Ko map sum ni da

I found this snippet recently and found it interesting, as I thought that one was a different way of saying the other!

Kamsahamnida = formal, used when you are talking to anyone who is older or more educated or in a higher social statues than you. A bow would also be appropriate while saying it.

Komapsumnida = less formal, used when you are talking to your peers

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081017210022AAExMoz

Teaching children martial arts

I've taught children as part of regular Tang Soo Do practice for about ten years. As with lots of other martial arts, higher grades are expected to take small groups of lower grades to instruct them on syllabus as part of the class. This is done under the auspices of the presiding black belt who will instruct on which aspect of the syllabus should be covered. This way the students can work towards their next grading, filling in gaps where necessary.

Since November 2009 I've been helping out Master AC with the children's class: something I really enjoy. I take the entire class of juniors (including some dads) for an hour before the senior class starts. This means I can focus on giving the children appropriate instruction tailored to little minds and bodies. The age range varies greatly, which makes the job difficult, but half way through I regularly get help from adult black belts who arrive early for their class and who are willing to help out.

What I like to do is use half an hour of warm ups and games and exercises to convey some principles of the art. The kids like this as they don't think they're learning as such but do exercise broad principles such as balance, body awareness, spatial appreciation, striking in a particular way with correct posture and energy direction. At half time I use the idea from Shorinji Kempo where we sit and I'll chat to them about philosophy in very broad terms. It also gives them a chance to drink (I oblige them to bring a bottle of water with them). this 'philosophy' moment is also ideal for talking about physiology, why we are training and guiding them in ideas about martial arts generally. It might sometime involve a 'classic' martial arts story.

The second half is more technical and focuses on combinations, partner work and hyung. It's here I need the help of other black belts so I can split the class into age groups.

Recently, though, I found I have a problem. Master AC assessed the class for the next grading and found they most of them didn't know their syllabus well enough. It seems I'm good at imparting general principles and keeping the children excited and interested in Tang Soo Do but not so good at drilling them on syllabus. I've over focused on giving them what I think of as a good martial arts experience without training them in the more technical aspects which I thought would be more boring for them.

So this is my new challenge! Trying to maintain a more traditional syllabus and keeping the children involved and interested. Everything we need to learn can be found in hyung (kata) so I need to look here again and start breaking it down for them. That's how karate was originally passed on and there are so many interesting applications within the hyungs that I'm sure I'll find a way.

I have the summer to think about it and turn a failure into a success...

Sue's article on teaching children:

http://kickasssuec.blogspot.com/2010/07/teaching-karate-to-young-children.html

Are lower stances the way forward?

We drilled low front stances tonight during Tang Soo Do. Specifically low and deep front stance. This fairly simple 'walking' stance can be notoriously difficult to teach to young children. It's a paradox I find. So simple: from ready stance, step forward or back, maintain feet forward and flex the front leg, keeping the back leg straight (acting like a buttress). There is a lot more to it, but in essence it gives a good stable base from which to apply techniques.

But...I'm forever correcting the children's front stance. My biggest gripe with them is they stand on a tightrope. Turning left into front stance requires stepping out and back to give a wide and deep stance. Working on this is essential as kids tend to turn into it and end up with feet aligned.

It was, however, my training in the senior class which gave rise to some internal questions concerning my front stance. Master AC emphasised deep front stance, making us push hard into it, gripping the floor and straining muscles. I was tired and hot and grumbled at the prospect and didn't want to tip my pelvic bone out of alignment so reluctantly sank down. There is a good article here regarding front stance and pelvic alignment at fighting arts. I've often had this in mind when practising my front stance and actually, I believe, used it as an excuse not to explore it more. Tonight when pushed to produce a lower, grounded stance I had excellent feedback but bore in mind my pelvic position. It was possible to produce a low stance, gripped to the floor with my feet in correct position without tipping the base of my spine.

My conclusion is that it's good to revisit base techniques and be open to trying stuff out. It's all well and good to intellectualise training but the only way to the heart of one's practice is through doing... Trying it! Practising!

Spinning kicks

Last night's Tang Soo Do lesson went well right from the off. The children's lesson came together nicely and by the end of the hour we were enjoying ourselves and pulling together nicely, making a good job of technique and attitude.

