” to unfailingly take what you attack, attack where there is no defense…..to advance irresistibly, push through their gaps” The Art of War by Sun Tsu
“This method is called striking the opponent in the same breath (ichi byo shi). In executing this technique , you must strike your opponent while he is still undecided about whether he should retreat, parry or strike” Go Rin No Sho, the Water Book by Miyamoto Musashi.
This article, I am afraid, is going to ring a wee bit hollow. It is all about initiating an attack, something that I am hopelessly weak at. I will tend to rely heavily on both my training within Mr. Nishiyama’s style and of course, Miyamoto Musashi. In fact, I suspect this entire article will be basically one great rehash of Go Rin No Sho and much of what we have already discussed. I may have some new ideas, but if you are already a really great fighter, I doubt that I will impart anything much of value. Still, one must strive for completeness, so I really must discuss initiation of the attack.
Primarily, every fighter has to realize that absolutely no attack will succeed if the opponent is jutsu. No matter how fast you are or how fantastic your favourite combination may be, if the opponent has a clear sense of your impending attack, he is likely to react and successfully counter-attack, probably using any of the timing schemes previously discussed. I would think the previous statement should go without saying, but having watched many tournaments over the years, I am under the impression that many fighters do not know this concept. I have often seen ill conceived attacks fired from an untenable distance at a fully prepared opponent. Most had the same predictable result: complete failure. You need to attack when the opponent is kyo: either naturally vulnerable or you must create vulnerability.
Generally you are going to have either one of two categories of initiation: “kake-waza” or pure initiation or “shikake-waza”, which really is the use of combinations to create opportunity. When I use the term “combinations” I am using a very general sense of the word: anything that could be used in combination with a karate attack that will increase the likelyhood of success. I will come back to this in a few moments. Kake-waza, of pure initiation, should be briefly touched on first.
First remember that all attacks must be done on a vulnerable opponent. I know this is a repetitive statement, but certainly it cannot be repeated enough. Come back to my original statement that moments of kyo are usually transition points: the opponent is kyo simply because he is in the midst of either a physical transition or, more commonly, a mental transition. Let’s look at some common examples. Stance shifts where the opponent is stepping forward or backward, or merely shifting from a left lead to a right lead. At these moments the opponent is committed to a directional vector (back, forward, sideways) and typically his mass is “floating” as one or both legs are travelling. These moments are excellent opportunities to attack with just about any technique but the attack must be initiated once the opponent is committed to his transition. Attacking a moving opponent is a great opportunity to attempt sweeps or reaps, attacking the travelling leg and either extending it’s path (a reap) or directing it’s path (a sweep), preferably into and through the position of the pivot (planted) leg. The best sweeps I have ever seen have been instigated as the opponent stepped or shifted back, usually to avoid a jodan attack; the lead leg was scooped as it moved back and practically kicked into the static pivot leg of the opponent by a well timed low kick of the attacker. Of course, this sort of attack assumes movement on the part of your opponent and will be far more likely to be successful if you can induce the opponent to move as you wish by a set-up technique (shikake-waza). With regards to stepping actions and their vulnerability to sweeps, one should also consider the tendency of some fighters to actually bounce from foot to foot as they fight: each bounce represents a transition point where the mass is floating and the feet are free to sweep. Furthermore, the bouncing action tends to become rhythmic and thus predictable: bouncing back predicts a bounce forward and vice-versa. Metronomic, predictable movement is just as bad as complete immobility, perhaps even worse. One should always strive for broken, unpredictable un-rhythm (or, conversely, your own strategic rhythm that can become suddenly broken at will)
Mental transitions are also worth discussing. In fact, we have already looked at the most common transition: from defense to offense, where we would apply sen-sen-no-sen timing. The above quote from Musashi refers to this transition: the moment, the very moment, you sense the opponent shifting from defense to offense should be that moment you attack. On the other hand, this statement assumes a couple of things. The first assumption is that you will be in a position to attack, while the other assumption is that you are always prepared to attack. Use these assumptions to form a strategy. Consider distances: his distance, your distance, and the real interpersonal distance. Upon setting your strategy, keep his distance in mind and slip to the very edge of that distance. Once you have reached the edge of the bubble, then creep across the line into deadly ground, watching for your opponent’s telegraphs of attack. Set your mind back into the binary system we discussed earlier: “Go” or “Not Go”. The “Go” nature of your mindset must be “attack” at the slightest feel of threat (nota bene: understand that I am referring here only if you choose to use kake-no-sen timing; if you choose to use a variation of go-no-sen timing, then the attitude remains the same except now the decision is to intercept your opponents attack rather than initiate your own attack. Thus we always approach fighting with the same intent of full domination, just different strategies). You need to go in without hesitation, set on attacking the opponent with greater speed and conviction than he. This concept is covered by Musashi under “striking without thought and consciousness” (“munen muso no uchi”). It is critical here to repeat: have the mindset that you will attack at the first threat rather than just react. This all comes back to my very early discussion on “intent”: lack of intent can only result in failure.
