Hi All,
Welcome to the third edition of the new look newsletters!
An especially warm welcome to the hundreds of new members! Thanks for joining
us! Thanks also to those who have been spreading the word on these newsletters!
The first thing I’d like to share is a clarification on
the article that appeared in the last newsletter. When discussing the relationship
between mindset, technique and fitness I wrote:
Mindset > Technique > Fitness
I was using the symbol “>” in its mathematical sense
to mean “is greater than”. I was not using it as an arrow. The intent was
therefore to say that when it comes to combative function:
Mindset IS GREATER THAN Technique IS GREATER THAN Fitness.
A number of you took “>” to be a sequential arrow to
mean we should get the mindset in place, and then learn technique, and then address
fitness. This is entirely understandable, especially when used “>” as an
arrow elsewhere in the newsletter! This caused confusion for a number of you because
such a sequential order was antithetical to what I was saying about the integrated
nature of the three elements in training and practise throughout the article.
Sorry about that!
In this newsletter, the chosen question is one on the
double-hip power generation method and how it relates to kata. It’s a power generation
method that I strongly endorse and I hope you find my discussion on it interesting.
I am always happy to share my thoughts and explain why I
think and do as I do. In expressing my firmly held convictions, I am conveying
what experience has shown me to be right for me and mine. I am not saying, nor
do I ever say, that alternative approaches can’t be valid for others. It is always
up to the individual to assess things for themselves and then decide their own
way forward. However, it’s not beholden on me to temper my firmly held convictions
in order to avoid the potential upset of those who believe everyone must think
the same as they do. It is right that everyone does what they feel works best
for them. I’m a great believer in the double-hip. In explaining why that is the
case, I am not seeking to covert. Nor am I seeking to denigrate alternative approaches.
I’m simply explaining my own views to the reader.
Thanks so much for your support of these newsletters!
Your feedback about how I can best serve you is always gratefully received.
All the best,
Iain
Note: This is an opt-in newsletter and if you want to
unsubscribe at any time all you need do it click the link at the foot of this
email
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1 – Subscribers Questions
As mentioned in previous newsletter, in each edition I
will include a short article on a topic of a subscriber’s choosing. If you’d
like to suggest a topic, please email that topic to iain@iainabernethy.com
IMPORTANT: Please make the subject of the email
“Newsletter Question”. That will ensure the email is automatically forwarded to
the right place. I will then choose a topic based on what is most requested and
what I feel will be of most interest to the subscribers. I’m sorry to say that
time constraints, and the volume of email I receive, mean I will not be able to
answer each question individually. I nevertheless hope these question and
answers are of value to you.
NOTE: If your question was not covered in this
newsletter, you don’t need to resubmit it. All questions submitted will remain
on file and will be considered each time I do a newsletter.
Question: “The Double-Hip; specifically, how it applies
to kata” asked by Dustin Lundy
For those not in the know, the first thing I need to
explain is what we mean by the “double-hip”. The double-hip was a method of
power generation introduced to the UK by Shigeru Kimura (1941 – 1995). One of
Kimura’s UK students was Peter Consterdine (who is one of my teachers). Peter
contextualised the double-hip for both full contact competitions and
pre-emptive striking. Peter is hugely influential in the applied martial arts
and practical self-defence worlds; and it is because of that influence that the
double-hip has been widely adopted within those communities in the UK and elsewhere.
Photos of Shigeru Kimura working with sports scientists to test power generation concepts:
For my part, I was sold on the double-hip the first time
Peter hit me! Most people think they know what a hard punch is, but Peter has
introduced countless martial artists to a whole new level of hard. I’ve been a
student of Peter for a long time and the double-hip is a key part of what I do
and teach.
The double-hip is prone to a lot of misunderstanding
because people see what Peter calls “The Big A,B,C Version” and then think that
is the entirety of the method. That’s a little like spending 10 minutes in your
first ever karate class, assuming you have learnt it all, and then pronouncing
that all karate teaches is how to make a fist and punching in horse stance. I’ve
been a direct student of Peter for a long time and I know first hand that there
is much more to the method than those who’ve only seen the basics appreciate.
Done right, it makes you faster, more efficient and way more powerful. It is a very
versatile method.
Always hard to describe these things in words, but the
essential idea is that a central pivot is avoided. The pivot point is therefore
not the spine (which results in half of the body going forward and half the
body going back), but the side of the hip; such that the entirety of the body
is moving in the direction of the strike. This means much more mass is behind
the strike and therefore it results in a more powerful strike.
