KATA BUNKAI | Practical Karate Applications — Jesse Enkamp

What's up, Karate Nerds? Today I'm on my way to the airport to teach a two-day seminar in Germany, close to Munich. And I'm just busy packing right now because my ride to the airport arrives any minute now. And this seminar, like I said, is two days, so I won't be able to film everything for you because then my head would explode from trying to edit all of that footage. But there's one particular exercise that I really wanna share with you. It's an exercise that I developed myself and I call it Kojiki, which means time machine in Japanese. And it's an exercise that I developed to help people understand the meaning of kata and their practical application, which we today refer to as bunkai in Japanese. The word bunkai means to break down, and if you understand how to break down the forms or the kata of karate, that's when you uncover their true functionality. And I'll tell you what this exercise looks like as soon as we arrive in Germany because we really gotta go now. Follow along. Quick life hack. Whenever you need to fly and perform or be active after that flight, get yourself a pair of compression socks to help you with blood flow and circulation. Hello. Thank you very much. Finally arrived at the hotel. Oops, wrong button. Pretty fancy. Look at that. It looks pretty beautiful, but I can't really see anything because it's pitch black outside. Look. And it, honestly, it smells cow ---- here because I think they're like fertilizing the fields because it's supposed to rain tomorrow. But then again, basically the whole Germany smells like this whenever I'm here, so. All right, so it's time for me to explain this particular exercise that I'm gonna be filming for you guys tomorrow. And like you may remember, like I said back in Sweden, I call it kojiki, which means time machine, because I will take the participants of this seminar through a virtual time travel back to the birthplace of karate. And the idea is this. Today we practice kata, the solo routine, as something standalone. And that's good because it teaches you a lot about body control and coordination and balance and all of these physical attributes, right? But the original purpose of kata was self-defense. Today we put the cart before the horse. We learn the solo template first and then we try to apply it against somebody who attacks us with a punch or a kick or a choke or whatever, right? But originally it was the other way around. You learn a self-defense move and then you try to reenact it solo as a way of memorizing and practicing and improving that particular sequence of techniques. And so it's kind of like learning to sing in a foreign language. If somebody teaches you how to sing happy birthday in Chinese, you may be the best singer in the world, but unless you know the meaning of the words, you will never be able to understand the song. And this is what happens when we learn a kata today. We learn this abstract set of movements and techniques, but we don't really know what the purpose of it is. So tomorrow I will be teaching an exercise with this in mind and it is something that may blow your mind if you've never thought about this before. So get ready to learn more about bunkai tomorrow because now it's time for me to sleep. Good night. Karate nerds, look at this beautiful landscape. Turns out it's been snowing all night. Just look at that. It's not that cold actually. Beautiful morning, on my way to the seminar which is being held at the home dojo of the organizers at like the basement of their own actual house, which is a pretty cool idea. I love the fact that they have a home dojo for this seminar and this means there will only be 16 participants at the seminar. So it's gonna be very intimate and exclusive, which I like because to me, karate is a highly individual journey and small seminars like this gives me more time and ability to give individual attention and detail to the different participants at the seminar. Now it should be here somewhere. Here we are. Good morning. Morning. How is this? Good. Look what I got right there a fat lip cuz somebody Kristoff son elbowed me or like shoulder butted me I don't know even what you're supposed to call it But like hit me his shoulder bumped me right in the face right there And I was just about to show or demonstrate an exercise so now I just got to keep this pressure on here And I will probably look stupid when we're filming. Hey, there's the criminal Don't worry. No problem I'm just trying to explain because yeah when I when we film the next couple of exercises that stuff that I've been telling you about The Kojiki game then you'll be wondering why my lip is so fat. So now, you know, all right Okay. Now the break is over. Let's get back to training Usually you divide kata into form and function Form and function should go hand-in-hand but Today most people only know the form This is the way we learn a kata today Somebody shows us a move they show us the next move and the next move monkey see monkey do Now we know all of these beautiful moves, but we have no idea how to actually use them Unless we're lucky. Maybe our instructor shows us how this could be used in self-defense But that's still putting the cart before the horse because originally when karate was created it was the other way around You learn a self-defense move. Can you just come up here? Okay, and now I will do this attack or