“Compared to Jiu Jitsu, karate is more destructive, Jiu Jitsu is the art of throwing and holding and is slow compared to karate” – Kentsu Yabu from the Honolulu Advertiser July 9, 1927
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“Does this work?” is a meaningless question without the qualifier of “works for what?”
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There is a huge difference between consensual fights and non-consensual criminal violence. Yabu sensei lived in a time where violence was common place, and consensual fights were not.
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For the criminal the use of weapons, surprise, and accomplices, are effective choices.
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As pragmatic karate-ka our primary goal or strategy is escape, to reach safety, we need to be on our feet so we can use strikes to create space, and chaos, as we move so that we can run. Deliberately taking someone to the floor is therefore a very bad idea. It immediately takes away our ability to escape and leaves us in a very vulnerable position when it comes to third parties.
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It’s not guaranteed we will be able to escape, but trying to escape is definitely the best option. That’s the best tactic for us to employ, and there are skills associated with that. It’s not enough to say, “run way” and then think you’ve covered it all.
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Choosing anything other than escape, or doing anything that makes escape harder, is guaranteed to take us further way from achieving safety. in fact it’s guaranteed to make things worse. Train to escape so you are as good at it as you can be.
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You don’t ever want to go to the ground for a variety of reasons in a self-defense situation. Indeed, we may end up there for different reasons, but as pragmatic karate-ka we should be fighting our way back up on to our feet.
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That is not to say we don’t need techniques for fighting on our backs if we find ourselves there, but we should not assume a street fight will naturally start from the ground, on our backs.
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The ground should never be a choice or a preference. I’d also say we should get up no matter what, even if third parties are not immediately involved, because they can become involved very quickly, with devastating results.
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Anything that makes you more vulnerable to third parties should be avoided. If the worst happens then we need the skills to deal with that, so practicing ground skills for how to “get up” are needed … but again, it’s a VERY bad idea to seek the ground.
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We practice escaping almost every session. It’s not “fighting”, but it is self-defense. Too many people mix them up and treat them as one and the same. Martial artists need to quit with the idea that “toe-to-toe fighting” and a “street fight” are the same. They are NOT. Presenting this type fighting skill set as self-defense, is trying to start with a “solution” and then trying to redefine the problem to retroactively make it fit.
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