The Functional Karate Revolution 

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Many people don't realize that karate in Okinawa was learned by students who had a wrestling/grappling foundation. If you read Funakoshi's Karate-Do, he talks about being very good at the local wresting that all the children and young people practiced as a form of sport. Modern karate is not being overlaid on this type of foundation. Practical karate needs to include more clinch work, with throws, holds/locks, and takedowns just as important as striking.

Since I started Karate again, after training BJJ for 8 years, I've found ways to tie in more functional practical techniques from Karate to my clinch work in Jiu-Jitsu/Judo. Even though both arts are different they both have similarities, if you look deep enough in the Katas.

Putting the martial back into martial arts with style, class and humility.

More Bunkai and drop point rules for more MMA type sparring. I realized after training in jiu-jitsu how much I was learning in the Kata's but they are not applied just learned. Bunkai is the application of the Kata. Karate is much more than kicking and punching but the sparring rules turn karetaka into point kick boxers ignoring about 80% of what you are learning in the Kata's.

This is exactly what my instructor has been doing for the past 3 years. Another good instructor for this is Iain Abernathy.

Mr.McCarthy is a genius and the greatest authority on Karate history and kata application.His understanding of the true essence of Karate is unmatched.We should be thankful for having such an individual among us.

They never should have strayed away from the practicality. It should be in the forefront of the mind of all karateka. It certainly has always been in my mind.

Yeah! I am on of those nerds!

Interesting video! It really makes you think. It reminds me of a story I was told by one of my karate classmates back in the 1990's. A young man from America went to Japan to learn Shotokan karate. He had practiced it for 15 years and wanted to know if what he knew was correct and effective. He arrived in Japan, went to a dojo, was accepted, and immediately started being corrected. He was allowed to ask one question. "What is the most practical, effective hand strike, or punch in karate?" Sensei thought about it for a minute, and extended his open hand with closed fingers. He then began to demonstrate the spear hand, knife hand from various angles, and to various targets, which opened the eyes of the student. Sensei used those attacks in rigorous sparring to great effect. Afterwards, covered in sweat he turned to the student and said "It's your turn". See what you can do with your open hand. I love that story!

i started Martial arts at the age of 9 with Judo and Shorin Ryu. Later I changed to Kung Fu, cos they teached fighting applications who were useful in real fight. On the long run I realized, that all the things I liked in Kung Fu are also inclouded in Karate Katas. In the 70ties Karate Dojos were not open minded. They hated other styles. Even diffent Karate Styles did'nt accept each other. I remember I got in big troubles cos I joined Kung Fu and Kickboxing also. Nowadays you can exchange and spar with everybody and I like this very much. We are on a point were we learn from each other and martial arts peoples become family.

Thank you for interviewing Sensei McCarthy. I started learning about him before I found your channel and I have always found his approach very refreshing. He has become a historian of karate like no other. But he does not gets stocked in the past. Of all his phrases, the one I find more inspirational is "The way to honor those who came before us is not by adoring the ashes they left behind, but by keeping alive the fire they lit"

A lot of the early Western practicioners of karate trained with the mindset of combat effectiveness. Harold Long, Pete Siringano,, Hank Slomanski, Frank Ruiz and Steve Armstrong were combat veterans of WW2 and Korea who knew how unpredictable combat situations could be and these people were not easily fooled by questionably effective techniques By the late 70s, instructors start to offer less violent, family-friendly schools and karate in the west began to lose its combat effectiveness. In Japan that decline began with the advent of sport karate, scoring points became more important than whether a technique would really work.

