August 12, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of Great Karate Myths, we challenge the popular belief that antique kata were designed to map out deadly vital point strikes, also known as kyusho. 🥋 We delve into historical research and explore the evidence suggesting that forms like Naihanchi and Seisan were actually developed to avoid causing serious, permanent damage. 🛡️ Instead, their purpose was likely for civil arrest and policing, focusing on techniques for disarming and incapacitating without lethal intent. 🚨 We also discuss how modern interpretations of kata, influenced by other martial arts traditions, have led to a misunderstanding of their original function. Join us as we uncover a more ethical and restrained side to the ancient practice of karate. 🙏
Relevant Links/ResourcesKeywords/TagsKarate, Kyusho, Kata, Martial Arts, Bunkai, History, Debunking Myths, Okinawa, Antique Forms, Vital Points
Relevant Links/ResourcesKeywords/TagsKarate, Kyusho, Kata, Martial Arts, Bunkai, History, Debunking Myths, Okinawa, Antique Forms, Vital Points
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello and welcome to Great Karate Myths, the show where we
kick down the legends and chop through the misconceptions of
martial arts. For decades, many have believed
that the ancient forms of karatewere designed to target a web of
vital points on the body. But what if the truth is the
(00:26):
complete opposite? What if these forms were
actually created to avoid causing serious, permanent harm?
On today's episode, we're getting right to the point to
find out the truth behind Kusho and Katter, the art of not
(00:47):
striking vital points. So those unfamiliar with terms
Tom Kusho, what's what are we talking about?
Q show is a vital point, which is an anatomical week, a part of
the body that's particularly vulnerable to being struck or
(01:09):
hit. So the idea is that the the Q
show the points, the vital points are these all over the
body and if you strike them, they have they do a lot more
damage than if you were to hit amore kind of, well, more better
armoured area. So you know, the jawline,
(01:29):
there's a point along there and the side of the neck and the
temples, they're they're all considered Kuchow or vital
points. So yeah, just to kind of get
that rolling. But you know, there's so there's
sort of two main streams of that, which one is the kind of
Western anatomy and Physiology side, which is the anatomical
(01:53):
weaknesses. And then other schools of
thought on Q show go into the traditional Chinese medicine
routes, which looks at Chinese medical theory and hitting at
times of the day and and and disrupting Qi and all that kind
of stuff. But that's not really what we're
talking about today. The the idea is this, the
(02:14):
premise is this that one of the main well one big area of catter
application or one that really took off, particularly in the
90s was this idea that the Qatarwere mapping Q show points or
vital points, particularly the antique forms like Nihan Chin
(02:35):
and Sasan and so on. And that these within the Qatar
were the maps of striking vital points to cause knockouts or
worse. And I suppose the main thesis
here is that that's just not true.
(02:55):
And we can always, we can prove it if you like.
And that the research into the antique Qatar has shown
something to be that there's thecomplete opposite actually, that
there's an avoidance of strikingwhat might be called a vital
point or a vulnerable area. The, the strikes used in the
(03:17):
antique forms actually avoid causing serious damage and seem
to avoid going for knockout or worse.
And they tend to hit the limbs or the legs, the arms or the
legs, which is yeah, it's the complete opposite.
So when the antique forms, whichare generally weapons based are
(03:38):
striking, they're, they're hitting in a way that is
intending to not cause any permanent damage.
It's, it's for dealing with the moment if you like.
So if it's to disarm or just incapacitate to the level of to
stop what they're doing or to bearrested or to remove or to
(04:01):
disarm a weapon, it's, it's, that's the kind of extent of it.
It's not to, you know, destroy someone's, you know, break a
limb, dam it, permanently damaged tissues or, you know, or
bones and things like that or toput someone in a coma or
(04:21):
anything like that. Yeah.
That's the sort of leaping off point with it really.
The the antique forms have been interpreted as deadly knockouts.
But in fact, what we found in exploring the original functions
that they actually completely avoid dangerous areas and, and
vital points. Yeah, I.
(04:46):
Recall reading this sort of 36 plus vital points.
Were these recorded? There's.
Different charts in the Bibishi and then there's the charts in
Kitchen for Nakoshi's Karatido Kohan and other books as other
karate books as well. And the charts are there with
(05:09):
the kind of general Q show points that are used in karate
and that have been suggested that were for to be applied to
be used within the antique catter.
And yeah, those with the the actual functions of the antique
(05:29):
catter avoid actively avoid those points.
So the most common one is the carotid artery on the side of
the neck. You see that a lot in Q show
demonstrations where they may hit a point on the arm or
something like that and then hitsomeone in the side of the neck
to momentarily knock them out oror the side of the jaw or
(05:50):
something like that. The antique forms don't do that
at all. They don't hit the jaw at all.
And it's interesting that they stays away from that area.
So one of the common problems ifyou like, in interpreting Qatar
for unarmed combat is that most of the antique forms, the arms
(06:11):
are in the middle area of the body, the middle possession.
Very rarely do they come up highas you would what you might
expect if they were geared towards knockouts or street
fighting or something like that.And lots of the striking takes
place at A2 down level, the mid level or below.
(06:34):
And it, which again, doesn't sort of it's, it doesn't quite
make sense if it's unarmed fighting or street fighting or
for knockouts or, or, or whatever, you know that kind of
intention. But when you're, when you have a
pair of sigh in your hands or a pair of tomfur or you're
disarming someone and you, and you've taken Holt or you've got
(06:56):
a grip on striking the limbs is very effective in terms of
contributing to that disarm or ending that situation.
Or, and you know, being struck with a pair of sigh on the on
the arm or a pair of tomfur is very, very, very effective.
And what you don't see in the antique forms are lethal ways of
(07:21):
doing that. So the simplest way of disarming
somebody, for example, armed with a knife, if you've got a
pair of sight, is just to absolutely smash down through
the forearm as the most basic thing you could do.
You could like swinging a stick or something like that.
It's very, very easy and it's very, very effective.
You don't see that at all in theantique side forms.
(07:43):
So there's, there's a, there's a, a reserved way in, in the
approach as well, because the most effective way that could be
argued would be that is not present.
What is present is a way of establishing contact, pinning
and trapping and striking the limb in a, in a controlled,
measured way that doesn't seek permanent damage or isn't
(08:06):
careless in the way that it strikes.
