The Story of Karate by Elaine Langlois The word karate means empty hand. Karate is a method of selfdefense that, with few exceptions, does not use weapons. Instead, karate fighters use their hands, feet, knees, and elbows to deliver strikes and to block attacks. In Japan, karate is known as karate-do, or the way of karate. Karate is a means of self-defense and a sport, but it can be much more. The way of karate encompasses physical fitness, good health, selfdiscipline, respect for others, and most of all, character and mental attitude. KARATE WORDS Dojo: Training area Gi: Uniform Kata: Form Kiai: Short, loud scream Kumite: Sparring Mae Geri: Front snap kick Oi-Zuki: Chasing punch Rei: Bow Sensei: Teacher Shizentai Dachi Jodan Uke: Natural stance head block Yoi: Ready The origins of karate are shrouded in mystery. The hand-tohand fighting from which it evolved is thought to have begun in East Asia centuries ago. Karate was developed in the 1600s on the small island of Okinawa, which was not yet part of Japan. When the Okinawan master Gichin Funakoshi moved to Tokyo in 1922, he brought karate to the rest of Japan. He also named it, to set it apart from other systems of fighting that use weapons. After World War II, karate became popular among U.S. soldiers stationed in Japan, who brought it home with them. Karate is the most widely performed of all the martial arts, a general term for various types of hand-to-hand combat that include judo, jujitsu, tae kwan do, and many others. Today, there are hundreds of varieties of karate, developed by different senseis, or teachers. What happens in a karate class? Classes vary a lot, but here is an example. You don the familiar white cotton uniform you ve seen in movies and on TV. Barefoot, you bow and enter the dojo, or training area. A 1
training area can be a gym, a basement, or even a grassy lot. You re joined by a mix of students wearing different-colored belts that represent how far they ve advanced. You bow as your sensei enters. You begin with some stretching and light exercise. Next, you line up next to each other and make your way across the room, practicing cat stance, side kicks, front snap kicks, and roundhouses. As you do each move, you count, with the rest of the class, in Japanese: Ichi! Ni! San! Shi! Go! Roku! Shichi! Hachi! Ku! Ju!... Ai! The ai! is a kiai, a short, sharp yell that accompanies many karate moves. Roared from 10 or 20 throats at full volume, it explodes through the room and makes newcomers jump. Next comes kata. A kata is a series of movements that looks like a graceful dance, but it contains many of the defensive and offensive moves that karate students learn. When you are doing kata, you are learning martial arts the way the samurai did, many years ago. New katas are added as students progress, but the sensei always brings them back to the old ones, teaching them to perform the moves better, at a higher level. There is also kumite, or sparring. You put on a padded helmet, a mouth guard, gloves, and shin and instep guards. You circle your opponent, trying to anticipate his or her moves and to strike and repel blows. In kumite, strikes are light or are pulled back so you don t hurt one another. Kumite usually lasts just a few minutes. You bow to your sensei and your opponent at the beginning and at the end. You also work on grapples and grapple defenses. You pair with another student, who tries to grab your shirt or wrists. Then you practice ways to break the hold and immobilize your opponent. Karate teaches you to use the force of your own body and the weaknesses and strengths of your opponent to your advantage. 2
In karate, it doesn t matter much how big or small you are. You don t have to have huge muscles and be really strong, though karate is good exercise and will make you more physically fit. You learn, no matter what your age and size, how to keep your cool, even in stressful situations. You learn to empty your mind of everything else and focus on the task at hand. The benefits of this focus and the self-discipline karate requires can carry over into other parts of life. Karate can help you feel more confident, do better at school, set goals, and accomplish them. Some people have wrong ideas about karate, ideas that are perpetuated by movies and TV. The worst of these myths is that the purpose of karate is to beat up people. There is no first strike in karate, said one sensei, when conferring a black belt on a young student recently, and that is a karate fact. Karate students are taught never to start fights. The student had finished six long years of training, but it was just the beginning. That is a karate fact, too. 3