Personally, this essay has been very illuminating for myself because I have finally realized what my major weakness in sparring has always been: I allow myself to creep out into deadly ground without any clear intention and then I am caught unawares by my victorious opponent when they attack me. Considering my many sparring losses, most of them resulted from attacks which caught me completely flat footed as I contemplated options within easy striking distance. One should never enter deadly ground without a clear plan of action. Finally, the most common form of transition point or kyo will be that transition from one technique to the next, which leads us to shikake waza, or set-up techniques.
One of the most common forms of shikake waza would be, as we have already discussed, sasoi-waza, or inviting the attack. This concept deserves a second look in that it is a perfect illustration of what I mean by a “very general use of the term combination”. In this case, the strategic fighter is going to create the appearance of weakness in his defense with the intent of drawing a specific attack when and where he wants. Sun Tsu discusses this in detail:” therefor those who skillfully move opponents make formations that the opponents are sure to follow, give what the opponents are sure to take. They move opponents with the prospect of gain, waiting for them in ambush”. While the use of sasoi-waza is meant to result in an apparent go-no-sen timing counter-attack, used strategically it really is a form of primary initiated attack: you bait and force your opponent to move as you wish, thus being the true aggressor. The baiting is actually an integral part of the combination. I do not want to belabour this point, but the acceptance that a strategic fighter is always striving to dominate, even while appearing to be defensive, is key to developing both superior strategy and better technical expertise. I found, once I internalized the concept that all my blocks were actually strategic intercepting attacks, my blocking ability and timing improved dramatically and I seemed to have far more time for my counter-attacks. Again, here we are talking about intent; without the proper intent your karate will be hollow and weak.
Assuming that a fighter is capable of creating and/or recognizing kyo, the next element of an attack sequence must be combination training. Mr. Nishiyama calls this Renzoku-kogeki-waza, or “continuing attack”. There are many elements of performance that need to be considered when using combinations, the most important, surprisingly, is the principle of ikken hisatsu. This truly seems contradictory in every sense of the word: train so that each single technique could end a confrontation yet train to flow seamlessly from technique to technique, linking several techniques in combination. On the contrary: for any combination of techniques to actually work, the opponent must truly believe that each technique is dangerous and react appropriately. As a strategy the use of combinations are three-fold: first you want to get ahead of the opponent’s rhythm (and thus take advantage of his natural kyo that falls in the off beats of his rhythm), second you want to create openings in his triangle guard by drawing his guard to alternating and possibly disparate targets, and third you want to create a break in his jutsu by forcing movement (transition). The key elements in combinations have been covered well in the kihon basics section: complete each technique completely but do not pause between techniques, flow from one to the next seamlessly using the “pulse’ of your abdominal contractions which control your breathing, link the techniques tightly with one breath-multiple exclamation marks type breathing, thus keeping your own transition kyo to a minimum. The key point here is that the flow has to be so rapid fire that you overwhelm the opponent’s defenses. This ability will be absolutely dependant on how much the opponent believes each technique: if they do not convince the enemy, then the enemy need not react to them and may merely stand calmly, looking for his own opening. You cannot afford to let him be calm and find his strategy.
Part of every combination should be misdirection to break his triangle guard. A good example of this would be the classic combination of jab face, reverse punch body. The jab pulls the guard up, the reverse punch sneaks in underneath. Actually, this is an excellent and simple example of both step one and step two: if the opponent does not believe the jab, he will not break his guard and if your combination is not correctly linked, failing to get ahead of his rhythm, he will respond to both attacks successfully and be able to counter-attack at will. The final key to the combination attack is to off-balance by causing movement or retreat: the goal becomes not just break the rhythm but break the balance by driving the enemy back on his heals with the sheer momentum of your onslaught. The feeling of the combination, in many cases, should be that of a locomotive driving full tilt down the track. On the other hand, there might be some strategy to be found in the idea of broken rhythm.
