17 Hand Technique Exercise | Shihan Michael Monaco | IFK Arizona Seminar

Fill in the line. Yes, lots of space for everyone. All right, both fists forward, right fist back. This is called Piki, okay? Reaction hand. Very important because this controls the power going out. The harder I pull this back, what happens to the other hand? That reaction has an opposite equal reaction. You ever hear that? So the power is driven by the hand pulled back just as much as the hand goes out. Makes sense? Think about it. And again, when you punch, you want to be in the center line. So everybody get a scene because some of you are missing me. Some of you are missing me. You're over here. All the vital areas are what? In the center. They're all in the center. Yes, your nose, your throat, your mouth, your sternum, your solar plexus, and your groin. So most of the vital areas are all in the center line. So when you punch like this, guess what? You miss. Yes, you miss. But little things. That's why I say you have to concentrate. Your mind is always tied in with your body. Don't get into that nonchalant habit of just going like this and forget. Just like every repetition is important to a weak lifter, every repetition is important because you're trying to create the proper what? Habits. Habits. Yes. And I know Sensei and Shion tell you this too. I'm just reinforcing it. Yes. By count. Ready? Each. Me. Son. Okay, we're going down. We're going down and changing these sequences. We're going through the 17 upper body. Yes. Be careful of your knuckles because don't turn and punch like this. You have to have your wrists like you turn to get the knuckles in. Yes. Don't sag. Keep your legs strong. You can do this in your Dutch position. Yes. Start again. Push this forward. Right fist back. Number four. Chudan is here. Take your finger. Come on. Take your finger and press, press, press. And as soon as you feel soft, that's Chudan. Go ahead with your finger. Your index. Hard, hard, hard, soft. That's where I hit. You understand? That's where it's going to make what? The biggest impact. If his abs aren't tight, that's where you hit the solar plexus. And then it's hitting up here. It's like a chest arm. Okay. We have a strike up here for the sternum. That's Tatsuki. But Chudan with your punches and your kata is down here. Just where I showed you. And you all have longer bodies. Some of you have shorter bodies. You find that by taking your finger and find that soft spot. Once you get it, that's where you press it, right? That's where Okay. And you can press it on yourself and you'll feel that pain. That's Chudan. Let's continue. Senpai. Let's go. Ichi. Ni. That was the lip. San. That's Gedan. All right. 45 back here. 45. Not sideways. It goes to 45 angle. Bend your wrist. You're hit with the back of your knuckle like this. And after you hit, then what? It doesn't bend. So we, we simulate that we're hitting, but technically I'm hitting with this. You know what I'm saying? Anywhere on these knuckles are strikable. You know what I'm saying? When you're in a fight, the one knuckle strike. Yes? It really hurts right in the ridge, right in the spine. You got to know how to use all parts of your knuckle. It's not just the front. Okay. Continue. Kyu. This is one fist head distance. This is when he's in this close. You understand? Then I hit him where? And the wrist bends slightly to put that knuckle right in the nerve, right in the back of the neck. This is the head part. And this is what I'm doing with the Mawashi. You understand? Because a lot of people don't even know what that is. They have no idea what they're doing. Yes. Continue. Kyu. Each. Taking the top of the bottle off. Ni. Stop right there. I want to check Uchikomi. Good. You have to let your elbow go out slightly in order to have your hand, the side of your hand, the meaty part of your hand. You have to let the elbow bend slightly. Yes. Now you can hit the fist. Yes. Have your fingers together or it won't be strong. Your muscles in your hand won't be strong enough. Yes. Don't tuck your thumb. It's on the side. It's on the side of your fingers, your thumb here. And this is straight. Look. This. This is straight. When you do Eiko, then you tuck what? Then you tuck the thumb so you use the bone part of your hand. So everything has to be proper. You know, like an artist, yes? You want to check these. You want to have somebody check you. Move your fingers backwards. Don't cup your hands because they're not strong. Now leave your hand there and just turn your fingers. There it is. Same thing. Take your fingers backwards as far as you can. Take this one and just keep your hand there and just curl your fingers a little bit. Working up. Yes. Now it's nice and warm. And I use this like a jab. You understand? I use this like a jab. I drive it in instead of a punch. If I need distance, right? I get like this and I get on mark and then stop. I use the weapons. You have so many weapons and when you go fight and spar, what do they use? You just use the punch and then get down to the washing area. Am I right? And you learn all these different techniques. All these different techniques so much that you don't even use them. What a waste, yeah? So when you're fighting, you want to learn how to use them because they work. Continue. Slightly bend the wrist and the thumb again. Fingers together. Okay, stay right there. Gotcha. Elbow up. Everybody puts their arm. You have to have your elbow up to get it over your head so I can't walk. So I can't hit you in the head, make sense? Now, don't put this part of your arm because if it's a short knife, it'll cut you and bleed you out. Anji puts the forearm up because you don't understand. And that was mainly for fighting with weapons, short weapons and objects. So that's why Kyokushin, when I learned, it was all like this. Anji and his ultimate wisdom said, it's much better this way because now my vital veins aren't as exposed and I can still walk. And turn your hip. Turn your hip slightly into