold weapons” (e.g. Kris, Kujang, Balisong, Baraw…), most of which are very different in size, lenght and weight when compared to the karambit. For that reason, the karambit was (and it is) generally used just as a defensive weapon or a backup weapon (last-ditch weapon / last resort weapon / last line of defence weapon) for extreme Hand-To-Hand (HTH) combat or Close-Quarter Combat (CQC). Due to its great geographical spreading, there are many types of karambit, a lot of many regional and subregional variants across all South-East Asia: the lenght, the edge, the shape and the curved/hooked geometry of the blade, the handle and the ring, for exemple, can differ from village to village, from island to island or from blacksmith to blacksmith. For that reason the karambit has also many names (Karambit Besar, Kuku Macan, Kuku Bhima, Garab Karm, Celurit, Sabit, Klurit, Rajawali, Lihok, Sanggot....) and many different pronunciations (Kerambit, Kurambot, Korambit, Kerambet…). Of course, traditional karambits are mainly handmade with very expensive materials (wood and steel) and are highly prized. Anyway, to confirm all those many types, the current industrial production of modern and technologically advanced karambits is greatly influenced by “ancient” versions and variants, taking into maximum account the needs and the specific requirements requested by the different users. Karambit’s versatility is recognized by various users for everyday common tasks, outdoor and utility, agricultural use, hunting and fishing chores, self-defence applications, combative and battlefield use. Doctrinally speaking and in the current martial context, the karambit’s practice (and training) is included in four main combative disciplines: the Indonesian Pencak Silat, the Filipino Martial Arts (and specifically Kali, Eskrima, Arnis de mano, Doce Pares), the Malaysian Bersilat and the Malay-Singaporean Kuntao. Due to its unconventional design, its versatile and highly functional blade, its concealability, precision and recognizing its offensive and lethal nature also, karambit entered both the “martialists” community and the “military” community, also becoming an unofficial “battlefield mate” at many élite Regiments and Units… not only in the Southeast Asian and Far Eastern Armed Forces and Police Forces. For both the “Martialists” and “Military” communities the karambit is generally considered as a “fighting knife”, even if in some versions it could be considered as a “combat knife” (a knife designed and crafted solely for fighting [“for battlefield-use only”]) and in some other versions, it could be considered as a “tactical knife” (a knife designed and crafted for tactical situations, military-utility, and fighting). Unluckily also “Bad Guys” (thugs, evildoers, delinquents, bandits, criminals, terrorists...) use the karambit and, perhaps for that reason, another karambit’s nickname is “cheating knife” because it is quite difficult to see in the hand of a skilled user (almost invisible in someone’s hand or covered/hidden by fingers) and it is so easily concealable to become an immediate dangerous threat held in wrong hands (Sudden Materialisation Of The Threat – SMOTT). As it is known, there are generally two ways for handling and wielding the so-called “melee weapon” (“any handheld weapon used in hand-to-hand combat”), fighting knives at first: in a static matter (the user’s hand never leaves the complete grip of the weapon’s handle) and in a dynamic matter (the user’s hand has to leave, generally less than parts of a second, the grip of the weapon’s handle to allow quick moves, changing of direction, spinning and flipping moves, extensions and dynamic transitions of the weapon itself), All those moves are “effective techniques” to reach properly the intended vulnerable target and possible “strange movements” are deliberately performed to create confusion or distraction in the opponent’s mind: no movement is pointless, superfluous or showboating. The moves employed for a karambit are different from the usual stabbing actions with other fighting knives and an opponent may have difficulty understanding what is really happening and consequently reacting and countering. Racking and tearing (just like the claw of a tiger), slashing, hooking, stabbing, flailing and punching are all moves deployable and a well-trained user can transition very quickly between all those technical movements with a very high speed. There are many possible transitions and variations, spinning moves and combined techniques. The blade’s arc offers the ability to fluidly attack and counterattack in a single motion and to change directions of movement with ease. It also allows striking from multiple lines of attack at once and devastating applications of leverage. A “razor-ultra-sharp” blade can tear through flesh like paper, cut off fingers, cut throat, carotid artery, limbs, femoral artery, tendons, nerves and can disembowel a human body with just one swipe (almost as Japanese Tanto, Kaiken and Kozuka are able to do). Furthermore, a skilled user can switch hands with the karambit or is formidable in using two karambits in pairs, one in each hand. Among other considerations, in the past the cutting edge of the blade (or the tip) was often smeared/doused with some types of deadly poisons derived from various species of poisonous snakes, spiders, frogs and scorpions. Some of those poisons act almost instantly upon entry into the bloodstream via a very small laceration or even a light scrape of the flesh.