I enjoyed learning Karate and it's still my foundation, but I didn't really understand it's niche until competing in various wrestling rule sets and boxing rule sets and fencing rule sets. Once you have references then you can better frame a set. My "blocks" were not timed correctly until I started practicing with my college friends in Wing Chun, Isshin Ryu, Inosanto Lacoste, and Ilustrisimo through my University's martial arts club. Prior to this training my Goju Ryu was more about conditioning and calisthenics. Then after training with people who were going full speed with contact in our drills I realized my range and tempo were off which was why I couldn't apply my Goju Ryu at will once I got those things down my skills became I like magic, because they couldn't replicate what I was doing at will. Light contact is important, because it allows you not to fear being struck while drilling, and gives you self-control, but it must be done in range and tempo with proper transfer of momentum or it will become unworkable when really need to injure another. A good example would be standing jointlocks , which I couldn't reliablely do until I competed in Greco-Roman Wrestling in highschool. Literally one summer of wrestling made 10 years of Karate grabbing techniques useful and applicable. Karate is academics you learn many things, but often many schools lack the laboratories and apprenticeships that give meaningful context of applications, so many fail to understand and appreciate the usefulness of what they learn. Same thing with Kali applied to Karate that parrying strikes into locks was very irregular for me until college to gain control I used to clinch first before now I can go from the parries. Apply Karate just use all ranges in your sparring with light contact it keeps it safe while allowing potentially dangerous techniques.

Decades of experience, out of centuries of practical wisdom, boiled down into a healthy twenty minute brew. Thank you.

Thanks so much for this! Enlightening! 40+ years ago I began my karate journey under a JKA sensei. Now I have a better understanding of his "my way or the highway" teaching style.

Sensei Motubo Choki would be proud i believe that Karate is coming back to its fundamental theory as it was originally practiced in the homeland of Karate.

Always updated here in Philippines🇵🇭🥋

I look forward to your videos. It's great how you venture into all types of martial arts and share your experience in adapting to the differences. You are truly a person who is humble and knowledgeable.

This is both the evolution and de-evolution of Karate--Fantastic. Love to see this finally happening.

I like this rabbit hole you're headed down. First the mma kata and now this. Cool stuff. Keep exploring this path.

Thank you for this. Fantastic advice from Hanshi McCarthy. I love listening to him as he is so articulate and knowledgeable in his field. More please.

Ah, two of my most influential teachers in the same video! Especially in these times, keeping the applications in our mind and showing the intent behind every technique is an incredibly important part of our solo training. Thanks for the video Jesse-san! Illuminating as always!

Always an absolute pleasure to listen to Mr. McCarthy. Thank you.

You are a lucky man Jesse.It's an honour to have Patrick for a friend.He is simply one of the greatest Karate experts and historians of the 20/21st century.You nailed it with this one.Respect.

I can listen to a master all day every day... There is so much wisdom to appreciate!!!!

The passive resistance I learnt from Aikido. Working together using resistance when doing Kumite helps to understand kata so much more.

It's always a great honor to train with 2 awesome senseis Jesse Enkamp and legendary Patrick McCarthy. 🥋🥊👊🤛🤜

This mornings alignment of videos was no accident. Thank you again Jesse! I've been working so hard this year to build the beginning of something new for warrior lifestyle driven individuals. (Wow! I'm late in this global wave going on.) So far it's just a website domain and a journal book all hand written, but the more I click with and write down, the more I train and endure, the more I start to see the name and theme of whatever my heart is looking to find and give to this world of fellow warriors. This morning watching your videos, especially this one, has really cleared all my self doubts about what I'm working toward.

Thank you for the great video Sensei Pat and Sensei Jesse. My children and I started doing karate for self defense and we love it! We also love the practical application that we learn because it helps us understand what the moves mean and how they work. Be blessed. Juanita Kapp Queenstown SA

Great explanation of katas use and place in martial arts as well as combat sports! Back in the early days of MMA aka; NHB or Vale Tudo, straight blast gym (a sort of neo pure combat JKD style) with a BJJ approach to all systems. Identified that for a delivery system to fully work in theory and function. The practitioner needed to utilize the three (i)'s. 1.) Introduce the technique 2.) Isolate the technique into a drill 3.) Integrate it into various (agreed upon speeds of contact) that included, sparring, grappling rolling wrestling and or randori. I've made this my combat compass ever since.

Great video Jesse San I have been very blessed to spend time with Hanshi Patrick in Brisbane Australia amazing man and Freind. Training with Hanshi has really opened up my mind and made my love for Karate even stronger thanks mate.

Fantastic presentation. Thank you.

Amazing information!! I’m still a beginner and will be a novice for some time but these applications and Sensei Patrick’s knowledge is simply astounding!! I’m so excited to make Karate a part of my life . Sucks to have started so late but am glad I discovered it.