The adult class was varied and interesting but something that *always* kills me is spinning kicks (I was reminded of this by SueC at http://kickasssuec.blogspot.com/). I know it's pathetic for someone who practices a Korean martial art but I am extremely sensitive to spinning and after about 5 reps find myself clinging to the floor trying not to fall off it. We were kicking an outside to inside kick swiftly followed by a spinning wheel kick which has a good solid feel to it, especially on focus pads when you can thud into something. But...as usual after 5 kicks I was gasping, fighting back *the* urge... Shame really as I love to kick.

Later in free sparring I executed plenty of spinning kicks which didn't affect me as they were spaced out enough to get my balance/wits about me again. Good sparring session with a young adult and a fit brown belt. One of these days he's gonna 'get it' and flatten me... (in the nicest possible way). I was really choosing my points and fighting strategically. I'm too old to go flat out, all guns blazing and I don't think this is very effective anyway.

Good session leading to healthy fatigued feeling....(and some unhealthy looking shin bruises...)

Gratuitous Van Damme spinning kick compilation.

Hitting stuff

Our Tang Soo Do lesson last week was pretty high tempo as Master C obviously wanted us to burn off some of those Christmas calories. Joy...!

So we started off with some bruising shuttle run combinations which had us all gasping for breath and followed that up with some stretching. After this we then started hitting stuff which is always satisfactory: focus pads and bagwork was the order of the day. In kempo pairwork is essential and this is very good for seeing how bodies interact and work and feeling where to strike but you can't, obviously, go at it full pelt or you'd soon run out of training partners. It's good to thwack a bag occasionally to get feedback as to how a full power kick feels.

There is other martial arts equipment that can be used too. Paddles give a good focus workout for turning and spinning kicks: strikes that aren't possibly as powerful but require a degree of skill and accuracy when turning. Straight kicks and punches are much better done on a shield or heavyweight held bag. In fact we have a pretty old shield which has softened somewhat so it has a good feel to it without crumpling your hands into a bag of bones!

On that note: I do seem to be having some trouble with my wrists these days and I think it's the increased training I've been doing at Shorinji kempo. Lots of juho techniques attack the wrists and hands (from grabs and holds by the opponent) and mine seem to be especially vulnerable. I'll have to see how things progress but am worried that it might cause long term damage.

Then again, I worry too much!

Tiredness and training

I'm tired out today. It doesn't help that one of my children had a nightmare and I tended to her at about 2am. But I can't blame her, poor thing! The reason I'm physically tired is that I've had training sessions, non-stop for the past couple of days. Shorinji Kempo on Monday night, boxing for an hour and a half on Tuesday morning then Tang Soo Do on Tuesday evening.

I feel a bit run down but I like the tightness of the muscles and the feeling of having worked at something.

Shorinji Kempo gave me insight into the way I learn a martial art. The philosophy discussion was based on this and as a Zen art has some fairly regimented attitudes towards learning. What I found on Monday was humility works quite well at learning. Being there, present for training and willing to soak up knowledge goes a long way. It's sometimes very easy to become over-confident about one's own abilities if one is never challenged! You can potentially get an over inflated estimation of your own abilities. Of course confidence is a good thing and I believe martial arts training delivers this in bagfuls: not the confidence to beat someone up or defend yourself (which is achieved) but the confidence of knowing yourself, your limitations and your ability to train within a process or system.

Boxing was fun. I was completely tired out after it and all the younger scamps looked like they could have trained for another hour! Interestingly the teacher told us that the best way to box is to not get hit. Sounds like a no-brainer but there were a couple of big guys there trading slugs at each other and I think this was meant for their benefit. We looked at turning the body sideways to minimise the target area, laying back, parrying and countering rapidly. I was amazed at how these similar elements crop up in more traditional martial arts. I shouldn't be I suppose because fundamentally there can be only a limited number of strategies to striking another person in 'sparring'. Very good practice of laying or leaning back, out of range and then returning with counters. Very tiring!