Currently, to deal with the various requests and requirements, the modern karambits are crafted in two main and distinct configurations (both of which have their benefits and drawbacks): with a fixed blade (immediate deployment, possibility of double-edged blade version) or with a folding blade (for a fast and easy blade deployment needs a small hook on the spine of the blade to snap it into position, compact size, only single-edged blade version [to avoid injures for users], more options for concealment and without the need of a sheath…..).
The modern and upgraded karambit, like its ancestor, is composed of three parts: the blade, the handle and the ring.
The blade. The blade, in its ubiquitous curved shape (usually created with different variety of high-resistance steels or carbon fiber) can take different geometry and colour (gloss, matt, burnished for a “low level visibility”), aggressive design and fanciful forms related to the manufacturers’ creativity and to the different fighting-habits of the users. The blade strongly contributes to giving the whole shape of the knife due to the “tilt angle” (inclination) between the handle and the blade itself. Furthermore, taking into account the type of constraint between the blade and the handle, the knife can assume the definition of “fixed (blade) knife” or “folding (blade) knife”. The knife, as already mentioned, can be a “single-edged” blade or a “double-edged” blade (not for the folding blade type). As far as the size (lenght) is concerned, there is no one size able to fit all tasks: there are different lenghts (overall knife lenghts roughly from 4 to 10 inches, that means from 10.5 cm. to 25.5 cm., and blade lenghts roughly from 1 to 4 inches, that means from 2.5 to 10 cm.).
The handle. Karambits, not only traditional but also modern ones, can have handles made of hardwood or animal-bone (horn), but the main commercial production prefers to use metals and/or syntetic advanced materials (e.g. titanium, G-10, micarta, polymer, carbon fiber…), with ergonomic and functional shapes, that give the handle a more comfortable and firm grip, also in extreme conditions and in different fighting situations (even underwater).
The ring. The ring is positioned at the end of the handle (some types have a secondary ring located near the handle just below the blade) and it is being considered as a “security grip” however, because the ring can perform various functions, it takes different names: security ring/retention ring (to prevent the blade from sliding back through the user’s hand), finger ring (allows the user to insert a finger in the ring: the index or the pinky, depending on the type of grip chosen) The (finger) ring makes difficult to disarm the user, allows the karambit to be manoeuvred in the finger without losing the grip and permitting various dynamic and fast transitions without dropping the knife or, even worse, avoiding to have the karambit taken away from an opponent. Furthermore, the ring is generally large enough to wear on gloves, the knife can be used in a punching motion as a knuckle-duster or, if the ring is provided of protrusions or spurs, can be used as a hammer (as an “impact weapon”) hitting the opponent with the spur-skullbreaker.
There are mainly two gripping choices to determine how to hold a karambit (plus some intermediate variations) and each one of them offers different techniques, applications, manoeuvreability, power and effectiveness: the “Reverse grip” and the “Forward grip”.
The “Reverse grip”, also called “Traditional grip”, “Combat grip”, “Tactical Grip” or “Pikal”, is the most commonly used and recognized grip. The karambit is held by sticking the index finger in the ring and then the blade is stretched down into the lower part of the fist pointing the tip upwards An unusual application is the “Extended grip”, just “extending” the blade forward by holding the karambit from the ring, without moving the body or the arm, to gain distance.
The “Forward grip”, also called “Straight grip”, “Hammer grip”, “Positive grip”, “Instinctive grip” or “Sak Sak”. The way to hold the karambit is instinctive because the karambit is held like any other knife: the blade is protruding from the upper part of the fist and the pinky (little finger) is tucked inside the ring. Furthermore, the handle can be used as a hammer and the ring as a skullbreaker. Just for information, an unusual application is the “Mantis grip” or “Reaper grip”.
