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Seiken (fore-fist), takes a little time to perfect, but time spent in this area, will be a wise use of training time.

We go into more detail in our Seiken (fore-fist) karate video tutorial at the bottom of this page.

1. Start with the hands open, palms facing up and fingers straight, thumbs bent in half.
2. Bend the fingers in half, but do not roll the fingers into the palms of the hand yet. At this stage, the finger nails should be facing up. When practicing this, roll the fingers, starting from the little finger and finishing with the index finger.
3. Keeping the tips of the fingers in constant contact with the palms, roll the fingers fully into the palm, once again, starting with the little finger. As you finish this rolling action, place the thumb over the index and middle finger.
4. The striking are of the fist, is the two large knuckles, so try and get the fingers to fully fold into the palm, so the two large knuckles are at least level, or protruding. (as in the pictures)
5. Be concious of the little fingers, keep them tight, if they become loose, the whole karate fist weakens.

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1. Starting from the yoi (ready) position in shizentai (natural stance). Place the left arm above the head, so the elbow is directly above the shoulder, one fist away from the head and just above the eye line.

2. keeping the elbow as explained above, bend the left arm, so the fist is just above the head. The fist, forearm and elbow are about a fist to a fist and a half away from the forehead. Try and keep the wrist straight.

3. The left arm is now in the upper rising block position. The right arm should be in the hikite (hiki=pulling, te=hand) position. The right hikite fist should be clenched and placed on the right side of the body, palm up, at the bottom of the ribs, with the right elbow pulled in tight.

You should now be in the age uke position. Lets look at the actual sequence of arm movement, when practicing Age- uke.

1. Open the left hand. Now imagine you are going to use your right hikite fist to punch your left arm, in the middle of the forearm. That is roughly, the path your right fist is going to take.

2. As you start to lift the right blocking arm, drop the left elbow and turn the left hand, so the thumb (which should be bent), is facing towards you. As you lift the right arm and drop the left, both arms should cross in front of the chin. The right blocking arm should be on the outside, so the left pulling arm, is closest to the face. Still keep the arms, a fist to a fist and a half distance, from the face.

3. Continue the upward movement of the right arm, remembering you were aiming a punch at the middle of the left forearm, when it was in the age uke position. As you raise the right arm from the crossed arm position (5), start to rotate the forearm counter clockwise, so the palm faces away from you. The left arm now becomes the hikite (pulling hand), moving down to the finished hikite position at the left side of the body.

4. Breathing should be silent and natural. Breathing in on the preparation and out on the execution of the block. Both fists should stop at exactly the same time.

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I always used to wonder why, not just my friends, but people in general, associated karate with these open hand strikes, it must have been something to do with the old films like, the pink panther films, not Now Kato!!!!! Or the James bond movies, where ‘Odd Job’ would be karate chopping his victims, into an untimely demise, or even one of my favourite cartoons, Hong Kong Fooey!

But as the years have rolled by, I now realise that the karate chop is used in karate, way more than I first realised.

Shuto or knife hand, is everywhere in karate! From the basic shuto uchi (knife hand block), through the heian kata, eg. double knife hand block and counter in Heian Yondan (pictured), to the more advanced brown and black belt shotokan karate kata. The karate chop is everywhere.

My friends were right! I believed, that I very rarely used open hand, but in reality it’s everywhere in our karate training!

Ossu
Linden

Heian Yondan

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Karate dojo use Heisoku-dachi (Feet together), or Musubi-dachi (Heels together, feet turned out), before a particular karate exercise is started.

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Distance is extremely important, but often overlooked in many karate classes.  Without correct distance, strikes will be ineffective and the ability to control the fight will be gone!

There are many different types of distance to be aware of. The one below, basically covers your distance in relation to an opponent.

1. Safe Distance. The distance at which you know you have time if your opponent attacks, this is obviously quite a long range, where your opponent would need more than one step to attack.

2. Green Distance. This is where you first acknowledge danger, but the distance is as number 1.

3. Amber Distance. This is where you have acknowledged the danger and realize an attack is imminent.

4. Red Distance. This is where an opponent is within easy striking distance and is about to attack,  you must act!

When practicing kumite in your karate classes, there are many different striking distances for your karate moves.

1. Closest Distance. Grappling, biting and very close strikes.

2. Close Distance. Knee attacks, head butting, elbow attacks, upper cuts, hooks

3. Medium Distance. Jabs,hooks,uppercuts,reverse punches,back fists,bottom fists, knife hand attacks, shortened kicks

4. Long Distance. Stepping attacks, long range kicks, jumping attacks

Once you understand distance, the next factor to imcorporate, is timing.

Check out more on correct distance in part 1.

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You need to have the distance between you and the person you are fighting  just right, in order to deliver effective karate moves.

A good fighter always has excellent distance and timing, but we will not focus on timing, lets just concentrate on distance in this article.

Shotokan karate for beginners classes teach a very basic form of sparring, that is excellent for distance training. This kumite (sparring) is referred to as gohon (5 step) kumite or sanbon (3 step) kumite.

You face your sparring partner, bow (rei), then come to Yoi (ready position) in shizentai (natural stance).

When you are first learning karate, this is where you will adjust your distance. Simply extend one arm and touch your partner on the shoulder, with your arm straight.

This is a good starting position for basic sparring. The attacker will step back downward block (gedan barai) with the right leg and block gedan barai with the left arm. In this basic sparring exercise, you will step and attack oizuki (stepping punch), either 5 or 3 times, depending on the karate dojo you attend.

This is good distance training for both the attacker and defender.

Imagine the sun, a magnifying glass and a piece of paper. Once the sun, magnifying glass and a piece of paper are aligned correctly, the paper will burn! Your karate techniques are the same, there are lots of other elements involved, but distance is one of the main ingredients that will ensure the your karate techniques ‘burn‘ their intended target!

We will cover more on correct distance in part 2.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’
Lao Tzu

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