This video covers a practical karate combination and gives three ways to drill it. The combination encapsulates a number of practical karate concepts. These include: Maintaining the advantage; The use of the non-striking hand to locate the target during the chaos of conflict; Utilising predictable response i.e. flowing with the enemy’s response to strikes; Taking away the enemy’s ability of give effective chase; etc.

We drilled the combination in three ways:

1 – With a partner, utilising control, in order to get the right placement and flow.

2 – Solo on the pads. This helps with impact, aggression and visualisation. It also gives the student a way to drill the combination away from the class when they don’t have training partners.

3 – With a partner on the pads. This form of training is great for impact, but the distancing will be slightly off due to the partner’s need to keep the pads away from the body (if the pads are held next to the body, a competent striker will be able to punch through them and injury will result).

(We also drilled the combination as kihon, but that is not shown in the video).

All forms of practise have strengths and weaknesses, hence the need for the mix. The other advantage of multiple training methods is it encourages “repetition by stealth” i.e. it gives non-repetitive ways to get in the maximum amount of repetitions.

As always, the drills and the combination are not the goal. The goal is the internalisation of the principles and combative habits that the combination encapsulates. Kihon, kata, partner drills, pad drills, sparring, etc all seek to ensure that these principles are internalised such that the karateka fights in accordance with them, in a habitual way, in the everchanging world of combat.  

The video explains these ideas in more detail, and I hope you enjoy it.

All the best,

Iain

PS You can find the YouTube link HERE