“As up to now [1938] karate has only partly been introduced in Tokyo, people who exercise karate in Tokyo believe that it solely consists of punching and kicking techniques. When talking about ‘gyaku-waza’ (locks) and ‘nage-waza’ (throws) they assume that these only exist in jūjutsu and jūdō. This way of thinking is exceedingly counterproductive with respect to karate itself and can only possibly be attributed to a lack of knowledge.” ~ Kenwa Mabuni ??
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It is only in comparatively recent times due to the martial arts changing their focus from self-defense, to sport and physical-development, that the striking arts have neglected the close-range and authentic ‘old-school’ karate techniques. Practitioners of striking systems need to be sure that they know what to do at close-range in case their strikes don’t end the fight. The need for basic joint-locking, grappling and throwing skills were fully understood by the martial artists of the past.
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Many martial artists should re-evaluate the effectiveness of their chosen art, and understood that to be a truly effective martial artist, you need to be competent at all ranges of fighting.
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? Photo Credit: Iain Abernethy.