Karate and Self Defense: We Test Common Scenarios 

I loved this video! Amazing from start to finish. Karate was always designed to be for civilian self defense and it should be practiced that way. Thank you so much for sharing.

Whenever boys at my school find out I do karate, they think it's necessary to try and catch me off guard but I always end up blocking their weak punches thanks to what I've learned from sensai Zoë and sensai Ché🤗😂thank you for everything!💖

Under high stress, we default to simple techniques, and in most situations, simple is good enough (and good enough is all we need... perfect might happen if we're lucky, but luck is not a good strategy!) Great video!

Thank you for this video - what an amazing channel! I changed clubs a few weeks ago and my new one places emphasis on self defence techniques. The sensei shows us common situations and defences to try out (and where they fit in the kata if appropriate). He then also gives us time to 'try stuff out' i.e. see if we can find other defences and ways out of the situations. It's a fantastic way of learning

Ok this video was amazing! I need to comment on your other videos as well but this one is one of your best videos ever. Fantastic!

I have to say, this is probably the most practical Karate demonstration I have seen in a long time, perhaps ever. It really strips out the budo bullshit and actually applies principles and concepts which I would guess 80-95% of most budo oriented schools fail to actually do. Karate was always primarily a self defense system, but it has been very watered down over the years. The only real statement that I disagree with is that you cannot teach self defense in a short period of time (in this case 6 weeks). While it is not ideal to teach a self defense course in that amount of time, it is certainly achievable to teach a student enough self defense to get them by for probably the majority of situations. It primarily depends on the amount of hours, not the length of time; If I only have a person for 1-2 hours a week, then that statement would be correct. I would not be able to teach an acceptable level of self defense in 6-12 hours. However, If I were to have the student for ~30 hours, then yes, I could teach you enough of the basics to give a good fundamental basis for very basic self defense. Obviously maintaining your skill set is a must and you won't retain the information very long with about 30 hours of practice, but yes, you can certainly teach enough of the basics within that time. William Fairbairn successfully achieved this during WWII while teaching allied troops close quarter combatives. His time in was approximately 30 hours and it was very noticeable throughout the military how effective it was, especially when they primarily looked at the spies they taught this course to. It should be noted that self defense is much more than just combatives, such as situational awareness; however, when most people talk about self defense, that is often what they are referring to, just the combatives part.

Che (after slapping Brian without warning): "You need to block it" (great great video, I love it, and frankly one of the best self defense videos I ever see. It's great how you explain clearly why something could work or not and why in real life). Poor Brian tho (but what a great place to learn)

Wish everyone made blooper reals. Learned a lot. I know people say you can't learn defence from watching RU-vid. Maybe partly true coz you need a life partner with resistance but most of the time in a class there are so many people and little time dedicated to techniques and you end up learning less. Also you figure out quickly what works and doesn't and you are not limited to one style. Awesome videos

Absolutely loved this proper hands on karate self defence

Another great video. Thank you to the whole team. Well done Junior on getting the assistant director gig. I really enjoyed it. It is important to tell your audience that these things have to be practiced over and over to work. I loved Zoë Sensei's analogy that you can't train once for a marathon that you have no set date but one day you'll run that race. Self defence is daily training and finding new and better ways to defend yourself. We are also constantly in a state of awareness. I feel most people who are not South Africans don't really know how we live in fear every day. Violence against woman is way too common to. I do believe with martial arts we can combat violence against woman by teaching our young men how to be calm in themselves, how to see a potential threat against their females in their lives and how to react. Also for our young ladies how to avoid situations and how to protect themselves and leave a situation or even a bad relationship. I do truly believe martial arts helps with building stronger minds .

Ahhhhh, the “ Trinity Slap Game”😂😂😂😂- That had me laughing so hard I had to stop the video;)! Brian is like “ I just can’t WIN! “😁👊🏻Reality can hurt;)! It’s like watching a Master Ken video, except Brian REALLY gets it. I think Brian and Todd would have a lot to commiserate together 😜😉. This video makes some very good points, and I’m grateful for such a direct approach to the subject matter, LOLS aside;). Thank you , all, for what you share, and how you share, and your love and devotion to the art of karate! Take care, be safe, and keep your humor!

