Which pretty much negates its use.
The throat strike thing?
Carotid.
The side of the neck.
Someone buy me a video camera.
The explanation does not seem to fit the way it is practiced in the kata.
Can I get a cliffs on all this?
I’ll have to review Wado’s version of Pinan Nidan again. Technical drift occured in several systems.
And…as I said…someone send me a frelling camera…
Wont allow embedding, but here you go.
In all instances, I think I’d prefer the half fist/leopard fist:
I don’t really see the advantage of hitting with the fingertips if you need a straight line strike into the neck. When you do these properly, the thumb presses the fingers together at the first digit of the index finer, something you can’t do with a spearhand.
Spearhands, like all tools, have a use. I can tell you stories of knifehand chops too, in The Skreet.
Whether a spearhand is used for this purpose or that purpose depends on the form and on the “intended” use by the creator of the form. Who, believe it or not, was just another dude. If you can find a better use for it, great. If you find it entirely superfluous to your arsenal, that’s great too.
As a strike, I would only use it as a hit to the trachea. As a joint lock, it’s a great way to get a standing americana.
Hell, I can show you a use for the opening motion of koryo.
I just can’t understand what that guy is striking at with his spearhand. Spearhands target the throat. With superior positionning and control, you could also jam it into an armpit. With conditionning, perhaps the solar plexus would work. Nerve centers, weakpoints in muscles, perhaps, but not with a long, stabbing like that video shows, more of a quick poke.
Any other use of a spear hand is clearly frivolous, most importantly the hits that target large bone formations.
The spearhand to the throat can be practiced with live resistance, but only from a position in which the arms are already in contact. Thus, the defender will have ample time and warning to deflect the strike.
Personally, I agree it’s not something I ever want to actually use. I train it because I have to. I’m a “strictly self-defense” guy. Defensing oneself is about hitting someone then running away. If I’m in a position where a spearhand could work, why bother risking injuring or killing the guy if I could just punch his chin and run away? The necessary opening is the same and the likelyhood of it working is at least as good.
Think about how many people you know of that have been seriously injured or killed by “deadly” spear hand thrusts.
Then compare this to the number of people that have died in sanctioned boxing matches by “safe” hooks, crosses and straights.
Zero and few.
What’s the point?
Atomic bombs killed much less people in their existance than AK-47.
That means they’re useless?
In a streetfight? Yes. Certainly.
Well, if you just grab the back of the guy’s head and bang it hard on the bomb, I’m pretty sure he’d have a large bump.
Be careful this doesnt happen when you try to use your A-bomb in a street fight.
nuclear kamikaze-fu.
I don’t know jack about that kata but I’m inclined to believe that those “spearhands” aren’t really there for striking to the stomach as much as to break a grip that one might have on the other hand. If for some odd reason a person was to try and maintain their grip on the hand pulling back I see bad things happening for them, but that’s the way I see it.
You guys must be watching a different kata than me.
There aren’t any spear hands in that video, just the knife hands at the end.
My fault, I was referring to Pinan Shodan in Okinawan order, Heian Nidan to all the Shotoclones. Damn you, Funakoshi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJu0YECQIDk
Regardless, the example I gave above still doesn’t work for Wado-ryu’s version of the kata, as the covering motion which would hook the shoulder to secure the opponent is removed. Essentially, in the Wado kata, you just walk forward and spearhand the dude in the chest, which, as discussed, is a great way to get your hand broken. The further you move away from the older Shorin-ryu systems, the more variation you see in the basic movements of kata, which essentially means it has become a dance, and not an unwritten syllabus.
The Shito-ryu guys do it the same way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnQ7uc_H7tc
Compare the same series with the Kyokushin version to see what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrhFuHpj0MA
But then…the Kyok guys do their knife hand receptions all wacky anyway…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph9ybOTMzbg
Old school Shotokan…a little closer…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbsTuTVohOY
Kanazawa, one of Shotokan’s best.
Wow, that brought back some memories, I haven’t seen that kata since I was 14.