Tang Soo Do started off quite up tempo as well with light sparring straight off to warm us up! I realised quickly that my body was tired and I wasn't recovering as quickly as I would like! When this happens I try to focus on core technique, slowing it down if I have to but maintaining good posture. It's easy to shoot out tired limbs to make the technique *look* ok but it's another do the technique well under stress. This was what I was trying to do but very often I ended up gasping...and sweating! Later I had the pleasure of working with a young woman for her hyung. This was made a pleasure as she was reacting very well to my coaching to the extent I saw a great difference between starting and finishing the session! We mostly looked at engaging the whole body from foot through hip rotation and ending up at the arms. It's a difficult thing for beginners to grasp but she did a great job! Younger practitioners tend to fling their arms and legs out without engaging their whole body and this, in some ways, is normal: they haven't seen or been shown the intricacy of the body mechanics involved. I find, however, that once the whole body is being used to generate power it becomes an entirely better experience! And you get more feedback from your body when you do this. Otherwise you just end up flapping your arms about...!

These guys seem to be trying REALLY hard to engage their entire bodies...

(oldie but goody!)

Teaching debut

Last week was my first lesson in charge of the little uns without back up. This in itself didn't worry me at all! I always have fun with the junior class and I try and instill in them broad principles of martial arts such as awareness, confidence, responsibility, as well as physical techniques.

I did find it a problem not having an assistant though. This meant that I had to spread across the entire range of abilities from absolute beginner to very competent and eager brown belts. Delegation helped and I managed through the lesson to get everybody involved but felt that the level may have been a tad simple for some of the older and more advanced children.

It's going to be a challenge to get their syllabus taught when I have to introduce base concepts to other younger members which is, very often, a time consuming exercise! The other children of course benefit from revising basic elements but I need to work carefully on my lesson plans!

Tips welcome!

Encouragement for beginners to sparring

I offered some pre-tournament sparring practice to a friend who gladly accepted. Off we went to the country park...

As we searched for a suitable clearing to kick off our shoes I asked her what her 'problem' was (so I could focus on this in the following 45 minutes) and she replied that she found it difficult to score a point. She was a bit flustered by the plethora of techniques she knows and felt unable to bring them into play during sparring.

OK-let's bring up her confidence by concentrating on a few essential sparring techniques, after all much free-fighting is made up of front kick, round kick and a variety of straight punches. Of course we aspire to be able to use all our techniques in order to score the point but invariably we rely on a stock of well serving base techniques and sometimes the simpler, the better.

So with a minimum of time we set about improving her confidence (she'd only sparred twice in class before!) and this is how we did it:

Round 1: Just front kicks from her. I would encourage her to connect with the attack and I would counter at competition speed with anything I fancied but she must use only front kick.

Round 2: Same deal for me, but front and round kick for her.

Round 3: Front kick, round kick and punches.

Last round: Focus on these three but feed in any 'fancier' technique if she felt that there was a scoring opportunity availing itself. (In the end she only really added in back kick and possibly side kick).

I also emphasized kihaping.

How did it go? She's a natural. She didn't need my help she just needed confidence. It's easy to forget that when we started out in a particular style there is a bewildering amount of techniques that we are exposed to directly in our syllabus or indirectly in group classes and often this is just too much information and we cloud up. "Oh yeah but I can do this, no wait....Er, what about this technique...."

No. Stop. The object of competition sparring is to get the point. To score within whichever framework of rules exist. In order to score you have to react to the attacks of the opponent as well as look for opportunity to counter or initiate. My advice today was to use a core set of techniques (as the student is a relative beginner) in order to score points. Keep it fairly simple.

What I didn't do was go easy on her. My attacks were speedy and of varying heights: I wanted to get her flinching, checking out her blocking reactions, which were great!

Photos courtesy of my little girl...

Tuesday class

Soar like an eagle

Tang Soo Do was hot and sweaty tonight and Master Campbell was hell bent on energy. So we ended up doing spinning back jumping outside to inside kick. Killer. as he was demonstrating he whipped round very quickly and at that point was able to perform the kick. I was happily executing the kick till I saw this demo but it was a bit sluggish. Once I'd seen a different possibility I could imagine myself doing it. I know: this sounds a bit new-wavey. Visualise yourself doing it and you can do it! Seeing the technical aspects of the move really enables you. 

It makes me think of being lined up a long time ago and doing ee dan ahp chagi in a huge class. The guy in front of me was a lean, young dan grade who jumped up and seemed to hover in the air as he made the kick. He looked like a bird gliding through the air! I was feeling like a badger rather than an eagle. But his kick inspired me and I examined him doing it once or twice and then emulated him. Ok it may not have been as good as his but my attempts came better, faster and smoother. I was happier. More like a badger with wings.