Both the grips, of course, can generate transitions, spinning motions and dynamic techniques usefull for fighting. Anyway, The karambit is a very demanding weapon and it takes careless, patience and more time, than a conventional knife, to learn and master the techniques. Must be underlined, at this time, that a beginner must pay enough attention to avoid serious self-injuries by lacerating cuts. As any lethal weapon, it demands respect, dedication, concentration and if you make a mistake the karambit will make you understand.
To counter a well-trained karambit user is not a walk in the park, and skilled karateka have to improve their ability to react immediately as soon as the threat appears. Some karate instructors, experienced in countering karambit attacks (mainly from Police/Law Enforcement), advise to forget defensive tactics applying instead an “aggressive overwhelming counterattack”. The training of their men is mainly based on quick body movements and changing directions (foot work: “ashi-sabaki” and specifically “tsugi-ashi”), evasive body movement (“tenshin” / “tai-sabaki”), dodges (“kawashi waza” / “furimi”), distance control (“maai shihai”), attack/counterattack in depth (“no-tsukomi waza”) and low kicks (“gedan geri” / “keikotsu geri”).
Hard training but easy fighting… and good job everyone! OSU!
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KARATE FOR MILITARY PURPOSES AND WARFIGHTING
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
Over the years a huge amount of books and articles have been written on Karate concerning its
historical origins, lineage, techniques as well as its various aspects as a martial art, as a fighting sport
or a self-defence discipline. But very little indeed, if not almost nothing, has been written about its
lethal nature, its military development and its employment on the battlefield. In this perspective, to
fully understand karate also from a military point of view, it is however useful to make a brief
historical hint to focus its remote origin defining the specific military evolution that has taken place
over time. Its birthplace on the island of Okinawa, in the context of a rural and peasant society, is
certainly the best known aspect but indeed it represents only a limited period, albeit very significant,
of the historical evolution of karate itself. The complete history is very complex, sometimes
undetermined, contradictory and it is often difficult to focus its evolution in a linear way, even by
numerous historians and scholars of the subject. Indeed circumstances, events, dates and places are
not always certain ... mainly due to the lack of official documents, precise references, reliable
testimonies, accurate translations and, perhaps, also due to the desire not to disclose information
outside a specific and restricted context. The island of Okinawa (Uchinaa, which in the native
language means “the rope in sight”, as seen from the sea it resembles a piece of rope floating on the
water surface) is the main island of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago, an archipelago located south-
west of Japan and consisting of more than a hundred islands. The history of the Ryukyu Kingdom
(kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands:1400-1800), whose capital was the city of Shuri (in Okinawa),
developed with alternate events, from a period of great opulence and warfighting power (Gosoku –
the period of the 300 castles) to a period of a partial decline when, at the beginning of 1600, the
Kingdom suffered the Japanese invasion as the result of which it essentially became, until 1800, a
partially independent fiefdom. Only in 1879 Okinawa, and its archipelago, officially became a
Japanese Prefecture (Prefecture of Okinawa). Anyway, for many years the aristocratic and refined
Ryukyu Kingdom was a centre of attention in the spotlight of wide and different interests for many
countries of the Far East, as it proved to be an excellent place for commercial intermediation and
cultural development. Therefore, for a long period of time, transited or settled there lots of
merchants, diplomats, men of culture, artists, writers, warriors, sailors and fishermen mainly coming
from Japan, China, Formosa (Taiwan), Korea, Siam (Thailand), Dai-Viet (Vietnam) and Indonesia.