Years ago I trained with a gentleman called Andy Holmes. Sensei Holmes was a British transplant to the West Coast of Canada and was really very talented. At one time Andy had been quite well known in the British kumite tournaments and he brought his skills and knowledge to Canada. He introduced me to two ideas that I recognized years later as lifted from Musashi’s book, whether Mr. Holmes knew it or not. One of Andy’s drills consisted of establishing a standard combination such as Jab face-punch body and repeating it perhaps twice with your opponent, producing a consistent reaction in the opponent. Once that patterned reaction was established, then Sensei Holmes would suddenly shift up the drill by altering the combination slightly to jab face, punch face. The opponent, having established his routine previously, usually fell for the ruse by blocking the jab and then automatically dropping his hand to block the expected body shot. The face punch scored nearly every time, even when we all knew the trick. Musashi calls this technique the “mountain to sea transition” and suggests that you should never repeat an attack more than twice and when you change the shift should be as different as the mountains and the sea. Perhaps Mr. Holmes suggestion is not quite as different, but in this case it is the very similarity that makes the combination work: make the opponent expect the mountains but give him the sea instead. Another strategy Mr. Holmes gave me would be comparable to Musashi’s “Rhythm-timing of the second action” from the Water Book. Musashi’s strategy was to strongly attack the opponent and incite a “flinch” reflex, only to pause for a moment after that strong attack. Most opponents will tend to relax just a little when they realize that the primary attack was cut short. Musashi recommends to attack in the same breath as his relaxation, driving in to the finish. Mr. Holmes had us drill this technique by doing full attacks in combination a couple of times, then applying the broken rhythm of the false attack (feint) followed by the slight pause and then attack. The test runs of the full attack could be considered either establishing a pattern (which you will then alter by shifting from mountains to sea) or could be considered testing of the opponent to guage his typical reaction. Again, referring back to Musashi, this may be considered “moving the shadow”; test the opponent to reveal his strategy, then use that knowledge to crush him. The self defense members of the gallery should also consider the elements of combination training when they discuss the idea of continuity of defense: once you have entered the fight against an attacker you need to keep moving and attacking until the fight is finished.
One skill I have found that did help my pitifull sparring was, believe it or not, Tai Chi Chuan kata training. I always manage to “freeze” when I am sparring and, inevitably, get caught flat footed. I earned the nickname “humanpunchingbag” the hard way. Either way, a few years back, after a major surgery had sidelined me for several weeks, I returned to Tai Chi Chuan kata training to try to rehabilitate. After over a month of wasting away around the house, I returned to karate and, eventually, kumite. I expected to be a sitting duck for the first few weeks back, but low and behold, I was better than ever before. Well, actually, I did not really score any more points against , but nothing and nobody was catching me in sparring. I had learned to “flow”, moving smoothly from defense to attack, technique to technique. I credit the weeks of training in smooth, flowing kata, one finish of one move becoming the beginning of the next.
Philosophically, karateka should at least look at Tai Chi Chuan: it is both diametrically opposed to our style and yet a natural pairing with our style. Karate starts our training by disassembling each technique to train techniques in detail, then perfecting each technique as an independent unit. As we improve, we attempt to link those techniques in to combinations, each technique perfect in and of itself and each combination complete and flowing. Tai Chi Chuan approaches the question from a different direction: start with the flow of one technique to the next and then slowly work to perfect each technique within that flow. Two approaches to the same question really. The nature of the Tai Chi Chuan training forces you to ignore what you are doing at the moment and always think one step ahead. Doing Tai Chi Chuan you have to trust your body to perform each technique without direct guidance from the cerebral part of your brain simply because the cerebral section of your brain is dealing with the next move down the kata embusen. You can do this sort of training with karate kata as well, though most of us will find the years of hard training in karate difficult to overcome as we march through our standard short kata.
The final concept I want to cover in the kumite section involves the concept of kuzushi-waza or breaking the balance of the opponent. By definition this is yet another form of combination training, but in this case the initiation of the combination may be either a minor physical attack as a set up to a full attack or a psychological assault to break the focus of the opponent. Read the section in Go Rin No Sho, the Water Book, called “Slapping Down Block” where he discusses establishing a rhythm beneficial to your strategy, then applying a moderately firm slab to the enemy’s sword to pull it off guard, allowing an immediate attack. Now take that suggestion and apply it to karate: as you initiate a full-on attack, rather than attacking the core, go after his forward guard, pulling it down or sideways with a hooking or slapping block and then feed the scoring attack into the breach created in his triangle guard. The feel here must almost be a flowing block-attack: as you surge into the opponent your lead hand extends, contacts his guard and moves it down or off-center while the reverse punch is launched almost simultaneously. Musashi may also be addressing this same concept in the Fire book where he recommends “attack the corners” or go after the extremities. Consider the strategy of “the Raging Bull” Jake Lamotta: he hammered away at the arms of his opponents until they simply could not defend against his direct attacks any longer. I am certainly not recommending that approach, but it still is worthwhile to consider a “shocking attack” against a limb as a set up to a scoring attack against the core. Another example of this sort of attack might be something like reaching out with your lead foot and giving his leading foot a little love tap on your way into a full attack combination: the love tap is to draw his attention down while your real attack is being delivered. One strategy a good friend of mine used to do did not even involve an actual physical attack. Donny, who has since become a police officer, used to delight in just extending his lead fist into my face as he quickly advanced, only to pull it back at the last instant as he threw his real attack at whatever target I had left open while I was pre-occupied by the fist in my face. Again, Musashi suggests a similar approach when he suggests “Stabbing to the Face”: induce a reflexive flinch and use that flinch as an opportunity. This might be considered a form of psychological fighting.