Fantastic work...You are making a difference... That's the way to go about with it...Bravo!

This is pure gold! A pleasure to listen to. 😊🙏😎👊

Hanshi McCarthy was so knowledgeable and I could listen to him for countless hours. May he rest in peace. 🙏

Love your vids. In our area, we have been taking kata and breaking down the moves within the kata and applying them to real world applications since tge 1980's...lol...yeah, im old!! I've been instructing for about 20 yrs. I still instruct the basics but we train for REAL world and use eye gouges and "soft" target training for self defense.

Surprised I missed this video! Excellent - Bunkai all the way!!!! Karate is a complete art that is waking up to its fullness!!!

I have the brown belt in goju ryu karate and I love your videos, there is always so much effort involved.

Thank you for sharing such a wonderful explanation. Lucky for us the internet has changed the face of how we are able to study, compare, and share Budo. Very inspiring and informative. It is truly appreciated.

Funny how you upload an interview with the author of bubishi the day i got the book recommended to me. Really good perspective on how bunkai should be practiced, particularly on how there are counters to it and counters to the counter.

Man, you give inspiration. I want to train like this.

Love this direction for karate and that people like you, Patrick McCarthy, and also Ian Abernathy are out there talking about this. My own karate school teaches striking, throws, and grappling for a more holistic art that is both practical and fun to learn. I have always felt karate and judo/ju jutsu or tegumi complement each other and naturally fit very well together as the ranges of a fight change, which I think originally this was way it was supposed to be as shown in bubishi.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I could listen to McCarthy Sensei talk all day long

Always a pleassure watching sensei McCarthy

This was so good! Traditional martial arts are so much deeper than what people may think from taking a few lessons.

Excellent work, always amazed for the simplicity of explanation, hope some day you can come to Costa Rica, you're welcome whenever you want to come, obviously after the pandemic 😅😅😅

A great and very informative video, thank you very much!!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

i like how he used the analogy of bicycle this also relates to other sports i'm currently interested in for example, when someone learn motorcycling, by just jumping on the bike and trying it, that's used to be how most young people learned to ride motorcycles, but the problem was the high rate of motorcycle accidents then motorcycling became a sport, and somehow started getting codified, but nowhere near what karate or some martial arts became the question was how to make something complex and physical easier to teach, hence the drills sometimes the sport itself became separate from the original pratical application that it's like nowhear near the real thing like compare fencing and kendo to actual sword fighting or kenjistu, thats why there were some movements revive HEMA for example another personal example i had to deal with, is how freediving evolved from spearfishing, but became separate i train for freediving, and one rule about it, that makes it hard to practice or be useful for sprearfishing, is the never dive alone yet most spearfishers dive alone (and ironically die alone) in spearfishing there is no diving line, you don't always have luxury to dive relaxed in meditative state ..etc so, really the sport can drift away from the real application that it won't become obvious how they are linked but at the end of the day, the ones who practice the sport at least are a little bit prepared to face the real deal and it won't take them ages to learn a pratical application for their sport when they have to

extraordinary sensei Mc Carty. Very inspiring ... my warm regards to sensei mc carty and sensei jesse of course.

Excellent video as always OSS

I am realizing more and more how old school my Sensei actually was. Many things you say some or most don't know was a part of our training. Even so far as putting on thick gloves and ACTUALLY fighting. We rolled around and used each other's gi and sweeps.. the works.

Love this video.

if i told you i prefer to use typewriter instead of laptop, what would you tell me? well, in martial arts there are still people who think like that. Budo is alive! have to modernize. Great job Nerd! I am a Brazilian fan

I practiced recently (up until a couple years ago) a style of Karate called Ken-Shin-Kan, founded by Seiichi Akamine (former student of Chojun Miyagi of the Goju Ryu style). As far as I know (or at least as far as what I've been told by my masters), it's a style mostly popularized here in South America, and only after that also in the United States. It's mostly a sub-style of Goju Ryu, only actualized to re-incorporate lots of knee and elbow strikes, as well as others balance/striking-tension things. I don't know if it's because of the popularity that Jesse Sensei is speaking about in this video, or is it just the natural way Ken-Shin-Kan was taught from Seiichi Akamine, and later on to Raul and Roberto Fernandez (the actual heads of Ken-Shin-Kan)... but in my practice of that particular style, there are always been LOTS and LOTS of pratice to the actual applications in real-combat scenarios. Both from Kata application, bust also in a wide different array of things: I feel it was one of the main purposes, actually, of the Ken-Shin-Kan as a whole, to at least try to preserve a more traditional outlook.