There's a consideration I suppose in the in the outcome
that you wouldn't expect in and I'm fighting or or no holds
barred or something like that. Yeah, I'll leave it there if
anyone else was just to jump in on that and add to it.
(08:28):
Yeah, I'm happy to. That was really well put.
Tom, have you kind of said it all really?
Yeah. But I, I, I would say that.
So if we're considering the use of the site and the tomfur as
policing. Then.
Civilization will countenance oraccept a police force that kills
(08:52):
its its own citizens. But you know that will lead to
revolution. You know it's a political, it's
not just ethical and moral, it'sactually civic and political.
No civilised society will countenance a police force that
that kills people. Well, yeah, that did happen.
(09:13):
We, we know what happened in World War 2 and and well, I
don't want to do countries. Let's leave that.
But we, we, you know, a civil society, as I say, will not
accept a police force that killskills its citizens.
And what's happened it within the martial arts?
Is it a confusion where militarywarfare arts have been conflated
(09:38):
or confused with policing and civil and.
Arresting. So the the object for the PSI or
Tong for or unarmed civil arrestis not to kill the person you're
dealing with. And the ethos is to inflict
(10:00):
minimum damage, minimum harm. That's that's the protocol.
It's not to smash them in the larynx and or hit them in a way
that causes cardiac arrest or something.
It's the last that's the worst possible.
Outcome. You know, if you're a police
(10:21):
officer and you kill someone, you're in serious trouble and
got to mention the the regret you you may well have unless
you're a complete psychopath. So the idea that the problem
that there is a problem where the word martial in martial
arts, it gets conflated with military arts, with warfare, you
(10:44):
know, with the object of warfareis, is is very different from
the point of policing, very different indeed.
And the two have become confused.
So the Qatar that we, we talk about the antique karate Qatar
are not military. They're not warfare.
They're not, they're not about killing people and they're
(11:08):
they're not about an army going into action.
It's completely separate, completely different.
And therein lies quite a problemin confusion of terms.
Hi, Matt, you've got a question.So is it, is it?
Yeah. Is it fair to say then that in
(11:29):
order to sort of give some justification to the use of, you
know, ballistic striking within karate, that an older, probably
separate tradition from the classical jiu jitsu systems.
The atemi systems there have been sort of brought in and
(11:53):
mixed mixed with the karate in in a in a much more contemporary
period with kitchen for Lukashi to to try and give some
justification for the the focus on ballistic striking.
Is that is that fair to say? Yeah, definitely.
(12:13):
And that, you know, we, we were talking earlier I think about
Andreas Quest's article that he published in in June, how karate
adopted jujitsu vital points without knowing it.
Great article. It's available on his Patreon.
He talks about that and how it'sbecome layered in and, and it
(12:35):
found popularity certainly in inAmerica and Europe in 80s and
90s with the rise of pressure point strikes and pressure point
knockouts. And then suddenly all the
antique Qatar were being interpreted as that.
There was no suggestion that that's what the antique Qatar
were for before in terms of pressure points wasn't
(12:58):
suggested. That's what they were for before
that. I think I don't think you know,
there's it's just not talked about very early on.
It's something as you said that's been layered in based on.
So it's obscures it. So the Q show and Kat don't
really go together. The antique forms, I mean,
(13:19):
there, there's no place them there because you actively avoid
as I said, that is the main point.
They seem you seem to be actively avoiding causing any
kind of serious damage or harm by not hitting particularly
vulnerable areas. And you know, if you're hitting
someone on the arm with a pair of Cytompha, it doesn't take a
(13:39):
lot to do immense damage. And so given the fact that most
people would have worked with their hands or needed their
hands to earn a living, you know, you, there's a
consideration there that someonemight simply be drunk or things
have just got slightly out of hand.
Do you need to ruin their livelihood with, with a careless
(14:02):
hit, you know, smash at the side?
No, it's not in the it's not in the antique forms.
It's not in those in those, in those methods, Your, your, your
purpose. There's a purpose,
purposefulness, not in not doingthat.
And as Nathan's put that, you know, there's a consideration
there. So it's, it's really interesting
(14:23):
that how the the avoiding of hitting particularly vulnerable
areas, the throat, the groyne, the eyes, the neck, all the
usual stuff was a consideration in the development of the
antique kata as well. So when the weight chi, the
forms preserved in weight chi were being put together, or the
(14:44):
kusanku or the pasai and the chin, all this stuff going on
mid level intruder and it was it.
There's a careful consideration in in how you're going to go
about that. It's not just disarming, it's
not just this and that. It's very carefully put together
to avoid causing permanent damage.
And that's how we can arrive to some degree and speculate on
(15:07):
what the context was and where and when these types of skills
would have been used and applied.
Yeah, I find it very interestingthat the, the overlaying or the,
the, the confluence of these twothings coming together in in
modern karate has has led to allsorts of notions about the, the
(15:29):
deadly art of karate and, and death touches and death strikes
and delayed death touch and all that sort of stuff.
It really, it really fed a mythos which has got nothing to
do, as you say, with the antiqueforms.
No. Do you want to just remind us
(15:49):
about the antique forms? We have mentioned it before.
Remind us we would say antique forms.
What? Which category are we talking
about? Again, we're talking about the
forms inherited from China. So one way or another, forms
that have made it from China to Okinawa and been preserved
predominantly in in karate styles or karate schools and
(16:14):
have fortunately survived to this day for enabling us to have
a go at unravelling them. So we're talking about night,
the Nihenchin Sanchin Sesan SansSerieu, Goju C Ho.
And, and and this is the Sanchin, Sasan and Sans Serieu
(16:36):
preserved in Waichiru. In the Waichi, in the Waichi
Rieu school, yeah. And then you've got Goju, Shiho,
Kusanku, Pasai, Chinto, Wanshu, Rohai, and there may be several
others, but it's only speculating on those at the
moment. But those are the main ones that
(16:57):
we're talking about here and andhave been looking at.
So I think, you know, we can confidently say that those forms
have nothing to do with Kusho striking vital points or the use
and application of them in theirstrategy.
And the the types of Atemi, the ways of striking vital points is
(17:23):
certainly not part of those antique forms either.
In fact, none of those forms so far have produced anything
militaristic. In a sense, everything has been
as we've described. It's quite carefully put
together and the, the methods are very, very carefully put
(17:45):
together to exercise restraint in their, in their function, in
their usage, which I suppose is sometimes it's difficult to wrap
your head around, isn't it, that, but police have to
exercise restraint now, you know, especially with the rise
of phones and things like that and CCTV, more restraints
(18:07):
needed. And, and so there's a demand on
the level of skill, isn't there?So the more restraint you
you're, is required of you in any usage of, of those types of
martial skills, the greater the skill level you're going to need
to be able to perform and do that effectively.
