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The risk of learning something new is that you may have to completely change what you’re doing and what you are thinking, as a result of what you’ve learned. Yet, when you’ve reached a level of experience, you don’t want to change, you don’t want to lose everything you’ve gained. Well guess what? You don’t have to…. ADD to what you know.
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Bruce Lee stated; “Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.”
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Knowledge is good for nothing unless it is put into practice.
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If you are still producing the same results, you haven’t actually learned anything. It doesn’t matter how much information you consume. It doesn’t matter how many YouTube videos you watch, or how many dojo fights you have.
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It really doesn’t matter what you know; it matters what you do. Instead of mindlessly providing yourself and your students with low-level information, make a better decision and look deeper into karate. It is all there if you take the time to look.
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Prior to karate’s ‘Japanification’ and move to a more sport oriented system, Okinawan karate was created for self-defense, or self-protection. One of Okinawa’s greatest exponents, Motobu Choki stated that; “Nothing is more harmful to the world than a martial art that is not effective in actual self-defense.”
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So for those of you that are used to standing in a fighting stance, with your hands held high, at a safe distance several feet away from your opponent waiting to fight, try something new…… “Meotode”.
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“Meotode”, in uchinaaguchi (the native Okinawan language) literally meaning “husband and wife hands”. It was a way of maximizing strategical advantage in a physical altercation by utilizing both arms equally, in continuously attacking and receiving….. In the case of an actual fight both hands should always be used together, which is essential in close-quarter combative karate.
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In using meotode you never have a passive or inactive hand (what the old masters referred to as a “dead hand”). While today, you are accustomed to always having your hands raised in a guard position (this posture has its place), effectively inviting an opponent to engage with you, this was certainly not the purpose in using meotode. The front hand could actively switch between receiving and attacking in an instant, where the rear hand could jam, strike or grab at the same time.
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Motobu also incorporated “kobo iittai”, receiving and attacking with one hand, in one motion, in one moment.
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“The receiving hand must be able to become the attacking hand in an instant. Receiving with one hand and then countering with the other is not true bujutsu. Real bujutsu presses forward and receives and counters in the same motion.” – Motobu Choki
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I think one of the biggest mistakes martial artists make when it comes to physical self-protection is approaching it in the expectation of something comparable to dojo sparing. The bottom-line is, in self-protection it’s nothing like a consensual duel. We don’t want the attacker to get their turn.
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When it comes to self-protection, the enemy does not want a “fight” and neither do we. The attackers goal is best achieved through overwhelming us with violence. Our goal of creating the opportunity to escape is also best achieved with continuous action.
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So try something new, incorporate meotode into your training.