Karate Programming: the hardware

I've spent a little bit of time writing about this in other posts, but I figured I dedicate a couple completely to this idea. The idea is that you can program yourself. Your body and your brain are adaptable. It's how we learn, it's how we get stronger and it's pretty easy to do if you know how to do it.

Training your body is very easy especially when it comes to physical attributes. We may not all have the genetics to look like Arnold in his hay day, but we can definitely make ourselves better. The answer is steady increase in intensity at planned intervals. It doesn't need to be much of an increase. We're not Olympic athletes for the most part. We can throw out much of what professional athletes do, because we're not training for a big game. We're training for an unforeseeable event that we hope will never happen.

All you need to know is how your body adapts to exercise. When you workout your body adapts by overcompensating the recovery of your muscles for future stress. This over compensation period occurs one to three days after you workout. It's important that you increase the intensity of your workout within this time frame, so that the pattern repeats itself. If you workout after this super recovery period your muscles will have reverted back to their previous state because you didn't stress them again during the appropriate time.

This is all you need to know about exercise. Pick some exercises you enjoy doing and go for it, and you can forget everything you ever read in the muscle rags.

It's important to recognize that professional athletes have huge amounts of resources behind them including constantly evolving manufactured performance enhancing drugs, which change the way you train. Steroids for example almost completely change the way you lift. When you take steroids, which I don't and never have, all you need to do is get your reps in. You've taken out your body's natural cycle of recovery, adaptation and hormone secretion. Basically the more you lift, the bigger you get.

The mental aspects of karate training is where careful planning and knowledge of how we build neural pathways for skills come into play. I'll elaborate on this more in the next post.

Power comes from your feet

In close range combat you don't have the time to speed things up to put more power into your strikes. You might just have a foot or even a few inches. Luckily boxing someone's ears is devastating and you don't need that much power. I digress. The point is that close range power has more to do with your lower body than your upper body. It's somewhat amusing when people thing that slighting changing the motion of their arms means that they are somehow not using arm strength for their techniques. Why are my arms so tired? It's because you're not using your mass and you get your mass moving by moving your lower body.

Gravity is your friend and hopefully soon I'll have some videos showing you how much of a friend it is. Basically by dropping weights on stuff and showing how devastating a little  bit of weight moving a short distance can be.

Have you ever noticed that there's lots of kata where you drop into a stance. Literally drop like a bag of rocks down from a higher stance to a lower stance, it's because gravity is your friend. Ever had a little cousin, niece or nephew who only weighs 60lbs or even smaller suddenly decide they want to be picked up so they jump on you and nearly knock you off your feet? This is what I'm talking about. Do you try and push a car by planting your feet and pushing just with your arms? No, you take a low stance, hmm I wonder if that's relevant, and you lean into it to put all of your mass behind it. It's the very same concept. You just use the structural support of your skeleton to keep yourself from collapsing, move just a tiny bit faster and presto, you can blast through someone twice your weight if you remain efficient in your movements.

Deeper than I thought

It's very hard to explain to normal martial artists what it's like to practice a single kata for years. I believe that they think they can imagine it, but I know that I never imagined that a kata could go so deep and yet be so simple at the same time. The closest I can come to explaining it is relating it to language.

A kata for the most part is almost like an alphabet. Kind of. Except some of the grammar is written into the alphabet itself. Almost like "i" before "e" except after "c." If it were written "A" "B" "Cei" "D" "iE" "F".

The steps for example in the Seisan kata I practice tell you how to power the hand movements, but also whether you are the one giving pressure or if you're receiving pressure. If you try and flip them around they don't work.

I'm digressing a little here.

Practicing a single kata is like being fluent in a language. You know it front and back, inside out and backwards. You can play with the words and structure to make jokes or whatever you want. It's also designed to work together.

The hard part is that for many martial artists, they feel that practicing the alphabet is speaking the language, and they assume that if something looks the same in two kata than it must be the same movement. Since there are no real hard and fast rules regarding kata analysis, I can't say this is wrong, but it would be foolish to make the same assumption about language. The English and Russian alphabets both have letters that look like a "b." If we assumed that they made the same sound we would be wrong. The "b" letter in Russian is pronounced like a "v" in English. Yet, they look exactly the same. It's only by comparing the letters around it and the words that they make that we see that they are different.

