Budo Karate & The Martial Arts

By Buzz Campion

The importance of searching through past efforts and knowledge alongside heritage, history, theory and practical applications of any said martial art is indeed, a personal journey which leads to the saying: "Search for the old to understand the new" To this end, I hope what you find inside this publication will help and encourage you to choose the right path.

In addition, the main purpose of this book is to expand your knowledge of the martial arts and Karate in particular. Hopefully the text will help you gain a deeper understanding of effective self-defense practices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Know-How Publications
• Release date: Apr 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393114338

Buzz Campion

Buzz, has been a student of karate and military combatives for many years whilst at the same time expanding his personal experience into the realms of Japanese and Chinese martial history, philosophy and other western and Asian fighting arts. He is an author of more than a dozen books as well as a researcher and the founder of Know-How-Publications. Buzz, does not seek nor has he ever sought fame or publicity but has tried to take his extensive knowledge and experience to simplify the vast array of self-defence/protection techniques in order to make it easy for the average person man or woman to absorb.

Book preview

Contents:

Introduction: 

Part 1:   Karate strategy and skills

Part 2:   The heart and self defense

Part 3:    Karate’s secret weapon

Part 4:   Karate the spirit of practice

Part 5:   Balance is one of karate’s weapons

Part 6:   Understanding the dangers

Part 7:   Martial arts and the urban warrior

Part 8:   Kata unleash a deep force within you

Part 9:   Karate the art of personal combat

Part 10:  Karate the art of virtuous men

Part 11:  Karate’s muchin-no-mind

Part 12:  A move anyone can use straight away

Part 13:  The professional bodyguards’ friend

Part 14:  Why trained women freeze in a rape situation

Part 15:  It’s all about surviving not scoring points

Part 16:  Personal branding the new currency

Part 17:  Use fear as a tool to power

Part 18:  Four little words

Part 19:  when you hear the truth, you know it

Part 20:  for women as simple as running away

Part 21:  Traditional karate or modern combative

Part 22:  Activate your automatic fight response.

Part 23:  Two Perceptions to avoid like the plaque

Part 24:  Just sing the national anthem

Part 25:  For sale self-defense skills for cash

Part 26:  Street survival

Part 27:  Hammer or anvil  

Part 28:  Street gutter tactics

Part 29:  What do Samurai have in common?

Part 30:  The 80/20 principle

Part 31:  Kata is like a textbook

Part 32:  The urban warrior

Part 33:  Hidden applications

Part 34:  Karate power to the fist

Part 35:  Karate visions of Japan

Part 36:  Hand 2 hand combative

Part 37:  Meditation & the martial arts 

Part 38:  Ways to meditate

Part 39:  Breathing exercises

Part 40:  Conclusion

Introduction:

The journey

The importance of searching through past efforts and knowledge alongside heritage, history, theory and practical applications of any said martial art is indeed, a personal journey which leads to the saying: Search for the old to understand the new To this end,  I hope what you find inside this publication will help and encourage you to choose the right path.

In addition, the main purpose of this book is to expand your knowledge of the martial arts and Karate in particular.  Hopefully the text will help you gain a deeper understanding of effective self-defense practices.

These notes form a short summary and are not intended to be a comprehensive guide to self-defense techniques. Neither do they cover all the many aspects of non-physical self-defense like self-awareness, body language, verbal de-escalation etc. Remember, the best form of self-defense is to avoid trouble in the first place!

Importantly, self-defense is about looking after yourself.  It may be viewed upon as any deliberate act or motion that prevents or reduces the chance of an actual or potential assault against you.  Although nationally the proportion of women attacked each year is comparatively low, if it does happen to you then the consequences can be sometimes devastating and life changing. 

Knowledge of a few simple techniques, such as bending an aggressor’s finger back or stamping on his foot, may give you vital seconds in which to escape and is easy to learn by anyone.  You need not be helpless in the face of an attack. 

Moreover, as long as you are prepared to look at self-defence realistically, and are willing to learn these simple techniques, and to be aware of life around you, then you shall gain confidence in your daily life and hopefully live without the limitations of the fear of violence.  Remember, the last thing any potential aggressor is expecting is for you to stand up for yourself, even to fight back.

Welcome to the world of reality, in this world we live in today, one must know how to defend himself/herself, as one who is defenseless will soon get attacked (Sun Tzu, Ancient Art of War, wise words indeed. I hope the following articles will help you to stay safe give you a greater chance of winning a conflict. Or better still avoid getting into one in the first place.

What is self-defense?

In brief, practical self-defense is an amalgam of techniques and ideas stolen and then adapted from other martial arts like Judo and Karate etc. In the event of actually being attacked, the aim of these techniques is to floor an aggressor so that he cannot assault you any more, in which case he must be kicked, punched, pulled or thrown to the ground.

Self-defense and the law

Self- defense is not really related to the extreme use of violence to disable an attacker.  It is more about the controlled use of aggression – finding your temper, not losing it.  If you are attacked, then you have every right to defend yourself, but you may only use as much force as is absolutely necessary. 

From the legal standpoint, the word ‘reasonably’ is the difficult part.  You can use an item which you might ordinarily carry on you to help ward off an attack, e.g. keys, comb, umbrella.  The law does not allow you to carry anything which might be regarded as an offensive weapon and which could seriously hurt someone (even if they are attacking you).