this defense without you because that's pretty dangerous, right? Yeah Okay Let's call this Kurufa, right? That was a kata I just created. This is how kata was created The purpose of kata was not to do them solo But the solo reenactment is a way to memorize and perhaps even improve my skill of them Actually using that against you. So we're gonna do it the original way. We will together collectively as a group Create a kata So, how would you get attacked in real life in self-defense? Maybe grabbing Maybe choking. What else? What else Maybe maybe What else pushing head-butting pushing head-butting tackling grappling biting so What would you think is the most common attack the most common habitual act of physical violence Push with a follow-up a push with a follow-up. Okay, so why not start with that? Somebody pushes you So together with your partner, I want you to come up with an effective Defense against somebody who's coming to push you I know that all of you had very good ideas and you did them with a partner But what I want you to try now is to just stand up and recreate your response without the partner Self-defense is what kata consists of. If you push me And I go shoot like this and I try to trip you over my legs and then I do that same move without you It looks like this That's a kata, right? Just like when you attacked me before and I did that Yet if we have never experienced this type of situation of somebody pushing you You would never be able to apply that move no matter how many thousands of times you've done kanku-dai Okay, this is the point of today's exercise trying to do it in reverse order to see your kata in a new light Now the next question is this What is a good bunkai? Guys, just look at this beautiful nature right here. I Love it But what I don't love is My lip doesn't look that bad right until I do this Check that out That is nasty Luckily, I have this bottle that I try to press against it. I follow the police protocol P-O-L-I-C-E Pressure optimal load ice compression and elevation whenever you get an injury try to keep that in mind now time for some lunch If your bunkai ends with a B C D or E It is most likely a good response to this attack. And this is for any attack a is air if I can If I can cut off your air supply and you get unconscious I wait B But if I cut off your blood your oxygen supply I win as well see Consciousness, I can't even spell it Consciousness if I drop you with a technique and you get knocked out and that's a good way to finish a bunkai as well D This location if I dislocate your knee like that, it's easy for me to do what? Escape which is the ultimate goal to get out of there to not to win not to Defeat the opponent, but to not have to fight What would be the next move? Doesn't have to be related to the push another technique that somebody might use against you in a self-defense situation a grab a grab one hand jacket grab So now with your friend practice a way to defend against somebody grabbing you with one hand and either punching or threatening with the other Okay, same friend continue with your kata It's getting better right? Yeah. Yeah good Now put this together into your kata solo, go ahead I There is a saying in Okinawa one kata three years You would practice one kata for three years Before you were advanced enough to move on to the next one Could you imagine somebody today coming as a beginner to your dojo and in three years they learn one kata They would quit after a few months, right? It's boring But if you do it this way if you explore the hidden functionality of the kata You can just play with these types of self-defense situations and their variations for years This is why one kata could take three years back in the days when it was trained this way originally Thank you very much Guten morgen karate nerds today is the last day of my trip here in Germany and it's time for me to head home I had a great time at this seminar and I hope you guys did too by watching at home Of course, this thing right here was not that great, but it looks worse than it actually feels so don't worry about me I've been through worse after all karate is a martial art and not a dance and these things happen now I want to thank you so much for watching for paying attention for giving me your time and effort and commitment I hope that this video could bring you some value when you wanna when it comes to understanding bunkai the practical applications of kata Next week and I'm teaching a seminar in Brazil So, please let me know if there's anything specific you want to see from that seminar because if I do a 10-hour weekend It's hard for me to choose exactly what to film. So leave a comment and let me know what you want to see more of Oh, by the way, I got this beautiful gift from a girl at the seminar. You got to check it out I'm gonna put my knee here so you can see it. Can you see that? It's a drawing So that's the session logo, right and then it says for Jesse from Lana and Then she tried to write karate in Japanese, right? She watched one of my video tutorials and then I had no idea why I have red hair But it's still a really cool picture and then some Kumita down there says what does it say? Yeah Hey nice These things are so cool so fun for me I really appreciate it when you guys do these types of personal things means a lot now I'm gonna turn this snow into a beach in my next Brazil seminar. Catch you guys there. Thanks for watching