It's also hard to explain that the kata movements can be proactive and not necessarily reactive, and in Seisan at least the directions and movements have more to do with where you are in relation to the opponent and where you want them to be rather than a defense against any specific attack. This breaks the kata down into pretty easy to swallow chunks. It's really the only thing that we can know for sure about the opponent. They can either be in front, behind, on either side as well as inside and outside of the arms. It's rather simple, but the ramifications are rather large.

We can also assume that movements that are not done in a mirror fashion do not require the opponent to be in any specific orientation where as movements that are done with a focus on the right side and then practiced with a focus on the left side are for specific orientations because the left side needs to be trained equally as the right side. Like a left hand punch and a right hand punch, but grabbing someone's head and yanking it around doesn't require you to balance left with right. You'll get pretty much the same result no matter what.

This is just a little bit of the picture. When I first started practicing in this fashion, I couldn't imagine Seisan being more than just a simple collection of punch combinations and reactive drills to prescribed attacks, but the more I practice the deeper it goes.

Sport fighting versus Survival fighting

Due to the growing popularity of combat sports like the Ultimate Fighting Championship, there is a tendency to mistake these athletic competitions with survival fighting. It's a mistake that I encounter frequently. People mistake the artificial environment of the arena with violent encounters out in the real world.

The explanation for the difference between sport and survival usually has something to do with the rules. Sports have rules and survival is thought not to have rules, but this isn't entirely true. Self defense is a legal concept. It has to do with laws, statutes and evidence. One cannot use more force than is required to extract themselves from a dangerous situation. Therefore, if one is to survive after the violent encounter one must follow the rules of society.

The rules that specifically draw the line between sport and survival is that of targeting and striking surfaces. Almost all of the first response targeting areas in self defense are illegal under most sporting rules. The neck for example is off limits in the UFC. A solid blow to the side of the neck can knock a person out. A blow to the front can crush a person's windpipe. A blow to where the base of the skull meets the neck can kill. The eyes, groin, ears, kidneys, back, knees, joints and fingers are also illegal targets.

What can be used to strike is also limited. Open hand techniques are banned, as well as headbutts and dropping elbows. It is also illegal to kick a downed opponent.

These rules are good for the sporting arena. They encourage fighters to fight square on and pound on the strongest parts of the human body with some of the weakest. It prolongs the fights and ensures that participants won't end up permanently injured. It would be dangerous to assume that the same techniques used in the sporting arena would work in a violent confrontation.

In sport bringing someone to the ground and submitting them is a solid tactic. A single-leg takedown requires you to change levels and scoop up one of your opponent's legs. This requires you to present one of your most vulnerable targets to your opponent, the back of your neck. A dropping elbow could easily kill you.

Keep in mind that the rules of sport are not in place because they are not effective. They are in place to keep the participants safe. If you're fighting for your life, the last thing you want is for the other guy to be safe.

Magic in the martial arts

It doesn't come up very often, thankfully, but you do run into a fair amount of mysticism in the martial arts. Karate is not immune to this unfortunately.

I recently came across a person claiming that practicing kata would allow you to regulate your internal energy flow and double your strength. Something to do with a person's biofield and electromagnetic field.

This is nonsense.

Not only is is pseudo-scientific hokum, it's also incredibly dishonest. It's also very disturbing the number of people that buy into this type of quackery. Obviously, some people are taking 70's kung fu movies a bit too seriously.

The believers will claim that gaining superpowers. (It's almost too ludicrous to write.) Is the result of subtle energy fields that are not yet known to modern science. This might have been the case fifty years ago, but physicists today now have the capacity to detect some of the most minute sub-atomic particles in the universe, such as the higg's boson, which is what gives all things mass and is the cause of this wonderful thing that makes life possible, gravity. I'm sure that we'd be able to detect a phenomenon  that would cause a person to double their strength without regular exercise.

The United States government in the past has also funded research into such hokum as remote viewing and astral projection. This is supposedly when a person's consciousness leaves their body and travels to far and exotic places, not to be confused with spring break in Mexico. I'm sure that if the government feels fine with wasting its money on this than they wouldn't mind wasting it on biofields to double a soldier's strength.

Unfortunately the martial arts is filled with such scams and many other types of dishonesty. It's tempting to just let people practice as they wish and let the sheep get fleeced, but this is dishonest as well, but there is a simple solution. The next time someone tells you it's possible to gain  magical powers by manipulating imaginary forces you laugh at them and walk away.

