In recent years, both the skill levels as well as the tactical aspects of modern competition karate have changed enormously. Only if you have mastered both elements you are more likely to succeed. Being highly skilled, flexible, fast and committed does not necessarily guarantee the desired outcome. In the same way distance determines technique, the right tactic at the right time determines who is going to be the winner and the loser.

For competition, this means that the athlete who can use and interpret the rules and regulations the best has a higher chance of winning.

In this article we are going to give a few examples for one principle of using and interpreting the rules to the maximum. Plain and simple, if moral is poor, success is unlikely.

We will show the two basic ways we found most useful to achieve an instant result. These are pain and loss of balance.

In the last issue we talked about kicking and how to build up a strong fundament for kicking. In this article we will continue focusing on kicks to the midsection in order to induce pain in accordance to the rules. The reason behind is simple, kicks are a lot stronger than hand techniques, they have a greater reach, and most importantly, they allow for contact. Punches do not, at least not in most karate styles.

Furthermore, counter kicking automatically legalises harder contact, and therefore influences your opponent’s moral more direct than offensive kicks. In fact, the only thing you do is helping the opponent to lose.

You can also use these skills to destroy your opponent’s game plan or to break his will right from the beginning. After all, you can afford at least one warning, before you will get penalised. In other words, kill the body and the head will die.

The second principle we are using is the destruction of the adversary’s balance. Again the reason behind it is simply. If your opponent is off-balance, he cannot react appropriately. In addition, in competition, it is a lot easier to score three points (sanbon) by using sweeps and take-downs than through kicks to the head. since the legs are an easier target and mostly less well guarded than the upper quadrants. Most importantly, putting someone off balance is extremely frustrating and therefore demoralises effectively and without greater risks of injury or penalties.

The following article includes the necessary warm-up, coordination exercises, as well as offensive and counter-offensive skills. We concentrate on front kicks (Mae Geri) and side kicks (yoko geri) since they are more direct than the widely used roundhouse kicks (Mawashi geri) and a lot harder to block. They also are more deceptive and stil more or less neglected in most competitors technical repertoire thus allowing for a bigger element of surprise.

Techniques and drills:

1) Warming up
This is just a short introduction of some alternative ways to warm-up and stretch properly.

You can never do too much stretching. These exercises are more challenging but also more effective than individual stretching. Be careful when doing this, always listen to your partners instruction, avoid pain and hold the stretching position for about 20 seconds. Always change positions slowly.

2) Coordination, flexibility with your partner
One partner lifts his leg up. The other partner is holding the leg at the ankle joint moving the leg up and down to the right and the left. The other partner has to balnace his position through hopping around and hip work in order to maintain distance and balance. Begin slowly and avoid sudden pushing and pulling.

Offensive skills

3) Front kick (Mae Geri) with the back leg:
Both sides stand in the same position. The attacker starts with a clearly visible hand technique, similar to a backfist maneuver with his rear hand. This is intended to distract the adversary bringing his attention high (jodan) while doing a front kick with the back leg to the mid section.

4) Front kick as a direct counter (Mae Geri de-ai):
Both sides stand in the same fighting stance. This skill works especially well against rushing attacks like oikomi zuki (reverse punch with a Stepp through). Most importantly, you have to start and kick directly into the opponent’s attack.

Side kick (Yoko geri) with a fake escape action:

Mirror stance, one side left foot forward, the other side right foot forward. Start with a side Stepp maneuver towards the back of your opponent away from his power hand. Empasise a clearly visible start in order to distract your opponent. Commit your body weight on your front foot in order to get maximum power for the next explosive side step. Step diagonally across the opponents body in a 45 degree angle executing a side step to the mid section. The solar plexus is the preferred target area in order to achieve maximum results. Both side steps must be executed with maximum speed, explosiv and dynamic.

5) Side kick as a direct counter (Yoko Geri de- ai):
Again start from a mirror position. Keep your upper body upright all the time and push into the opponent when kicking. Do not pull your kick, but explosively snap into the midsection.

6) Roundhouse kick with an evasive action:
Start from a mirror position executing an evasive Stepp with the back foot in a 45 degree angle towards the front side of your opponent. Keep your guard up all the time. Committ your body weight on your front foot in order to get maximum power fort he next Stepp to the opposite side executing a roundhouse kick to the midsection. The sudden line changes will get you an additional advantage of scoring wjhile avoiding the opponents guard. Thus the risk of injuries due to kicking the ellbow is reduced.

7) Foot sweep from the outside:
Start from the same position as above. Execute a committed reverse punch to the midsection (Gyaku Zuki chudan). Most importantly, bring your front foot on thee outside of your opponent’s front foot. Hook his foot, turn your hips and pull your foot back in order to off-balance the opponent. The adversary does not necessarily have to fall, off-balancing him is enough in order to set up a scoring technique. Always control the hands and arms of the opponent.

8) Foot sweep from the inside:
Start again from a mirror position executing a front foot roundhouse kick to the head. The kick is just an example for a set-up. The technique can be tailored to the situation and your physical abilities. When the opponet reacts to the kick by moving backwards he exposes his front ankle to a foot sweep with the front foot. Control his front hand and sweep his front foot at the same time.