Thank you for the wonderful videos. They are very informative and dovetail greatly into my training and help me immensely. Your teaching styles are awesome Thanks again

I was training for the first time with a new instructor and he had me kneel in front of another student within striking distance and block his slaps and pokes. For about a minute the dude was piecing me up 98% of the time . When we got done he asked me what was going wrong . I said something like "I'm not reacting fast enough". He said "What's going on is you were dumb enough to get into striking range and try to block things. Anybody gets that close you need to move or hit them first, nobody is that fast!" . Drills like that are still great though , and yes, I can't get away with them with most my students either, ha ha.. That's for the hardcore, closed door classes .

ok... a lot to say about this video... 1. WOW! great information and presentation, this will def be recommended as watch material for everyone i know 2. amazing presentation on cons and pros of different techniques 3. love how you tried to show that what is usually presented 'in main stream' is not how it really works outside the dojo 4. i loved the onscreen comments! those are very important 5. i feel a bit sorry for Brian tbh, he did got a good beating there XD

Ohayo! Yet another 'bottler!' from GRKC crew. When i was 14, one of my dojo mentors gave me a copy of 'The Importance of Living' by Lin, Yutang (highly recommended). Lin defines the Chinese concept of wisdom as 'Funny bone, Back bone, Wish bone'... realism, idealism and humour; take away any one and you lack a viable template for a sane and sustainable way of 'being in the world'. The GRKC ethos and praxis perfectly represents this idea. There's a metaphor implicit in authentic/classical karate's insistence on drilling beginners in stance work... training must be 'grounded' in the reality of violence; built from the ground up, if you will. Something i learned working doors for 15 years is that self-defense is an ANAEROBIC event. Too many 'reality based' McDojo ignore this fact and do zero anaerobic drilling. Ché Sensei nails it... you've gotta be able to hit hard, fast and continuously (i.e. explosively; fajin/hakke)IN AN ANAEROBIC STATE until they stop moving. Goju kata are the perfect training vehicle for this, and this is why its worth studying/drilling the specific breathing rhythms of the various kaishu kata. Thanks, as always, for (yet another) great gift from Senseis Ché n Zoë, and Brian and Claire. Wish you guys had been around in the 70's... would have preempted me wasting much time pursuing folly down too many deadends.

The first time I've missed deadline in many, many months! We originally filmed just under 90 minutes of content for this (extended version for members going out soon!) Plus the sheer amount of footage required hours to render and export. My poor little laptop is having a break now. Thank you for your patience for this upload - we hope you will enjoy it 🙇🏻‍♀️

Love this stuff. I teach pragmatic karate and we need more channels and videos dedicated to it. I often find that sport karate filters out the real self defense based system.

I think you have just made my most super favourite video of yours. Thanks everyone ❤️

Min 21:30: that's why i watch all your videos, thx so much!

Good stuff guys! I like the direction you are going with your karate.

finally a 1 hr video on practical karate applications.

very good applications. I must admit that I don`t practice Goju- Ryu but Matsubayashi-Ryu, but I love this honorable ryuha. The first movement from Saifa always intriguied me: Now I have a good, practical bunkai for this. Thank you, Sensei 🙇🏽‍♂🙇🏽‍♂ 15:22 - 15:25.

Great advice! Thx for your fantastic work and reetings from Cologne 😊

Practical, scientific and utilizing TMA bunkai. Dang, plus I got to watch a Matthew McConaughey commercial! Well done.

Also, I loved the collaboration! Well done!

Don't get set into one system, develop your own and let it grow- Bruce Lee. Thank you for the video.

Love this!

Love the They call me Trinity Reference.

Awesome video. For I am a Krav Maga practitioner and these are the concepts we teach many kids and women.

Well said, with common sense!

Much wisdom and great fun. Brian [uchi deshi] is very fortunate! Terry.