it. Continue. One fist behind your head. Everything is one fist behind your head. Knife hand. Each knee. Knee with the elbow. Head distance. Each knee. The elbow has to bend out slightly so you can adjust that. Because if the arm straightened out, what happens to the fingers? And you hit with the fingers and you break your fingers. That's why the elbow has to slightly bend out to get that short quality of head. It's virtually impossible to have your arm straight unless you're double-jointed. Use this eye. Continue. Son. She. Forearm. Elbow up. And across your shoulder so you're covering your whole upper body. Yes. Go. Kirk. Seat. And remember, you're doing basic self-defense. So when he grabs my hand, what I'm doing, I'm pulling that hand in. Why? Why am I pulling it in when I go to block? Because the thumb is the weakest part of the hand. To loosen up the thumb so I can break it off. Same thing when he grabs my arm here. You understand? I go under and I make sure I use the thumb and take the thumb and turn and break that loose. You understand? Everything in the IFK is breaks and strikes. Breaking means breaking holes. Grabs of the wrist, the hand, the chest, the head. That's what we mean by breaking. Not promissory breaking. We do that but when I talk about breaks and haunts, he talks about it. That's what this IFK is made of. Both fist forward and right fist back. Now we're going to try level one. Level one is one and a half seconds in between each strike but in full contact. There's three levels. Level one, level two, level three. Level three is fighting speed. Level one and two, there's us. To keep you in cadence. Keep your breathing in cadence. Yes. And keep you in line with each other. So it's one and a half seconds in between each strike. You ready? Nobare means with no contact. Ready? Hajime. Still full contact. It's not light contact. It's still as hard as you can. When you do your blocks and strikes, it's one move. Okay? This is one. Don't make it into two. Okay? It's one move. Even though it's two moves, it's one. So be very careful that you don't go and make it into two. When you do it slow and you're doing for technical and checking your expertise, it's one thing. By count. But when you're doing full contact, it's all one motion. That make sense? Yes. Focus where? Right fist back again. Level one. And again, full contact. Full contact. Don't hold back. It doesn't change the power of the speed. It only changes the timing in between what? The repetition. It's between the sequence of the technique. Make sense? Ready? Hajime. Level two. One second in between. Now what's nice is I can use these levels for when you're hitting the bag to change your timing when you fight. So when I go, I can change it. You understand? The rhythm. The rhythm of my strike. That's how you catch people breathe in. That's how you catch them loose. So there's many applications I told you for why you train the foot. And utilize that. Okay? So that's why you have to get this timing and it's like an inside clock. Make sense? Level two. Hajime. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Push. Good. Okay? Focus where? Right fist back. Level three is no time in between. You have to complete each technique. Don't cut them short. This is fighting speed. So I should hear your knee snap at the same what? Roughly the same time. But some of you are faster than others. So it won't be exact. Yes? Because you're all different bodies, all different shapes, all different ages. So you're faster. But make sure you complete what? Don't cut any of the techniques short. Eyes focused. You got to be ready mentally. Look straight ahead. Again. Level three. Look straight ahead. Look at yourself in the mirror. Look at your eyes because that's your opponent. Don't carry this hand down here. Up in your breastbone because it's easy to block here. Shuttle comes this way. Other styles, easy to block. But here, it's hard to block. Yes? Don't hold your reaction hand. It should be on your breastbone. Not down here. If you train in other styles, that's probably your habit, yeah? Because you did it thousands of times. It should be up here. Yes? Breathe, exhale. Both fist forward, right fist back. Now I see how your brain works. Now I'm going to see. All right side. 17 upper body. What did I say? All right side. So let's see if you have trained the brain. All right side. So you have to use the reaction hand and put it out just like you did when you were changing each hand, right? You have to have a cover and start point, right? Watch senpai. Watch senpai. Hajime. It looks easy but it's what? And that's the whole idea. So that your brain can grow along with your what? Your what? Your brain can grow so you can do what? So you can work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, your brain. Yeah, you see? Your brain. You want your brain to work. So many years I didn't know, you know? Many years. I only thought it was all physical. Because that's the way Kyokushin was other. It was portrayed and misinterpreted by students. When I spent time in Sosei for those 10 years. Many, many days. Many, many years. He educated us because people thought what they thought and it wasn't what he wanted. Honji did. All the first apostles. I call him suicide god. And all the Japanese. Sosuiyama, Tadashi Nakamura, Ryama, Honji. Those are the 12 apostles. Does that make sense? Well, the 12 apostles learned the right way. Unfortunately, afterwards people didn't pay attention to what they were teaching or they stopped teaching it and concentrated solely on what? It became a sport. Kyokushin became a sport in the 70s and 80s and 90s when I trained. It became a sport. It's karate. Kyokushin was always created by karate. Knockdown came after karate. Knockdown is a game but a very what? Dangerous game. But it's a game nonetheless. The karate is the meat and potatoes. You'll understand. That's what you're here to learn. How many fighters do we have in Kyokushinkai and IFK? 85%. The other 95% do