Of course you can always off balance the enemy simply by screwing with his mind. Two concepts that need to be addressed are “catching” (“utsuraseru”) and “making the opponent nervous and upset”, both well covered by Musashi. The concept of catching is an experience common to everyone: moods can be infectious. Notice how sometimes at work or at school everyone seems to be in the same foul mood or the same buoyant mood. Often it only takes one person to infect the entire office with joy or ennui. Take this concept to kumite. If you practice you can “infect” your opponent with either an attitude or an advantageous rhythm. In practice, try to alter rhythms from fast to slow or pressure your opponent one moment and back off the next. Watch their reaction. Once you have learned how they will react to your changes in distance, timing and rhythm, then use that knowledge to your advantage. One friend of mine, Lance, used to pressure me mercilessly while we sparred, then once I was completely rattled, suddenly back off. Almost inevitably, I would relax my guard when he backed off, on which he immediately attacked with a full driving combination. He had learned to control my mood and had attacked when he had “infected me” with relaxation. The opposite of relaxation is being upset. Another strategy might be to rattle your opponent and force a mistake once he starts to become emotionally unglued. This concept comes back to broken rhythm timing and perhaps a little shock therapy. Always be altering your distance and rhythm, lead the opponent in one direction, then shift to another the moment he gets comfortable. Perhaps use an unexpected kiai as a shock tactic as a pre-lude to an attack. One might also consider the use of “kakegoe” while sparring, though this may not fit for everyone and it may only work in a few situations.
Kakegoe is the use of nonsensical vocalizations as you fight to set the tone and spirit of the match. The term kakegoe translates literally as “hung voice”, though this should be loosely interpreted as meaning “ornamental or decorative” voice, very much the way you might hang a picture on the wall (kakemono: the art of picture hanging). Traditionally kakegoe is used in performance arts such as Kabuki as verbal encouragement from the audience or the theater wings. On the other hand, in kendo the term kakegoe suggests vocalizations by the participant to encourage himself, to bouy up his own spirit. Traditionally the use of kakegoe was restricted to local kenjutsu schools populated by the peasant class such as the Kashima-Katori-Shinto schools rather than the samurai favourites such as the Shinkakge and Itto schools. As far as I can tell, kakegoe was used as a form of utsurseru to either lull the opponent into complacency or unbalance the opponent with anxiety. Musashi discusses using kakegoe in his section called “Three Combat Shouts” where he recommends using one of three exclamations to either demonstrate your fighting spirit, to shock your opponent as you attack or to proclaim your victory. In karate, the use of kakegoe may simply represent self encouragement, but it might also be used to set the opponent on edge. You have to read each opponent: some will find the incomprehensible growling, barking and shouting to be unnerving while others will merely find it amusing. Of course, if you get hit as often as I do, then you may want to go for amusing; at least it will make fighting more fun. Certainly I do not suggest linking your kakegoe with your attacks: do not give the opponent any warning of any attack, especially not by barking or grunting faster and louder right before you charge. On the other hand, perhaps you could use this concept to giving the impression of impending attack, then attack on the relaxation that might occur when no combination is forthcoming. It is all a mind game.
One final drill I would like to throw in here which can be used to drill all the elements of sparring in a controlled manner is kogo sparring. This is really a semi-free sparring drill that “reins-in” the players just enough to force them to actually apply strategy rather than just battering away at each other. In kogo sparring the only limitation is that there is an assigned initiator and an assigned receiver (attacker and defender). In this style of sparring the receiver/defender cannot initiate an unprovoked attack; he must wait and react to the actions of the initiator/attacker. To the more simple karateka this may suggest that the receiver/defender must just sit helpless and disadvantaged until his opponent chooses to attack. On the other hand, anyone that has been following the thread here will understand that acting as the receiver/defender need not be a passive activity; you can apply distance, timing and attitude to control your opponent so they act and react as you choose. Using kogo type sparring I find that students suddenly start to apply strategy as both the attacker and defender: attackers look to create kyo in an opponent they know is ready and waiting, while the defenders look to create kyo by inviting the attack they choose when and where they select. My one complaint in these drills is that there is a tendency for karateka to dispense with appropriate maai because they have pre-determined roles to play: attackers fail to respect any potential attacks that a real opponent could throw simply because they know that the reciever cannot initiate any primary attack. One way to correct this is to allow the receiver to throw an simple reverse punch or jab (without a shift-in) if the attacker gets close enough to be within range. This idea is most appropriate for upper levels karateka who have demonstrated good control; it is likely to get people hurt unless good control is always maintained. This drill is one step short of free sparring and should be used as such.