And I'm not saying they didn't know what the vital points were
(18:29):
because we don't know, but they're certainly avoided.
But the simple, you know, as again, it's sort of, it's
another similar, same example ifyou took a pair of tomfur.
The simple thing to do would just be to swing it at someone's
head, you know, or bash, you know, one bash on the end in the
teeth will probably be enough tostop most people, but it's just
(18:52):
not done. It's just not used at all.
You think there's this far more restraining method of striking
the limbs and kicking in the legs and you just don't, you
don't, you don't bash them in the head with it in the in the
method in Gojushiha. I'm not speaking to all Tom for
usage or all Tom for styles. I'm just talking about Gojushiha
(19:15):
here. Sorry, I should have been clear
about that. There's, there's, there's,
there's none of that in there. And, and you're, you're
disarming a pole arm. And so you've got, you've got,
you know, it's a real problem. You've got.
In front of you. Because if you get hit, you're
in big trouble and they're not having to restrain themselves or
or act in moderation, but that method is demanding that you
(19:36):
are. So yeah, that's that's what what
we sort of mean by antique formsand a relationship that's not
really relationship recucio or vital points or vulnerable
areas. Well, I think.
That's a good point actually, the the skill level it would
(19:58):
take to actively avoid those things.
I do. I do think that implies though a
knowledge of them and the damagethat can be caused by hitting
them. If you're going to actively
avoid them, there's a reason why.
Because probably you know you know what the consequences are.
(20:19):
If it's the Ming Dynasty as well, which we've suggested
previously that these forms may have been that developed in,
then they probably then the people that were fulfilling the
roles that these manuals before probably had some military
training. Because so many wars were fought
(20:40):
during the Ming Dynasty on so many fronts.
Most men had some form of military training or some
experience. So almost, I think I totally
agree, Matt. They must, they would have been.
It's almost like, you know, giving someone a dead arm, isn't
it? Everyone knows about that at
school. So.
And you, you know, you know, youneed to kind of knock someone on
(21:03):
the jaw to knock them out. You know, it doesn't take much.
And it takes very little experience in martial arts to
come into contact with these things.
So I think that, yeah, they probably did know bits and
pieces at least. Yeah, and definitely all, all
the easier to inadvertently inflict damage if you're lacking
(21:28):
that self-control and you've gota couple of metal truncheons in
your that's, you know, it takes a great deal of, of control and
also awareness in in the situation.
Yeah. Quite a lot of training I'd
imagine. Yeah, which is which kind of
adds value to the the cutter practise.
(21:49):
If you've got your training partner, you're working with
your training partner, but you're honing that the
repetitions hone that mindset. I think, oh, it could be, you
know, you could argue for that, couldn't you?
By not by, by not practising eyegouging and just practising
restraint. You, you, you hone that mindset
(22:12):
over a period of time so that itbecomes so embedded in you
behaviourally that it wouldn't occur to you to move.
You know, there's encoding behaviours, isn't there?
Encoding, I think in that how much catapractice would be
needed to to to do that in a useful way and how much
(22:33):
interaction is, I don't know, but yeah.
But every, every, every human being, every sighted human being
knows what it I can get a poke in the eye or an eye infection
or I remember a an optician and and they said, well, if you
(22:57):
really need to protect versus kiss and I just took it for
granted, I'd thank him for granted.
Same for any male who in growingup gets a kick in the groyne or
plays. As you know, I'd played rugby in
football in in the UK, in England and you know, that knock
(23:17):
in the groyne was debilitating and I didn't need lessons to
understand where my essential vulnerable points were.
You know, they were pretty self,self, self, self, self evidence.
I was going to say, as we've said previously, in these
(23:38):
scenarios that we're talking about, there would be more than
one person dealing with the troublemaker, wouldn't they?
There wouldn't be just if you very likely to be one person on
their own, so there's less likely to be a need to do
anything like smashing someone in the face and and all the
nasty stuff that there's no needto do it.
I think that's that's. Yeah, I think that's a key.
(24:00):
As of what important point really?
Yeah. I think that's a great point,
Kev. And also just to add to it a
little bit, is that you're also accountable, aren't you?
You've got someone else with you.
Yes, Yes, you are. You can sort of keep each other
in check. Yes, that's travelling.
Totally true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(24:24):
So yeah, you wouldn't. Want to be caught doing
something unethical? No.
Yeah, risky job, yeah. Situation, yeah.
I, I also think that it's, it helps, yeah, accountability wise
also, but also it, it will help you as an individual stay more
(24:46):
in control. If you've got somebody else,
you've got another mind to work with, you know, two of you,
possibly three, maybe even 4 together, much more likely to
keep control and keep a cool head and not resort to just
(25:07):
bashing somebody over the head with a metal truncheon or wooden
truncheon, for that matter, as tempting as that might be if the
person was being particularly belligerent.
Yeah. So, yeah, I know.
I think it's a great point, Kev.Oh.
Thank you. I think it is worth being
reminded of the ethics of the past and where we've spoken
(25:30):
about embodying those ethics in the practise, in contrast to the
modern day creative interpretations describing eye
gouges, groyne kicks or karate chops to the throat and such
like. Yeah.
(25:50):
Well, I think, I think that the creatively interpreting the
kata, there's particularly the antique forms with Q Show
striking, you know, that it's upto anyone what they do with it.
But I suppose what we're suggesting is that that's not
what it was originally intended for.
And from what we can understand of the original functions as
(26:12):
we've continued to work on them and try to unravel them is that
it appears that the opposite is the case, that they're, they
don't, I don't think Q Show was ever part of the antique forms
anyway, but they're avoiding areas that might be considered Q
Show now today. So they're not hitting vital
areas. And when you creatively
(26:34):
interpret a catter and make it into, you know, striking someone
in the neck or something like that, you're having to modify
the catter you're having there. Lots and lots of changes need to
be made to accommodate the ideasof creative interpretation.
And one of the sort of cornerstones of working with the
original functions of the forms is that you don't have to change
(26:57):
the catter. The the the catter is as it
should be in order for you to work with the function.
So you don't then go out and it's suddenly you're doing
something completely different from the cater and having to
change 20 different points aboutit.