Numerous experts from various combat disciplines, samurai and sailors included, passing by the
Ruykyu Islands provided a notable contribution to the development of those local, ancient and pre-
existing fighting systems, whose techniques were initially and secretly transmitted only within the
Ryukyu aristocracies and subsequently elaborated by those same nobles who decayed and then
became peasants. The prolonged contacts with Chinese people, including those Chinese who
permanently settled on the island of Okinawa, as well as the prohibitions on carrying any kind of
weapons, greatly influenced the further development of various styles and techniques of unarmed
combat. Chinese fighting influences came mainly from the monks’ school of Shaolin temple and
from the Wushu-Wutang school: two different schools that greatly influenced that martial art firstly
defined as Okinawa-te (“Hand of Okinawa”), then redefined as Tote (“Chinese Hand”) and finally
defined as Karate-Do (“Art of the Empty Hand”…or naked or disarmed hand). Although karate was
already known and practiced in Japan, in 1922, by invitation of Shihan Jigoro Kano (founder of
“modern” Judo), the Okinawan Shihan Gichin Funakoshi (founder of “modern” Karate) went to
Japan and performed a formidable karate demonstration at the Kodokan of Tokyo in front of
numerous Japanese dignitaries and notables, following which demo it was decided that karate should
have been taught and practiced at numerous Japanese universities. Finally, in 1939 the Dai Nippon
Butokukai of Tokyo (in this case in its particular role of “Military National Training Center”)
decreed the official inscription of the “Discipline of the Karate-do” in the list of the “Japanese
Martial Arts” and sanctioned also its teaching and practice at the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces…
thus giving, in point of fact, the origin of the “Japanese Karate”. However, even though Okinawa has
been Japanese for more than a century, the many differences between “Okinawan Karate” and
“Japanese Karate” still remain in almost every style, at least in the roots. How it is handed down, in
the early Okinawan period (but this is a very argued topic!), being already itself a synthesis of many
other forms of fighting, karate provided two main currents: the Shorin current (from which have
arisen those karate styles that privilege speed and agility, despite their fairly low guard stance with
the legs quite bent to ensure greater stability) and the Shorei current (from which have arisen those
karate styles that privilege physical strength and muscular power and using relatively high guard
stance to ensure greater body mobility and lunge in attack). The question is still debated since it
would appear that the words Shorin and Shorei could be both the historically incorrect reported
pronunciation of the word Shaolin (Shorinji in Japanese language…as it is in “Shorinji-Kenpo”). But
indeed all karate styles strongly pursue the development of speed, agility, power and strength!! That
being said, from the initial few historical karate styles, through different interpretations and technical
enrichments promoted by both famous karate grandmasters and less known karate instructors, there
are now worldwide more than a hundred styles, from the most famous and widespread ones to the
less known ones, but all of them extremely good and valuable. Strength of tradition, most of them are
still influenced by their different ancient Okinawan or Japanese roots (terminology, training,
development of power, types of breathing, Kihon, Kata, Kumite, fighting techniques and combat
tactics). Now, to understand properly karate “for military purposes” is appropriate to call attention
from Budo to Bugei concept: Budo represents the practice of martial arts to achieve a balanced
lifestyle through a rigid mental discipline, rigorous training methods and intense physical
conditioning whereas Bugei represents the practice of martial arts aimed at achieving offensive and
lethal capabilities in warfighting. In this perspective, each karate style and/or school can be
“converted” for the final purpose that is fighting at war. To better set the topic, a specific imi (“the
final purpose” for which a dedicated mental and physical conditioning are always required) is senjo
(“the battlefield”): so “Senjo Karate” is, generally speaking, any karate expression (independently
from styles or schools) whose objective is just a warfighting application. The starting points are
shugyo, the “rigorous and disciplined practice” and tanren, the “discipline aimed at the training of
the warrior”: body and mind must be “forged” like a sharp blade of a dagger….being always combat
ready. Body conditioning is aimed at strengthening and parts of the body must be accustumed, as far
as possible, to being hit (shimè) [not to be confused with shime-waza, the Judo strangulation
techniques] and parts of the body must be conditioned to impact on hard targets (using makiwara,
sunabukuro or other proper tools) in order to transform own bones in weapons. Of course
tameshiwari (“trial by the wood”, but not only!), as breaking performance, remains the top
expression for demonstrating that a part of the body, if properly conditioned, can become a weapon.