Once the strike has impacted, the pivot point shifts to the
other side of the hip for the following strike. This transitional aspect is
very important and it’s a big part of the method. Some mistakenly think
pivoting from the side of the hip will slow the strikes, but my experience has
been the exact opposite. The whipping of the hips, and the overlapping of the
strikes, provides a higher rate of fire.
In addition to the pivot point being the side of the hip,
the hip moves before the shoulders and arms, so a torque is generated through
the body. This also ensures the maximum mass is in motion at the point of
impact.
There are two things that humans do better than any other
creature on this planet; think and throw. Chimpanzees, for example, are way
stronger than us; but they can’t throw with anything like the accuracy and force
that we can. Our low shoulders and the nature of our muscles make us excellent
throwers. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that we say that people “THROW
punches” as opposed to “thrust punches” or anything else. We intuitively know
that a “throwing action” is optimal for our physiology.
In addition to ensuring maximum mass in motion at the
point of impact, having the hip move before the limb results in the following:
1) The muscle become “stretched” during the eccentric
phase of the movement. The body rotates, but the limb is not yet moving. This
builds potential energy in the elastic components of the muscle (our muscles do
this really well which is why we are the planet’s premier throwers).
2) We then have the “amortization phase” during which the
muscle transitions from building up energy to releasing it. If this phase lasts
too long, the potential energy can be lost. The shorter the amortization phase,
the more powerful strike. When striking, this happens in a fraction of a second
and results in the limb moving way quicker than it otherwise would have done.
3) Finally, we have the “concentric phase” where the
force from the contraction of the muscles is added to the release of the
potential energy generated and released in the prior stages.
Using the muscles in this way to THROW the punch, results
in maxim speed and power because we are working with our body’s physiology.
Trying to simply contract our way to speed and power is far less effective
because where are not making efficient use of the nature of our muscles and we
lose all the energy and limb speed that the eccentric and amortization phases
contribute to.
Some worry making use of the muscles in this way will
slow the punch down (because you need to stretch the muscles before
contracting, as opposed to just contracting them) but the opposite is true. The
hip rotation causes the eccentric phase, the resulting build and release of
energy through the elastic nature of the muscles takes place in a tiny fraction
of a second. This additional energy results in the striking limb accelerating
at a much faster rate. So, while the striking tool starts moving a faction of
second later (which is imperceptible in-fight), it reaches the target sooner
and with greater force due to the additional energy and acceleration (from the
elastic nature of the muscles) and greater mass in motion due to the hip moving
more of the body mass in the direction of the strike. More mass at a greater
acceleration equals loads of power (Force = Mass X Acceleration).
When done efficiently, the end of one technique will
provide the eccentric phase for the next. These effective transitions will
result in a greater rate of fire because we are then “fighting on the half
beat”. You therefore get huge power, more speed, and a higher rate of fire.
When described in text, the double-hip may sound complex
and it’s almost certain the reader will not fully understand what is being
described, and they may well have some false assumptions. However, it’s quite
natural in practise. Its elements are commonplace in any physical motion that
seeks to develop a ballistic force i.e. throwing a javelin, a golf-swing, a
tennis serve, etc. We are simply contextualising this natural motion for
striking. It’s also more “subtle” in appearance than one may think. The method
is far from subtle in effect though.
The only way to really understand the method is to
experience it first-hand. It’s something you need to do for yourself under the
guidance of someone who gets the method. I nevertheless hope some of the above
imparts a flavour of how it works for those unfamiliar with it.
In Dustin’s email containing his question, he explained
has been working the method and has noticed a difference in impact. His
question was specifically how the method can be applied to traditional kata.
I learnt most of my kata before I was introduced to the double-hip.
While I did not consciously seek to add it into the kata, diligently practicing
it in all impact work invariably meant it became a habit that did find its way
into kata. While some may think that would radically alter the look of the
kata, that was not my experience. This is partly because some of the aspects of
the double hip (in particular, the hips moving ahead of the hands) were already
part of how I was taught to move. It was therefore mainly a shift in the pivot from
the spine to the side of the hip (on the motions where that was appropriate). The
double-hip can be quite subtle in appearance when one gets beyond the basics,
so there was not a radical change to the look of the kata. I liken this to
getting a bigger engine put into a car you already own: it looks the same on
the outside but performs differently.
The other thing to note is that the double-hip is primarily
a method for maximising the power of strikes. The kata obviously contains many
other methods in addition to striking. The throwing, locking, trapping, choking,
etc therefore have their own optimal body movement. It would therefore be a
mistake to try to indiscriminately add the double-hip to every single movement
in kata. As is always the case, you need to understand the function (bunkai) of
each motion in order to perform it in the most efficient way. The strikes will
benefit from the double-hip; as will some grappling motions, but all. You
should not seek to indiscriminately add striking concepts to non-striking
movements carte blanche.