The Never Ending School

My biggest beef with karate schools is that there is no ending. Don't get me wrong I love learning. I've made it an essential and enjoyable activity in my life, but if you're teaching a skill at some point the teaching needs to stop and people need to start thinking for themselves.

At any school, academy, college or university, there are classes and one takes them to learn a skill. Once the skill is learned, the classes stop. It's possible to carry this very far until one receives their PHD or equivalent degree, but then the formal instruction ends and self learning begins. This is reasonable.

A karate school on the other hand does not operate on this premise. A karate school is designed to make the students attend classes for as long as they are able. It's not uncommon for people that have been studying karate for 20-30 years to still attend classes on a weekly basis. All the kata have been learned and hopefully the applications have been learned but they keep showing up. In the context of a social activity this is awesome. In the context of learning a skill this is terrible.In any other skill if you've been taking classes for 20-30 years and still need to attend classes regularly than you suck. Have you ever heard of anyone taking piano lessons for 30 years? Probably not. They might study for 30 years, but they aren't paying their music teacher for that entire time.

It's possible for a karate student who has trained for a couple of decades to be more competent and more knowledgeable in karate than his instructors and still be paying those instructors for classes. I call this a scam. Like having your chakras realigned by a crystalagist every week to keep your chi flowing.

A person shouldn't have to practice karate for four years just to start learning. It takes five years to master a single kata and two years at the most to become competent in that kata.Why spend four years learning what amounts to dance routines and then spend the rest of your life trying to train out all the bad habits you picked up in those four years.

Karate is a concrete skill. It is physics, anatomy and movement combined to cause harm or prevent it. It is nothing more than that.

Designed for sport

When I first started training in karate, I studied at a very traditional dojo run by Doug Perry. We had two classes of kata per week, one weapons class and a kumite class. Basic 3K karate meaning kata, kihon and kumite. It's the basic template for most traditional dojo. Traditional dojo usually try and set themselves apart from "modern" karate, the type of freestyle martial arts, which is more about stunt choreography and showmanship than practical technique, by advertising as not being a sport. The focus is on personal development, or spiritual growth.

I accepted this to be the case, because my sensei said so. I didn't really have any reason to not trust this because I hadn't done the research. The more research I do however leads me to believe that classical karate was intentionally changed and made more superficial to fit into a sporting format for recreation. This I believe is what gave rise to what we usually refer to as traditional karate or post WWII karate.

For a martial skill to be useful or practical it needs to be simple, easily deploy-able and effective. This can be supplied fairly easily. Think of police or military training. It doesn't take twenty years to train a soldier or a policeman. It can take a few months at the very least.

Traditional karate fills none of these criteria. It's techniques can be simple, but because of the sheer number of named techniques knowing the correct circumstance to use any specific technique is almost impossible. It's why you see karateka windmilling and losing their technique when pressed. It's not that they don't know any techniques, it's because they know too many. It's not easily deploy-able because it takes years and years of training to even become competent. How long does it take to master traditional karate. Probably 50 years. If you start at 30 years old you'll be able to successfully defend yourself by age 80. The failure of these two criteria make it not very effective.

When looked at from a sporting perspective, traditional karate makes a lot of sense.

Kata is used as performance art. Only a very superficial understanding of the kata is necessary. It's possible to win kata tournaments and have no idea what any of the movements mean. The number of kata available to a person is firmly in the double digits. This allows for extended years of practice just learning the patterns of these kata. It also offers a handy way to separate people into subsequent rankings. Kata 1-5 are beginner kata, kata 6-10 are intermediate kata and kata 11-15 are advanced kata. This basically ensures that a person can't compete if they only know one kata, no matter how good or competent they may be at it.

Kihon then becomes the artificial links that supposedly bind all the kata together, but they more importantly serve as the watered down list of techniques allowed in competition. Notice all the dangerous techniques that are designed to end a violent confrontation immediately are not among the basics, even though putting down an opponent is the entire point of karate.

Kumite is obviously the most sport like of all the aspects, but it can be ignored in some traditional dojo as if not participating in one event makes them more practical even though they participate in the performance art.

We're left with a sport that can be enjoyed by young and old. This makes it rather wonderful for recreation. When you're young you play tag, when you get older you perform kata and when you get even older you enjoy karate in a more internal way, and there's a handy rank structure to keep everything tidy and organized (for the most part). There's nothing wrong with this.