Furthermore, karate has a particular feature, common only among a few other Far-Eastern fighting
disciplines, that is the kimè (approximately the chinkuchi of the Okinawan schools), the well known
ability of a sudden contraction of all muscles and tendons of the body at the moment of impact on a
target, thus increasing the power and the devastating effect of a strike. The topic is very complex and
articulated but, in a nutshell, the kimè turns out to be also a sum of many factors including zanshin (a
state of mind of maximum concentration and permanent, continuous alertness), hakkei (the
generation of power), kiai (the expansion of internal energy compressed and forcefully conveyed by
abdominal contraction through forced breathing-ibuki), koshino-kaiten (the rotation and vibration of
the hips) and haragei (the control and orientation of the flow of energy generated from the center of
abdomen seika-tanden). The term haragei requests a further important clarification: haragei is not
only the capability to develop a coordinated strength of the entire body but also represents a
particular “state of mind” through which “is being developed the capacity to sense and/or perceive a
threat or a danger”. Before tackling other topics, as far as “lethality concept” is concerned, is
mandatory to deal with the study of Kyusho (or Kenketsu), that is to know “where” to convey the
destructive power of a strike (identifying both vital and deadly points of the human body), and the
study of the Atemi-waza (“the techniques of the strikes inflicted”- in Japanese) or of Dim-Mak (“the
touch of death”- in Chinese), that is to know “how” and “with what” to hit a target. Moreover, one of
the pillars of ancient karate but also of the current warfighting karate is: “Ichigeki hissatsu” (“single
strike, certain death”). But that doesn’t delete the great validity of the methodology of several, strong
and extremely fast and furious strikes inflicted in the shortest possible time for the immediate
breakdown/culling of an opponent (“Shunsoku no renraku”). Some of current common training
methods are directly derived from ancient military practices, as for example the Tegowai-geiko
(“tough training”), the Gasshuku (“staying together at a lodging house”) or the Uchi-deshi (“inside
student”, living and training full time in a Dojo). The maximum expression of a “full immersion
training” might take place usually twice in a year in particularly hostile climatic conditions (as it
happened commonly in the past) to strengthen both body and mind: the Kangeiko, 30 days of winter
training in the coldest month of the year in the coldest hours of the day, and the Shokugeiko, 30 days
of summer training in the hottest month of the year in the hottest hours of the day. In the military
world great importance is given to initial training because of a military unit in full tactical capability
and/or employed in operational activities has very limited amount of time to spend for all those
activities not specifically related to the assigned mission. Anyway, is mandatory to have always
guaranteed over time a high level of efficiency and a high level of lethality, despite any lack of time
for training. By the way, as far as military karate training is concerned, very famous karate
grandmasters (i.e. Masutatsu Oyama, despite his Korean origin, Seiken Shukumine, Taiji Kase,
Yoshitaka Funakoshi…), but unknown karate instructors also, made a huge contribution to the
practice of karate at Japanese Military Services and/or Secret Services (i.e. at Nakano Spy School -
Rikugun Nakano Gakko). The military training, indeed, is oriented to make a soldier well prepared
because of a wealth of effective techniques available (already verified on the battlefield or in
operational environment) to face different missions and different tactical situations. There was a time
in which, among western countries, spreaded the idea that the “modern long range technological
war” would have completely eradicated the hand to hand fighting: nothing more wrong! The new
types of threats and the new types of military intervention and military/constabulary operations
strongly require the “hand to hand combat capabilities” of troops (disarming techniques included).
Generally speaking, in most Armed Forces and Police Forces of western nations, karate still
represents a strong pillar of a wide number of military combat systems in which are generally
included also other forms of combat techniques got from other fighting disciplines (i.e. western
Boxe, Tae-Kwon-Do, Judo, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, Muay Lert Rit, Mixed Martial Arts, Krav Maga, Kali
Escrimia): strange to say, but not always the choice depends from a standardization but just from the
combat drill instructor own professional experience and from the operational employment of the
military unit of belonging. Furthermore a so-called “hand to hand combat system” (CQC – Close
Quarter Combat), always involves the use of “cold weapons” (or “cold-arms”/“white arms”) as
bayonets, tactical daggers, fighting knives, tactical batons, axes, machete, tonfa, bladed
knucledusters. Indeed for centuries, before the advent of firearms (“fire-arms”), mastering the close
combat techniques meant to be able to strike, to wrestle and to handle one or more cold weapons.
