Dear Martin,
As a wrestler you understand the theory of throwing, projecting a resisting opponent to the floor with his energy and energy you have supplied to knock him out or badly damage him so he cannot continue to attack you. But you are an 8th Dan in judo and a 6th Dan in jujitsu, you are extraordinary not ordinary like we lesser mortals. For me striking makes my throwing and locking techniques work. There are at least four theories of striking that I know about: the Chinese Internal Systems; the Chinese External Systems, which includes both long hand boxing-the origin of karate and short hand boxing, where wing chun kung fu system is the best known; western boxing has in it simplicity and effectiveness a lethal system; jujitsu has its strikes to stun, some systems within jujitsu especially the kempo jujitsu emphasis on striking.
The Ancient Greeks and Romans used the fist to strike, representations of boxers where found on pottery vases. However, the boxing of the ancients consisted of the left arm being used for defence and the right landing blows. Originally the Greeks sat on two stones across from each other and punched each other, the winner was the one who was best able to survive the punishment. Rome increased the gore by wearing cestuis, a form of brass knuckles. Representation of the earliest boxers can be found on the volcanic island of Santerini from the Minion Civilisation of ancient Crete. The Greeks of the classical period combined the skills of boxing and wrestling to produce the first close quarter battle system known as pankration. The army of Alexander the Great had tents where pankration was practised carried in his baggage train; in fact there is a theory that the army of Alexander brought their skill of pankration to ancient India where it took root in Indian martial arts, which was taken to the Shaolin Monastery by the Indian monk Bodhredama, who was originally an Indian prince, well versed in martial arts of India. From the Shaolin Monastery martial arts knowledge was carried by its fighting monks and their pilgrimage to all parts of the east.
Wearing armour influences warfare, the protective effect allows hack and slash fighting only, therefore atemi was not emphasised, wrestling was the preferred method of unarmed combat, kumi uchi-grappling in armour was used in medieval Japan. In the west manuals of combat, fechtbucher, showed wrestling defences against armed opponents. Gunpowder changed everything, heavy armour was a liability, it cut down on mobility the only defence against firearms. Striking became important, adapting weapon fighting techniques to empty hand fighting; in England quarter staff fighting was along with sword fighting the basis for Western Boxing, from the quarter staff came upper cuts and hooks; the jab came from the lunge in fencing. English and American Boxing changed with the Spanish-American War of 1898 when the United States of America gained the remains of Spain's Empire, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The American Marines were famous for their boxing prowess after the victory over Spain in the Philippines they boxed with the Filipinos who due to their blade culture practised bobbing, weaving and evasion techniques against the American Marines who changed their style from the upright European Style to the crouched style that has now become the American Style of boxing.
The island of Okinawa midway between Japan and China was for centuries a trading centre between these two cultures it traded goods and conveyed ideas, weapons were banned by the ruler of Okinawa as a means of control after the rise of the Shogun in Japan winning in the civil war the Satsuma Clan had fought for the losing side, as punishment they were ordered to invade Okinawa for some perceived insult and to punish them. The clan were able to successfully invade the kingdom due to the banning of weapons. The inhabitants fought back with their empty hands and farm implements but in open warfare against the samurai with their long sword the katana they lost. Guerrilla Warfare was the only option available the Chinese centuries before had sent artisans to teach the Okinawans these Chinese brought their knowledge of kung fu which they shared with the inhabitants who combined what they learned with the native fighting arts of the island to form the art of karate. The Japanese Invaders found themselves fighting an enemy who turned their bodies into a weapon by hardening their hands and feet to punch through the bamboo lacquered armour. Karate was created from sword fighting, the back stance is a defensive position in ken jitsu, Japanese Fencing. The front stance of karate is the position that a fencer takes on cutting down with a katana. In karate there is the cat stance in ken jitsu there also is a similar stance for cutting down with the sword.
To study striking you must study weaponry to discover how it originated, if you discover this vital knowledge then you will make sense of your blows to weak points of the human body, all combat is influenced by the society it came from. From the 18th century the English developed boxing as a means of self defence when they were unarmed. During the 17th century the islanders of Okinawa developed karate as a vehicle to resistance against the Satsuma Samurai from Japan. Self protection is a universal need for society, to throw you must hit to distract and if you are successful you could knock out or disable your attacker so you may not have to.
Yours in budo
Ian " Lurch " Durie.
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