October 2019 - Page 4 of 5

What does F-16 Have to do With Karate?

Ruven Sharf who is European and US Champion and trained and taught at my dojo for 10 years is visiting from Israel to train here. Ruven told me this great analogy between F-16, karate and high level movement, that he heard from his Alexander technique teacher (Meir Amit) who I took a lot of lessons from and is a wise man. The F-16 is the first fighter jet aircraft that was intentionally designed to be inherently unstable, also known as “relaxed static stability”, in order to improve its maneuverability and nimbleness. Most aircrafts are designed to be stable, which means […]

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Budo Aspect for Gaining Karate True Value

Avi Rokah

People practice karate for different reasons, there are those who like to master it as a martial art, others for fitness, or sport, some like the character cultivation aspect of it and some simply enjoy it. All these reasons are true and of great value. The original role of karate was to destroy opponent’s offense power and to protect oneself. Nowadays, fortunately, we are not likely to use karate in life and death situation. In order to gain the mental/spiritual understanding and value of karate, we cannot bypass the original function of karate as budo “to destroy opponent’s offense power

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Once You Go Don’t Stop Until You Finish

Avi Rokah

Sensei Nishiyama used to tell us that often when we spar: “Once you go, give everything, don’t stop till finish”. I think that because we focus so much on finishing technique (todome), karate people have tendency to stop after one technique, but it is not always possible to catch the opponent with one action. Sometimes I will do one technique to close the distance without giving space for counter, in order to make the right distance for finish technique, and sometimes I will execute the first technique to create reaction from the opponent, and to open the door for finish

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Distance – Principles are Simple Applications Endless

Avi Rokah

We work hard to develop good, effective weapons in basics and kata training, but it is equally important to learn how to use those weapons, and it is through using timing and distance properly that can make effective use of our techniques. Try to be at a distance that you can give threat to opponent, yet if opponent attacks, you can move slightly back to be out of attack’s range. This is basic Toma (long distance). This distance is changing with each opponent, some opponent have good reactions so I can give them less, some are harder to break the

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Practice (Keiko) and Training

Avi Rokah

Sensei Nishiyama once told me that we refer to training karate as Keiko rather than training as in other sports. The word Keiko is comprised of two characters that mean ‘to think’ and ‘the past’, and together they mean to train and study the teaching of the past. this is profound in meaning, we need to deliberate and develop reflecting on our training according to Budo theory and principles. For the beginner too much thinking is not a good thing, a beginner might copy the teacher and do repetition without much question, over thinking will cause restricted technique, but once

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Firm, Not Rigid.

Avi Rokah

Firm and soft/fluid are complimentary not contradictory. Firm to allow energy transfer. We have to be firm for the energy to transfer smoothly through the kinetic chain. Rigidity will block the flow, being too loose will cause us to be disconnected and also interfere with the flow of energy from segment to segment. We are not only firm at kime but throughout the technique, even though the muscles activation is different at moving and at kime. Aiko San and sensei Nishiyama constantly told me “keep the very inside (around the sacrum) strong and the outside soft and flexible.” Of course,

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Requirements for “Whole Body Cooperating to One Line of Energy”

Avi Rokah

Whenever Sensei was teaching a seminar he used to describe karate technique: “the whole body must cooperate to one direction”, or “even (if) one finger moves, feet make top technique.”, than he used to say “total energy must be delivered in shortest amount of time”, or else he used to say: “karate is not arms and legs training but whole body training.” What are the conditions required for the whole body to cooperate effectively to one line of energy in order to make Todome (finishing blow)? Optimal posture – moving from optimal posture and keeping optimal posture dynamically. An optimal

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Karate Competition and Judging

Avi Rokah

Kata Look inside and not to the outside, of course, the outside form should be correct, but people have different body types, and the point is not to judge how fancy and beautiful but rather how effectively one uses their bodies, how the whole body cooperates into one purpose, using ground reaction, proper body action and muscle action, and transferring this energy to the technique. Judges should learn to see how well ones uses whole body snap, make strong and proper kime, pressure to floor and sharp total body contraction to line of technique. In kata, one should project strong

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Thoughts About Traditional Karate

Avi Rokah

Embracing the old as a foundation from which to seek unlimited, infinite growth and development. This is what traditional is to me, the word “traditional” might imply to some people stagnation, sticking rigidly to some meaningless rituals and kata, so maybe I don’t love the word traditional but I don’t have any other. But to me, traditional karate is using the kata as a vehicle to understand timeless principles that were discovered through many generations, and building on top of that. Sensei Nishiyama used to stress that kata gives us many examples and through those examples, we must find out

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Increase Sensitivity and Awareness to Reduce Effort

Avi Rokah

Ruven Sharf told me another great analogy that he heard from his Alexander technique teacher, Meir. In a military Bunker there were 10 soldiers and they were always exhausted because they were almost always on guard around the bunker. A new commander came, and he put a high observation post, so one soldier was in the post, and 4 around the bunker, and now the other five soldiers could sleep, and they kept rotation, so everyone was fresh and functional all the time. We can notice that many people in kumite tend to be too tense all the time, they

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