The Devil's in the Details . . . but Maybe Not the Ones You Think

I had an instructor that said BJJ was a game of millimetres (ok, he wasn't British, so I suppose it was millimeters).  What Blake meant by this is that a technique which is 'a little' off can work as poorly as not having any technique at all.

Karate is the same way, of course.  And it's not just distance, but also time where fractions of a unit count.

An evasive step taken a fraction of second too late or too early leads doesn't move you out of the way.  Throwing a kick from a hair too far away or a hair too close means a technique that misses or is jammed before it can accelerate.

As instructors, we have experienced these near misses and so we understand that the details are critical to successful application of technique. This is the main reason why we hammer on the details of proper execution.  The need for exact performance gives birth to the pursuit of perfection; if precise is good, then very precise is better, right?

And while I think that the pursuit of perfection is key to a lot of the 'side-effects' of martial arts (you know -- goal setting skills, self-actualization, confidence), I think we also need to keep track of what makes the techniques effective and what is just an aesthetic choice.  In our pursuit of perfection both sets of details matter.  But I prefer to put more effort into the details that make karate work better.

So, while I am definitely in favor of striving to get your pull-back hand chambered precisely on the floating rib, having your toes pointed down when you strike with your knee, and moving from stance to stance without your head bobbing up and down, I have to admit that the effect these have on the utility of your karate is probably small potatoes.  All of these have some value to add to the effectiveness of technique, but none of these prevent your technique from working.  I would classify these as aesthetic details.

On the other hand, the 'details' of where your weight is relative to your opponent's, your posture, the direction your centerline is pointing, and keeping your shoulder packed tight are actually central to making your karate functional.

This is especially true when you are doing any manipulation of your opponent's body.  And before you think "well, I'm not advanced enough for all that arm bar and wrist lock stuff," remember that deflecting your opponent's strike is a manipulation of their body and that we teach escapes from holds starting with your first self defense class.

To make what I'm talking about more explicit --

The next time you can't quite get your escape from a bear hug to work, ask an instructor to demonstrate it.  Instead of watching where they put their hands, how they step, or what they say they are doing, notice where they put their hips are relative to their opponent's hips.  Notice how upright their posture is, and how bent over their opponent is.

And then find your partner and try to do what the instructor did: put your hips where the instructor put their hips are and break your opponent's posture they way the instructor did.

If you want functional karate pay attention to posture, transfer of weight, and positioning relative to your opponent.  And focus on making these 'details' exactly correct.