How to make a back stance or Hugul ja sae

Back stance or fighting stance (hugul ja sae) is used extensively in Tang Soo for kicking techniques. This is formed by turning out your back leg so it is perpendicular to the front leg, aligned heel to heel. Effectively your feet form an L shape with your back leg bearing most of the weight and your front foot touching the ground only with the toes and the ball of the feet. Naturally the body tends to therefore be side on to the opponent which shows less target area for point-sparring. It also lends itself to kicking (off the back leg and) with the front leg for stopping shots but also facilitates higher head kicks off the front leg as the rear foot is already half turned out. Spinning kicks come easier too from this stance as pivoting on the front leg is easy. The reverse kick or straight kick is, of course, a different matter: the front kick has to bear the weight shift adding in a step into the sequence (weight shift, bear weight on front leg, kick off rear leg). But I find this fairly seamless really and not a deal breaker. My main point to work on is when we're practicing mostly straight kicks with the rear leg. When I return to hugul ja sae I find my back foot has drifted inwards and makes less of an L shape with the front and more of a wonky V. This back leg naturally wants to be in a walking stance with both legs more facing forward but the trouble (for executing techniques in Tang Soo Do) is that when this happens my leg bends at a funny angle and doesn't bear the weight straight up, vertically. It suddenly adopts a kink in it, more like a dog leg than a human one! 

Tonight I aimed to keep returning to the L shape.

Of course there's nothing to say we shouldn't change from one stance to another according to circumstances. Walking stance (or front stance) is much mmore natural for those reverse kicks-  I'm not advocating a complete back stance policy here! I just want to keep working at it so that my legs bear the weight in a more natural manner. 

Note: Korean back stance is much shorter than Japanese back stance! Photos to follow.

Taekkyeon or Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 76

Ok so I'm getting it. Slowly, but I think I'm getting there. You see it's difficult when you've been fed the Tang Soo Do party line for a long time you kind of ... accept it. But after a bit of digging and reading around you realise that things aren't quite what they seem.

All the official manuals would like you to believe that Tang Soo do is an indigenous Korean martial art with a heritage of 2000 years and including the Hwarang Knights in its family tree. You can tell I thought something wasn't quite right:

Chinese heritage of Tang Soo Do

Korean Kicks (all through the night)

...and these ruminations were confirmed by reading 'A killing Art' by Alex Gillis which shows how General Choi and his main technical director Nam Tae-hi both trained in Karate-do, called in Korea Tang Soo Do. When Choi met the South Korean president, Rhee Syng-man,  soon after the Korean war it was the president who insisted that the demonstration of martial ability that had just been laid on for him by Choi be called Taekkyon. Rhee, understandably, didn't want to hear that these Korean warriors were practicing a Japanese martial art. This got Choi thinking about a new name and a new art form and he ultimately went on to form Tae Kwon Do.

What Rhee was talking about, Taekkyon, is a traditional kicking martial art performed in Korea and while it may not be the pre-cursor to Tae Kwon Do or Tang Soo Do as some insist it must have an influence on these styles post-Second World War. How can I be sure? Check out these videos and you'll see what I consider to be typical Tang Soo Do kicks. Of course there may have been some cross-fertilisation between the two arts. Taekkyon had been banned during the Japanese occupation (and before that Confucian ideals frowned on physical feats in favour of intellectual ones) so both Tang Soo Do and Tae'kkyon attempted to recreate themselves in the late 20th Century. 

Tae'kkyon has an intriguing dance-like quality similar to the jinga of capoiera but the kicks look powerful and focused enough to make a mess of your face! Interestingly it is has the crazy sub title of 'Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 76'!

Good Taekkyon history site (in French only).

...and compare the Taekkyon initial 'dance' to the Brazilian martial art of capoeira and it's 'Jinga':

Breathing out the bad

I had a bad moment during the day today so during training my mind was a bit mixed-up. I was focusing on the bad moment during training instead of leaving it behind me and outside of the dojang. I tried breathing it out: breathing in cleansing air down into the belly and all the dark thoughts out through my feet. Whether you believe in Chi movement & the power of breath or not, this sort of visualisation helps me 'reset'. It provides a tool for me to get out of the loop of negative brooding. Once I've reset I can (try to) focus on technique only. Or not focus on technique but have a free mind... That's the idea anyway.