As a little aside, my judo coach once watched a striking
only training session I had under Peter and he did spot a number of technical similarities.
The hips are used differently for lots of throws of course, but generating torque and explosive
drive (using Kimura’s ideas of “kick shock”; which is beyond the scope of this
article) were areas of overlap. In reality, once past the initial stages of
conflict, grappling and striking are often integrated of course.
Because there is not a clean striking / non-striking demarcation
in reality, there is not such a clean demarcation in kata either. Many
movements are a mix of grappling and striking i.e. holding and hitting, trapping
and hitting, locking and hitting, etc. We can therefore sometimes have “competing”
considerations. For example, when striking lifting the back heel can result in more
body mass moving forward and hence it can give a more powerful strike. However,
lifting the heel can also result in a loss of stability when grappling. So, if
a movement is a mix of grappling and striking, whether the heel should be up or
not will be dependent on the what is the most pressing need at that moment from
that position. The same considerations exist with the extent to which the double-hip
comes into play.
As is always the case, the double-hip represents a technical
ideal for striking. However, the situation may mean we need to move away from
that ideal. The trick is to move away from it a minimal amount, so we are still
getting maximum impact in that scenario without compromising tactical considerations.
As an example, it may be that the enemy has gripped us and pushed us against a
wall such that rotating the hips in an ideal way is not possible. The option of
not striking until we have the ideal is tactically unsound, so we deliver the
best strike we can i.e. the pivot point may be just off centre (as opposed to
the ideal side of the hip, but still better than a central pivot) and we may
not get the ideal stretch and release in the muscles, but we hit them with the
best possible shot from the position we were in. People who have trained with
me in person will know that “restricted punching” (hitting with the best strike
you can in far from ideal positions) is practised just as much as the “clean
ideals” because reality requires that we have knowledge of both. We need to
seek the ideal all the while accepting that reality demands we deliver the
optimum in the situation as it really is.
I’ll now start to bring all of this together. The double-hip
is the most effective method of power generation I have come across. Of course,
there are very hard hitters who use alternative methods, so I’m not discounting
or disparaging those methods. However, I’ve personally found it generates much more
impact than any other method I’ve been exposed to.
The double-hip is a very natural way of moving that makes
use of good physics and is in full accord with human anatomy. While the basics
of it are easy to pick up, it needs to be acknowledged that there is way more
to it than the initial illustrations of concept. Like anything else, tactical considerations
and the exact nature of any situation may require a drift from the idealised
version, but this drift needs to be as little as possible such that the maximum
impact achievable in the situation “as is” is always achieved. It also needs to
be understood that the double-hip can be contextualised in various ways for use
in full contact fighting, pre-emption to facilitate escape, and physical self-defence.
It is a method that can easily be integrated into kata. This will increase power
and will not radically alter the external appearance of the kata. It also needs
to be remembered that the double-hip is primarily a power generation method for striking,
and hence it should not be applied to every single movement in kata because
kata contains a wide array of methods. As always, the motion should be the most
efficient one for the defined objective.
The double-hip is a big part of my teaching and practise.
I teach it from day one to my beginners because it is fully integrated with all
we do. It is natural, logical and it produces hard and fast hitters. My enthusiastic
support of this method should not be seen as denigrating other methods. If what
you are doing works for you, then you should keep doing it.
Personally, I have not come across an alternative power generation
method that gets close to giving the same results as the double-hip. I have also
found that others who have direct experience of it (have felt it or have had instruction
in it; not simply watched a video online) are also keen to adopt it. The criticisms
I’ve seen on it are generally from those who don’t understand the method. Some falsely
worry about a slowing of strikes, an inability to deliver effective combinations,
telegraphing, etc. Those with first-hand experience of the method know that
none of those concerns hold true. The double-hip aids the delivery of combinations,
increases the rate of fire and is imperceptible when used pre-emptively (especially
when dialogue and deception are overlaid) and in-fight. If this was not the
case, it would not have been adopted by such a large number of pragmatically biased
martial artists (and law enforcement).
As with all things, reading an article or watching a video
are no substitute for direct instruction over a period of time. I nevertheless
hope the above has been of interest to users of the method and those with an interest
in knowing more about it.
NOTE: App users can check out the following discussion
and demonstration of the double-hip as it applies to a lead hand hook. Location:
Main Menu => Misc Techniques and Drills => Other Stuff => Power
Generation Principles => Lead Hand Hook.