Tusen takk, sensei!

And that is the first move in Bassai. Wow I love it

Jesse you are a wonderful Sensei. I am a judoka and really enjoy and learn from your content, just wanted to say hi and thank you 😊

its fascinating, you guys want to improve your karate so you learn ju jitsu actually your guest knows what he is talking about somewhat, all of his uke's are uber passive though thumbs up

I started learning at a small moo duk Kwan dojang at the age of 14 and I eventually went to a "Traditional" karate, aikido, judo dojo, and could see a huge difference between Old school and practical vs sport only mentality. Everything's different, from the conversation to the age of black belts. And of course the prices and egos were extremely different.

this is exactly what I wanted to see happen to karate

How to learn is more important than what to learn !!!

More please! 😁👍🏻👍🏻👊🏼

I love you videos they are so great

Sensei Vince Morris established the Kissaki-Kai system in 1993 to explore practical karate based on the katas - the results are nothing short of astounding! I advise everyone to look into Kissaki-Kai - it is an incredible resouce 👍

Patrick mentioned Otsuka, who was already a qualified master instructor of Shindo Yoshin-ryu jujitsu when he began training under Gichin Funakoshi. He eventually became a "first generation" instructor for Funakoshi, then he was the founder of Wado-ryu. My first karate instructor was Mikio Nishiuchi, a black belt in Wado-ryu. While I was stilll learning the Pinan kata, he decided to devote himself to karate and kobudo, and moved to Okinawa to study Pangai Noon (Uechi-ryu) and Kobudo. I was now "hooked" and joined the World Tae Kwon Do Association (WTA). The "grandmaster" of was Duk Sung Son. Former chief instructor of the Chung Do Kwan, and also "first generation" student of Won Kuk Lee, the founder of Chung Do Kwan. Won Kuk Lee was also a student of Gichin Funakoshi and his son Gigo Funakoshi. Lee taught "Tang Soo Do" (just the Korean pronunciation of the earlier interpretaion of "karate-do") before the mid 1950's Korean agreement on "Taekwondo". I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to learn the Pinan forms (called Pyung-On) once again. Of course, interpretations were quite different. As a student of karate history I thought "idiot" for some seniors' explanations for a move more than once. Most of even Funakoshi's photos have him holding a wrist. Let me see, where should I go here? The WTA split in the 1990s with now more than a dozen new "grandmasters" of Taekwondo? I personally had more than half-a-dozen of them pass me to first and second Dan in one room in 1979 and 1981. Business and politics! Let me think about what you may find useful. Yes, my instructor Ki Hyung Kim did teach the long-range high-kicks of Korea. The students of the older master instructors couldn't perform kicks that looked good to me. No, I couldn't do anything like that now. I was in one street fight, accidentally. One side kick in the Solar plexus dropped him to the street. I was almost attacked by his comrade, but he reconsidered. I'll note that I am a little guy, so they were bullies. I've noticed that the same katas of Wado-ryu and Shito-ryu appear similar. The same katas from Tang Soo Do (Chung Do Kwan before the political mess) appears very similar to modern Shotokan. I can't hardly do anything but taught about it now.

amazing lesson Sensei's

Sensei you don't know me.but I know you since 9-10 year's as my great mentor.please remember your paragraph about super slow motion practice...

When I started seeking real life application of karate it was not because of the Internet or MMA (Which I prefer calling MFS for mixed fighting styles), but because when I started 40 years ago the sensei I had always taught us to seek the reality of the movement. We were always taught that Karate is not a dance, but a real life fighting style at the center of a philosophy to teach you to be a better person, a better citizen and the never stopping process of improving yourself every training, every practice, every day. As the sports side of Karate started growing, I started seeing more and more dojos dismissing street fighting concepts and focusing solely on scoring points, but that was not the way I was taught. When I found the teachings of Sensei McCarthy after hearing and buying my copy of the Bubishi, all his teachings resonated greatly with what I learned in my youth. Especially his expression "The way to honor those who taught us the path is not by idolizing the ashes they left behind, but by keeping alive the fire they lit".