Good sparring session with Master Campbell and I learned two things: Master Campbell can stop you dead with a reverse front kick. As I tired my technique combinations became sloppy and I was chasing him down (this sort of hot headedness was the reason I had a bad moment today!) and as I stepped in he stopped me: gasp

the second thing is that I need to work on my fitness levels (and lose some of my spare tyre). After three two minute rounds I'm facing AC. He's tall, strong and experienced and during the first minute I'm toeing the line, scoring points and pushing him (sometimes) onto his back foot. During the second minute I was paggered (tired)! My ability to fend off attacks diminished and needless to say I was clattered round the chops a few times. Your hands tend to drop somewhat when you're tired.

I need more training and less chocolate.

How to tie a Tang Soo Do belt

Having a beard is not obligatory for practicing Tang Soo Do, wearing a belt is.

Train, train go away

I missed Shorinji Kempo training on Monday due to a slight illness and as I was thinking through a few techniques today I found they weren't as fluent as I'd have liked. It's amazing what effect a week or so away from training can have. 

Bored

When I trained in Tang Soo Do I really didn't want to be there. As I warmed up my calves felt like lead: really heavy and stiff. I jogged round the dojang cursing myself for not skipping it and putting my weary calves up on the sofa and sipping some whisky. But I was there. So I got on with it. It's important not to let that feeling linger otherwise you might as well leave the training hall. I have to admit it kept creeping in but part of training for me is to try and stay on task, stay focused: put in as much as you can to get good returns on your investment of time and energy.

Fatigue

On top of it all Alex decided to do some circuit training as a warm up! It's good sometimes to push your body and condition it up. You may well one day be glad of the extra work you put in when you really need to dig into the reserves you've built up over time. It's also good to push yourselves to the limit and then see how your techniques work. Can you cope? How does the technique cope? It was a good tonic too. I wouldn't recommend it every week though!

Wobbly hands and the dan jun

Strictly speaking hands that flapped back instead of pulling straight back. After thrusting out a front punch (reverse) it's easy for the arm to fold back in on itself as it returns. And this is the problem: I was letting the arm return and not actively engaging with the return mechanism. Consequently...good choong dan kong kyuck, poor return with the arm *bending* (gasp) at the elbow. Too much shoulder movement, not enough pulling it back with the dan jun (tanden). Out with the dan jun, back with the dan jun *in the same line on which it went out!* 

Hard breathing.

It was a rough, hard session tonight and I'm partly to blame. I took the warm-ups and my obsession with burpees seems to have set the tone for the whole evening! Master Campbell took us through a rigorous examination of jumping techniques. This meant lots of repetitions with ahp chagi, ee dan ahp chagi, deah ahp chagi, dwi dollyo chagi. That's one set! I found it hard work and I was breathing hard so I concentrated on correct breath, deep breath and breathing throughout the technique. It's very tempting to suck in breath for jump kicks but this is unwise. Especially if you have a gruelling 25 minutes of consecutive jumping ahead. I tried to breathe as evenly as possible throughout and when I was really paggered (tired!) I controlled my breath making sure I got plenty of air in. I find there's no point in hiding one's tiredness by toughing it out and breathing in a shallow manner to look macho. This robs you of the oxygen for the next set of reps and makes you head for the floor, face first.

Made a cracking dollyo chagi, ee dan dwi chagi combination on 'Bob'. 

Sunny run and jumping kicks

I went for the lake run on Friday and as I was jogging round I tried spicing it up with some knee raises to prepare for a jumping front kick (ee dan ahp chagi). Little did I know that these exercises have a name! I was mooching around on YouTube and found this, it's pretty much what I was doing (although not as sharp) and called the Quick Step Drill :

And today I was playing with ee dan ahp chagi in the garden and was looking at distance covered. The distance I covered in a non-forced jump front kick was 2metres 25 (2 metres 50 with a walking prelude-this is more aggressive but not running). That's the distance covered over the ground (which I was going for), not in height. I was also trying to see whether getting the knee higher would make the kick higher, but my experiments seem inconclusive: I was kicking ~1metre 80 for both the normal knee raise prelude and the high knee prelude. Oh well. I think more importantly is the speed of this first action (the step up with the non-kicking leg).

