Karate Info

Body Weapons - More than just kicking and punching

Empty Hand: The Meaning Of karate Upper Body Weapons Lower Body Weapons

Empty Hand: The Meaning Of karate The two kanji (Japanese translation language) charactors that make up the word karate mean empty hand (kara = empty, te = hand) in a similar way to karaoke being empty orchestra! Karate is often taught with the premise that all of the moves are only "empty hand" techniques, however when examining kata it can be seen that many karate techniques are applicable to weapons techniques. Many Shotokan moves can be practised with weapons and some of our kata have very strong weapons influences... Jitte, Bassai sho, meikyo and kanku sho are prime examples. These ideas are discussed in the Weapons article, for now - let us consider what parts of our bodies we can use for attack/defense. Top Upper Body Weapons The upper body contains many weapons, most concerning how the hands are used, which are categorised below and will be explained in detail and accompanied by pictures later. The elbows can be used to smash (age, mawashi) or strike using the point (yoko, ushiro). The wrists and arms can be used to strike (kochen, cerauto, Wanto) The basic fist can be used to punch (seiken, rikken) and strike (tetsui, uraken, hiraken). The extended fist can be used in similar ways but with an extended reach (ippon naki daki ken, shikinken). The open hand can be used to spear (nukite, ippon nukite, nihon nukite), strike (haisho, washide), or 'cut' (shuto, haito) or strike with (taisho) The forehead can be used to strike (mensuki waza) Top Lower Body Weapons Lower body weapons are variations of kicks (tobi means jumping): Please note that some of the kicks are in two sections for example mawashi geri, this is because the kick can be done in a competition way (instep) and a real-life way (ball of foot) so is included twice. The Instep (mawashi geri, kin geri) The Ball of the foot (mae geri keagi, mawashi geri, mae-tobi geri) The Heel (mae geri kekomi, yoko geri kekomi, ushiro geri kekomi, ushiro geri keagi, fumakomi, tobi yoko geri kekomi, gyaku mawashi geri, ushiro mawashi geri, kakato geri, utoshi geri) The Side of the foot (yoko geri keagi, sokuto geri, fumakiri, sotu mikasuki geri, uchi mikasuki geri, ushiro mikasuki geri, ushiro tobi mikasuki geri) The Bottom of the foot (gyaku mawashi geri, ushiro mawashi geri, pushing/stamping kick which is not from traditional Shotokan) The Knees (hiza/hitsu geri, mawashi hiza geri) Top