Thanks for the comments, Evan and Guird. My feeling from having studied
these techniques for many years is that they’re not really intended to be
standalone techniques but rather are in the philosophy of kata techniques.
Individual segments are useful, and the point is that if for some reason
you find yourself in one of the postures you have additional tools in your
repertoire to draw from.
As an example, take the kick defense techniques. I don’t know about you,
but when I’m sparring with someone that does a heavy-kick martial art like
Tae Kwon Do, I will just by instinct grab their kicks using techniques very
close to what is shown in the Kobo Godan series, particularly catching
under the knee while moving in with a sideways slide, so practicing the
followup takedown is critical. I recall back to my very first sparring
match where I accidentally did such a catch, but simply didn’t know what to
do next — like kata, these train you with a reasonably effective follow up
technique to a specific starting position.
If you’d like my somewhat informed opinion, with the style of sparring that
Shotokan and Kyokushin use where you’re always moving in or around
diagonally from medium range, the specific techniques that I actually find
myself using in practice are:
Kobo Shodan #2, but likely skipping the elbow strike to the ribs and moving
straight to the throw.
Kobo Shodan #3, but following up with kicking their head as they go down.
Kobo Yodan #4 all the time, it’s a very straightforward and fast throw.
Kobo Yodan #5 is surprisingly easy to do with practice, and accomplishes a
shihonage lock very quickly from a safe location (always outside the body).
Kobo Godan #2 is a safe way to catch a front kick, and makes the takedown
very simple from the outside of the body.
Kobo Godan #3 is what I find happens more often by instinct in sparring, so
while the attack position is less safe, it’s good to have something to do.
Kobo Godan #4 is also common for catching a kick, and keeps your distance
while throwing at the knee. It’s tricky to pull off because a skilled
opponent will immediately attempt to turn in order to keep you from
breaking her knee. But if you’re fast and immediately turn the stance to
sweep it works.
Kobo Godan #5 only works with great speed in my experience, since the
person who was just caught will almost certainly be flailing with their
arms to try to keep you from hurting them in that situation.
Again, I’m only a student of Sensei Tabata, so this is only my opinion. But
I don’t think you should treat these techniques as intended to be a
monolithic response but rather as a way to learn the joints in the body and
how to use them, and to train specific techniques at proper range so that
if you do end up in that position your reflexes are properly trained. The
above list is my favorite of the bunch — I have never seriously
considered using the kick-defense based Kobo Nidan and Kobo Sandan
techniques against a trained opponent. On the other hand, I have had
instances where I am in a situation that moves smoothly into the finishing
techniques of Kobo Sandan #4 or #5.
It’s also worth noting that many of these techniques flow with the Shotokan
kata techniques very nicely in some cases. To paraphrase Musashi, “this
requires investigation”.
well, spinning techniques have a place in a few situations, you can see
spinning back kicks, high ura mawashi geri, and spinning backfists score in
mixed martial arts as well as karate competitions. they’re just fairly
difficult, and suitable for very few situations.
the first one will get you knocked out if your opponent knows what they’re
doing :/ you leave the entire right side of your face open, your stance
facing you away from your opponent (rendering one of your hands useless.
seriously, if they follow that oi tsuki with pretty much any technique from
the other hand, that’s it.
And once you showed #5 you lost me. Never turn your back on your opponent.
Spinning techniques are simply intended to prevent blind positions with
some form of attack, and to train our body’s to react counterintuitive
There is a ton of jujitsu in here that might as well be to jujitsu matches
as throwing 1000 reverse punches is to karate sparring… It’s beautiful
and attainable but it cannot be learned by one step sparring alone…
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Thanks for the comments, Evan and Guird. My feeling from having studied
these techniques for many years is that they’re not really intended to be
standalone techniques but rather are in the philosophy of kata techniques.
Individual segments are useful, and the point is that if for some reason
you find yourself in one of the postures you have additional tools in your
repertoire to draw from.
As an example, take the kick defense techniques. I don’t know about you,
but when I’m sparring with someone that does a heavy-kick martial art like
Tae Kwon Do, I will just by instinct grab their kicks using techniques very
close to what is shown in the Kobo Godan series, particularly catching
under the knee while moving in with a sideways slide, so practicing the
followup takedown is critical. I recall back to my very first sparring
match where I accidentally did such a catch, but simply didn’t know what to
do next — like kata, these train you with a reasonably effective follow up
technique to a specific starting position.
If you’d like my somewhat informed opinion, with the style of sparring that
Shotokan and Kyokushin use where you’re always moving in or around
diagonally from medium range, the specific techniques that I actually find
myself using in practice are:
Kobo Shodan #2, but likely skipping the elbow strike to the ribs and moving
straight to the throw.
Kobo Shodan #3, but following up with kicking their head as they go down.
Kobo Yodan #4 all the time, it’s a very straightforward and fast throw.
Kobo Yodan #5 is surprisingly easy to do with practice, and accomplishes a
shihonage lock very quickly from a safe location (always outside the body).
Kobo Godan #2 is a safe way to catch a front kick, and makes the takedown
very simple from the outside of the body.
Kobo Godan #3 is what I find happens more often by instinct in sparring, so
while the attack position is less safe, it’s good to have something to do.
Kobo Godan #4 is also common for catching a kick, and keeps your distance
while throwing at the knee. It’s tricky to pull off because a skilled
opponent will immediately attempt to turn in order to keep you from
breaking her knee. But if you’re fast and immediately turn the stance to
sweep it works.
Kobo Godan #5 only works with great speed in my experience, since the
person who was just caught will almost certainly be flailing with their
arms to try to keep you from hurting them in that situation.
Again, I’m only a student of Sensei Tabata, so this is only my opinion. But
I don’t think you should treat these techniques as intended to be a
monolithic response but rather as a way to learn the joints in the body and
how to use them, and to train specific techniques at proper range so that
if you do end up in that position your reflexes are properly trained. The
above list is my favorite of the bunch — I have never seriously
considered using the kick-defense based Kobo Nidan and Kobo Sandan
techniques against a trained opponent. On the other hand, I have had
instances where I am in a situation that moves smoothly into the finishing
techniques of Kobo Sandan #4 or #5.
It’s also worth noting that many of these techniques flow with the Shotokan
kata techniques very nicely in some cases. To paraphrase Musashi, “this
requires investigation”.
well, spinning techniques have a place in a few situations, you can see
spinning back kicks, high ura mawashi geri, and spinning backfists score in
mixed martial arts as well as karate competitions. they’re just fairly
difficult, and suitable for very few situations.
the first one will get you knocked out if your opponent knows what they’re
doing :/ you leave the entire right side of your face open, your stance
facing you away from your opponent (rendering one of your hands useless.
seriously, if they follow that oi tsuki with pretty much any technique from
the other hand, that’s it.
counterintuitively. *
And once you showed #5 you lost me. Never turn your back on your opponent.
Spinning techniques are simply intended to prevent blind positions with
some form of attack, and to train our body’s to react counterintuitive
There is a ton of jujitsu in here that might as well be to jujitsu matches
as throwing 1000 reverse punches is to karate sparring… It’s beautiful
and attainable but it cannot be learned by one step sparring alone…
Outstanding form, and there are wonderful uses for this kind of study. Just
don’t get lost in studying without resistance…
本当の自己防衛として執行不能
you always have a great Kime sensei, greetings from Italy.
you always have a great Kime sensei, greetings from Italy.