Bunkai for Nukite?
- Thread starter Ademadis
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- bunkai karate nukite spear hand
I don't think you can have Bunkai for a single technique? As far as I understand it and was taught Bunkai is taking katas apart to find techniques. What does bunkai mean?
The spear hand doesn't have to be a finger strike as such the fingers can slide past and you strike with the 'meaty' part of the palm of your hand ( to the side of the head perhaps or if you are on the side across the face) or the top of the hand, as in a strike to the testicles when you strike down with a sort of slicing movement with the top of hand (then you can retract you hand in a cupping and squeezing motion.)
The spear hand doesn't have to be a finger strike as such the fingers can slide past and you strike with the 'meaty' part of the palm of your hand ( to the side of the head perhaps or if you are on the side across the face) or the top of the hand, as in a strike to the testicles when you strike down with a sort of slicing movement with the top of hand (then you can retract you hand in a cupping and squeezing motion.)
Which should be enough information to tell you it's not a strike.
OP
OP
Ademadis
Green Belt
Shotokan style, this is a good video of it;
You can see the strike and pull @42~45 seconds in, though now that I look at it it's more shuto than nukite.
Which is why I'm asking what it actually is :s
Words like 'block' and 'strike' are just lies in Karate ~.~
Ademadis, Iain is a good 'go to' for information, he has articles, podcasts and seminars. Latter are well worth going to, you learn a lot and he's great fun.
Would love to go on one of his semianrsbyt but he never seem to come anywhere remotely near my part of England :-(
As a strike, it's used to focus power in a small area.
It can be used anywhere any other strike can be used.
Only if you have not trained and conditioned properly for that strike. Of course, that's true of pretty much any strike.
Personally, I'd prefer that GM LEE not hit me with that...
JR 137
Grandmaster
I agree with Tez. The nukite doesn't strictly have to be a spear hand strike; it could be a modified palm-heel (shotei) strike as well. I'm not sure if you know Pinan/Heian katas. In 2 and 3 (or 1 and 3, depending on how your school numbers them), there's what's referred to as a down block followed by a nukite. I look at it as hooking the shoulder/arm, forcing the opponent down, and using the nukite as a modified palm-heel strike to the jaw/side of the chin. If you visualize that correctly, the force of the strike will actually twist the neck.
Video of Pinan 2. The down block to nukite I refer to is the move before he turns at the top (the 8th count, on the kiai).
There are some hardcore traditionalists (mainly Okinawan in Okinawa) who do a ton of conditioning. When properly conditioned, I wouldn't want to be hit with one; I think I'd rather get elbowed in the head.
In the Kyokushin propaganda film Fighting Black Kings, one of the opening sequences has one guy throw a watermelon in the air, and another guy strikes through it, destroying it. I thought it was a punch at first, but the second the watermelon explodes, it's quite clear it was a nukite.
Video of Pinan 2. The down block to nukite I refer to is the move before he turns at the top (the 8th count, on the kiai).
There are some hardcore traditionalists (mainly Okinawan in Okinawa) who do a ton of conditioning. When properly conditioned, I wouldn't want to be hit with one; I think I'd rather get elbowed in the head.
In the Kyokushin propaganda film Fighting Black Kings, one of the opening sequences has one guy throw a watermelon in the air, and another guy strikes through it, destroying it. I thought it was a punch at first, but the second the watermelon explodes, it's quite clear it was a nukite.
punisher73
Senior Master
The spearhand is exactly that, using the hand as a spear to stab into the target.
As Dirty Dog pointed out, if you don't temper the weapon and train to use it, then you are not going to be effective with the weapon. It doesn't mean that it isn't effective though. Weapon conditioning used to be a LARGE part of martial art training and for the most part has fallen out of favor with strip mall martial arts.
As Dirty Dog pointed out, if you don't temper the weapon and train to use it, then you are not going to be effective with the weapon. It doesn't mean that it isn't effective though. Weapon conditioning used to be a LARGE part of martial art training and for the most part has fallen out of favor with strip mall martial arts.
hoshin1600
Senior Master
The nukite is indeed an actual strike. however most people today do not condition and train their bodies the way it was done long ago.
Kiyohide Shinjo does. i can assure you in Uechi karate there are many like him, and that i would not want to be on the receiving end of a nukite.
in this vid the first break was with his thumb knuckle called a bushiken .32 sec in
second strike was a type of nukite common in uechi ryu. but it is done with the finger tips .43 sec in
at 1;50 after one failed attempt he broke the 2"x 2" board with the toes , the strike is called a sokusen geri.
Kiyohide Shinjo does. i can assure you in Uechi karate there are many like him, and that i would not want to be on the receiving end of a nukite.
in this vid the first break was with his thumb knuckle called a bushiken .32 sec in
second strike was a type of nukite common in uechi ryu. but it is done with the finger tips .43 sec in
at 1;50 after one failed attempt he broke the 2"x 2" board with the toes , the strike is called a sokusen geri.
As well as the knuckles, the hand also conatins one of the hardest parts of the human body with which the stirke. It is simply not necessary to dedicate large amounts of time conditioning the soft parts to become hard, in many cases permanently deforming yourself in the process.
hoshin1600
Senior Master
I'm curious Paul what part of my post do you disagree with?
The OP question was about the application of a nukite. I gave an answer. Historically the nukite was an actual strike. Some people seem to think the strike when done in kata is only symbolic. My point was that in the past it was not symbolic or just a concept.
Now if you wish to point out that it may disfigure the hand and there are better options available for a strike, we are in complete agreement. I only said it is an actual strike and I wouldn't want to get hit by it from someone like Shinjo.
punisher73
Senior Master
Not sure what you disagreed with. What I posted was/is historically accurate in regards to the nukite. Also, proper conditioning doesn't deform the weapon (cause damage to the hands). The okinawans favored longevity and trained with that in mind. But, this doesn't negate the fact that the spearhand was an actual strike and was used as such. Now, a whole different discussion can be had about viable target areas of the spearhand, and this is where most agree with the usage of the spearhand. You stick to "soft targets" that you don't need to condition the hand for, such as, the throat/eyes.
On the other hand, if you want to find applications for "motions" in kata, then ANY movement or technique can be changed to fit what you want in that context as long as it works. And a spearhand motion in kata doesn't ALWAYS have to be a spearhand strike.
punisher73
Senior Master
Just thought I would clarify the term for "conditioning". I'm talking about strength/grip exercises for the hands and fingers, NOT talking about slamming your fingers repeatedly into a hard solid object to 'deaden the nerves' so the strike doesn't hurt anymore. That was NOT a part of the original conditioning used by the okinawans and seems to be something added during the transfer over to Japan. Much like many people view the makiwara as a "knuckle conditioning tool", when that also was not a part of it's original usage/training methodology.
So maybe it was a disagreement by what was meant by "conditioning".
So maybe it was a disagreement by what was meant by "conditioning".