What is a confrontation?

A confrontation is the first thing before a fight, or it may start a fight, when you meet somebody that is not a confrontation. Usually you won't want to fight him (you wouldn't walk down the street and start with everyone you see would you?) so if you don’t know him, you walk past and don't even look at him. If you know them, you might look and nod. If you want to fight you may snarl and swear. That is a confrontation.

Confrontations happen most often in school, and almost as often in bars where alcohol is a major contributing factor some drink too much and so get drunk then they may start a fight without intending to. That's why you commonly see two best friends punching the crap out of each other or more often two strangers who've never seen each other. A confrontation in a bar occurs most often because the other guy (we'll refer to him as asshole, they almost always are) gets close and says something that you can't back down out of without losing face. Well, you can figure it out.

So what I'm trying to explain to you is that a confrontation usually ends up in a fight, and also a confrontation is very hard to back down from. Identifying a possible confrontation is the best way to get out of a fight.

SUCCESS is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. B.T. Washington.

PART 1

Karate strategy and skills

Karate Means Not Taking Your Eye Off The Ball

In unarmed combat anything goes! True. In the martial arts world you tend to meet all sorts of potential lethal bare handed and weapons experts. You notice, I say potentially lethal. Unfortunately, some of the styles are regarded as more of a sport than a practical self-defense system.

What’s more, many of the students training in these styles think they are learning how to protect themselves on the street. And, many of them are putting in hours of strenuous effort in training believing that what they are doing will work if they are suddenly attacked, not so, what they are creating though in their mind is a false sense of security which ultimately could prove suicidal if they tried some of those same fancy techniques for real.

Everybody knows or they should do by now that only simple gross motor skills and low kicks really work under the stress of an unprovoked attack when adrenalin and blood pressure is high. If you don’t believe me check out any combat medical report of what happens to combatants in the heat of battle.

If you think you are going to string together all those flash spinning kicks arm locks control techniques and no first strike mentality, that’s right, the type of stuff some of you have been learning up to now in the controlled atmosphere of a dojo then it’s time to think again my friend, before its to late because these are training techniques for competition not the street.

Also, I bet, you have never been taught about things such as, mental attitude, tunnel vision, adrenaline dump and  intent all important things to know about in a fight. Naturally, you should never get involved in any conflict if you can possibly avoid it. That’s common sense. However, you should be learning how to win using any tactics necessary yes, I do mean biting gouging head butting and knee kicks whatever it takes.

However unpleasant it may seem. Fighting viciously is precisely the tactics that will help you prevail in some dark alley or club toilet when you find yourself rolling around urine covered floor or pavement after some thug or drunk has decided to make you his next victim. Before you say, oh no that is not what traditional martial arts is all about. I say read your history because that is exactly what they are all about. Of course, you have the philosophical and moral side to it as well. But primarily, it is about a self-defense system that is aimed at protecting the ordinary individual against habitual acts of physical violence not to turn you into a mega fighter although this could be a byproduct of the training.

The martial arts never was devised to defend against professional fighters’ just thugs and robbers that’s why the techniques in the original systems included all the dirty moves in order to overcome the attacker quickly. Also it’s worth mentioning here that the old type systems also included throws, locks groundwork as well as, what we discussed above everything you might need to prevail as an ordinary citizen if you were attacked. Bear in mind, I am talking mainly about Karate here although; it does apply to other types of martial arts as well. Moreover, it’s all documented you just have to look for it.

If you want to be really successful in a street fight then you better start getting used to the above dirty fighting terms. If this seems too much for you then I suggest you go and do something less dangerous like: shark baiting or barbed wire jumping. On the other hand if you do decide to adapt the following into your training program then you may just be glad you’d put in the time to learn the dirty stuff. In fact your life might depend on it.

What I’m talking about here can in no way be called sport karate, a better term maybe combat karate or street karate because smashing someone’s knee cap is not sport karate. Indeed, if you tried to use any of these techniques in a competition you would be disqualified.

And that is the problem isn’t it with styles that have given themselves over to winning as many trophies and looking good as they can in the competition environment. You see, for many it has all become a commercial enterprise, money and for some big money. Oops, sorry if I have upset anybody I can ensure you that is not my intention. I just want to highlight the fact that real effective martial self-defense techniques have been taken out to make it safer for competition. That’s why the most effective techniques for example, biting gouging head butting throwing and so on are not taught in a lot of karate dojos today. I’m afraid to say, winning a competition is not the same as winning a street fight and unless students are taught the difference between the two they are seriously at risk, because as I said earlier it develops a false sense of security in the student.

You only have to look at the number of so called black belts that get the crap beaten out of them in a stress induced street fight. Have you ever wondered why this is? After all, these so called black belts are supposed to be expert fighters aren’t they. If this is the case with you right now? You’d better start learning quickly how to really use your own built in weapons to your greatest advantage.  Ask yourself why these techniques are banned? Some of you reading this may think that what I suggest is somewhat barbaric. But if you or a loved one’s life is on the line, anything goes right. And, with all the muggings and rapes happening women are especially vulnerable.

In my mind, there is no such thing as theoretical combat, the emphasis must be on the practicalities there is no such thing as a theoretical knife fight. You owe it to yourself and your family