Karate for most is the means of striking with the hand or kicking, whilst many instructors believe they understand the techniques of striking and kicking they rarely teach or practise the variances possible within each ‘major’ technique.
Using the hand there are 10 variations for striking techniques, many methods are practised only within kata, whilst this is in itself important, it is more important to understand how to use the methods and techniques properly and which targets they would be most effective.
Methods of striking utilising the hand include:
- Seiken - Regular fist
- Uraken - Back fist
- Shuken - Hand fist
- Ippon Ken - Single point index finger fist
- Chukoken/Nakadakaken - Single point middle finger fist
- Tettsui - iron hammer
- Nukite - Spear hand
- Nihon Nukite - Two finger spear hand
- Ippon Nukite - One finger spear hand
- Shuto - Knife hand
- Haishu - Back of the hand
Methods of striking utilising the foot include:
- Koshi - Ball of the Foot
- Sokuto - Sword foot (edge of the foot)
- Tsumasaki - Toe tips
- Ensho - Back of the heel
- Sokko - Top of the foot
Kicking and striking using other parts of the hand and foot often change the delivery and effectiveness of the respective technique, sometimes these variations mean that a previously effective technique may become ineffective, it is important therefore to practise kicking and stiking using the various areas of the strikes to ensure that you can use them to their best.