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Transition drill with partner and pads (video)

During an intensive residential course in March 2015 we covered a number of transition drills. These are drills to get the student used to flowing from technique to technique in such a way that dominance is maintained. This drill includes head-butting, kneeing, groin-kicking, palm heels, slaps and dropping hammer-fists.

We have a great many such drills and they come together to provide “templates for movement.” It’s is our experience that when the templates have been sufficiently drilled, smooth transition and relentless pressure will become intuitive such that they are ever present when freely applied. We are therefore using examples to covey and intuit principle. The drills are never ends in themselves; and hence they should not be mistaken as being “combinations” to be used as is. This drill is one of many, which together form a useful whole.

One of the things this drill helps develop is maintaining pressure as distance changes. Notice how we begin very close, move to kicking distance, and then finish at hand-striking distance. The distance “pulses” and it does so in other ways in the other drills not shown here.

We begin by working the drill with a partner in a controlled way so the student gets the correct feel of how the techniques within the drill would be applied on a human body. It is then necessary to move onto the pads such that impact can be applied. It is the mix of partner and pads that helps ensure the various aspects of an effective and applicable technique are developed whilst safety in practise is maintained.

In my personal teaching and practise, such drills (which are also drilled without a partner in line-work to allow for the development of internal body awareness) take the place of the impractical sequences of otherwise disconnected motions that much of modern karate has acquired. Putting random karate motions end to end archives little and it is my firm view that practical skills are most efficiently and effectively developed through practical sequences.

All the best,

Iain

PS The YouTube link can be found HERE

Practical Kata Bunkai: Transition drill with partner and pads