Go-Ju

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="05d785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Stamford Dojo</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id155.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Concepts"><U><B><IMG SRC="03b0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>   </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"><B>     </B><A HREF="id158.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chinkuchi"><U><B><IMG SRC="02f0e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kansetsu Waza"><U><B><IMG SRC="0300e0e0.png" border=0 width="14" height="14" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="79e96963.gif"> <div> Please (Email on the Contact Page) send in your definitions, ideas, concepts, or constructs which have to do with the mental and philosophical development of oneself in martial arts.  We will edit these and place the best ones here for our readers from which to learn.</div> <div> <A HREF="id155.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Concepts"><U><IMG SRC="482641e0.jpg" border=0 width="100" height="30" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="41b2cc83.jpg"> <div> <B>Go-Ju</B></div> <div>      Meaning, “hard-soft”, goju describes something similar to chinkuchi but it is actually quite different.  Throughout all movements as a human being we shift weight from foot to foot or orient our center of balance to correspond with the various kind of weight which one or both hands may be occupied lifting.  So, from our earliest steps we learned how to become “soft” in our movement and stance (as when lifting a leg off of the floor) or “hard” in our movement and stance (as when stiffening our leg to support lifting a suitcase into the truck of our car.)  This constant shift from being “soft” to being “hard” is what makes us both supple as well as strong.  In karate, the only difference is that the application of soft and hard are defined quite clearly by the techniques to be practiced and not by an intuitive, natural sense of how to soften or harden our bodies in various movements.  Karate is not learned from birth and, so, goju must be taught.</div> <div>      An example of goju can be given on an individual technique.  We will use the Yoko Geri (the side, snap kick) for illustration.</div> <div>      If I wish to perform a right kick directly out to the side of my body so that the force of the kick rises up from the ground in a rapid acceleration to the target, finds its kime and then locks (chinkuchi) into a stiff rod of “iron” at the moment of impact then I have got to perform the following individual acts of kinesiology:</div> <div> I turn my head ever so slightly so that I am not looking directly at the target of kime, as this would “telegraph” the technique.  This is a swift but soft movement of the sternoclytomastoid muscles of the neck.  My ocular muscles only turn my eyes slightly to the side and I employ “peripheral vision” to find the kime point (“The eyes must see all sides”).</div> <div> I soften the quadracep muscle of my left leg so that my center of balance drops ever so slightly onto the left leg, taking weight off the right leg.</div> <div> Without making the movement obvious, I quickly lift the right leg from the ground (soft), whip it up to a temporary “chamber” position alongside of the left knee but continue onward at a new angle, tightening muscles of the hip to execute this “lift” of the side kick along its trajectory.</div> <div> Rapidly tightening the quadriceps of my right leg, I whip the leg outward toward the final contact with the kime point.</div> <div> Near the moment of impact, my tendons in the shin harden while the gastrocnemeous muscle in the calf isometrically opposes this tightening so that the toes come around in a curve toward the shin leaving the outside edge of the foot pointed at the kime point.</div> <div> At impact, the entire leg stiffens with the hamstring muscles in direct opposition to the quadriceps and the force of acceleration times mass develops the resulting power of the kick (chinkuchi).</div> <bR> <div>      Notice that the act of executing the side kick was one of many shifts from soft to hard to soft to hard throughout the execution of the kick.  The same description can be more easily for a block and punch.</div> <div>      Say that my eyes see the movement of a fist from its chamber position on the right hip ascending toward my chest.  In an instant, and with a sense of intersecting trajectories, I execute a very soft, right palm-heel block against the rising fist, deflecting it away from its intended kime point to outside my body.  I am now safe from the technique.  </div> <div>      Without stopping, my soft palm heel now transforms into an ever-tightening fist with the first knuckles bent over and the wrist arched.  This will become (but is not yet) the Uraken or backfist strike.  As my hand is transforming into this technique, I employ soft acceleration to propel the ever-hardening fist toward the kime point ½ inch from the side of the head of the opponent.  Before the opponent can react with his/her right or left hands, the soft, speedy whip of my arm becomes the strong, hard backfist strike to the temple and I have executed, artistically, the desired movement.  Chinkuchi is the final tightening of the entire arm and fist so that, again, force = mass times acceleration, but throughout this defensive into offensive action, my hand has moved from a totally soft, rapid deflection into a very hard, fast strike.  I will not even begin to describe all of the activity that occurs in the chest, hips and legs during the arm maneuvers described above.  Suffice to say, however, that the soft-hard principles apply here as well.  No one can do karate well if not soft enough.  No one can do karate well if not hard enough.</div> <bR> <div>  <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#336633" FACE="Vladimir Script" >John Gagnon</FONT></div> <div> Rokudan, Isshinryu Karate Do, Renshi, OKF</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id155.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Concepts"><U><IMG SRC="482641e0.jpg" border=0 width="100" height="30" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>