Karate Science by Elaine Langlois Wham! A black belt s hand flashes down, and a stack of concrete bricks or boards cracks and tumbles to the floor. You ve probably seen karate masters do this in movies or on TV. But how do they do it? In real karate, there are no tricks or special effects. You don t have to be Superman to slice wood or concrete with your hand. What you need is science, training, and practice. Force and Momentum The first thing you notice about a karate master s strike is its speed. A black belt s hand moves at about 46 feet per second. That s more than twice as fast as you and I could move ours! A fast strike is more powerful than a slow one. That makes sense. Why does a linebacker run toward a quarterback, instead of walking? Compression: A pressing force that pushes something together Force: A push or pull on an object Momentum: Movement Tension: A stretching force that pulls something apart Running gives the linebacker the extra power needed to knock the quarterback down. But speed is just one part of the answer. The other is weight, or mass. You can roll a bowling ball and a tennis ball at the same speed, but only the bowling ball is going to knock over the pins. A bowling ball has more weight, or mass, than a tennis ball. Therefore, its strike is harder. What we re talking about is momentum. When an object is moving, it has momentum. The faster it goes, and the more it weighs, the more momentum it has, and the more force it generates. The Right Tools Karate masters are experts at maximizing force. They start with a tool that s stronger than wood or concrete: the human hand. The bones in your hand are 40 times stronger than concrete. Black belts use kicks to break with, too. A good kick can withstand about 2,000 times as much force as concrete. You may have noticed that a karate master uses only a particular part of the hand or foot for a strike. 4
For example, the classic karate chop uses the back edge of the hand and is called a knife hand, or shuto. The brunt of the strike is borne by the very strong fifth metacarpal bone of the hand and the padding of surrounding skin and muscle. Karate students work hard to toughen their skin and strengthen their muscles. For instance, they punch and kick a board that looks like a fencepost, with leather or canvas stretched over a thin foam pad at the top. It is called a makiwara. Striking the makiwara also builds bone. And it improves the strength, speed, and accuracy of strikes. Black belts can develop a callus like a car bumper on the edge of their hands. With this callus and their toughened skin and stronger muscles, a karate master s hand can absorb the force from a powerful blow. Maximize the Force! We ve said that when an object is moving, it has momentum. The faster it goes and the more it weighs, the more momentum it has, and the more force it generates. How do karate masters maximize the force? First, they maximize speed. Scientists have found that our arm is actually moving its fastest 1 or 2 centimeters before it is fully extended. Karate masters teach their students to punch through the target, not at it. If you re aiming to punch through your target, your arm will be less than fully extended and moving its fastest when you actually strike it. Second, they maximize weight, or mass. A karate strike involves more than the hand or foot. Students breaking a board with a palm strike, for instance, will stand at a 45-degree angle, extend the arm they re not striking with, pull the striking arm back, and then pivot at the hips before striking. This brings the strength of their shoulders, hips, and legs into the blow. Third, they focus the strike. Black belts preparing to break will go still and concentrate. They may extend their hand to the board slowly a few times. This is just what it looks 5
like: practice, to make sure they hit the target exactly right. The last thing they do is kiai. The word kiai means short, loud scream. You ve heard the kiai in karate battles on TV or in the movies. What s its purpose? It focuses your energy, says one black belt. It gathers your courage and strength. Use the Force! So the black belt strikes at a board with all the speed, weight, and focus he or she can muster. What makes it snap? For the board, however, it s another story. At the top of the board, the blow delivers a compression force that squeezes the molecules in the wood together. On the bottom, the force is a tension, or stretching, force. As solid as it looks, a piece of wood is elastic, and it can bend. Think of the shudder in the planks when you run up and down a set of bleachers, for example. In fact, boards or bricks to be broken are often set up with supports on just the two ends, to give them plenty of room to bend. The great tension force causes the molecules in that part of the board to fly apart. And that is what makes the board break. Karate Masters The hand comes down with a tremendous amount of momentum. The huge force generated by all this momentum is transferred to the board. The hand undergoes a compression force that pushes the bones and muscles closer together. But that s OK. The human hand can withstand very powerful compression forces. The next time you see a karate battle in the movies or on TV, you can explain to your friends how things work. The same principles used in breaking apply to many of the kicks, elbows, and other strikes a black belt delivers. But don t try breaking yourself! You could end up with broken bones or a permanent injury. Leave karate strikes to karate masters. 6