If you want to be a good karate fighter, it's best to go to the source. In the case of shotokankarate, the source would be its founder, Gichin Funakoshi. Enter his fifth cousin, Kyle Funakoshi, who has more than 30 years of traditional training under his belt and has been active in national and international competitions. Today, he is a seventh-degree black belt who carries on the tradition of his family for deep study of, and high-quality instruction in, this Japanese martial art. In an interview forBlack Belt,Kyle Funakoshi explained several principles and advanced fighting strategies of shotokan: "Some of the factors involved are rhythm and timing, not only of your techniques but also your opponent's so he doesn't know when you'll attack. When he's unsure of when you'll strike, that opens up his body to you." And thus he laid down the groundwork for a series of instructional videos dealing with the fake. This particular video demonstrates two techniques: fake to a high kick, and fake to a leg sweep and face punch.
SHOTOKAN KARATE VIDEO Kyle Funakoshi Shows You How to Use Fakes to Defeat an Opponent
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In the fake-to-a-high-kick technique, Kyle Funakoshi and his opponent assume the kamae (fighting stance). Kyle Funakoshi times his initial act, a low feint. Both men recover to the fighting stance. Kyle Funakoshi then starts what appears to be a front kick to the body, and the opponent tries to intercept it with a low block. Without altering his forward motion, Kyle Funakoshi transitions to a high roundhouse kick aimed at the opponent's exposed head.
The second technique demonstrated involves a fake to a leg sweep and face punch. Kyle Funakoshi first throws a fake to throw his opponent off-balance, using rhythm as a pre-emptive strike to set up his real attack.
As he explained in his Black Belt interview, "There are all sorts of rhythm. There's natural rhythm when you're not moving. There's a rhythm in which you're pressing your opponent. ... Whenever you have an opponent in front of you, that changes rhythm again because both of you are moving -- especially when he throws a fake or when you do and he reacts to it."
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The opponent's reaction to Kyle Funakoshi's fake opens the door for the shotokan expert to speed forward and catch the unsuspecting karateka with a leg sweep. As that knocks the opponent off-balance and sends him on a trajectory toward the ground, Kyle Funakoshi follows up in a near-simultaneous fashion with a high-speed punch to the face for total low-body/high-body domination. His opponent never had a chance!
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