In a real fight, which is a matter of life-or-death, you need to be very quick. In particular, your hands need to be sharp, instantly acting and reacting. You cannot delay or hesitate; you have to be decisive and confident, although not over-confident or egotistic. You cannot afford to be negligent in your training each day. You have to diligently focus yourself every single day, training earnestly whenever possible, forging your mind, body, and spirit [of character and the essence of life at one with the Universe and the Creator of everything, given various terms depending on the culture or belief system, the Christian term, in English, being “God”]. In fact, on the topic of the training of the “spirit” in the fighting arts, religion and philosophy are so often seen intertwined in so many schools, traditionally not separating fighting, but instead even going so far as to include an element of worship. Of course, these days, I certainly wouldn’t discuss beliefs in any specific way in classes, as they are personal and every person should be respected for who they are and what they believe.
Certainly, forms on their own are no good. They have plenty of practical purposes, but actual fighting skills require more than just the artistic methods of practising fighting techniques individually. To be able to actually fight, you have to develop the skills of using both hands together, applying leg and arm techniques simultaneously, utilising multiple techniques and multiple levels for attacks, and not only recognising the importance of speed in actual conflict, but understanding how to properly apply both yin and yang in accordance with your opponent/s, as well as being agile and flexible to enable swift movement in any direction without delay, avoiding even being so much as touched by your attacker’s fist or, indeed, weapon, measuring distance and having perfect timing, waiting until the last moment, and always, even if sometimes shifting back, advancing towards the enemy strategically, employing clever tactics based on the principles of actual fighting. This is real authentic karate / karati – Okinawan Shaolin boxing.