Self-defence is really misunderstood, especially in karate that is taught today. We're told to get away, walk away if we can, and one old-school karate guy who never really fought anyone (he was a lower school teacher who wrote great books) said 'there's no first strike in karate"....which is utter rubbish because one gives up the massive tactical advantage of a pre-emptive strike by allowing the antagonist to act first then try to react to defend one-self, and the chances of that working as planned is so far lower - couple that with the idea of pulling your punches - the average karate student is set up to fail in a self-defence scenario from the beginning. But as the great street fighter Geoff Thompson explained in his great non-fiction novel "Watch My Back", one must think defensively but act offensively, the state of mind, the psychology of setting up before a conflict begins, is paramount to victory (everything Sun Tzu, and Musashi said) and you put up a "fence", if the antagonist breaches the fence twice, you should initiate the attack. That works for two men arguing.....but I always taught my daughter that she should react if the guy walks within 4m of her and show no signs of side-stepping or adverting his gaze - and get ready to use her training (her BJJ newaza and muy Thai boxing gloved strikes are less than useful btw, in self defense we use the sharp end first, ie,our fingers). By the time the person is within 2 ft and is reaching out to grab you, if by that point you've not already mentally and physically gotten ready to attack him then you've failed 50% of the encounter. Also taught her to put aside her BJJ training for a minute, the best way is to grab the fingers and dislocate them immediately (Higaonna style) unfortunately she does that really well, and taught her to suddenly go for the Adam's apple which to my dismay she did, very proficiently on me which incapacitated me for a few minutes in the middle of breakfast one day, and to head-butt which she does if I try to hug her at her school... fortunately since I wear glasses, the poke in the eye was never attempted..but so I know these things work on her unsuspecting father anyway, whenever there's an element of surprise involved. She also used to do a very good kin-geri at 6 years old, but since her Muy Thai she seems to have forgotten as I haven't been on the receiving end of that for many years. To my point, small things like leaning to not telegraph your intentions with your eyes and body language really matters, the element of surprise really helps, hesitation is the enemy. The ability to act in a coherently destructive manner but in an instinctively manner is crucial. At the end of the day, self defense begins with our state of mind, followed by our physical state, and techniques. I believe in Karate it's called Shingitai. As I watched Sensei Che and Zoe's video I could not help but agree and approve greatly with their approach to teaching self-defence - techniques were fast, simple, attacks were targeted at eyes and other weak spots taking into account the chaos of conflict and capitalising on surprise. This is certainly a good video to start with on the topic of self-defence.

Hello sensei , can you make video about takedowns in Goju - ryu style please? I'm practising Meibukan Goju-ryu style. I sent you greetings from Czech republic. May the karate spirit and strenght be with you. Thank you for your great videos about kata and bunkai. I'm very grateful to you

I'm following your videos with great interest! Thank for your teaching and your professionality. It was cool to see that you like Bud Spencer and Terence Hill🙂

Great video...Brian.I feel for you!! See You in October 2022

Love it

Thank you for this, do you also have a defence against knife in your chanel? I find the techniques in this video is very useful and realistic.

I really wish there were more adult classes especially in today’s society martial arts helps me to be calm and have self awareness and self control as well as self respect and respect for others I feel if more adults were taking karate taekwondo etc things would be more calm in our society

Very good practical and quick is necessary -realistic use of bunkai . Lain aberthney is the master of bunkai for practical use . The British urban ciombatives lee Morrison takes it the extreme

Great comment karate is for Life not for a belt Or To meet a short tem Goal.

Legal. Uma curiosidade. Quais as diferenças do Goju Ryu para o Shorin Ryu e Uechi Ryu ? Pois ambos são oriundos de Okinawa e com influências chinesas.

Tasers, pepper spray and other 'self defence' items are banned in the UK, as are knives and guns (though that doesn't stop the bad guys from carrying them). As alluded to at the beginning, even self defence can get one into trouble with the law if deemed to be unreasonable force. The law can sometimes weigh more heavily on the victim should they inflict serious injury on an attacker. But as said better to disable an attacker and get away and think about repercussions later than to become seriously injured or worse.

Oss..Thank you

You forgot to re-stomp the groin! :)

That's great really

Respected sensei I have seen your videos and am quite impressed with your Bunkai and explanation. Hoshang Batliwala Goju ryu Shobukan India 🇮🇳

Terence Hill and Bud Spencer- classic.

