STREET KARATE FOR KARATE WOMEN

How many women learning Karate are truly skillful Karate women capable of defending themselves from common acts of violence? Although Karate is traditionally a male dominated martial art, it has proven to be very useful to women today when many Karate women know exactly how to protect themselves from dangers and harm in their everyday lives.

Since this website focus on the fighting or self defense applications of Karate (Karate-jutsu), this page will only highlight specific Karate bunkai that are especially useful for women.

There are a few considerations and modifications for women who learn Karate because of their inherent weaker strength and size. Certain techniques that require strong muscular strength to work might not be suitable for women to use. Punching your assailant in the mid-section of his body will not do much damage. Therefore, Karate women must know how to distill all the Karate bunkai and techniques so that they learn and practice only the suitable ones for women, or you may called it a Street Karate version. Only then they can become adept in defending themselves against the violence on women that is ever increasing.

Those who understood the applications of kata and practice Karate Shotokan kata regularly with high intensity will be able to program effective Street Karate techniques into their muscle memory, enabling instant flinch response against most common acts of violence. Karate women should learn the bunkai of Karate Shotokan kata on how to use pressure points strikes to level the odds against male aggressors who are generally stronger. Sharp awareness, simple straightforward deadly Karate techniques, pressure points strikes, a survivor mindset and the will to fight back ferociously are all it takes for Karate women to excel in Street Karate.

STREET KARATE IS NOT A STYLE. IT'S A SET OF POTENT KARATE TECHNIQUES FOR REAL LIFE APPLICATIONS AGAINST COMMON ACTS OF VIOLENCE.

Here are some basic guidelines for Karate women practicing Karate bunkai of Street Karate:

1. Focus more on open hand techniques such as palm-heel strike, elbow strike and knife-hand chop against vulnerable targets on the head and body.

2. Discard techniques that require some degree of strength to work like choking, grabbing, grappling, throwing, punching and etc. Instead use spitting, slapping, poking, clawing, stomping, kneeing, sweeping, head butting, or even biting.

3. Also discard techniques that require fine motor skills because you might not be able to execute such moves under extreme stress or high adrenaline. In fact you might "freeze in fear". This includes certain complex joint-locks or throws, high kicks, jumping kicks, spinning kicks and etc.

4. Focus on learning and practicing Karate Shotokan kata which have techniques against many types of grabs, chokes, bear hugs and other habitual acts of violence commonly being perpetrated against women.

5. Augment your skills with pressure points strikes especially those that can cause the assailant to reel in sharp pain and temporarily forget about you, or lose control of his limbs and mobility.

6. Make full and aggressive use of distraction techniques like spitting the face, cupping the ears, poking the eyes, stomping the feet, or even slapping the groin.

7. Learn to escape from the ground when being mounted, pinned down or held down. Once free, learn of get up fast and maintain the best defensive position/posture (since you already know the assailant intend to mount/pin/hold you down).

HOW YOU TRAIN IS HOW YOU WILL FIGHT. EXAMINE YOUR CURRENT TRAINING REGIMEN.

In order for women to use Street Karate effectively when confronted with real dangers, the training must cover both attacks-based and scenarios-based situations against fully resisting opponent/s a in stress-induced atmosphere (shouting, cursing, surprise attack, weapons). We must feel our techniques working against the opponent's resistance, erratic movements, sweaty hands and bodies, our strikes missing the target, being hit in return, and a host of variables common in many hostile situations. By experiencing all these, we get to improvise our Street Karate techniques and prepare our mindset for any eventual real life encounters.

The Heian kata have a collection of superb Karate techniques against many types of grabs, chokes and bear hugs. You just have to understand the Karate bunkai behind these kata. I strongly feel that Karate women should be practicing Street Karate instead of the typical sport-based Karate training widely available today, unless your objective for learning Karate is to win trophies. Street Karate simply consist of few gross motor movements and techniques that you can effectively apply under stress. Please bookmark this page because I'll be adding more specific techniques for Karate women soon.

For Karate women trained primarily in sports-oriented Karate, read this penetrating reality-based self protection book, Dead Or Alive by Britain's foremost practical combat instructor, Geoff Thompson.

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