PRACTICAL KARATE THROWS, BUNKAI & SELF-DEFENSE — Jesse Enkamp

What's up, karate nerds? I'm coming at you live and direct from Ireland, where I'm about to teach my very first Irish karate seminar tomorrow morning about the topic of Okinawan old-school karate clinch, grappling, takedowns, throws, joint locks, chokes, and all of that nasty self-defense stuff that made traditional karate so great for self-defense. But it's been a crazy day. I started at 4 a.m. this morning by trying to sneak out and not wake anybody up to jump in my cab and get to the airport. 45 minutes later, I arrive at the airport, and there's tons of people there already, even though it was only 5 a.m. I guess you're trying to take an early vacation. The flight was about two and a half hours. I flew from Stockholm to Dublin. As I land in Dublin, I realize that this is like the world's biggest airport. It never ended. But as I got through security, I was picked up by this guy named Darren. Hello, nice to meet you. He's a black belt at this dojo here that's hosting me for tomorrow's seminar. We jump in his car, and we ride two and a half hours to this city or town that I'm in right now called Galway. It's a beautiful place. Then, something unexpected happened. We went to visit Sensei Patrick McCarthy, the Western world's number one karate researcher and historian, who was also in town. Believe it or not, the exact same weekend that I'm teaching my seminar. The form is the function. We spoke for like five hours about karate history and philosophy. Then we went for some grocery shopping, buying some goodies for tomorrow. And after that, we went for some dinner because I was starving at this point. Yummy Asian food. And now finally, I'm here at this bed and breakfast, ready to hit the bed because tomorrow morning, it's time for my first Irish karate seminar, and I'm thrilled to have you with me. Good night. Would you do the door, please? Yeah. Thank you. So, Sensei Darren, we're counting in Irish. Yeah, let's go. Eight. No. Three. Car. Kuik. Shane. Shot. Oct. Knee. Jet. Wow. The original purpose of karate was self-defense. Self-defense happens up close, when we least expect it, right? If I have the ability or the luxury to stand prepared against an opponent, it is not really self-defense anymore because we have agreed to fight. Maybe I... So the question is, how can I defend myself up close? This one pulls down, and the other one here comes from this. Yeah. The reaction time for the average human being when it comes to visual stimulus is around 0.25 seconds. But for touch stimulus, it's 0.15. Meaning if I only rely on what I can see, I'm holding myself back. Yes. And now this one delivers a hammer fist. Perfect. Boom. Whenever you headbutt somebody, pick a side, right or left. You don't want to split your skull open, right? And then don't use your neck to headbutt them. You use your body. You push with your whole weight into the other person. Bam. If I'm right side, I'm gonna use the right side, and I'm gonna pull as... I just grab. And I just go here. Here. It's better. Okay? So we try a nice, simple takedown against me. I just go. Thanks. I pull here. Down. I pull here. Down. It's very brutal. What does it look like? Again, I'm right. It's just like a low fly. Let's try the other side. One hand here. Other hand there. And I... It's not a real throw. It's more of a dunk, right? Basically, smashing into the ground, right? But over the knee. This way. Face, neck, whatever you can grab. Even the knee. And I just pull the shoulder the opposite direction here. Either this shoulder there, or that shoulder there. And this goes here. And then he falls over my knee. So you need to take a big step. This way. Big step. Let's try. Hajime. All right, first session done. Now, time for a quick break before we continue with the second session with some more kata applications. And man, I gotta tell you, these Irish people really love to have fun. It was such a great group of people. By the way, if you're wondering why the group is unusually small, it's because this is actually a private event. Usually I teach public seminars where there are hundreds of participants, but this time it's a more intimate and small and personal space, which I really like because then you can give people more individual attention and feedback. And that actually improves the quality level of the whole seminar. Had a crack. Had a crack? Crack. What's that? It's the Irish word for fun. For fun? Oh, I learned my first Irish word. I had a crack, mate. It's just a crack, it's an Irish thing. Oh, crack. Crack. Did you just say crack? Yeah, crack. Cool. As always, I forget to introduce my hosts and organizers because I'm so focused on teaching and practicing, so let me just do a quick introduction right here. Can you tell the Karate Nerd Nation your name and what you do and where you're from and all of that? Just a quick introduction. My name is Darren Kern, and we're part of the Galway Shodkan Karate Club here in Ireland. Oh, that's the head sensei right there? And this is our chief instructor, Sensei Greg Carter. That's very true. Say hello, Greg. How are you? Say hello to the Karate Nerds out there. Hello, sir. We're all Karate Nerds. Absolutely. Put your hat back on. Oh. Look at that. Flexing. Party trick. Yes. Up, hip. See how everyone goes down here to block his leg, hip, and knee. As I then turn around and drop my own weight down on one knee. Now the move without an opponent looks like this. Which copy? Him. Exactly. Cool. Turn around, block. Let's try. And then this hand blocks over there. Twist your hips, sit down. This instead, right? One more. Here. Oh, he's already following me. Easy, easy. If you don't want to fly, you don't need to. Why should you try and lift somebody who doesn't want to? You can just lift a leg, right? If you don't want to lift him more, you just dump him that way. Even easier. I could do this one that you already did, or I could do this one. So I just pull here. This acts as an anchor. That's why I use my legs and not my back, because I don't want to break it. And that's it. I can tell Kiai to engage me more and then find a good time to- Kiai? Yeah. This is funny. People think that you should scream Kiai, but that's like screaming, scream! It's just weird, okay? It's the name of the scream. It's not the actual scream. What it sounds like is not important. The important part is how you do it, not what you do in this case. Try this. Push your hands in by your sides, and look down and cough. What are you feeling? You feel expansion, exactly, from the center of your core. That's the muscles, the intra-abdominal muscles that you want to use whenever you Kiai. Will you recommend us to learn all the catches other than Shotokan? This is interesting. When should you start cross-training? When should you look outside your own style and try other stuff? Not too early. This is a problem. If you start too early, you're going to have a bad start, because you're going to be confused. Sometimes it's better to climb the mountain next to yours to see your own mountain better. That's why cross-training is so valuable, because it's about perspective. But if you do it too early, you're going to be confused. To me, the best way of knowing when you should look outside your own style is when your Sensei thinks you should, because he or she knows your journey best because he or she has already been there. That's the meaning of the term Sensei, somebody who is before you in life, a mentor, somebody who has climbed that mountain and can see the path that you're headed on and knows when it's time for you to start exploring other stuff. Thank you very much. After the seminar finished, I knew I had to do a very important thing before leaving Ireland. Complete an ancient ritual, the backbone of Irish culture, the cornerstone of Ireland's history. An age-old ritual that is known for turning boys to men and men to warriors. It was party time! And now I'm back at Dublin Airport because it's finally time to go home after a crazy fun, or crack as they say in Irish, weekend here with my awesome new Karate Nerd family. But I gotta ask you a question before we finish this video. What is practical karate to you? The stuff that I taught yesterday has been called practical karate or applied karate by a lot of people. But the chances of you actually having to use a throw, choke, grapple, or takedown in real life is pretty small. So more practical for me, and something you can actually apply in real life, is the underlying philosophical values, the cornerstones upon which karate was built. Respect, humility, courage, integrity, self-discipline. These things are practical to me. And if you wanna make karate more than a exotic hobby and make it perhaps even a lifestyle or a way of living, then I suggest you focus less on what you do and more on how you do it. Because it's not about kicking and punching. It's about understanding when, where, and why you kick and punch. And those underlying values that dictate that, that's what makes karate a way of life. And that, to me, is practical because you can actually use it outside of the dojo. Until next time, sayonara, peace out.