It's as it is and it's it's and it's the only way it can really
(27:19):
work in in order to serve to be useful as a solo practise.
If your solo practise is completely different from your
applied usage, then what use is it?
You're doing two different things, which is something
that's tended to happen in modern karate.
And just to answer that second point, Shanir as well, yeah,
(27:41):
that the more you practise the the kind of internal restraint
and not the kind of ultraviolentresponses to things it does, it
has an effect on your on your behaviourally and
psychologically. If you get so used to just
(28:01):
striking the limbs with a parasite, for example, you
don't, it doesn't occur to you. I mean, if you were frightened
or severely panicked or in a life or death situation, I could
see someone stepping out of it and that might be a response to
it. But generally speaking, the
day-to-day, you're just going to, you know, do what you're
trained to do as opposed to a life or death situation.
(28:24):
And that's 10, you know, lots ofthe jumping back again to lots
of the creative interpretation is that karate's become this
thing where everything is a lifeor death scenario.
And if it's not considered a life or death scenario, it
couldn't possibly work. It couldn't possibly be true or
anything like that. And the antique forms that
(28:46):
became some of the source material for modern karate are a
completely different way of think, completely different way
of approaching training people for specific roles.
And so, and there's a differencein psychology and embodiment and
behaviour with that as well. And the main point today is that
(29:10):
use actively, avoid striking what might be considered a vital
area in the antique forms. OK, go on, Nathan.
Yeah. Thank you, Tom.
It was well, well, well said, Well said.
I, I think that because it's a word that psychology that fired
(29:33):
me up there, that it's that it'swhat triggers the, what causes
the, the extreme, the desire forextreme action and punishment of
the bad guys and the villains isfear.
And a lot of martial arts interest is stems from self
(29:55):
defence and, and quite rightly people don't, you know, a decent
person doesn't want to be accosted and assaulted by the
bad people. Or or you know.
And that's quite right, but but is one of the problems is that
extreme measures can be considered out of fear.
(30:16):
So there are within karate publications, there are
demonstrations of. Strikes to the eyes.
Although they don't really, it'sdifficult to say that they
they're present in the cattle. There are plenty of manuals that
show kicks to the groyne and andvideos.
So same. And as I say, it strikes the
(30:39):
eyes and the neck. But the way to to consider this
problem, Let's take a bike And Iwe're always talking about
santin. Well, it's not me that
originally said that santin is the beginning and ending of
karate. It was more esteemed people than
myself. So Miyagi Chojin Sensei,
(31:03):
Yamaguchi Gogan, that sensei, these these stalwarts of go to
EU Karate. If you look at the waiti
sanction, which in our view we've discussed this on a number
of occasions, the waiti sanctionit would appear is the the
(31:24):
original, if I can use that sanction, certainly a very old
sanction to say the least. It's interesting that with all
the terms in Section 1, it's divided into 3 sections and
Section 1 is repeated and repeated on terms and it's
repeated 12 times in Section 1, which is sort of what appears to
(31:50):
be a spear finger thrust. Interestingly, it's done at
shoulder height. One would have to question the
targets. So not only is it done at
shoulder height. But it's done.
In line with the shoulder of thehand that's doing the so-called
(32:10):
thrust. So the thrust goes out at
shoulder height. It's not even centred.
It's not to the neck or the throat.
It it, it goes, it goes to the to the side.
It's not even in the centre, it's not centred.
So this thrust has two issues that I considered years ago
(32:31):
thought what's going on here? This thrust is not only is it at
shoulder height, it's not at neck height or solar plexus or
any discernible target sort of position.
It's at shoulder height and the thrust is in line with your own
shoulder. Oh, it's just from the point of
(32:52):
view of. Muscle.
Memory pretty rubbish. Why are you thrusting it out
that shoulder height? And as, as we understand it, you
know, in the use of the sign, that's precisely what's required
because you're going to bash shoulder the major, the major
joint. I did upon the major joint
(33:13):
controls the arm. But that that that's a threat to
you. Perfect makes perfect sense.
It's the perfect target, but it doesn't make any sense without
the weapon. And, and and So what what Tom
said is completely correct. You know, it's that's not a
target. It's this thrust is not aimed at
(33:34):
the head or the temple or the any so-called vulnerable point.
It seemed a functional joint. It's aimed at the functional
joint of the arm. In terms of that being useful,
if you can disable that joint temporarily, you can stop the
attack. Similarly, you could hit the
(33:55):
arms and the wrists which go other targets, or the elbows and
and if you if you injure these, not permanently, but if you
injure these targets, you can stop an attack.
I think also it's, it's useful to note, actually, we mentioned
(34:20):
the Kucho point charts that wereincluded by Gichu for Lokoshi
and Karate do Kyohan and Shoshi Negamine's Essence of Okinawan
Karate. And you know, Q show points in
the shoulder area are conspicuous in their absence has
(34:40):
to be noted. You, you look at the shoulders
and they, they seem to be ratherfree of Q show points.
And so it's quite important thatthat's that's where that strike
is aimed in the in the antique say ascension of the witch
video, which I think speaks to your speaks to your earlier
(35:03):
point, Tom. Yeah, they avoided, yeah, the
points and you know, hitting that, hitting the shoulder, if
you do it unarmed, it's not veryeffective.
But with the Tom for the side, it's very, very, very, very
effective and you don't need a lot.
(35:26):
So, yeah, and the antique forms as well, just actually just
following on from Matt's point and what is, you know, described
in an in Andreas Christ's article is that kitchen for
Nukashi's is the first person toto in his book. 1935 book is the
(35:51):
first presentation of vital points in a karate book and the
antique forms arrived long before that in Okinawa.
And so and these those Q show charts come from jujitsu manuals
according to the article. So they're not even sourced from
China or where the antique formswere.
(36:11):
So you've got a distinctly separate stream of information
coming in there which has later been overlaid.
Chinese antique forms with Japanese Q show have been
blended together in modern creative interpretation, but
they don't belong together. The opposite in fact.
(36:33):
The only relevance is that they highlight where not to hit or
where what the antique forms areavoiding.
Yeah. Is that article available
publicly? It's available, yeah, it's on
his Patreon page. We'll put a link and I think
it's free to download. It's it's absolutely fantastic,
(36:54):
Fantastic piece of research, really useful.
And that brings us to the end oftoday's episode.