Good video overall, I agree in most of the teaching involved specially because some techniques are actually the real best technique in that scenario. However I have to disagree on two scenarios that where taught in a highlight. 1) I'm glad the male blackbelt was fast to acknowledge and point out that the grappling community had far more and better insights on defense against chokes like Rear Nacked Choke and still provided some good insight himself, but there was one big bad advice given by the female black belt and that was "BITE THE ARM". Weather it is under or over the clothing I think anyone that has grappled before not even for too long can say that it would not work at all, specially if it is over the clothing. Someone trying to apply that choke in real life with real intent will apply all possible force over your open mouth and let me tell you the pain is excruciating for you and you will end up being asfixiated, with a broken jaw, or both.. maybe worse. DO NOT TRY THAT. 2) Gun defense. This video is making the big, common and absurd mistake that gun defense is about "beating the bullet speed". Gun defense is actually very real but goes way more in depth than just applying a "flashy technique", for the technique to work the technique has to be trained in multiple realistic scenarios and under real stress, and not just that but you have to know exactly when and what specific technique to use given the variables and how to strategically and safely close distance in case you dont have it. Also and more importantly you have to be able to either eliminate the mind connection of the agressor from the trigger finger or wait for a moment where that happens on it's own given the situation to be able to execute at proper time. I guess some degree of psicology, acting and negotiation skills is incorporated as well. Better said SURPRISE, SPEED & VIOLENCE OF ACTION (how they teach in the military, of course that comes after proper training). To reinforce this, they wouldn't teach weapon retention to law enforcement and military personnel if weapon disarms where ineffective or unreal. And to highlight, the martial arts training given to the military is just the little bit that they will be able to use for specific known possible situations, in contrast civilians do not know what they could encounter and that is why they must train for these scenarios as well. The best and most logical option is always to give up and surrender whatever material goods you are being asked for, but it is a whole different story when either you somehow know that wont be enough to stop them from shooting or what is being ask for is actually for kidnapping you or your loved ones, or anything that includes great bodily harm or death of others. Most of these encounters happens on an up close and personal space where you are able to execute a disarming technique specially if you are the TRAINED victim that happens to be held as a hostage for example. It has been recorded multiple times where active shooters have been disarmed sometimes by people with no training at all, imagine if people actually had the training under their sleeve.🤯 That is my insight. Nothing we train will ever go to perfection when we mostly need it, but we surely train to be closer to it... Gun/weapons defense is not the exception.

Absolutely brilliant. Poor Brian. Lol

11:29 "This is why all the deshis have children with blue eyes"😂😂😂😂😭😭😭😂😭😂😭😂😭😂😭😂

Agreed.

Rather a little late. Our apologies, Hope it’s meaningful Che

The best part of this was Bud Spencer and Terence Hill !!!

True karate!!

I love this first but do need to comment on those interested in self defense aspects of martial arts. First off, practicing your kata, no matter what your mind set is with how much intensity you put into it, has absolutely no impact on learning self defense. You need full contact sparring and full out grappling. You need to be physically fit enough and be able to physically and psychologically handle chaotic and violent aggression. People who will then try to say that the techniques are far too dangerous don't have any actual experience in self defense pr combat. In the military not even our elite special forces members are training by shooting live ammunition at each other and using actual explosives on each other. Simulations and drills combined with live fire exercises and training done in intense and demanding yet controlled and "safe" environment (as safe as can be) are how they prepare for combat. In short, if you wish to learn how to fight, you must fight.

Brian lives…… a little, Deshi Life Hard Life He is growing in leaps and bounds

👌👍👏

Another little stream into my pond.

Why bite with a jacketed arm and no bite with a bare arm?

Is it possible to learn karate from videos if I know nothing.

Poor Brian

The best defense against a gun is a quicker draw and a better shot.....with another gun.

I have found that it is only bad advice if it doesn't work. I have found that most of the situations trained are not really actual situations that would occur in real life. Also, the only way to get good at it is to train it. Also, if you want to be good at real and actual SD you have to train real and good self-defense. Most don't. Plus, in today's world placing your hands on someone gets you put in jail. Even the defender goes to jail where I live, this I know for a fact. Today's world promotes weakness and bending to the bully.

Great stuff, I studied Shotokan karate for a long time and there is a lot of completely impractical crap being taught. My only criticism of this video is that there are a few techniques being demonstrated that rely on knowing exactly what attack is coming e.g. pre-empting a neck grab. Add in the adrenaline dump and tunnel vision that comes with a physical attack, this simply isn't practical even for someone who drills these techniques unless it is massively telegraphed. Otherwise though, great work, keep it up.

Goju a day keeps the doctor away.

El uke se mosqueó xDD con los tortazos

Poor Brain. Punching for Chá!

You can hit back Brian...Che man come on