Anyone that has worked or had to function in a violent environment will definitely know this and I would have thought that almost everyone would, but sometimes I wonder.

Intent and venom rule above all everything else, followed by rock solid basics that produce power. I look at so many videos showing fancy shit and think that I’d walk straight through them as would any of my Kohai from back in the day.

They take the p*ss out of ‘old style’ karateka practising relentless basics and using the makiwara but they have no idea of how we trained and tested it in the past.

No fancy or complicated stuff but straight in with sheer power, strong structure, intent and venom smashing everything out of the way. There was no compromise and only the strong survived, we had ‘dojo wars’ nothing ‘pulled’, sparring with no padding and many of us worked or lived in violent environments.

Of course training these days has to be done more safely, intelligently and there’s much more information on how get good results with a far more diverse student base, BUT we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Strong, well structured basics is still essential, teachers need to be uncompromising, experienced, honest and authentic. We can hit pads, bags and fight more intelligently, but, intent, venom, power and the right kind of cognitive dissonance when it counts are imperative to development and these can only come from training a solid structure and hard, repetitive basics, insisting on these qualities in every repetition. Training doesn’t have to be rushed, tense and aggressive, but even skill building from soft slow and smooth to eliminate excess tension can still carry the right intent.

Every student should ask themself “would this work, would this knock the opponent down and finish the fight?” If it wouldn’t, they need to change their approach (and maybe their teacher). All pairs work needs to be practised building up to working against a hard, genuine attack.
By Steve Rowe