What a fascinating discussion. We've learnt that the antique
forms of karate such as Nehenchiand Sasan were likely never
(37:15):
about striking vital points to cause knockouts.
Instead, they seem to be focusedon disarming and incapacitating
an opponent without inflicting permanent damage, a reflection
of their probable use in civil and policing scenarios.
It's a powerful reminder that the martial in martial arts
(37:37):
doesn't always mean military. As always, if you have enjoyed
this episode, please like, subscribe, leave us a review,
and share with friends to help us continue to debunk the
legends of karate.
Hello and welcome to Great Karate Myths, the show where we
kick down the legends and chop through the misconceptions of
martial arts. For decades, many have believed
that the ancient forms of karatewere designed to target a web of
vital points on the body. But what if the truth is the
(00:26):
complete opposite? What if these forms were
actually created to avoid causing serious, permanent harm?
On today's episode, we're getting right to the point to
find out the truth behind Kusho and Katter, the art of not
(00:47):
striking vital points. So those unfamiliar with terms
Tom Kusho, what's what are we talking about?
Q show is a vital point, which is an anatomical week, a part of
the body that's particularly vulnerable to being struck or
(01:09):
hit. So the idea is that the the Q
show the points, the vital points are these all over the
body and if you strike them, they have they do a lot more
damage than if you were to hit amore kind of, well, more better
armoured area. So you know, the jawline,
(01:29):
there's a point along there and the side of the neck and the
temples, they're they're all considered Kuchow or vital
points. So yeah, just to kind of get
that rolling. But you know, there's so there's
sort of two main streams of that, which one is the kind of
Western anatomy and Physiology side, which is the anatomical
(01:53):
weaknesses. And then other schools of
thought on Q show go into the traditional Chinese medicine
routes, which looks at Chinese medical theory and hitting at
times of the day and and and disrupting Qi and all that kind
of stuff. But that's not really what we're
talking about today. The the idea is this, the
(02:14):
premise is this that one of the main well one big area of catter
application or one that really took off, particularly in the
90s was this idea that the Qatarwere mapping Q show points or
vital points, particularly the antique forms like Nihan Chin
(02:35):
and Sasan and so on. And that these within the Qatar
were the maps of striking vital points to cause knockouts or
worse. And I suppose the main thesis
here is that that's just not true.
(02:55):
And we can always, we can prove it if you like.
And that the research into the antique Qatar has shown
something to be that there's thecomplete opposite actually, that
there's an avoidance of strikingwhat might be called a vital
point or a vulnerable area. The, the strikes used in the
(03:17):
antique forms actually avoid causing serious damage and seem
to avoid going for knockout or worse.
And they tend to hit the limbs or the legs, the arms or the
legs, which is yeah, it's the complete opposite.
So when the antique forms, whichare generally weapons based are
(03:38):
striking, they're, they're hitting in a way that is
intending to not cause any permanent damage.
It's, it's for dealing with the moment if you like.
So if it's to disarm or just incapacitate to the level of to
stop what they're doing or to bearrested or to remove or to
(04:01):
disarm a weapon, it's, it's, that's the kind of extent of it.
It's not to, you know, destroy someone's, you know, break a
limb, dam it, permanently damaged tissues or, you know, or
bones and things like that or toput someone in a coma or
(04:21):
anything like that. Yeah.
That's the sort of leaping off point with it really.
The the antique forms have been interpreted as deadly knockouts.
But in fact, what we found in exploring the original functions
that they actually completely avoid dangerous areas and, and
vital points. Yeah, I.
(04:46):
Recall reading this sort of 36 plus vital points.
Were these recorded? There's.
Different charts in the Bibishi and then there's the charts in
Kitchen for Nakoshi's Karatido Kohan and other books as other
karate books as well. And the charts are there with
(05:09):
the kind of general Q show points that are used in karate
and that have been suggested that were for to be applied to
be used within the antique catter.
And yeah, those with the the actual functions of the antique
(05:29):
catter avoid actively avoid those points.
So the most common one is the carotid artery on the side of
the neck. You see that a lot in Q show
demonstrations where they may hit a point on the arm or
something like that and then hitsomeone in the side of the neck
to momentarily knock them out oror the side of the jaw or
(05:50):
something like that. The antique forms don't do that
at all. They don't hit the jaw at all.
And it's interesting that they stays away from that area.
So one of the common problems ifyou like, in interpreting Qatar
for unarmed combat is that most of the antique forms, the arms
(06:11):
are in the middle area of the body, the middle possession.
Very rarely do they come up highas you would what you might
expect if they were geared towards knockouts or street
fighting or something like that.And lots of the striking takes
place at A2 down level, the mid level or below.
(06:34):
And it, which again, doesn't sort of it's, it doesn't quite
make sense if it's unarmed fighting or street fighting or
for knockouts or, or, or whatever, you know that kind of
intention. But when you're, when you have a
pair of sigh in your hands or a pair of tomfur or you're
disarming someone and you, and you've taken Holt or you've got
(06:56):
a grip on striking the limbs is very effective in terms of
contributing to that disarm or ending that situation.
Or, and you know, being struck with a pair of sigh on the on
the arm or a pair of tomfur is very, very, very effective.
And what you don't see in the antique forms are lethal ways of
(07:21):
doing that. So the simplest way of disarming
somebody, for example, armed with a knife, if you've got a
pair of sight, is just to absolutely smash down through
the forearm as the most basic thing you could do.
You could like swinging a stick or something like that.
It's very, very easy and it's very, very effective.
You don't see that at all in theantique side forms.
(07:43):
So there's, there's a, there's a, a reserved way in, in the
approach as well, because the most effective way that could be
argued would be that is not present.
What is present is a way of establishing contact, pinning
and trapping and striking the limb in a, in a controlled,
measured way that doesn't seek permanent damage or isn't
(08:06):
careless in the way that it strikes.
There's a consideration I suppose in the in the outcome
that you wouldn't expect in and I'm fighting or or no holds
barred or something like that. Yeah, I'll leave it there if
anyone else was just to jump in on that and add to it.
(08:28):
Yeah, I'm happy to. That was really well put.
Tom, have you kind of said it all really?
Yeah. But I, I, I would say that.
So if we're considering the use of the site and the tomfur as
policing. Then.
Civilization will countenance oraccept a police force that kills
(08:52):
its its own citizens. But you know that will lead to
revolution. You know it's a political, it's
not just ethical and moral, it'sactually civic and political.
