Karate ni sente arimasu?

空手に先手無し – there is no first attack in karate. If you have spent any time in a dojo at all, you likely heard this maxim a number of times. The emphasis is usually on the notion that the karate person does not strike first. Honourable idea, but let’s look at this for a second shall we?

Imagine going to a karate tournament where the competitors stuck to that basic notion. The kata demos would be great, but the kumite portion would be a yawnfest! Two opponents facing each other and neither launching a strike!

Well, that would be taking it a bit too literally, methinks.

The idea is that yours should not be the attacking move, but that does not mean you have to wait til the person punches or til you get hit to respond. That would be a mistake of infinite proportions. But what does a response from a karate guy look like? Well, to borrow a line from ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, be polite, be professional but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

Before you click away thinking I have lost the plot, hear me out.

How many of you have, at one time or another, scoped out a room and thought, “I could take him. And him. And him. And him. And him. Maybe him. Maybe not him.” Be honest here. If you’re in your 20s and say it’s never happened, I’d say you are due for a trip to the loo, cuz you’re full to the brim. If you have ever been a young man, especially one who has been out drinking with the lads, and say you have never done it – check your nose. And call Gepetto! If you are one of those who didn’t, bravo!

But don’t think for a second that others were not doing it you.

Let’s face a fact here. We swim with sharks every day. Whether we see it or not, they are there. The guy honking his horn and flipping people off. The lady huffing because she has to wait in line. The loudmouth. The bully. The semi-loose cannon. These folks walk among us. And all it takes for you to be their target is for you to find your way into their gravitational pull. Maybe you passed them on the road. Maybe you looked a nanosecond too long in their direction. Whatever – now you’ve gone and done it.

Many of these folk just want to beak. But more and more, that beaking will lead to a fight, if the conditions are right. J

So, now back to my point. Show of hands: how many of you scan your environment when you walk? Greet people’s caze with your own. Know who is behind you, beside you, in front of you. I don’t mean the paranoid sweep. I mean knowing where you are and what is around you. Good! That’s quite a few!

The others? Are you looking at your phone or tuning out? Going through the laundry list of things in your world? Yeah? Tsk tsk.

So, lemme ask you this – how do you know when someone is a threat? Do you wait til they come up to you? Bad call. You should be able to identify the threat before they come to you. You’ve seen the guy driving erratically? So back off. Or call the police and give them a plate number. Don’t honk. Don’t look at him if you have to pass him or – god forbid – get stuck beside him. He’s looking for something to set him off. Don’t give him the match.

But, in the off chance that for some reason the fuse has been lit, what have you noticed about him? Size? Body movement? Where are his hands? Do you smell booze? What do his eyes look like. Long arms or short.What is he wearing (as in “does he have somewhere to hide a weapon”, not “is that an Armani shirt”)? SO, as you are taking all this in, if you have to strike, how are you going to do it.

Remember another maxim of importance: don’t think of winning, think about how not to lose.

Not losing in this case is a) not needing extensive surgery; b) not being the guest of honour at a funeral; and c) not needing to deal with lawyers from now til the end of time.

So, if the person has any shred of sense or rational thought process, the first muscle you need to move is your mouth. And I don’t mean beaking off. Read some psychology of violence stuff or pick up a copy of Verbal Judo. Learn how to defuse people by derailing their thinking. If that does not work, then you best be prepared to do fisticuffs.

For the love of god, if the individual you are facing is closing distance, don’t wait to see what he does – you have two choices here: fight or flight. If you pick fight, and you think the honourable thing is to wait til you have been hit before you block and counter, prepare for the beating of your life. This ain’t the dojo. He’s not going to leave his arm there. The hits will come fast and from all places.

This is where you training kicks in – for good or bad. Get offline, react, respond. And don’t stop until the other person does. Neutralize the attack. Overpower them. Tie them up. Make them want to stop and think about what they chose to do. But once the attack stops, stop the countering force.

The characters within the maxim, namely 先手 and 無し,are the ones that need a review here.

先手 – recognize the first character? How about this 先生? The second one is sensei. So the first character means before. In 先手 we have ‘before hand’. The second set “無し’ means ‘none’ or ‘without.’

So, the big deal here?

“In karate, there is no before hand” Well, now – that does change things a bit, in my mind. If the individual indexes you or raises his hands towards you – to grapple, choke or seize or strike you in any way – well, to me, that is the first hand. There’s your moral martial loophole.

Now back to the other bit. Why should you have a plan of attack for everyone? Because you never know when or where that will come. So, if you are focusing on the soft and easy stuff of life and isolated in the whole ‘everything is awesome’ mindset, time to turn on the lights before someone turns yours out.  The world is not all bad or evil, but as Funakoshi warned, when you step beyond your gate, you face a million enemies.  

Start paying attention to your surroundings. Notice people. People watching is super useful. Does the lady walking towards you have a limp? Which side is the dominant side for the man who is yelling at no one in particular?  How about that guy standing on the corner, wearing the long jacket, who seems to be checking everyone out. If you are going to have to defend yourself, how are you going to do it? So, go beyond the mindset of “I could take that guy” because that is ego talking. Prepare yourself for that “no first strike” strike before they get close to you. And before their sh/t hits your fan, do what you need to do to make sure you don’t lose.

Think “ a kinder, gentler Cobra Kai”: Strike first. Strike hard. Show mercy when they realize that they picked the wrong person. And then get the hell out of there – just in case they decide to try it again!