20 Corrections Apply to Other Activities

Last week we talked about the running gag I have with one of my Black Belt instructors: There are only 20 corrections in Shotokan.  How can the same correction apply to so many different situations?  Whatever the technique, the same body mechanics apply.  It therefore stands to reason that many of the same corrections can also apply to movements in other sports and activities.

When moving stance to stance, beginners often stride with their feet.  Advanced practitioners know this is incorrect.  One moves with the hips; the feet just come along for the ride. More distance is covered, center of gravity is lowered, power and mobility is achieved by opening up the hips rather than stepping longer.  This correction is made in basics, kata, and even kumite.  Let the hips move the body instead of the feet stepping.

Several years ago I lived along the route taken by the high school cross country team on their daily run.  I noticed one particular runner who had a short gait, head bobbing up and down as he ran.  One day he stopped and asked what I was looking at.  I told him that his stride was ineffective.  He asked about my background in running and scoffed when I told him my background was martial arts.  I asked if he had five minutes to spare, that I would show him one technique to improve his running, that all he had to lose was five minutes of his time.  He agreed.

We went two blocks to the library and stood at one end of the parking lot.  Side by side, we then walked across the lot in 80 paces.  I then had him follow me back across, opening up my hips and lengthening my stride, covering the same distance in 58 paces.  He appreciated the idea, but said he couldn’t take such long strides without negatively affecting his gait.  I understood and asked if he could open his hips up by just one inch.  He said he’d try, so we walked across the lot again, just slightly opening up the hips, covering the distance in 76 paces.  He was impressed, but didn’t feel it would make much of a difference.  He said he usually runs 5K and 10K races.  I asked him how much ground he normally covers with each step; he guessed about two meters.  OK, just lengthening his stride by one inch, over 5,000 steps, he saves 5,000 inches, or 64 fewer steps to the 5K finish line.  He saw how significant that would be.  I then told him, once he’s used to the extra inch, he might try lengthening his stride by two inches, further reducing the number of paces he’d need to complete the race.  The next year this runner became team captain and won an all-county conference award.  I won’t dare say my advice helped this runner achieve so much, but I don’t think the advice hurt him at all.
 

It seems a sure-fire way to score in tennis is to hit the ball to one corner and when your opponent returns the ball, hit to the opposite corner.  Your opponent will find it nearly impossible to change directions and get to the second ball in time.  I know nothing about tennis, but know a bit about body mechanics.  I mused that the player is trying to turn around, which probably wouldn’t work.  He should plant his front foot and whip his hips around, pivoting on the ball of his foot.  This would move his body along a 180 degree diameter, rather than a 180 degree semi-circle.  My fellow '20-corrections' instructor told me of one tennis player, James Blake, who often did that technique quite successfully.

Whether Karate, Judo, wrestling, running, tennis, swimming, or almost every activity, we still use our human body.  Musculature, skeletal structure, range of motion, etc. enter into almost everything we do.  Perhaps my Black Belt instructor and I should change our little joke to be: 20 corrections for everything.

20 Corrections in Shotokan

One of my Black Belts and I have a running gag that there are only 20 corrections in all of Shotokan.  Is this an accurate statement?  Probably not, but it’s interesting to see how often the same few corrections come up in a class.  For example: 

-   A student might lean his upper body forward in front stance; we’d walk over and tell him to straighten his back and push his hips forward into the stance.  Another one of my Black Belts might say to tuck his tailbone forward under his hips (same idea).  I find that a quirky explanation often sticks better in the students’ minds, so I’ll say, “Push the tush”.  Same idea.
-   I might then walk over to a student having problems with Tekki kata, with his head forward and his back hunched.  I’ll tell him to straighten his back and ‘push the tush’.  It usually works.
-   Another student might have a short front kick, with little reach or power.  He’ll then be told to ‘push the tush’ - thrust his hip forward with the kick and then yank the hip back as the leg snaps back.  Again, the same idea.

How can the same correction apply to so many different situations?  It’s really pretty simple.  It’s not so much a matter of correcting the technique, but understanding that, regardless of the technique, we’re all using the human body.  If your body works mechanically correct, you can’t help but have good technique, power, speed, and mobility.

One of my Black Belts had a long hiatus due to injury, and came back filled with concepts, ideas, and theories he thought about while ‘benched’.  One question he posed was: We say that front stance and fighting stance should be one shoulder’s width, fudo dachi one-and-a-half shoulders' width, and kibba dachi should be two shoulder’s width.  Should width be determined from instep (arch) to instep (arch) of each foot, mid foot to mid foot, or outer blade to outer blade?  Simple question – some may even say it’s a petty issue.  He wasn’t aware that we addressed this question long ago while he was out.  Proper width should be measured from outer blade to outer blade.  Your feet should be within the shoulder’s width.  Mid foot to mid foot is only about 4” wider and instep to instep about 8” wider, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if your stance is a little too wide it puts unnecessary lateral strain on your knees.  Outer blade to outer blade keeps your feet directly under your knees, allowing the knees to bend forward and backward (as they’re designed to bend), and not flex side to side, which causes weakened stance and potential knee problems in the future.  We’ve seen students with long legs who could step much wider than the prescribed one shoulder’s width (or two, in the case of kibba dachi).  I’d tell them that that just because they could step wider doesn’t mean they should.   I’d stand them in front of the mirror and they could see for themselves that their feet are farther apart than their inward-bent knees.  This one correction comes up many times in class during basics, kata, etc.

Next week I will blog about a time I helped a high school cross-country runner improve his time by using one of the ’20 corrections’ in Shotokan’.