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2 – Recently Added to the App Since the Last Newsletter!
In addition to the weekly messages, we have also added a
number of new videos to the app over the last two weeks! This pocket practical
karate database is HUGE and getting bigger every week!
PROTECTING OTHERS:
Protecting others is an important part of “SELF-Defence”!
In this app video we look at: protecting others, facilitating effective escape,
breaking the freeze (yours and the person you are protecting), the use of the
voice, common problems and how to deal with them, training drills, and more!
“Karate is not merely practised for your benefit, it can
be used to protect one’s family or master.” – Anko Itosu, 1908.
Location: Main Menu => Misc Techniques and Drills =>
Multiple Enemies => Protecting Others.
THREE KEY LEG BLOCKING THROWS:
This video is footage from a recent private session where
we explored a number of karate throws, associated gripping, balance breaking,
footwork, underlying throwing concepts, and common mistakes.
A leg blocking throw is one where the enemy’s centre of
gravity is moved outside of their base, such that they will fall, and they are
unable to move their leg to regain their balance. We break down the following
in detail: Outer Reaping Throw, Inner Reaping Throw, and Inner Hooking Throw. Together
these throws give a good illustration of this type of throw.
Location: Main Menu => Almost Live => Almost Live
2019 => Karate Throws (leg blocking)
MY BIGGEST KARATE MISTAKE:
In this video I discuss how I made a major, but well
intentioned, error in my training, what problems resulted and how I corrected
it.
Location: Main Menu => Core Concepts => Iain
Discusses => Iain Discusses 3 => My Biggest Karate Mistake.
COMING SOON IN THE APP: Matsumora Rohai bunkai, using the
surrounding environment, and more!
WERE TO FIND THE APP: Search the App Store or Play Store
for “iain abernethy”.
NEED HELP JOINING? I appreciate that, like me, you may
not be that clued up when it comes to technology. I also appreciate that all
apps are different and hence it may not be obvious how to set up an account …
so let me do that for you! All you need to do is send an email to
app@iainabernethy.com with “New App Account” as the subject. I will then send
you an invite with a username and pin that you can use to sign into the app.
NOTE: You will not be charged anything until you personally set up a
subscription. The account I set up for you will simply allow you to sign in,
explore a little, and then set up a subscription should you chose to.
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3 – Suggested App Video: Iain’s Fighting Kata
There is a huge amount of material in the app, so each
newsletter I will suggest a video to check out.
The traditional kata were designed for self-defence (non-consensual
violence) as opposed to fighting (consensual violence). I was asked what a
modern kata for consensual violence would look like, so I made a kata called
“Tai Sabaki Ichi”. This short video explains the kata and I hope you find it
interesting:
Location: Main Menu => Misc Techniques and Drills =>
Other Stuff => Fighting Kata => Tai Sabaki Ichi
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4 – Recommended Forum Topic: Exploring Back Kick
As you know, the forum has great set of contributors and
it’s definitely a community you should keep an eye on. I do appreciate there is
loads to look at though, so each newsletter I will pick out a thread I feel
will be of particular interest.
In this thread contributors to the forum discuss the
various types of back kick, their use in self-defence, fighting, enjoyment and
how this all relates to kata.
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5 – Recent things you may have missed but will absolutely
love!
Iain’s “rant” on phones in gyms:
Pinan Shodan/Heian Nidan Final Sequence Bunkai Drill from
David Hogsette:
Itosu Anko still not identified:
Practical Applications of Age Uke from Andy Allen and
Chris Hanson:
Defense of Zumba Strong: A Place I Never Thought I’d Go
(Kung Fu Podcast):
Andrew Rheeston, Lee Taylor & Leigh Simms Seminar
(UK, June 2019):
Comprehensive Karate (Free e-Book):
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6 – Karate Nerd Experience 2019 (Sweden July 2019)
Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Jesse Enkamp, Oliver Enkamp and
myself! Your ticket includes accommodation from July 12-15, breakfast, lunch,
dinner, classical Swedish “fika”, all training classes and theory lectures,
instructor & training venue fees, professional photos & videos, Karate
Nerd goodie bag and secret guests and activities.
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7 – Open Seminars in the Next Three Months
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8 – World Combat Association
If you want a more formal connection with me and what I
do, and you want to be part of ever-expanding international group of pragmatic martial
artists, then please consider joining the WCA:
I hope you like the new look newsletters and I’ll be back
with more soon!
All the best,
Iain
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Twitter: @iainabernethy
Instagram: @iainabernethy
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