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Karate Training

Details about classes and seminars that are scheduled or already held. Or training tips from our instructors or others. Technical stuff.

“Tai Sabaki” — Relearning how to move

“Tai Sabaki” — Relearning how to move

Tai           Saba        ki Tai sabaki – this Japanese term is used often in the martial arts. It’s usually translated as “body shifting” by English-speaking karate sensei, and that translation is good enough, considering how we use the phrase in teaching. Basically, it describes getting out of the way of an attack and/or positioning yourself advantageously for…

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Putting the “martial” into the lines of your performance

Putting the “martial” into the lines of your performance

The kanji above reads in Japanese as “en-bu-sen,” or as it’s normally pronounced as a complete word, “embusen.” (It’s just easier to pronounce “em” in the word than “en.”) Japanese karate players recognize this word as referring to the path or pattern that your steps take when you’re performing a kata. If someone was watching you do your kata from…

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Why we train to fight

Why we train to fight

Both Delguidice Sensei and I came up through the karate ranks and earned our black belts learning Shotokan Karate the “traditional Japanese” way. And I actually trained for three years in Japan and earned a 2nd degree black belt through the “Kenshinkai” organization, which was definitely traditional Japanese. (For those who want to know, “kai” in this context indicates an…

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Shoto’s 20 Principles: Keep your karate boiling

Shoto’s 20 Principles: Keep your karate boiling

This is the first in an occasional series of short posts on Gichin Funakoshi’s “twenty principles of karate,” a set of concise axioms describing the Master’s philosophy of applying one’s study of karate to one’s everyday life, and vice versa. The 20 principles were first published in 1938, when Funakoshi (“Shoto”) was 70 years old. The English translation I am…

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The legal elements of self-defense: Proportionality

The legal elements of self-defense: Proportionality

This is the fifth in our series on the legal aspects of “self-defense.” I use quotes to emphasize that we are considering how the law refers to the legal claim made by a defendant who is accused of (and admits to) using force against another person, but asserts that their use of force was justified. We are studying how uses…

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The legal elements of self-defense: What does Pennsylvania law say?

The legal elements of self-defense: What does Pennsylvania law say?

This is the fourth in a series covering legal aspects of self-protection, or what is typically called “Self Defense Law.” We’ve covered the first two of five elements of a successful legal claim of “self-defense” from Andrew Branca’s book “The Law of Self Defense.” Those elements were Innocence and Imminence. Today we’ll take a break from that series to have…

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The legal elements of self-defense: Innocence

The legal elements of self-defense: Innocence

This is the second post in the series on legal aspects of self-defense.  We will cover the five elements of a physical encounter that must be demonstrated to the criminal justice system in order to make a successful claim of “self defense.” I am basing these on the highly informative book “The Law of Self Defense” by Andrew Branca, whose…

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