This is perfect for sport, but terrible for practical application.

Bunkai Wizards

Two gi clad men face each other. One punches and the other unleashes a torrent of locks and strikes ending with a throw performed with a flourish.

I see it all the time on YouTube channels. Someone else coming out with their own interpretation of kata. There's nothing wrong with this. I love that people are thinking more about kata, but the applications still have to be good.

I call these people bunkai wizards. I call them this because they seem to pull techniques from thin air without regards to structure, physics or an uncooperative opponent. All while disregarding each kata's individual combat strategies. It always looks good in the video because the other person must stand still after the first jab and wait for the person demonstrating to rain down holy hell on them.

If the technique works than the person being demonstrated on shouldn't have to hold still. They should be actively trying to make the technique fail. If the technique still works than it's a good technique. Think of a simple punch. Does an opponent need to be ignorant of what a punch is for you to crack his head open? No, they just need to be open. It's even okay if they know you're going to punch as long as they can't stop you from connecting.

The applications I see usually have too many steps, have points of failure and rely on specific responses from the opponent. As a general rule one should strive to put a person down in three movements. Not three techniques, three movements. The best case scenario is not having to take action at all, but a close runner up is just one movement.

Every movement/ technique should end a conflict immediately if done correctly. This includes escape.

Offensive foot work

Seisan, like many kata, includes offensive footwork. Every step forward should send your shin, knee and foot into the leg of the opponent. This same movement also generates the power for the hand movements of the kata. These movements are used in conjunction to attack the opponent from above and below simultaneously.

Besides injuring your opponent, it also increases the chances of off balancing him and creating an opening for a strike, throw or trip that could end the confrontation.

Fighting distance

Seisan kata is an in-fighting system. It's techniques really start to shine when you're close enough to hug someone. I sometimes say it's the distance of your shoulder to your elbow or your hip to your kneecap when in sumo stance. Others might say that it's fighting within clinching range.

Outside of this range most of the techniques become worthless. It's because of this that one must intimately know their own fighting range and stick to a strategy that highlight's it's strengths. Seisan is not a passive kata. It charges in and grinds people up, so staying this close is in keeping with it's strategy and strengths.

By the numbers

The way most people are taught techniques is through memorizing applications to counter specific attacks. Someone punches and you block, someone grabs your lapel and you perform lapel break number 4, someone grabs your lapel with his little finger out and you perform lapel break number three, someone has their wrist bent at a 30 degree angle and you hold your mouth just right and then you can perform wrist lock number 47. This is basically a list and a list is not art. Art has to do with creativity.

Having a response plan for every little circumstance is like having a stack of paint-by-numbers kits. You can paint a lion or a landscape, but it doesn't make you an artist, because it doesn't teach you to be creative. It teaches you to fill in the boxes with the right colors.

An artist takes his brushes and his brush techniques and applies them to an empty canvas to create something new. Will it be wonderful the first time, probably not, but he's still flexing those creative muscles in his brain. This is how karate techniques should be used. They are not used to combat specific situations. They are used to combat general situations by the application of principles, but they need to be used creatively. This is achieved through creative practice.

Creative practice is allowing a person to experiment with the techniques. They are no longer answers to specific questions, they are tools used to accomplish a task just like the painter's brush. Instead of drawing a picture you're learning to take someone out.

A laundry list is not art, creative expression of ideas is art. Karate is an art, not a list.

Every action has a weakness

Every technique, movement, action has a weakness, an opening that is created because of its very nature and physics.

A choke for example usually requires a person to use both of their limbs leaving most of their body unprotected including the highly sensitive testicles. A crushing grip and a tug like you're starting a lawnmower will give many people incentive to let go.

Punches leave you unprotected on one side, kicks leave you standing on one leg, locks can be easily countered if they are unsupported by the ground, a car or a wall. Everything has a weakness. Guard the head and you leave the kidneys, liver, solar plexus and floating ribs vulnerable on the torso. Even the way you stand has weaknesses. Squat down low and you can stop a line backer from the side, but a baby to your front could tip you over without much effort.

It's important to be aware of the weaknesses of each type of technique and to use those weaknesses as the basis for your counter attack. The opponent will basically be telling you where to attack. He attacks high and you attack low, he moves left and you move right. This is sometimes called fighting the void or fighting emptiness. You go to where your opponent isn't.

