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So Why Train Kihon?
Author: Sensei
Although there are numerous other stances employed during the practice of kata, it is the preceding four which tend to be utilized in kihon.
So, if there is much more information and variety of technique at hand within kata, why was it felt that techniques should be isolated and taught separately as during kihon?
In a stressful situation, when the adrenalin is flowing, several things occur within the human body which affect judgement and technique. The field of vision narrows to little more than a tunnel, the limbs become flooded with adrenalin and may tremble, auditory exclusion may occur whereby hearing is affected and fine motor skills can become impossible. This is one of the reasons novices freeze, even during prearranged sparring in the dojo, and why some who have been training for years suddenly find themselves rooted to the spot during a live situation. Years are often spent learning numerous complicated techniques which disappear from the karateka's mind as soon as adrenalin hits.
What is required, and can be achieved from an early stage in the training, is simplicity. Simple techniques which do not require complex motor skills and can be adapted to different situations. This is where the practice of kihon comes in.
Some "street-fighters" around today have won all their fights with the same technique. Whatever it is, they have employed it in the past and it has worked for them every time, so why change? They have overcome adrenalin by removing the fine decision making process from combat.
Please bear in mind, I am not talking about a nice orderly bout of fisticuffs. I am talking about the kind of fight that starts with little or no warning from a close distance. So, whilst the martial artist is mentally running through their extensive repertoire of techniques and deciding which one to use, their opponent has put them on their back.
The old Sensei were aware of this, and equally aware of the dangers of adrenalin. Whilst they taught kata which contain numerous tech-
niques with a variety of permutations, they also recognized the need for the karateka to be conditioned, through repetition, for actual combat from an early stage.
There is a theory, that many karateka adhere to, that they should aim to decide the outcome of any confrontation with one blow. This concept is known as ikken hisatsu. If pre-arranged sparring is observed, it can indeed be seen that, after evading a set number of techniques with a "block", one decisive blow is delivered to conclude the exercise.
As the karateka progresses through their grades, they move on from single techniques during kihon onto more complicated combinations requiring multiple techniques. This, however, works on the principle that the first technique, in most cases, will be a "block".
If; as we have already discussed, there were no blocks and these are actually strikes or grabs, then the techniques practiced by the novice come closer to the purity of ikken hisatsu than the more difficult combinations further along the line. All the techniques utilized following the "block" become superfluous. The areas chosen for the strikes would not have been as vague as jodan, chudan and gedan, they would have been aiming for a particular vital point on the opponent's body.
When the great Anko Itosu sys-temized karate-jutsu and created what we know today as karate-do, many of the techniques taught had to be toned down due to fact that it was intended for children to practice as part of their schooling. This transition has been discussed in-depth by other authors and really falls out of the scope of this text, but at the moment I am relating it to kihon.
Children (and Westerners unfortunately) have a relatively short attention span and soon become bored or distracted. The belt system in martial arts aims to combat this by providing short-term goals for the practitioner to strive for. It stands to reason therefore, that in recognition of the fact that progress has been made, the student moves on to more complicated techniques in preparation for their next grading.
A curriculum had to be drawn up where the students felt they were making constant progress and learning more difficult techniques and that is where this comes from. The interest could then be held and the practice of the art became more "attractive" to prospective students. There are not many people who could withstand years of repetition of single techniques with no short-term goals to strive for, but it is exactly this kind of single-minded perseverance that is meant to epitomize the martial artist.
The stances taught during kihon are an ideal, what the body should be doing on that rare occasion when everything comes together perfectly. They were designed to give the karateka the best foot placement and centre of gravity for the given situation. The problem is that, today, the context in which the stances are practiced appears erroneous. They have been taken out of intended ideal setting and have become static and seemingly immobile. This is potentially dangerous for the karateka who find themselves in a live situation having trained incorrectly for actual combat.
As it is generally considered that kata were meant to be studied in depth (and some forward thinking karateka are returning to this method of training) it is not such a leap to reach the conclusion that kihon
evolved from the practice of isolated kata techniques.
So, in conclusion, having discussed possibilities for the true combative nature of stances and the superfluous techniques, it seems that the word kihon, which we translate as "basics", really is meant to be just that. Simple, direct economy of movement designed to resolve violent confrontations in a far more effective way than many people realise.
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