Developing Karate Martial Art Intuition

Many people don’t really give it much thoughts, but there is a reason why Karate is called a “Martial art”. The word “art” has a much profound meaning that people would think. Simply said, there is an artistic element to Karate that is often overlooked or ignored.

This article will be focusing on martial art intuition in the context of self defense, as well as why, how, you should practice Karate self defense with the goal of developing your Karate martial art intuition.

Karate martial art intuition is defined as an inherent artistic ability for Karate. We all have it at various degrees from the get go. Some have a lot of it, others less. In a specific situation, this artistic ability is what makes the difference between naturally being able to pick the right counter/strike among all of what you’ve learned within a split second, or getting stuck. Beyond the inherent martial art intuition, there is a way to grow this ability through hard practice.

Just like in any other art-oriented discipline, Karate Dojos have all kinds of people. Among all these people, we have at least 4 different types:

1- People with low inherent artistic intuition for Karate, but practicing hard to learn.

2- People with good inherent artistic intuition for Karate, and practicing hard to learn.

3- People with good inherent artistic intuition for Karate, and not making much efforts to learn (Constantly hearing that you are good, can get to one’s head)

4- People with low inherent artistic intuition for Karate, and not making much efforts to learn.

What I mean to say is that, just like anyone cannot become an excellent musician, even with lots of practice, not everyone can become excellent at Karate self defense! This being said, there are so many benefits for everyone in Karate beside self-defence, as long as you practice regularly and give it your all.

The most important is to practice really hard to learn. Obviously, only the type 1 and 2 above, can aspire to grow their Karate and hope to further develop their Karate inherent artistic intuition for self defence.

Assuming you are practicing hard to learn, practicing at the Dojo will take you through multiple learnings that will help you develop your Karate inherent martial art intuition for self defense. This will be achieved over many years of diligent practice:

-          Learning to block

-          Learning to evade

-          Learning to counter/attack (including grappling and throws)

-          Learning to read / Anticipate your opponent(s) in order to do all of the above more efficiently.

All of the above learnings are all over Khion / Katas / Kumite, and Bunkai practice.

If you are interested in tips to help you start reading / adapting to your opponent, read the following post: Reading and adapting to your opponent.

Karate is to be seen as a system, and as such, everything you learn within that system comes together and complements itself, with the help of whatever inherent artistic abilities inside each and everyone of us. Eventually, after many years of practice, and after having mastered the above learnings, some Karate-ka will get to grow their “artistic intuition” side of the art of Karate to a point when, in a specific situation, not every action is fully controlled by his/her brain per say, more like reflexes based on adaptative artistic intuition. This in turn can trigger solutions never used before that go beyond any single physical move you practiced repeatedly in the past. This can only happen if one learns how to trust oneself and stop trying to control everything, letting the body and mind take over!

From a self-defence stand point, this is indeed the ultimate goal!

Toronto, Alpha - KarateBoost blog