Anyway karate remains a reference point and the solid platform on which to build the architecture of
an effective combat system. Techniques have to be adapted to tactical circumstances taking into
account that the “real world fighting environment” could be extremely demanding as for the bad
weather conditions (rain, wind, low visibility…), for the environment itself (dark night, snow, sand,
uneven terrain, mobile bearing surface, narrow or confined spaces…) and for the combat gear worn
(outfit and equipment, boots, harnesses, rucksack, helmet, weapons….) that could restrict the body
movements. These are the prerogatives of a military combat system, but we must not forget that all
depends on a mental attitude of maximum alertness and the correct perception of the surrounding
environment, the perception of movements, the correct distance estimation, the speed of action or
reaction and the perfect timing…all things that karate teaches. An old karate instructor of the
Imperial Japanese Navy used to say: “Soul made steel: it depends on you. You have to decide if you
are a sharp dagger or just a paperknife…. but you have to know that only daggers are being forged in
this place”.
By Sensei Bandioli WKKO Italia
Over the years a huge amount of books and articles have been written on Karate concerning its
historical origins, lineage, techniques as well as its various aspects as a martial art, as a fighting sport
or a self-defence discipline. But very little indeed, if not almost nothing, has been written about its
lethal nature, its military development and its employment on the battlefield. In this perspective, to
fully understand karate also from a military point of view, it is however useful to make a brief
historical hint to focus its remote origin defining the specific military evolution that has taken place
over time. Its birthplace on the island of Okinawa, in the context of a rural and peasant society, is
certainly the best known aspect but indeed it represents only a limited period, albeit very significant,
of the historical evolution of karate itself. The complete history is very complex, sometimes
undetermined, contradictory and it is often difficult to focus its evolution in a linear way, even by
numerous historians and scholars of the subject. Indeed circumstances, events, dates and places are
not always certain ... mainly due to the lack of official documents, precise references, reliable
testimonies, accurate translations and, perhaps, also due to the desire not to disclose information
outside a specific and restricted context. The island of Okinawa (Uchinaa, which in the native
language means “the rope in sight”, as seen from the sea it resembles a piece of rope floating on the
water surface) is the main island of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago, an archipelago located south-
west of Japan and consisting of more than a hundred islands. The history of the Ryukyu Kingdom
(kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands:1400-1800), whose capital was the city of Shuri (in Okinawa),
developed with alternate events, from a period of great opulence and warfighting power (Gosoku –
the period of the 300 castles) to a period of a partial decline when, at the beginning of 1600, the
Kingdom suffered the Japanese invasion as the result of which it essentially became, until 1800, a
partially independent fiefdom. Only in 1879 Okinawa, and its archipelago, officially became a
Japanese Prefecture (Prefecture of Okinawa). Anyway, for many years the aristocratic and refined
Ryukyu Kingdom was a centre of attention in the spotlight of wide and different interests for many
countries of the Far East, as it proved to be an excellent place for commercial intermediation and
cultural development. Therefore, for a long period of time, transited or settled there lots of
merchants, diplomats, men of culture, artists, writers, warriors, sailors and fishermen mainly coming
from Japan, China, Formosa (Taiwan), Korea, Siam (Thailand), Dai-Viet (Vietnam) and Indonesia.
Numerous experts from various combat disciplines, samurai and sailors included, passing by the
Ruykyu Islands provided a notable contribution to the development of those local, ancient and pre-
existing fighting systems, whose techniques were initially and secretly transmitted only within the
Ryukyu aristocracies and subsequently elaborated by those same nobles who decayed and then
became peasants. The prolonged contacts with Chinese people, including those Chinese who
permanently settled on the island of Okinawa, as well as the prohibitions on carrying any kind of
