The Secrets of Karati

In the old days - the real old days - anything could be a secret. If you weren’t shown it, it’s a secret, at least from you. There are, however, actual secrets. Some are just tricks that help your technique, while others are genuinely “secret techniques”. They can be for fighting or healing. It can be as simple as a change in hand form, or a different version of an entire kata / system. A good example of this is the version of sochin taught to Gigo Funakoshi for his father, specified as being the correct version over any other the master had taught. So even “if” other students learnt effective techniques, they did not learn the master’s real techniques. However, all of this doesn’t necessarily matter in an actual fight. You can know all the special techniques that exist, but they alone will not save you. Only hard, daily, basic training can do that. And nothing can replace the great effort (gongfu) required. And then, all of the so-called secrets will be achieved naturally, anyway, because that ceaseless effort in the fundamentals and basics leads to the tricks and secrets and special techniques through the gradual development of understanding, which can’t be rushed as the mind is complex and takes time to learn and make things second-nature. Skill is continually progressed over the practitioner’s lifetime. Special techniques cannot be understood, nor applied effectively, or indeed responsibly, without first achieving the great transformative benefits of diligent basic training, and constantly returning to the basics as if they are the entire system in themselves. In a real fight, the skills, control and fortitude attained during extensive basic training will give you a chance of surviving, whether you know no secrets at all, or 100 secret techniques. Knowledge of certain points alone will not afford you the speed, stamina and basic skills you need to defend yourself and, if necessary, others. Hence, the real secrets lie simply in diligent daily training in the basics (provided what you’ve learnt is effective), and special techniques are for enhanced effectiveness in certain situations, but are not what make a capable fighter / boxer / warrior. The sheer speed and viciousness of attacks in real situations can be staggering. Actual fighting cannot be taken lightly. It is dangerous and demands primarily what only the basics can provide.