Plus there has to be a fluid motion right through from the first step through the leg change and into the kick. It's ok to break it down for beginners but fairly soon they should practice the entire movement to avoid a: knee raise-pause-lurch upwards-kick off back leg. The momentum really helps. Sensei DD made a good point in that the first 'feint' should be convincing. It's pointless to make a cursory flash with the first foot raise. Maybe this is the important reason for raising that knee high in the first place. Who wants to kick higher than 1metre 80 anyway!?

Another interesting running drill to try from Jabari Pride, which may help out with kicking:

Martial Arts Festival - Canemasters

Poor old fella there with his walking cane. Probably couldn't handle himself if anyone attacked him huh? Well canemasters aims to prove otherwise: a self defence system worked around the walking cane.

As a practitioner of Tang Soo Do I'd seen a Master's cane form and my own Master told me how he upon flying to an international seminar was obliged to check all weapons into the hold but was let onto the aircraft with his cane...! Mark Shuey, the founder of Canemasters, unsurprisingly holds a Tang Soo Do black belt as well as in Hapkido too where he first saw the cane being used in self defence.

Canemasters take this idea to the next level and have developed an entire self defence system. Certainly the added leverage goes a long way when using the cane and getting whacked by a cane which can be whipped round at a fair lick would really smart. I did have a slight problem and this was that these guys happily carried the cane around with them as a side arm and not as an aid to walking. "It's got me out of trouble a couple of times", said the seminar leader.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll take my tonfa out into town next week and see what happens...

Here is a rather limp version of the Tang Soo Do Ji pan gi hyung:

Beautiful dojang

I love this dojang in Switzerland. I came across it some time ago and was struck by the wonderful minimalist interior stripping out all extraneous distractions giving you no chance to do anything other than concentrate on your art. Ahhh!

http://www.soobahkdo.ch/html/tdotoct08_31.html

http://www.soobahkdo.ch/html/ko_dan_ja_shim_sa_39.html

http://www.soobahkdo.ch/html/ko_dan_ja_shim_sa_3.html

Soo Bahk Do in Switzerland, Wald, near Zurich.

http://www.soobahkdo.ch/html/e_welcome.html

Chinese heritage of Tang Soo Do

This is to finish off the series of articles on the subject of the history and influences of Tang Soo Do. In the last article I focused much on the Japanese influences owing to the occupation of Korea by Japan (1905-1945) and the influence it had on Tang Soo Do: kata and framework of the style seem to have been drawn largely from karate. Contemporary Tang Soo Do differs in many ways from karate, notably with its acrobatic and powerful kicks and this is what I'll examine here.

Some official Tang Soo Do training manuals are swift to point out that this Korean art can trace its lineage back 2000 years and has particularly been developed by the Hwarang warriors. It's easy to see why this claim is made as the Hwarang were an elite fighting corps which unified a once fractured Korea. What I don't understand is how this claim can be substantiated given that the forms are of Japanese origin and many of the drills and combinations are also shared by Japanese and Okinawan styles. What is certain about Tang Soo Do is that the kicks used in this style are different from the Japanese styles. There are much more acrobatic kicks used and this, I feel, is where the indigenous Taekyyeon and Subak may have passed on some of their martial arts 'DNA'. 

Northern Chinese style Kung Fu must have influenced Korean martial arts such as Subak and indeed King Sunjo (1567-1608) took an interest in Chinese arts after having read a Ming dynasty martial arts manual by Chuk Kye-Kwang. He was so interested that he invited the Ming military officers to demonstrate their warring arts and the notes which were taken eventually became the Muye Jebo (Martial Arts Illustrations) which is seen as the benchmark of martial arts documentation in Korea. As well as technical aspects of martial arts the Chinese may well have passed on some of the Northern style of Kung fu with its high kicks, flowing movements and jumping techniques. This is said to come from a people who lived in the plains of China where horse communication was made easy by the lack of great mountain ranges or rivers to bar progress. Jumping techniques may have been developed to dislodge mounted warriors and the Korean arts were certainly influenced by the Chinese martial systems of the time.

Check out this impressive performance of Chang Quan - a Northern style of Kung Fu. It isn't Tang Soo Do but the kicking techniques seem closer than to karate. Even to the extent of the way this practitioner turns and flows into jumping and spinning techniques.