weapons, greatly influenced the further development of various styles and techniques of unarmed
combat. Chinese fighting influences came mainly from the monks’ school of Shaolin temple and
from the Wushu-Wutang school: two different schools that greatly influenced that martial art firstly
defined as Okinawa-te (“Hand of Okinawa”), then redefined as Tote (“Chinese Hand”) and finally
defined as Karate-Do (“Art of the Empty Hand”…or naked or disarmed hand). Although karate was
already known and practiced in Japan, in 1922, by invitation of Shihan Jigoro Kano (founder of
“modern” Judo), the Okinawan Shihan Gichin Funakoshi (founder of “modern” Karate) went to
Japan and performed a formidable karate demonstration at the Kodokan of Tokyo in front of
numerous Japanese dignitaries and notables, following which demo it was decided that karate should
have been taught and practiced at numerous Japanese universities. Finally, in 1939 the Dai Nippon
Butokukai of Tokyo (in this case in its particular role of “Military National Training Center”)
decreed the official inscription of the “Discipline of the Karate-do” in the list of the “Japanese
Martial Arts” and sanctioned also its teaching and practice at the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces…
thus giving, in point of fact, the origin of the “Japanese Karate”. However, even though Okinawa has
been Japanese for more than a century, the many differences between “Okinawan Karate” and
“Japanese Karate” still remain in almost every style, at least in the roots. How it is handed down, in
the early Okinawan period (but this is a very argued topic!), being already itself a synthesis of many
other forms of fighting, karate provided two main currents: the Shorin current (from which have
arisen those karate styles that privilege speed and agility, despite their fairly low guard stance with
the legs quite bent to ensure greater stability) and the Shorei current (from which have arisen those
karate styles that privilege physical strength and muscular power and using relatively high guard
stance to ensure greater body mobility and lunge in attack). The question is still debated since it
would appear that the words Shorin and Shorei could be both the historically incorrect reported
pronunciation of the word Shaolin (Shorinji in Japanese language…as it is in “Shorinji-Kenpo”). But
indeed all karate styles strongly pursue the development of speed, agility, power and strength!! That
being said, from the initial few historical karate styles, through different interpretations and technical
enrichments promoted by both famous karate grandmasters and less known karate instructors, there
are now worldwide more than a hundred styles, from the most famous and widespread ones to the
less known ones, but all of them extremely good and valuable. Strength of tradition, most of them are
still influenced by their different ancient Okinawan or Japanese roots (terminology, training,
development of power, types of breathing, Kihon, Kata, Kumite, fighting techniques and combat
tactics). Now, to understand properly karate “for military purposes” is appropriate to call attention
from Budo to Bugei concept: Budo represents the practice of martial arts to achieve a balanced
lifestyle through a rigid mental discipline, rigorous training methods and intense physical
conditioning whereas Bugei represents the practice of martial arts aimed at achieving offensive and
lethal capabilities in warfighting. In this perspective, each karate style and/or school can be
“converted” for the final purpose that is fighting at war. To better set the topic, a specific imi (“the
final purpose” for which a dedicated mental and physical conditioning are always required) is senjo
(“the battlefield”): so “Senjo Karate” is, generally speaking, any karate expression (independently
from styles or schools) whose objective is just a warfighting application. The starting points are
shugyo, the “rigorous and disciplined practice” and tanren, the “discipline aimed at the training of
the warrior”: body and mind must be “forged” like a sharp blade of a dagger….being always combat
ready. Body conditioning is aimed at strengthening and parts of the body must be accustumed, as far
as possible, to being hit (shimè) [not to be confused with shime-waza, the Judo strangulation
techniques] and parts of the body must be conditioned to impact on hard targets (using makiwara,
sunabukuro or other proper tools) in order to transform own bones in weapons. Of course
tameshiwari (“trial by the wood”, but not only!), as breaking performance, remains the top
expression for demonstrating that a part of the body, if properly conditioned, can become a weapon.
