The body moves powerfully in a finite number of ways
Muscles can only contract or relax back to their non-contracted state. For example, the biceps and triceps work in conjunction to bend and straighten your elbow. That is all they do.
Though human bodies come in all sizes, we are all built the same. We all have two elbows and the corresponding team of controlling muscles. While some may have stronger muscles than others, these two muscles still simply bend and straighten the elbow.
Understanding body mechanics means understanding how the human body was naturally designed to move and moving in a way that keeps it stable and balanced, utilizing its natural strengths to generate power, while at the same time protecting its inherent vulnerabilities.
Karate techniques seek to utilize these natural strengths while taking advantage of those inherent weaknesses in our attacker.
Principles of body mechanics include
- Center of Gravity
- Line of Gravity
- Strong Foundation
- Body Alignment
- Balance
- Coordinated Movement
The proper adherence to each of these principles should be part of every karate technique you execute. And this is not specific to karate. Every “legitimate” martial art in the world adheres to these principles. That is why most traditional martial arts share the same powerful movements. They may just apply them differently. Often, to the casual observer, this makes them look like different techniques.
Body mechanics in karate technique
The proper execution of a karate technique should result in two things.
- The attacker should find himself off-balance, in a weakened position, and unable to defend against the strike should its delivery become necessary.
- The defender should be in a strong and balanced position, safe, and with several options available for proceeding to the next level if it becomes necessary.
This is much like a defensive shooting scenario!
It’s just a bit off the subject, but it illustrates the point.
We have all heard the phrase “never take your gun out of your holster unless you are going to shoot someone.” Sounds cool, I know. But it’s essentially macho-cowboy bullshit.
Any trained shooter will tell you that there are two separate decisions involved in the use of a gun for self-defense. The first is to pull your gun from its holster. The second is to actually pull the trigger.
If you pull your gun on an attacker, and the attacker ends the attack and leaves, you have protected yourself without ever pulling the trigger. If the attacker ends the attack and you shoot them anyway, you probably are going to be tried for murder.
If however, you pull your gun on an attacker and the attacker continues the assault, you might now make the second decision to pull the trigger.
Back to body mechanics
Look at this picture. What do you see? That is me about to be in some serious hurt. And yes, I was the attacker for the purpose of demonstration, and threw a punch.
I am off-balance and leaning back, my entire abdominal area is extremely vulnerable, and I have no viable weapons with which to defend myself.
Sensei John Kerker is essentially in what a karate practitioner might can a mid-level block position … balanced, stable, safe, and with several options to proceed should I try to continue the fight. For example:
- Draw his left fist back striking my liver or floating rib.
- Punch across with his right into my liver.
- Take my rear supporting leg and drop me to the floor.
- Punch down with his right into my quadriceps.
Or any combination of the above, and these are just the more obvious options. There are many, many more.
Some rules for beginning to understand body mechanics …
- All movements in karate should be natural, meaning they should not ask your muscles to do things they were not designed to do.
- Maintain good posture … even in karate.
- Economy of motion. The tendency is to make movements too big.
- Keep your center of gravity between your feet. Do not overextend.
- Never cross your own center.
- Never take your elbows above your shoulders.
- Never completely lock a joint.
- Most karate techniques mimic movements you make naturally every day. If something feels off, it probably is.
Next post! Karate Basics
D.C. Gilbert 
Very helpful and understandable. Thanks for the useful info.
I’m glad it’s useful! Are you planning on taking karate lessons?
Probably too old for my first lesson
Would like to take Tai Chi
Cool! Applies there as well.
That’s what I thought.
It’s amazing to realize how complex it is. But you describe it well.
I always described it as being very complex in its simplicity.
A good description! Not just of karate I guess.
I guess not! 🤔
Funny you should bring up Tai Chi. In the internal, they emphasize the ‘Yi’ or intention. Yi is the part of the mind that control movement at the lowest level and is not normally accessible from the conscious mind. But it can be trained. This is the reason for the slow mindful movement of the form in Tai Chi. The body learns from the inside out how to move force from the ground to the hands. There are over 20 joints involved in the transfer of force from the ground to the hands. Think of them as sprockets on a chain. When we start out, we learn to move using only 3 or 4 of the sprockets. That takes a lot of effort to generate force this way. But over time, though mindfully exploring the body during the form, learning not to move by using muscle, but the Yi. In this way, we learn to use Yi to move all of the sprockets just a little, and yet generate tremendous power that looks like it comes from nowhere.
For classical Okinawan karate, that same idea of “coordinated full body movement” is also a focus of proper makiwara training.
It is not about mutating your knuckles! 🙄.