Oyata Punch - No Squeeze

This has turned into a rather large blog/rant so feel free to jump around this Three-Parter.  

• History - Some Historical Context
• Taika's Writing's on Makiwara
• The Egg - The original reason I wrote the blog...

Part I: Some History

I wanted to take some time and discuss a different aspect of Taika's punch.  I am specifically discussing the time of impact and how he didn't squeeze through the punching motion, impact or what immediately followed.  I have talked at length and blogged at length over the last few years about how he had a relaxed hand and would constantly tell us 'Didax, didax' as we did our punches among many other things.  I can even remember this exact phrase at the very first seminar I ever went to where I was paired with a hard style, Japanese style practitioner and Taika got frustrated with how tight my partner was.  He took the guys glasses off, handed them to me and then made a tight fist.  He said "Tight fist no good." He hit my partner in the side of the head with a tight fist a couple of times and the guy butched up and took it.  He then said "Didax, didax" and did a light strike on the side of his head and my partner hit the deck... completely out.  Taika walked away to help the next pair of practitioners as my training partner's friend came over and righted him.  This was in the late, late 80's. But I am going to retreat a tad bit into a history lesson first.  

History:

1950's - 1960's - 1970's - 1980's Oyata ≠ Final Oyata

I am going to reference Taika Seiyu Oyata in several 'period ways' and please do not think I am disrespecting him here when I say "Post War Oyata' and other terms instead of using his full name and honorific.  I am trying to simplify it and I am going to refer to things he directly told me along with others, as well as reference some of his writings.  

Post War Oyata was primarily interested in one thing, putting food on the table.  He had a salesman approach to teaching, 'give them what they'll pay for.'  He would tell us in his latter years that chasing power was something even he did in the early days.  Hitting makiwara and building up those calluses on the knuckles was a bit more about bragging rights and pride according to him.  Later, as he started to get students he said that he himself grew out of that as he started applying Uhugushiku and Wakinaguri principles more freely, more publicly, and began to understand his body more and more.  He realized that a properly aligned and relaxed punch was much better.  As he started to get servicemen paying him money he quit using the training tools like the Makiwara for his vanity, and began using it as a tool to use on his students....particularly the hard headed ones.  Taika himself, to me and many others at class, and on numerous occasions stated that the makiwara did two things, among others. 

• Gave him time to take a smoke break.
• Vented the hard headed students ego

Taika readily admitted in his later years that Makiwara was a good way for him to go take a break.  If he just didn't want to teach anything, was frustrated with a student, needed to smoke or just otherwise wanted to walk away for a bit, he would send the student(s) off to the makiwara.

The ego and pursuit of power by some students, somewhat backfired on Taika.  He would say that he initially used this as a tool to get students 'vented' where they were a bit more relaxed afterwards, having spent their energy.  Regrettably, many students misunderstood the tool and sought the ego of calluses and bragging rights.

Immigration Oyata continued to use this tool with his students initially after landing in the U.S. until probably the late 80's. This was a time period where he still didn't trust a lot of people, and was trying to put food on the table.  He had come to the U.S. with basically nothing but a promise of students.  One common theme in the U.S. as well as when he was still in Okinawa, was that the primary clients were young U.S. Servicemen and the quest for power was at the forefront of the 'Perception of Karate'.  At this point Taika was literally a salesman.  He was trying to sell his product in a foreign land, much as he did in Okinawa, and the clients wanted the Perception of Karate which was power, sparring, looking tough and with that the Makiwara was a part of that ego trip.  He even had students bring a coffee can of their own urine to use as an Antiseptic.  Neosporin wasn't as readily available in those days I guess.  Again, Taika said this is what he did and why.  I can remember in my own naiveté striking until my knuckles bled and was caught up in it as well when I first started my martial path as well as doing other things I later moved away from.