Furthermore, karate has a particular feature, common only among a few other Far-Eastern fighting
disciplines, that is the kimè (approximately the chinkuchi of the Okinawan schools), the well known
ability of a sudden contraction of all muscles and tendons of the body at the moment of impact on a
target, thus increasing the power and the devastating effect of a strike. The topic is very complex and
articulated but, in a nutshell, the kimè turns out to be also a sum of many factors including zanshin (a
state of mind of maximum concentration and permanent, continuous alertness), hakkei (the
generation of power), kiai (the expansion of internal energy compressed and forcefully conveyed by
abdominal contraction through forced breathing-ibuki), koshino-kaiten (the rotation and vibration of
the hips) and haragei (the control and orientation of the flow of energy generated from the center of
abdomen seika-tanden). The term haragei requests a further important clarification: haragei is not
only the capability to develop a coordinated strength of the entire body but also represents a
particular “state of mind” through which “is being developed the capacity to sense and/or perceive a
threat or a danger”. Before tackling other topics, as far as “lethality concept” is concerned, is
mandatory to deal with the study of Kyusho (or Kenketsu), that is to know “where” to convey the
destructive power of a strike (identifying both vital and deadly points of the human body), and the
study of the Atemi-waza (“the techniques of the strikes inflicted”- in Japanese) or of Dim-Mak (“the
touch of death”- in Chinese), that is to know “how” and “with what” to hit a target. Moreover, one of
the pillars of ancient karate but also of the current warfighting karate is: “Ichigeki hissatsu” (“single
strike, certain death”). But that doesn’t delete the great validity of the methodology of several, strong
and extremely fast and furious strikes inflicted in the shortest possible time for the immediate
breakdown/culling of an opponent (“Shunsoku no renraku”). Some of current common training
methods are directly derived from ancient military practices, as for example the Tegowai-geiko
(“tough training”), the Gasshuku (“staying together at a lodging house”) or the Uchi-deshi (“inside
student”, living and training full time in a Dojo). The maximum expression of a “full immersion
training” might take place usually twice in a year in particularly hostile climatic conditions (as it
happened commonly in the past) to strengthen both body and mind: the Kangeiko, 30 days of winter
training in the coldest month of the year in the coldest hours of the day, and the Shokugeiko, 30 days
of summer training in the hottest month of the year in the hottest hours of the day. In the military
world great importance is given to initial training because of a military unit in full tactical capability
and/or employed in operational activities has very limited amount of time to spend for all those
activities not specifically related to the assigned mission. Anyway, is mandatory to have always
guaranteed over time a high level of efficiency and a high level of lethality, despite any lack of time
for training. By the way, as far as military karate training is concerned, very famous karate
grandmasters (i.e. Masutatsu Oyama, despite his Korean origin, Seiken Shukumine, Taiji Kase,
Yoshitaka Funakoshi…), but unknown karate instructors also, made a huge contribution to the
practice of karate at Japanese Military Services and/or Secret Services (i.e. at Nakano Spy School -
Rikugun Nakano Gakko). The military training, indeed, is oriented to make a soldier well prepared
because of a wealth of effective techniques available (already verified on the battlefield or in
operational environment) to face different missions and different tactical situations. There was a time
in which, among western countries, spreaded the idea that the “modern long range technological
war” would have completely eradicated the hand to hand fighting: nothing more wrong! The new
types of threats and the new types of military intervention and military/constabulary operations
strongly require the “hand to hand combat capabilities” of troops (disarming techniques included).
Generally speaking, in most Armed Forces and Police Forces of western nations, karate still
represents a strong pillar of a wide number of military combat systems in which are generally
included also other forms of combat techniques got from other fighting disciplines (i.e. western
Boxe, Tae-Kwon-Do, Judo, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, Muay Lert Rit, Mixed Martial Arts, Krav Maga, Kali
Escrimia): strange to say, but not always the choice depends from a standardization but just from the
combat drill instructor own professional experience and from the operational employment of the
military unit of belonging. Furthermore a so-called “hand to hand combat system” (CQC – Close
Quarter Combat), always involves the use of “cold weapons” (or “cold-arms”/“white arms”) as
bayonets, tactical daggers, fighting knives, tactical batons, axes, machete, tonfa, bladed
knucledusters. Indeed for centuries, before the advent of firearms (“fire-arms”), mastering the close
combat techniques meant to be able to strike, to wrestle and to handle one or more cold weapons.
Anyway karate remains a reference point and the solid platform on which to build the architecture of
an effective combat system. Techniques have to be adapted to tactical circumstances taking into
account that the “real world fighting environment” could be extremely demanding as for the bad
weather conditions (rain, wind, low visibility…), for the environment itself (dark night, snow, sand,
uneven terrain, mobile bearing surface, narrow or confined spaces…) and for the combat gear worn
(outfit and equipment, boots, harnesses, rucksack, helmet, weapons….) that could restrict the body
movements. These are the prerogatives of a military combat system, but we must not forget that all
depends on a mental attitude of maximum alertness and the correct perception of the surrounding
environment, the perception of movements, the correct distance estimation, the speed of action or
reaction and the perfect timing…all things that karate teaches. An old karate instructor of the
Imperial Japanese Navy used to say: “Soul made steel: it depends on you. You have to decide if you
are a sharp dagger or just a paperknife…. but you have to know that only daggers are being forged in
this place”.
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