One of the advantages of training in a set amount of techniques is that you can become very aware of your own openings and take advantage of them by having prepared responses to close those gaps. You'll know what the opponent is going to do because you give him no other option.


Know where the weaknesses are and you'll always have an opening.

A small lesson in body mechanics

The elbow is a hinge joint and one of the best points to gain leverage against another person. It's also one of the biggest mistakes I see people make when i watch limb control videos.

For reference when I refer to below or above the elbow, I'm using the anatomical position as a point of reference. This is a person standing erect with head forward and palms facing forward.

There are two ways to control the elbow and the way you do it depends on whether you are inside or outside of an opponent's attack. Being inside of attack is like being hugged. You are between the attackers arms. Being outside is the opposite. You are outside of the attackers arms.

If you are outside of the attack you want to push above the elbow moving the arm across the opponent's body. This will twist the spine very easily and compromise their structure. It will also block off an attack from the opponent's other arm. Being below the elbow on the outside is very dangerous. The arm can bend leading to a nasty elbow into your face. With control above the elbow this isn't possible. This also has the added benefit of accomplishing defense and unbalancing at one time in what can just be one move.

If you are inside of an attacker, one must control the arm below the elbow on the forearm. It isn't a very good leverage point when used in this way, but it keeps the arm from bending around your defenses and attacking you with any number of strikes.

A quick review.

Above the elbow on the outside.

Below the elbow on the inside.

What you need to learn karate

The answer is simple.

A kata, patience and hard work.

The masters of old would study a single kata for years to study every small detail so that they could use it to brutally breakdown an opponent should they be called upon to do so. Understand that many old karate men were brawlers, bodyguards and police. They practiced in their yards or behind closed doors in the middle of the night wearing normal clothes and learning through patience and diligence.

In Gichin Funakoshi's autobiography, he explains how they never even received instruction on what the movements meant. They only practiced, practiced and practiced some more.

This is all that is necessary.

The reason you don't hear this being offered as a viable option from karate instructors is because they have a conflict of interest. Mastering a single kata takes years, mastering multiple kata takes decades. Karate instructors make the bulk of their money off tuition fees and belt testing. Without several kata they would soon run out of things to test and once a student mastered the kata there would be little reason to keep paying the instructor. With ranks, multiple kata and the idea that it takes a life time to master karate, they can keep students paying for decades.

Kata the Scales of Destruction

In music one practices scales for several reasons. Muscle memory, dexterity, technique, theory, ear and tune, but most importantly because they are the building blocks of music. Kata is much the same way.

A single kata is a scale. It contains the notes and the order of the notes to be most effective and it can be used to practice many of the same skills as in music, muscle memory, timing, dexterity and so forth. One practices the kata to get better, but kata is not conflict just as scales are not music no matter how sweet they sound. It is an exercise. Like scales the notes or movements of the kata once understood are used in creative and sometimes spontaneous ways to defeat an opponent. This doesn't apply only to the order of perceived "techniques" but the motions of the techniques as well. It's the principles that are important.

Also like scales, each individual kata stands on it's own. While there is overlap in technique between each kata, because each kata is a complete and integrated fighting system each has it's own strategies, which may or may not work together just as one cannot take a C scale and A scale and shove sections together and expect it to be melodic, while one can readily mix up the sections of a single scale and begin to play with making music.

This is where one starts making the departure from exercise into art. Technique is not art, the creative use of technique is art.

Principles and Strategy

I've been thinking a lot about the principles and strategy of Seisan. Use your body weight to power attacks, use both hands, attack on multiple levels, control the head, strike to disrupt and fight the void are some of the general principles of the kata.

It's a little easier to name principles than strategy because the principles of Seisan align with the principles of many karate kata. The strategy of the kata is a little trickier. From what I can tell the strategy is to unbalance the opponent with direct hand and foot patterns and then throw violently to the ground. Basically, disrupt, unbalance, throw violently could be called the overall strategy of the kata as I practice it.

First you must disrupt the opponent's actions, whether that be an attack or just movement to make sure that the opponent cannot cause damage. The next part is to unbalance the attacker in some way to ensure that they cannot continue the attack and to set up the throw. Once the opponent is unbalanced they are thrown violently to the ground.

