2006 International Instructors' Seminar

Ishikawa, Fukushima -- March 17 - 19

Summary Part One:
Seminar by Shihan Hiroshige Tsuyoshi on Face Punching Defense

Shihan Hiroshige Tsuyoshi, Fuku-Kancho (Vice Chairman) Kyokushinkan, is the instructor in Japan known for training the most champions, among them names such as Midori, Yamaki, Kazumi, Tsukamoto and Takaku. As part of a movement by Kyokushin-kan to regain the superiority that Kyokushin Karate enjoyed before the death of Sosai Mas Oyama (and then subsequently lost in the years that followed), Kancho Royama, Shihan Hiroshige, and others are working to reintroduce multiple elements of Kyokushin training that were taken for granted during the early decades following Mas Oyama's synthesis of Kyokushin, only to be eroded in following years due to the booming popularity of tournament style fighting.

For example, in the days of Oyama Dojo and in the early days of Kyokushinkaikan, punches to face and kicks to the groin were commonplace in dojo kumite. One early uchi deshi of Kancho Royama, Shihan Okazaki, told this week how when he was one of the first uchi deshi under Kancho Royama it was his job to pick up teeth during dojo kumite so that they would not be lost. Of course Shihan Hiroshige stressed in his introduction to his face-contact seminar that this type of training is not for everyone in every dojo situation. Even in the early days, he explained, entire dojo populations of 100 students were reduced to less than ten following just one such full-contact face punching kumite session.

It is vitally important, however, Shihan Hiroshige stresses, that Kyokushin Karate regain the reflexes of face punch defense that Kyokushin fighters once had but then began to lose once tournament style fighting became popular and face punches were eliminated in the name of safety. This can be done, he insists, in a relatively safe, fun way by introducing certain face-punching drills designed to develop these reflexes while avoiding injury among those in the dojo who aren't interested in full-contact face punching kumite.

At this week's seminar, Shihan Hiroshige, introduced several such drills:

Here, students wearing protective equipment simply practice evading punches to the head in one-minute sets, first one jab at a time, then one punch at a time, and in later one-minute sets, two and three-punch combinations.

After drilling only avoiding face punches, Shihan Hiroshige then instructed us to add kicks so that the defenders could then practice evading both head punches and kicks to the legs and body at the same time.

Nobody in this training tried to knock his partner's teeth out or break his partner's nose. Rather this was an introduction to a first step towards regaining one element of superiority that Kyokushin karate once enjoyed at a safe, "all dojo members can do it" intensity. We were also told, however, during this seminar that work was being done to introduce Kyokushin competitions in Japan in which full-contact face-contact is allowed. This would be, however, an experimental and supplementary competition held concurrently with competitions of traditional Kyokushin rules only for those fighters who choose to train for them. Shihan Hiroshige does not suggest that we are going to make any kind of dramatic change overnight. He only suggests that in order to regain Kyokushin's eroded superiority, face punch defense reflexes must be reincorporated into Kyokushin training. Accordingly, we can expect a gradual reintroduction of such techniques over the years to come.

Summary Part Two:
Seminar by Kancho Hatsuo Royama on Weight Transfer during Ido Kekko

Kancho Royama, Chairman Kyokushin-kan, here speaks on the importance of weight transfer and balance in order to maintain superiority during kumite.

This te-kokutsu-datchi (back leaning stance) was over time removed from standard Kyokushin training but can be, Kancho emphasized, critical to learning the importance of weight transfer to maintain balance during kumite. (Above Kancho is demonstrating the incorrect stance since balance is lost.) From the above photo to the below one, Kancho demonstrates how his foot positions don't move as he transfers the position of his body as much as 30 centimeters from front (below) to rear (above), from zenkutsu datchi to te-kokutsu datchi, and back again.

The importance of perfect training here is to maintain balance as one shifts weight from one stance to the other. It's the loss of balance that most karateka fall victim to as they shift their weight that leads to their vulnerability during fighting. The instant the karateka loses balance is the instant that he is defeated. By refining one's skills of weight transfer in these longer stances (i.e. longer than those used during fighting) one can gain superiority during kumite as the fighting stance is actually shorter and thus easier to use with sustained balance during movement. Kancho reminds us of Sosai Mas Oyama's teaching that the foundation upon which winning kumite rests is kihon (basics) and the most critical element of kihon is stance.

Summary Part Three:
Seminar by Shihan Okasaki on Deepening Karate Understanding through traditional weapons practice

coming soon to this page

Summary Part Four:
Seminar by Sensei Sun Lee on Ikken (Focusing of Inner Energy)

One 90 minute Ikken session was instructed during the camp by Sensei Sun Lee, the grand master of Ikken, a largely ki (inner energy) oriented Chinese martial art. Both Kancho Royama and Fuko-Kancho Hiroshige practiced Ikken extensively during their youth when training for Kyokushin competition and both attribute this training for their tournament wins then. This author is not an expert on Ikken enough to do much instruction here but the practice primarily involves holding individual postures for long periods of time while focusing on certain images (visualization) and on breath control. Through this practice the practitioner can become aware of minute details of how the forces of breathing, balance and ki interact in the body during movement -- and more importantly combat -- and this understanding can lead to a substantial advantage over opponents who have not had this kind of training. It is yet another example of the movement taken by Kancho and Fuku Kancho to incorporate elements of training back into Kyokushin that helped contribute to its original superiority but were subsequently lost when Kyokushin tournament-style fighting became so popular.

Kancho points out that it is the natural human reaction when surprised to inhale sharply and rise up on one's toes (imagine, for example, being surprised from behind: your tendency would be to inhale and jump). Extending one's body when surprised by an attacker, however, is not the ideal reaction because balance is lost and the extended (stretched out) body is harder to defend. The karateka, therefore, must train him/her self to compress the body when inhaling rather than extending it. I.e. the karateka must train himself to lower his center of gravity when threatened, thus gaining superiority of balance and control of the situation. Here, above, Sensei Sun Lee instructs us to visualize the compression of our spine as we inhale and the extension of our spine as we exhale. An expert of this practice can actually reduce one's height while inhaling by one or two centimeters (by compressing the spine, NOT by bending it). The resultant lowering of one's center of gravity can translate into an extreme advantage during fighting. Even in the West we are familiar with the image of the ancient akido master who can not be thrown by much larger, younger and more-powerful opponents. This is a similar concept.