Itkf.org
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Description
Traditional Karate is a martial art that is not dependant on muscular strength and hard force, both in technique (kata) and application (kumite). It is the art of giving up muscular strength and after mastering the form (or its principles) we have to give up form or being free from form (without violating it's principles in any thing we do). Moreover we have to give up ourselves to follow the opponent, or further we have to give up wining. In other words the mind should not interfere. By giving up control, we gain control and every thing we do we will do freely.
This is a hard concept to except because every one wants to hit hard and here you are told to give up your arms or legs. Every one wants to win when they initiate Karate training and here you are told that you are supposed to give up wining and give up yourself. You are told to give up results and to think of the process itself, to practice for the sake of practice. At the first few years with Nishiyama Sensei I remember no compliments, once in a while his stick would hit me and there will be correction, the best compliment was " so...", you couldn't really feel satisfied about yourself. When facing an opponent and practicing "sen" timing (which mean that when the opponent attack I anticipate and respond but ahead) Sensei Nishiyama would say that when we move there is no mind in the technique and "win or lose, only god knows" or he will describe the space between me and my opponent as hell and behind my opponent as heaven, "you must go through hell to go to heaven" he said. About the preparation for "SEN", Nishiyama Sensei says," don't think of the opponent and don't think of your own technique" or "the eyes look softly (without intention, naturally) the spirit is strong and the attention is to your own feet" all these means that the mind should not stop at one place, should not concentrate should be attentive without effort, naturally. This does not mean that we are to commit suicide and to go blind with the head in the wall, on the contrary, we must except loss and take risk in order to be free and to have clear judgment, than our whole being can participate in whatever we do without conflict. Sensei Nishiyama says that Three things are most important in Karate: eyes, feet and guts.
Whatever the eyes see the feet should express simultaneously without interference of thought or doubt and guts means strong spirit with no hesitation. We can not talk about good use of the body alone because both good technique and especially the function of the technique depends on the right mind and spirit. In karate technique the body has to move as a whole, there is never independent effort of one limb, if one part of the body moves differently than the rest of the body or if one body part stops than the whole body stops. We say that the energy start from the inside out or from the center of the body (tan den) to the outer limbs. The power of Karate Technique depends:
