The Way of Least Resistance

These questions were once put to me by a Shotokan karateka: "I would just like to ask your opinion. When I use the kick shields, the kick take the same form on the shields as they do in fresh air. However, whenever I use the focus mitts or bag. I seem to use more of a boxing style punch. By this I mean. jabs, straight right/left, and hooks. Now I know we can call them kizami-zuki, gyaku-zuki and mawashi-zuki. But its the way in which I strike the pad. Using the shoulder, plenty of hip and up on the balls of my feet. Also I breath through my nose. I feel very comfortable in striking this way and I can hit the pads/bags quiet hard. However, this is contradictory to the way I train and teach karate punches. Shoulders down, using the back muscles. Same hip movement, but heel down pushing to the floor. And breathing through the mouth. We do have access to makiwara. The Goju-ryu boys use these all the time. I have used one in the past, only for a short while. I do not use one now becaus...

Someone on an online forum recently wrote words to the effect of “Do you literally fight with you hands in a chamber position?” . To me the real question is: "Do you mean to say you DON'T fight using a chamber?" If you don't, you'd be one of a very few! What do I mean by this? Everyone - boxers included - use chambers. Chambers are nothing more than loading for a punch , in particular a punch that you wish to execute with power (ie. not a jab). Now this next point is critical: To view chambers statically is a mistake. It is as much a mistake as taking a snapshot of a jump and asking “Do you literally hang in the air during a fight?”. Chambers occur in a fraction of an instant in the context of continuous movement. But they nevertheless occur in every fighting discipline. If you don’t chamber your punch (ie. load it at all) then you must be peppering your opponent with little jabs and nothing more. No one does this, as far as I know. Instead all discipli...