Avi Rokah

Does Repetition Make Perfect?

Avi Rokah

One of the characteristics of karate training is repetitions of basics, Sensei Nishiyama used to start the class with hundreds of kizami/gyaku zuki followed by hundreds of kicks. Some researchers believe that it takes about 10,000 repetitions in any art or sport to achieve mastery or expert level of technique. Repetitive practice makes the difference between a world class athlete and the rest. With each repetition we are wiring the nervous system, creating connections and patterns, and the more repetition the more myelin, which is an insulation substance, covers those pathways (Axons). Myelin allows for signals to travel faster and […]

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Mind Like Ice, Spirit Like Fire

Avi Rokah

This is one of my favorite Budo quotes, describing the optimal mindset for fighting/self defense. One must keep the mind calm and the spirit strong, however the mind must not be carried away by the spirit and vice versa. The other day in class, during a timing drill I mentioned the importance of this mental mode in order to apply techniques effectively. Michael asked me after class, “how do we develop this kind of mental mode?” The answer is complex, some people are innately more calm under pressure, and some people naturally have a stronger spirit, but karate gives us

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Strong technique – fluid transitions.

Avi Rokah

Not a contradiction, but rather compliment each other. In Shotokan karate we strive for the beauty of one finishing blow technique (Todome), one of the unique aspects of our karate is kime (mental and physical focus), or how to to deliver the total energy of the whole body, in the shortest instant, to intended line of energy at impact. Shotokan karate is known for powerful technique, at the same time when making strong kime it is easy to lose the smooth transition and fluidity. This is dangerous because if we miss or not finish the fight with one technique, than

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Efficient technique and injury prevention go hand in hand

Avi Rokah

The principles that make karate technique effortlessly powerful, will also keep you injury free. That is one of the beauties of karate! In karate we are striving for the “beauty of one finishing blow technique”, and also, I believe, that we are striving to train and keep improving till old age. Those 2 concepts are not at all contradictory, at least not in Shotokan, on the contrary, a good, effective technique should have all the same qualities that will reduce stress from our joints and spine, will keep our spine and joints stable, strong, pliable and healthy. In fact, the

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Sen – be mentally ahead

Avi Rokah

Sen literally means “ahead”, “before”. It implies that when opponent initiates attack, committed, that is a moment of Qio (chance), the best moment to catch opponent is while moving, committed, the split second that he/she cannot change thir power direction. The ideal is to hit the opponent at the decision to attack, before the physical action, and this is called Kake no Sen. To catch the opponent with Sen timing, one cannot use the eyes and conscious brain, it has to be a feel, the reaction has to be by breath which is reflexive, by-passing conscious brain. The breath make

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Power Needs direction

Avi Rokah

Sensei Nishiyama repeatedly said: “power need direction” What does it mean? There are few components to this. First component, One does not need to be as strong as opponent, but should be able to integrate the whole body, and produce force from the body center, using ground reaction, to any direction, instantly. We must learn to recruit our full potential, teach our nervous system to use all muscle groups and all body segments to cooperate to one direction, and produce force in a shortest amount of time, at one point to specific line of energy. Externally, all body segments has

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Kime Is From Eye

Avi Rokah

Sensei Nishiyama used to repeat “eye, face guiding (the) body (when changing direction), Eyes, face setting the body at kime, when eye(s) stop this is kime”, “kime is from eye” or “at kime nothing moves, even eye(s) don’t blink”. We all know that at kime we make pressure to floor and sharp total body contraction, but we cannot forget that in a sense kime is from eyes. If eyes are blinking at kime, coordination between breathing and muscle action is lacking, also if eyes moving at kime intention cannot be strong, and the stronger the intention the more the muscles

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The Power of Karate is in the Brain, Not in The Muscles, says recent Oxford University Research

Avi Rokah

Group of healthy controls was compared with a group of karate black belts, who are able to perform rapid, complex movements that require years of training. Researchers chose to investigate karate experts’ ability to generate extremely high impact forces as this ability is not replicable by novices, and the mechanism used to achieve this feat not fully understood. The research investigated weather the ability to control ballistic movement is associated with difference in white matter microstructure in the brain. Early studies found that although karate experts were able to generate higher impact forces than controls, isometric muscle force and velocity

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Karate Journey Is Like Climbing A Mountain

Avi Rokah

When you climb a mountain and you see a peak, you think “oh, this is the mountain top, let’s push and get there to the end of the journey”, when you get there, you realize that there is another peak you could not see until you got to where you are, and than you keep going and keep finding out as long as we live. When we learn a technique, we can only receive so much information, and as we train and gain experience we have tools to get more details, and than we realize that the simple techniques have

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