Chinese Hand Oyata: At some point, and I am going to guess early 90's Taika began trusting people more and trying to switch them to a more relaxed approach.  He began introducing more and more of Wakinaguri's principles, the Chinese half of the art.  Even though we heard the relax (Didax) mandate earlier, he began stressing it.  Going back and looking at old seminars and drills now, things like 'Turtle' were there, we just didn't notice it.  He had been introducing bits of Spider and bits of Wakinaguri as early as Exercise 2.  Around 1995 if memory serves correctly, he introduced the first packaged version of Spider Web that most call Spider 1.  There was no makiwara in his dojo at that point.  There was no makiwara in his home.  He pushed us to be relaxed and fluid more and more, vastly departing from what most people associate with Karate.  The funny thing is, now that he is gone, I have reviewed thousands of hours of seminar and training videos during these 9 years after his death.  He was using these relaxed principles and would sneak little snippets of these principles into even the oldest recorded videos we have of him.

_______________________________________________________

Part II - The Book

In 1998 Taika came out with his book, RyuTe® no Michi.

Chapter 3 Page 34 - Taika goes into great lengths near the end of Chapter 3 to steer his students away from the makiwara in his book, as he had been doing for quite some time.

"...it (makiwara) was originally meant to be used for mental control, rather than physical development. They (instructors) hoped that the excessive energy of the young people would be released as they hit makiwara.  Modern people tend to interpret its use as training equipment to toughen their knuckles or feet, for the development of their physical strength."

Taika goes on to discuss his early perceptions of the tool.

"Originally, I believed the makiwara was a device from the ancient practitioners to teach youth the importance of self-control, not to misuse their physical aggression to harm others, through this painful training.  When beginners hit a makiwara, they can instantly feel the pain in their hands which makes them understand how they'll feel when they are being hit by someone.  In this way, they learn to be careful about damaging others, and at the same time, their excessive energy can be totally released."

Taika then talks about tightening...

"My experience from makiwara training lead me to understand that when you hit a hard surface, one tends to tighten up their fist so tight that when they make contact, that person will not hurt their wrist.  But training in this mind set only hurts the practitioner in true understanding.  The reason is because when one trains constantly in this manner they toughen up their knuckles but their wrist starts to become weak."

Taika wanted the wrist relaxed so he could redirect on impact.  We call this Dermal Redirection, though Taika never gave it a name.  Taika would constantly talk about the angles (plural) of impact and he taught us how to redirect at that precise moment of impact depending on the opponent's stance, presentation, body alignment, etc.  I have talked about this a length in other publications and videos.  An Oyata Punch is not straight power going in a straight line.  You simply cannot finish or execute an Oyata Punch with a tight hand and a tight wrist.  The common saying to punch through your opponent lacks a tiny piece of information of precisely how you go through the opponent and which directions.  Taika continued....

"So what happens when this person hits something soft like a heavy bag or a human body?  They tend to overemphasize their strength.  This overemphasis is like a weight lifter who raises his/her maximum weight they can lift.  Imagine someone adding more weight to their bar, what would occur?  As this person raises the weight above their head, someone adds a half a pound to each side of the bar.  Because they are already maxed out, just by adding this little amount will cause the person lifting the extra weight to collapse.  The same example applies to punching technique.  So with the extra exertions, the wrist will collapse more easily."

At the end of Chapter 3, page 35 he goes on to talk about Wakinaguri.

"Mr. Wakinaguri explained that in the past an ancient master had a student with a bad attitude.  This student thought he was very tough and got into a lot of fights.  When this particular master heard about his student's actions, he devised a training method by way of a striking post to punish his student."

So here Taika tells the story of using the makiwara as punishment which he repeatedly admitted to doing with students who had the large ego and other issues he considered issues of character.  He has admitted to doing this on Okinawa as well as initially after immigrating to the United States.  He continued...