No civilised society will countenance a police force that
that kills people. Well, yeah, that did happen.
(09:13):
We, we know what happened in World War 2 and and well, I
don't want to do countries. Let's leave that.
But we, we, you know, a civil society, as I say, will not
accept a police force that killskills its citizens.
And what's happened it within the martial arts?
Is it a confusion where militarywarfare arts have been conflated
(09:38):
or confused with policing and civil and.
Arresting. So the the object for the PSI or
Tong for or unarmed civil arrestis not to kill the person you're
dealing with. And the ethos is to inflict
(10:00):
minimum damage, minimum harm. That's that's the protocol.
It's not to smash them in the larynx and or hit them in a way
that causes cardiac arrest or something.
It's the last that's the worst possible.
Outcome. You know, if you're a police
(10:21):
officer and you kill someone, you're in serious trouble and
got to mention the the regret you you may well have unless
you're a complete psychopath. So the idea that the problem
that there is a problem where the word martial in martial
arts, it gets conflated with military arts, with warfare, you
(10:44):
know, with the object of warfareis, is is very different from
the point of policing, very different indeed.
And the two have become confused.
So the Qatar that we, we talk about the antique karate Qatar
are not military. They're not warfare.
They're not, they're not about killing people and they're
(11:08):
they're not about an army going into action.
It's completely separate, completely different.
And therein lies quite a problemin confusion of terms.
Hi, Matt, you've got a question.So is it, is it?
Yeah. Is it fair to say then that in
(11:29):
order to sort of give some justification to the use of, you
know, ballistic striking within karate, that an older, probably
separate tradition from the classical jiu jitsu systems.
The atemi systems there have been sort of brought in and
(11:53):
mixed mixed with the karate in in a in a much more contemporary
period with kitchen for Lukashi to to try and give some
justification for the the focus on ballistic striking.
Is that is that fair to say? Yeah, definitely.
(12:13):
And that, you know, we, we were talking earlier I think about
Andreas Quest's article that he published in in June, how karate
adopted jujitsu vital points without knowing it.
Great article. It's available on his Patreon.
He talks about that and how it'sbecome layered in and, and it
(12:35):
found popularity certainly in inAmerica and Europe in 80s and
90s with the rise of pressure point strikes and pressure point
knockouts. And then suddenly all the
antique Qatar were being interpreted as that.
There was no suggestion that that's what the antique Qatar
were for before in terms of pressure points wasn't
(12:58):
suggested. That's what they were for before
that. I think I don't think you know,
there's it's just not talked about very early on.
It's something as you said that's been layered in based on.
So it's obscures it. So the Q show and Kat don't
really go together. The antique forms, I mean,
(13:19):
there, there's no place them there because you actively avoid
as I said, that is the main point.
They seem you seem to be actively avoiding causing any
kind of serious damage or harm by not hitting particularly
vulnerable areas. And you know, if you're hitting
someone on the arm with a pair of Cytompha, it doesn't take a
(13:39):
lot to do immense damage. And so given the fact that most
people would have worked with their hands or needed their
hands to earn a living, you know, you, there's a
consideration there that someonemight simply be drunk or things
have just got slightly out of hand.
Do you need to ruin their livelihood with, with a careless
(14:02):
hit, you know, smash at the side?
No, it's not in the it's not in the antique forms.
It's not in those in those, in those methods, Your, your, your
purpose. There's a purpose,
purposefulness, not in not doingthat.
And as Nathan's put that, you know, there's a consideration
there. So it's, it's really interesting
(14:23):
that how the the avoiding of hitting particularly vulnerable
areas, the throat, the groyne, the eyes, the neck, all the
usual stuff was a consideration in the development of the
antique kata as well. So when the weight chi, the
forms preserved in weight chi were being put together, or the
(14:44):
kusanku or the pasai and the chin, all this stuff going on
mid level intruder and it was it.
There's a careful consideration in in how you're going to go
about that. It's not just disarming, it's
not just this and that. It's very carefully put together
to avoid causing permanent damage.
And that's how we can arrive to some degree and speculate on
(15:07):
what the context was and where and when these types of skills
would have been used and applied.
Yeah, I find it very interestingthat the, the overlaying or the,
the, the confluence of these twothings coming together in in
modern karate has has led to allsorts of notions about the, the
(15:29):
deadly art of karate and, and death touches and death strikes
and delayed death touch and all that sort of stuff.
It really, it really fed a mythos which has got nothing to
do, as you say, with the antiqueforms.
No. Do you want to just remind us
(15:49):
about the antique forms? We have mentioned it before.
Remind us we would say antique forms.
What? Which category are we talking
about? Again, we're talking about the
forms inherited from China. So one way or another, forms
that have made it from China to Okinawa and been preserved
predominantly in in karate styles or karate schools and
(16:14):
have fortunately survived to this day for enabling us to have
a go at unravelling them. So we're talking about night,
the Nihenchin Sanchin Sesan SansSerieu, Goju C Ho.
And, and and this is the Sanchin, Sasan and Sans Serieu
(16:36):
preserved in Waichiru. In the Waichi, in the Waichi
Rieu school, yeah. And then you've got Goju, Shiho,
Kusanku, Pasai, Chinto, Wanshu, Rohai, and there may be several
others, but it's only speculating on those at the
moment. But those are the main ones that
(16:57):
we're talking about here and andhave been looking at.
So I think, you know, we can confidently say that those forms
have nothing to do with Kusho striking vital points or the use
and application of them in theirstrategy.
And the the types of Atemi, the ways of striking vital points is
(17:23):
certainly not part of those antique forms either.
In fact, none of those forms so far have produced anything
militaristic. In a sense, everything has been
as we've described. It's quite carefully put
together and the, the methods are very, very carefully put
(17:45):
together to exercise restraint in their, in their function, in
their usage, which I suppose is sometimes it's difficult to wrap
your head around, isn't it, that, but police have to
exercise restraint now, you know, especially with the rise
of phones and things like that and CCTV, more restraints
(18:07):
needed. And, and so there's a demand on
the level of skill, isn't there?So the more restraint you
you're, is required of you in any usage of, of those types of
martial skills, the greater the skill level you're going to need
to be able to perform and do that effectively.
And I'm not saying they didn't know what the vital points were
(18:29):
because we don't know, but they're certainly avoided.
But the simple, you know, as again, it's sort of, it's
another similar, same example ifyou took a pair of tomfur.