what? The other 95% are what? They're karate people. They're there for karate. There's people here that are young and you should. You should challenge yourself with the term but that's not the whole purpose because eventually you're going to what? You're going to be too old to fight and you're going to retire. You're only going to have what? Your karate again. You don't quit when you're done with your term and it's not throwing the towel and take your black belt off and I quit. Do you understand? Karate is a never-ending journey. Fighting is a trip. A trip has a start and an end. A journey is continuous. You have to realize that. That's the thing that you have to see. The future. And you train until you die. Do you understand? That's what you do. That's what your teachers did. They trained until they died. They didn't retire. You don't retire from Kyokushinkarate. You don't retire. There's no retirement plan. There's no 401k, okay? There's no 401k. It's your health. I'm 71 years old. I had cancer. I'm still what? I'm still doing what? Teaching and teaching and teaching. Honshi had cancer. Sousai was sick. Soushi was sick. They continued to do it until they died, yeah? That's the Kyokushin way. That's what karate is all about. It's not a hobby. It's not a sport. It's an art. An art is a beautiful thing, yeah? Okay, let's go with the right. Let's go all right side. He's going to go very slowly with the count, okay? Very slowly. Ready, senpai, go. And then prepare the other hand. Watch when you go. Do the best you can. I'm not grading you. Go. Seiichi. Kyu. Ichi. Ni. San. Shi. Go. All right. Seiichi. How'd it feel? It was difficult? Yes. You had a what? You actually had a what? Ichi. Ni. San. Shi. Go. All right. Seiichi. Kyu. Ichi. Ni. San. Shi. Go. All right. Okay, now really tough. All left hand. All left hand. It's a little harder because most of you people in here are one handed. That's correct. The whole objective of karate is to become abidextrous as much as you want. As much as you can. You may not achieve it totally but you should be able to get probably 70, 60 to 70 percent. Do this by repetition to create that habit for the left arm. If you've injured your right arm for a while or broken, you realize you start using your left. You ever notice that? You start to be able to develop it because you're forced to out of habit. It all makes sense. All right, here we go by count. Ichi. Ni. San. Shi. Go. Seiichi. Kyu. Ichi. Ni. San. Shi. Go. Seiichi. How'd that one feel? A little what? Who's left-handed? Probably. Who's left-handed? Any left-handed monkeys in here? Usually they're the ones that say yeah. All right, now I'll really play with you. You're going to do two techniques of each. Okay, you understand? So watch. Ichi. Us. Ni. Us. San. Us. You understand? You have to be able to because what happens, remember, in our 17-member body, you do the right hand, then you do the left hand, then you do the right hand, the left hand. Now you do both. It causes you to think again, yeah? It's all about training the brain. You don't understand until down the road in your journey, then you'll realize the benefit. You'll be thinking when you never thought before. In your kata, in your fighting, your self-defense, everything. Because truly, this is when people tell the mental part of karate. You ever hear that? But honestly, nobody could ever explain it. They always used the word, but they didn't realize what it is. In all honesty, when people said, what is the mental part of karate? People go, I don't know. That's just what they tell me. And this is it. This is why I did. I learned how to get that muscle in your brain stronger, just like your body. All right, let's try. Bye, Kam. Each. Ni. Us. San. Us. Shi. Us. Do. Us. Erk. Us. Sich. Us. Hach. Q. Ju. Ich. Ni. San. Shi. Do. Erk. Sich. Good, good. So now you can see it feels a little bit more harder and causes you to think even more. For those who are in other Aikido groups, like I was, it's nothing to stand there and go, us, us, us, us, us, us, us. You're not using your what? You're not using your brain. Do you understand? You're not using your brain. It's like a muscle person over there going like this, yeah? And you see them over there, yeah? You see people over there going like this, you know? They're not concentrating or isolating. They're focused on muscle points of where they should. So it's critical. And it's now teaching you how to be more epidextrous. That make sense? So if my great-granddaughter, great-granddaughter, I can teach her this and she can do it. You understand? Because she doesn't have to use her brain. She just does it. You understand? There's no mind. There's no thinking. So it's critical. This is very important. This is the Aikikura. This is why we're different than all different Aikido groups. All Aikido groups. But again, the sad part is this is all taught by who? Soshiai Gyaku. Why don't you just put it into some kind of system and program? You understand? Because of being an engineer, he created something that was a standard because he was an engineer in mind and thinking. That was his profession before he became a karate man. So he was a thinker. Make sense? Good, good. Okay. Any questions on it? Now mind you, you can do the Kihon Sensei. You can warm up and do the Kihon. We do that in testings too and use it sometimes. But this is real, real way of checking people's brain. We get them in tune. We get them keeping their brains focused. That's the main thing. Especially with kids, yeah? There's less children in the harvest. That's why we really, really have to work on this. Because their attention span is very short. And there's more kids now in Kyokushin Karate than ever. When I started, there were no kids. When I started, there was no kids. It was all teenagers and adults. There were no kids when I was in Japan, in the harbor. Nobody trained. They were all the older teenagers and adults. But now the world has changed, yeah? That's our future. The kids are now our future.