What is Karate-Do?

Deciding who won or who lost is not the ultimate aim. Karate-do is a martial art that develops the personality through training, so that karatekas can overcome all obstacles, whether obvious or not. Karate-do is a self-defense art to be praticed with empty hands. It drives your legs and arms and allows you to control some agressor who attacks you by surprise thanks to a display of force similar to those with real weapons. Through karate-do, the karateka can control every single movement of his body such as bending, jumping or standing still, learning how to move each member back and forth, up and down, left and right, freely and uniformly.

Good command of the karate-do techniques depends on the karateka's willing. They are precisely and spontaneously lead to the target. The essence of karate is the kime, fast attack against a target using the most of power in the least of time. (A long time ago, the expression «ikken-hissatsu» meant «to kill at one go», but it is dangerous and wrong to think that murder is the objective. It has to be remembered that karatekas of yesteryear were able to practise kime daily, the most serioulsy using makiwara).

You can perform kime giving a whipped kick or punch, but also by blocking. You can not consider as karate some technique lacking of kime, even if it looks like it. Fights are not an exception. Yet, contact is not allowed because of the danger that is at stake. «Sun-dome» means «to stop a technique before reaching contact with the target». But, insofar as not performing a technique until reaching the kime is not considered as real karate, the difficulty is to combine the contradiction between kime and sun-dame.

The answer consists in determining the target right before the opponent's vital spot. Then, you can hit it with controlled power and a hard force without touching your adversary. Training turns some parts of your body into weapons that have to be used freely and efficiently. Self-control is the most important quality required.

Control yourself and you will defeat.