The simple thing to do would just be to swing it at someone's
head, you know, or bash, you know, one bash on the end in the
teeth will probably be enough tostop most people, but it's just
(18:52):
not done. It's just not used at all.
You think there's this far more restraining method of striking
the limbs and kicking in the legs and you just don't, you
don't, you don't bash them in the head with it in the in the
method in Gojushiha. I'm not speaking to all Tom for
usage or all Tom for styles. I'm just talking about Gojushiha
(19:15):
here. Sorry, I should have been clear
about that. There's, there's, there's,
there's none of that in there. And, and you're, you're
disarming a pole arm. And so you've got, you've got,
you know, it's a real problem. You've got.
In front of you. Because if you get hit, you're
in big trouble and they're not having to restrain themselves or
or act in moderation, but that method is demanding that you
(19:36):
are. So yeah, that's that's what what
we sort of mean by antique formsand a relationship that's not
really relationship recucio or vital points or vulnerable
areas. Well, I think.
That's a good point actually, the the skill level it would
(19:58):
take to actively avoid those things.
I do. I do think that implies though a
knowledge of them and the damagethat can be caused by hitting
them. If you're going to actively
avoid them, there's a reason why.
Because probably you know you know what the consequences are.
(20:19):
If it's the Ming Dynasty as well, which we've suggested
previously that these forms may have been that developed in,
then they probably then the people that were fulfilling the
roles that these manuals before probably had some military
training. Because so many wars were fought
(20:40):
during the Ming Dynasty on so many fronts.
Most men had some form of military training or some
experience. So almost, I think I totally
agree, Matt. They must, they would have been.
It's almost like, you know, giving someone a dead arm, isn't
it? Everyone knows about that at
school. So.
And you, you know, you know, youneed to kind of knock someone on
(21:03):
the jaw to knock them out. You know, it doesn't take much.
And it takes very little experience in martial arts to
come into contact with these things.
So I think that, yeah, they probably did know bits and
pieces at least. Yeah, and definitely all, all
the easier to inadvertently inflict damage if you're lacking
(21:28):
that self-control and you've gota couple of metal truncheons in
your that's, you know, it takes a great deal of, of control and
also awareness in in the situation.
Yeah. Quite a lot of training I'd
imagine. Yeah, which is which kind of
adds value to the the cutter practise.
(21:49):
If you've got your training partner, you're working with
your training partner, but you're honing that the
repetitions hone that mindset. I think, oh, it could be, you
know, you could argue for that, couldn't you?
By not by, by not practising eyegouging and just practising
restraint. You, you, you hone that mindset
(22:12):
over a period of time so that itbecomes so embedded in you
behaviourally that it wouldn't occur to you to move.
You know, there's encoding behaviours, isn't there?
Encoding, I think in that how much catapractice would be
needed to to to do that in a useful way and how much
(22:33):
interaction is, I don't know, but yeah.
But every, every, every human being, every sighted human being
knows what it I can get a poke in the eye or an eye infection
or I remember a an optician and and they said, well, if you
(22:57):
really need to protect versus kiss and I just took it for
granted, I'd thank him for granted.
Same for any male who in growingup gets a kick in the groyne or
plays. As you know, I'd played rugby in
football in in the UK, in England and you know, that knock
(23:17):
in the groyne was debilitating and I didn't need lessons to
understand where my essential vulnerable points were.
You know, they were pretty self,self, self, self, self evidence.
I was going to say, as we've said previously, in these
(23:38):
scenarios that we're talking about, there would be more than
one person dealing with the troublemaker, wouldn't they?
There wouldn't be just if you very likely to be one person on
their own, so there's less likely to be a need to do
anything like smashing someone in the face and and all the
nasty stuff that there's no needto do it.
I think that's that's. Yeah, I think that's a key.
(24:00):
As of what important point really?
Yeah. I think that's a great point,
Kev. And also just to add to it a
little bit, is that you're also accountable, aren't you?
You've got someone else with you.
Yes, Yes, you are. You can sort of keep each other
in check. Yes, that's travelling.
Totally true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(24:24):
So yeah, you wouldn't. Want to be caught doing
something unethical? No.
Yeah, risky job, yeah. Situation, yeah.
I, I also think that it's, it helps, yeah, accountability wise
also, but also it, it will help you as an individual stay more
(24:46):
in control. If you've got somebody else,
you've got another mind to work with, you know, two of you,
possibly three, maybe even 4 together, much more likely to
keep control and keep a cool head and not resort to just
(25:07):
bashing somebody over the head with a metal truncheon or wooden
truncheon, for that matter, as tempting as that might be if the
person was being particularly belligerent.
Yeah. So, yeah, I know.
I think it's a great point, Kev.Oh.
Thank you. I think it is worth being
reminded of the ethics of the past and where we've spoken
(25:30):
about embodying those ethics in the practise, in contrast to the
modern day creative interpretations describing eye
gouges, groyne kicks or karate chops to the throat and such
like. Yeah.
(25:50):
Well, I think, I think that the creatively interpreting the
kata, there's particularly the antique forms with Q Show
striking, you know, that it's upto anyone what they do with it.
But I suppose what we're suggesting is that that's not
what it was originally intended for.
And from what we can understand of the original functions as
(26:12):
we've continued to work on them and try to unravel them is that
it appears that the opposite is the case, that they're, they
don't, I don't think Q Show was ever part of the antique forms
anyway, but they're avoiding areas that might be considered Q
Show now today. So they're not hitting vital
areas. And when you creatively
(26:34):
interpret a catter and make it into, you know, striking someone
in the neck or something like that, you're having to modify
the catter you're having there. Lots and lots of changes need to
be made to accommodate the ideasof creative interpretation.
And one of the sort of cornerstones of working with the
original functions of the forms is that you don't have to change
(26:57):
the catter. The the the catter is as it
should be in order for you to work with the function.
So you don't then go out and it's suddenly you're doing
something completely different from the cater and having to
change 20 different points aboutit.
It's as it is and it's it's and it's the only way it can really
(27:19):
work in in order to serve to be useful as a solo practise.
If your solo practise is completely different from your
applied usage, then what use is it?
You're doing two different things, which is something
that's tended to happen in modern karate.