"This master did not want to teach his student a lesson by directly beating him up because he didn't want to hurt his student.  One day when his student came to train this master asked him, 'Do you think you are pretty good, do you think you are tough?'  His student replied, 'Yes, I think I'm tough.' His instructor then said, 'Good!  I have something for you to train on.  Go over there and hit that post as hard as you can.'  So his student went to practice hitting this post, and after a couple of hard strikes his hands started to hurt, his knuckles started to bleed and his punches started getting weaker with every strike.  His instructor said, 'No, hit harder you must hit harder.'  So after a very short while his student changed his attitude toward fighting and became a better person.  This is how the makiwara came into existence as a training tool."

Whether that is the true and accurate birth of the makiwara as a training tool or part of the martial myths and folklore that swirl around this art can be debated later.  But it is very clear that Taika used this as a tool, a device for various reasons and many students quite frankly just missed the point.  Taika finishes out this part of the book with the following; 

"This should also tell you that the makiwara is not an important training tool.  Please, when one trains concentrate on all that you do and never forget about the fine details. " - Taika Seiyu Oyata

___________________________________________________

Part III - The Egg

The egg is a simple training tool I found and the original reason I started this blog during my common bout of insomnia, at 0400.  The above picture is of an egg training tool and this particular tool is just a set of dog toys I found with an annoying loud squeaker inside.  So first let me send you off to purchase this tool/toy if you so desire, then I will explain how to use it.  Regrettably I get no finders fee.

 
At the time of this post the 6 items were $13.95

The point of this training device is to allow the student to punch a bag, a B.O.B., or even their training partner in a way that announces to the entire dojo if they are making a tight fist.  Like any training tool, it should be used in moderation as it has a slight weakness.  This teaches you specifically not to collapse and/or tighten your own fingers during a strike, however in the real world application if your hand is relaxed the item you strike may close your fingers.  The angle of your strike into a belly for instance may cause your fingers to close and thus squeak the toy.  As we train with this, we are looking at specific straight impacts on our target so that we can focus on not squeaking.  Once that is achieved and you are comfortable with that, if you have a bag or other striking item that moves or rotates on impact, you can practice your Dermal Redirection after impact without squeaking (depending on the item striking).  

As we place the egg in the hand, and begin striking, we want to align the radial bone and the index knuckle upon impact as shown below.  I say 'upon impact' as we can be milking prior to impact and certainly redirect at the point of impact with Dermal Redirection.  

Above is showing the alignment of the radial bone (blue) and the index knuckle location (red dot).  At that moment of impact, in this drill or practice, we want proper alignment so that the kinetic energy or crash energy if you will, travels through the knuckle (metacarpals) to the radial bone.  The focus of this initial drill is at that point of impact we do not squeeze the hand to make a tight fist.  If we do, the entire class hears you squeak.  At that moment of impact, everything is properly aligned including the arm at 90° to the body, Force Efficient.  With all proper alignment we can both absorb as well as impart kinetic energy.  With full body proper alignment, Force Efficiency, all of our kinetic energy goes into the strike, we can then use other principles such as Dermal Redirection to disable our opponent, feel free to walk about the cabin...

Below is an example of striking a Body Opponent Bag (B.O.B.) at the neck.  Again, we have proper alignment and are focusing on relaxing our hand and not squeezing.  

Once again, this is just a tool to understand a tiny part of the big picture.  It is a tool to drill a student on a possible weakness of squeezing during your punch.  Taika would say that when you make a tight fist, the muscles in your forearm become tight and pull in the opposite direction you are directing your punch.  It also slows down your motion.  Tight equates to slow and though the typical male perspective in this and other countries is that muscle equates to strength, that strength comes at a cost in technique.  

Hopefully some of you made it this far and got past my initial rant (Part I) as well as quoted bits of Taika's rant (Part II).  Taika went to great lengths to steer his students in a particular direction but for years hit his head against the egotistical power hungry brick wall of those that refused to listen.  Not sure why I even try to carry on his brick bashing but if even one person can move on to Part III and come ahead with a new understand maybe he would be happy.  Who knows.

/rant off

-Di

#OyataTe
#OyataTeInternational