It's important to understand the strategy of Seisan because we want to practice goal oriented karate. It's not enough or prudent to know a handful of disjointed techniques if we don't know what they are meant to achieve or how they work together than they are just a list, not a tool and definitely not art.

Kata a book written in motion

Kata at it's heart is an instruction manual. A book that tells us through movement how to potentially protect ourselves.

Listen to what your kata is telling you.

Goal Oriented Karate

It's always important to keep in mind while you're training what you are training for. The goal of karate should be self protection. There are other benefits to practicing karate, but they are not what karate is for in the classical sense. Repeat after me.

Karate is for self protection.
Karate is not for fighting.

When we generically think of a physical confrontation, we might think about two guys, because it's always guys, squaring off toe to toe and beating each others brains out. People that stay in the fight as long as they can must be showing their commitment and heart. I mean who doesn't like Rocky? But wait, Rocky is a fight and we're talking about self protection.

Every single karate technique you practice should have the ability to end the fight immediately. This is either through escape or physical damage that allows you to escape. If someone has a grip on you a disrupting blow, something that distracts them, can be enough to get free and get running.


It might not be popular in our fantasy culture, but the point is to remain unharmed and able to go about your day, not pick fights.

Of course the best way to stay out of trouble, is not to be there.

Keep this in mind while you're training.

The Pajama Factor

My wife and I are watching a martial arts demonstration. Two people wearing gi with hakama inside a beautiful dojo with shrines on the wall and polished hardwood floors. They turn gracefully and one slams the other to the ground in a spectacular throw.

She turns to me and says, "This is kind of like LARPing."

For those of you who don't know LARPing is Live Action Role Playing. It's usually something reserved for those dressing up as orcs and paladins and other such characters from dungeons and dragons who whack the crap out of each other with foam weapons.

"They're participating in a cultural heritage," I say.
"I guess," she says and she turns her attention back to the demonstration.

She does have a point. The clothing and decoration of the dojo is inconsequential to the caliber of the martial arts being taught. It's just as easy to practice kata in shorts and a t-shirt than it is to practice in a gi. It's still the same kata.

In some ways the clothing legitimizes the techniques or the practice in some way. The other day someone said to me "I thought you did karate without shoes?" As if being barefoot was essential to performing karate techniques.

One expects the expert to look a certain way for some reason. If the uniform isn't covered in patches than it should be plain, but old and tattered from hard use, a different kind of decoration.

It's hard to tell sometimes where the cultural heritage ends and the fantasy begins. Whether it is respect or infatuation. I think most of the time what is being sold as martial arts is just a role playing game.

Multifunctional-Compound Movements

Like many karate kata, each movement in Seisan can have multiple applications. Many movements can be translated into strikes, blocks, unbalancing movements, limb entanglement, limb clearing, joint locks, chokes and throws/ take downs. Almost every movement contains these qualities. Some movements emphasis striking, others locking and others unbalancing and throwing, but they still have all the parts. Because of these aspects all of these actions can more or less be performed at the same time.

Take the first repeated opening sequence in the kata. In most styles this is some sort of outside middle "block" followed my a middle thrust of some sort. In the version I practice one explodes forward in sumo stance. If one is within the fighting distance of Seisan, which is about the distance from your chest to your elbow for maximum effectiveness one has the opportunity to strike the opponent about four times before the thrust. Twice with the "prepatory movement of the block" generally one fist at head height one fist at belly height and one fist is pulled back while the other snaps upward. The prepatory movement intercepts and sweeps out of the way any incoming straight attack, striking the limbs, if the technique is unobstructed this becomes an uppercut to the neck with a simultaneous punch to the solar plexus, which is followed by a back fist as the lower hand snaps upward. At the same time the leg is exploding forward into the sumo stance and strikes at the person's feet, ankle, shin and knee. The strikes to the head and legs should work to unbalance the opponent and the following thrust can be a punch/ push that can send the opponent toppling over.

The beauty of these types of movements is that if one aspect fails or is unsuccessful the entire movement doesn't fail because there are other aspects of the movement that can still succeed. One also doesn't have to think about the movement to accomplish this. If the distancing is correct and the proper body mechanics are used than one need only deploy the movement without regard for what the other person is doing.

 These types of movements allow the kata practitioner to respond in a non diagnostic way to sudden violence, while maximizing the chances that a technique will land.

Happy training.