And just to answer that second point, Shanir as well, yeah,
(27:41):
that the more you practise the the kind of internal restraint
and not the kind of ultraviolentresponses to things it does, it
has an effect on your on your behaviourally and
psychologically. If you get so used to just
(28:01):
striking the limbs with a parasite, for example, you
don't, it doesn't occur to you. I mean, if you were frightened
or severely panicked or in a life or death situation, I could
see someone stepping out of it and that might be a response to
it. But generally speaking, the
day-to-day, you're just going to, you know, do what you're
trained to do as opposed to a life or death situation.
(28:24):
And that's 10, you know, lots ofthe jumping back again to lots
of the creative interpretation is that karate's become this
thing where everything is a lifeor death scenario.
And if it's not considered a life or death scenario, it
couldn't possibly work. It couldn't possibly be true or
anything like that. And the antique forms that
(28:46):
became some of the source material for modern karate are a
completely different way of think, completely different way
of approaching training people for specific roles.
And so, and there's a differencein psychology and embodiment and
behaviour with that as well. And the main point today is that
(29:10):
use actively, avoid striking what might be considered a vital
area in the antique forms. OK, go on, Nathan.
Yeah. Thank you, Tom.
It was well, well, well said, Well said.
I, I think that because it's a word that psychology that fired
(29:33):
me up there, that it's that it'swhat triggers the, what causes
the, the extreme, the desire forextreme action and punishment of
the bad guys and the villains isfear.
And a lot of martial arts interest is stems from self
(29:55):
defence and, and quite rightly people don't, you know, a decent
person doesn't want to be accosted and assaulted by the
bad people. Or or you know.
And that's quite right, but but is one of the problems is that
extreme measures can be considered out of fear.
(30:16):
So there are within karate publications, there are
demonstrations of. Strikes to the eyes.
Although they don't really, it'sdifficult to say that they
they're present in the cattle. There are plenty of manuals that
show kicks to the groyne and andvideos.
So same. And as I say, it strikes the
(30:39):
eyes and the neck. But the way to to consider this
problem, Let's take a bike And Iwe're always talking about
santin. Well, it's not me that
originally said that santin is the beginning and ending of
karate. It was more esteemed people than
myself. So Miyagi Chojin Sensei,
(31:03):
Yamaguchi Gogan, that sensei, these these stalwarts of go to
EU Karate. If you look at the waiti
sanction, which in our view we've discussed this on a number
of occasions, the waiti sanctionit would appear is the the
(31:24):
original, if I can use that sanction, certainly a very old
sanction to say the least. It's interesting that with all
the terms in Section 1, it's divided into 3 sections and
Section 1 is repeated and repeated on terms and it's
repeated 12 times in Section 1, which is sort of what appears to
(31:50):
be a spear finger thrust. Interestingly, it's done at
shoulder height. One would have to question the
targets. So not only is it done at
shoulder height. But it's done.
In line with the shoulder of thehand that's doing the so-called
(32:10):
thrust. So the thrust goes out at
shoulder height. It's not even centred.
It's not to the neck or the throat.
It it, it goes, it goes to the to the side.
It's not even in the centre, it's not centred.
So this thrust has two issues that I considered years ago
(32:31):
thought what's going on here? This thrust is not only is it at
shoulder height, it's not at neck height or solar plexus or
any discernible target sort of position.
It's at shoulder height and the thrust is in line with your own
shoulder. Oh, it's just from the point of
(32:52):
view of. Muscle.
Memory pretty rubbish. Why are you thrusting it out
that shoulder height? And as, as we understand it, you
know, in the use of the sign, that's precisely what's required
because you're going to bash shoulder the major, the major
joint. I did upon the major joint
(33:13):
controls the arm. But that that that's a threat to
you. Perfect makes perfect sense.
It's the perfect target, but it doesn't make any sense without
the weapon. And, and and So what what Tom
said is completely correct. You know, it's that's not a
target. It's this thrust is not aimed at
(33:34):
the head or the temple or the any so-called vulnerable point.
It seemed a functional joint. It's aimed at the functional
joint of the arm. In terms of that being useful,
if you can disable that joint temporarily, you can stop the
attack. Similarly, you could hit the
(33:55):
arms and the wrists which go other targets, or the elbows and
and if you if you injure these, not permanently, but if you
injure these targets, you can stop an attack.
I think also it's, it's useful to note, actually, we mentioned
(34:20):
the Kucho point charts that wereincluded by Gichu for Lokoshi
and Karate do Kyohan and Shoshi Negamine's Essence of Okinawan
Karate. And you know, Q show points in
the shoulder area are conspicuous in their absence has
(34:40):
to be noted. You, you look at the shoulders
and they, they seem to be ratherfree of Q show points.
And so it's quite important thatthat's that's where that strike
is aimed in the in the antique say ascension of the witch
video, which I think speaks to your speaks to your earlier
(35:03):
point, Tom. Yeah, they avoided, yeah, the
points and you know, hitting that, hitting the shoulder, if
you do it unarmed, it's not veryeffective.
But with the Tom for the side, it's very, very, very, very
effective and you don't need a lot.
(35:26):
So, yeah, and the antique forms as well, just actually just
following on from Matt's point and what is, you know, described
in an in Andreas Christ's article is that kitchen for
Nukashi's is the first person toto in his book. 1935 book is the
(35:51):
first presentation of vital points in a karate book and the
antique forms arrived long before that in Okinawa.
And so and these those Q show charts come from jujitsu manuals
according to the article. So they're not even sourced from
China or where the antique formswere.
(36:11):
So you've got a distinctly separate stream of information
coming in there which has later been overlaid.
Chinese antique forms with Japanese Q show have been
blended together in modern creative interpretation, but
they don't belong together. The opposite in fact.
(36:33):
The only relevance is that they highlight where not to hit or
where what the antique forms areavoiding.
Yeah. Is that article available
publicly? It's available, yeah, it's on
his Patreon page. We'll put a link and I think
it's free to download. It's it's absolutely fantastic,
(36:54):
Fantastic piece of research, really useful.
And that brings us to the end oftoday's episode.
What a fascinating discussion. We've learnt that the antique
forms of karate such as Nehenchiand Sasan were likely never
(37:15):
about striking vital points to cause knockouts.
Instead, they seem to be focusedon disarming and incapacitating
an opponent without inflicting permanent damage, a reflection
of their probable use in civil and policing scenarios.
It's a powerful reminder that the martial in martial arts
(37:37):
doesn't always mean military. As always, if you have enjoyed
this episode, please like, subscribe, leave us a review,
and share with friends to help us continue to debunk the
legends of karate.
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