Can't wait to get back to the dojo to practice kata again not easy to do at home with limited space it's killing me.

Jesse Sensei I want you to make a video on Kyokushin someday 🙏

Very well said, I learn a great lesson.

interestingly enough there is a karate style that was founded by an ex - kyokushinkai karate sensei where he developed his own "fighting" kata ... it is called "ashihara karate" and that was a basis for a karate style that was a main student of Ashihara, his name was Joko Ninomiyo who founded Enshin karate...

Love ❤ from India......karate community should declare u....Savior of Okinawa karate...masihya figure

God, this is awesome material. Thank you. When was this? Why didn't I watch this during our country's longest, most incompetent lockdown in the world. Going back to Karate. But online

Nice video! I think that BJJ has an advantage in that it applies a lot of sensei Murphy's philosophy of how best to learn, but by being less explosive it's, safer.

I was able to study Koryu uchinadi for a year, wish I kept up with it

*That's true!*

Thank you for the excellent video! I would like to see video on how karate can be a part of everyday life. Me and probably a few dozen other karate-do students really struggle to make time for karate outside full time jobs (I worked 126 hours in the last two weeks so full time job is an understatement). I am inspired by the story of the student who was attacked at random times while doing house work for a hermit master, and the story of a master who recognized a new student's fearlessness of death in their first sparring lesson and immediately gave him full mastery of swordsmanship certificate. Basically, how can we maximize karate training time while doing various daily tasks. My ideas so far is to practice kicks while walking, but that is a tad awkward in most situations. I will keep thinking on it and let you know what I discover, I'd really appreciate some guidance from experts though.

Yeah that is correct

this mans school must be great he seems very sensible and wise he seems very approachable not caught up on tradition

yes great idea

Nice, loved the video.

Min 19:13 creo que ese bunkai también se podria utilizar en el segundo movimiento de la kata pinan/heian san (3)

I've been joining the revolution long before being aware there was one ongoing ✊

I'm living the same doubts and same yearnings of him with Aikido effectiveness. Now I'm trying a bit of BJJ in parallel of my Aikido training. I've planning to study a bit of Judo, Muay Thai, Karate, Kung fu by bringing the Senseis/Teachers to my Dojo to give us work shops or by me going to them. Basically, I'm seing me trough him!

Hi Jesse as always excellent . Have you come across Geoff Thompson ? Karate black belt who for absolutely years has advocated and adapted pressure testing of karate.I think he also did a book on pressure testing.

Nice video bro

Althought I respect sport karate and kata athletes I don't think it should be the end of Karate but a means of improving or to test yourself, just like breaking objects. The reason why I felt in love as a child wih Karate was not only its beauty and grace but also its deadly effectiveness and value of honor.

I just wonder, serious question, if I can advance up to the black belt and beyond. For instance, can I execute my version of heyan shodan at the exam?

So in other words it's the hierarchical structure of Japanese arts is what watered them down from learning the actual applications....the senpai/kohai system?.

i read this at Vinicio Antony's book.

Hermoso

Completely agree. I think, for some, that trained previously, 30-40 yrs ago, have come back to Karate and, upon returning, the training was VERY different. I began my training in Uechi-Ryu Kenyukai, which is VERY "Original" Karate and came back to Karate and began training in Shito-Ryu about 16 yrs ago and the training, while "traditional" to todays standards, was/is still very different than Uechi Ryu 40 yrs ago. It seems much "tamer"/"easier" much less body conditioning and more sport centered.

I'm happy the Karate is becoming what it once was, an art of fighting.

Beautiful beautiful BEAUTIFUL ❤

Strike first, strike hard, no questions!

great video. remember though, don't trust eye pokes and nut shots to end a fight, it won't always work. i mean go ahead and try, but make sure you've got some good grab escapes or other get-away techniques to go with it. if the nut shot didn't put the guy down he's probably gonna be twice as mad now.

12:30 I can see myself and It's video from the Czech republic, eeey!