Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute

EVERYONE IS INTITLED TO AN OPINION – BUT WHEN IT COMES TO REAL COMBAT IT HAS TO BE AN INFORMED OPINION
I just watched a YouTube video titled: “Do groin strikes really work in self-defense – Ask Mike.” I have attached the link to the video. Mike is a MMA trainer. He is also an idiot when it comes to real combat and police use of force, officer survival, and actually controlling suspects. It is MMA people like this that really p**s me out. Because he believes he is qualified to comment on things he has no experience with, much less expertise. MMA is a good sport. But it is a sport.
The two things he commented on that I take exception with are: 1. groin strikes/kicks and eye pokes do not work in a self-defense situations – in fact he states they will only “p**s off” a trained fighter. 2. Police pain compliance techniques do not effectively control suspects.
First, you would think that a MMA trainer would watch MMA bouts. Because if he did, he would better appreciate groin kicks and eye pokes for self-defense. I have attached two videos where one MMA fighter gets his balls crushed (he does not want to fight anymore) and the other video is a collection of MMA fighters getting eye poked (they can’t fight afterward). They prove my point about Mike being an idiot.
Second, when I started law enforcement, we had handcuffs, a revolver, and a baton (very few carried the baton). We had no pepper spray, Tasers, or extended range impact weapons (bean bag shotgun projectiles). I went on duty at every shift with only my martial arts skills and handcuffs to control resisting and violent people. For every person that I had to punch or kick to control them, I controlled two hundred with pain compliance joint locks and pressure points. They worked every time I applied them to a suspect that was drunk, drugged, angry, and mentally ill – no brag just a fact - . I also used the “Sleeper Hold” neck restraint. But only a few times, because I did not want to wrestle on asphalt, gravel, broken glass, nails and screws, cement, in the mud, on wet grass, or snow. Also, I did not want to grapple on a street with passing traffic, a living room with family members who did not like me and who had access to guns, knives, tools, and in a bar with a bunch of his drunken friends with glass beer mugs and bottles.
So, please excuse me for being testy – when some idiot whose only understanding of self-defense is training cage fighters who fight with rules and who has no understanding of police work feels entitled to provide his vast insights into things he does not know jack about.
Howard Webb, Executive Director
American Council on Criminal Justice Training
Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute
https://youtu.be/WbMqRzQcf4s Groin kick
https://youtu.be/zPIikZvHEZM Eye Pokes
https://youtu.be/BPSxYCQfTjI

Do Groin Strikes Really Work for Self Defense • Ask Matt Many people believe that they will use the groin strike effectively if they will be attacked. The reality may be different though than you think. In this epi...

Health Benefits of Traditional Karate Training

I am sixty-eight years old. I began my training In
Okinawa Kenpo Karate and Kobudo when I was twenty-
one with sensei Nick Flores. I have been practicing and
teaching traditional Nakamura Okinawa Kenpo Karate for
over forty years. The following is an explanation of the
serious health benefits that I have experienced from
practicing traditional karate for most of my life.

On Saturday evening last February, I woke up from
an afternoon nap confused, with a strong headache. I
tried to ignore the headache during the night. When it
became obvious to me it was not getting better, I asked
my wife to drive me to the emergency room, on Sunday
morning. She loaded me into our car and drove me the sixteen
miles through minus zero cold and blowing snow road
conditions to the Helena ER.

After the Emergency Room doctor examined me, he
informed my wife and I that I had experienced a brain
bleed, commonly known as a stroke. Because my local
hospital did not have the expertise or medical facilities to
treat the stroke, I was transported, via helicopter, to the
Great Falls hospital where I spent the next three weeks.
A few days after I returned home, I had another
stroke, and was transported via airplane to the Salt-Lake
City University Hospital.

At the time of writing this essay,
I had been examined by a total of eight neurologists.
They confirmed I had suffered severe strokes.
I informed each neurologist: "I started practicing
karate at nineteen years old. From that time until now
my diet has consisted of chicken, vegetables, and whole
grains. I have never smoked, drank alcohol, or used
illegal drugs. I have practiced karate eight to ten hours a
day, five to six days a week, for the past forty years to
prevent a heart attack or stroke.

All the doctors agreed that my lifestyle did not cause
the stroke. Further, each neurologist told me that my
healthy diet and hours of daily karate training saved my
life. "Without your daily karate training and healthy diet,
you would be dead now. People your age and younger
die all the time from stroke. Your healthy diet and karate
training strengthen your body and brain. Because of this
you will recover more quickly," the doctors told me.

I am happy to tell you the doctors were right. My
physical and cognitive abilities have recovered fully. This
includes karate training.

As my serious life-threatening medical event
demonstrates and my doctors statements validate, a
healthy diet and exercise may not prevent a heart attack
or stroke. However, because traditional karate training
strengthens your body and mind, it will likely prevent
your death and enhance your recovery if you experience
a stroke or heart attack.

In addition, my physical therapists found that
traditional karate kata training is effective physical and
mental therapy. They found kata to be effective therapy
because the body and the mind (brain) must work
together, which is essential in physical therapy, to
execute the techniques correctly. As a result of their discovery, I gave them kata instruction while I was recovering in the hospitals.

News Paper Article - January 18, 2024 : Self-Defense Murder Trial

HEDRICK’S DEFENSE centers around whether he acted reasonably by arming himself during his final confrontation with Brookshire. Defense Attorney Gordon argued Wednesday that Hedrick was justified, under Montana law, with meeting a threat with a weapon.

Hedrick wasn’t looking for a confrontation, she told jurors, but it came to his door just the same.

Another neighbor testified earlier in the trial that Brookshire’s behavior that night created a tense atmosphere in the hallway. His ex-girlfriend told jurors she was scared of him causing her harm.

Howard Webb, a law enforcement trainer and expert witness with a specialty in use of force, served as Gordon’s first witness Thursday. He testified that Hedrick appeared to fire the gun accidentally when Brookshire grabbed Hedrick's handgun, based upon his review of the video and witness accounts.

“It’s called a sympathetic reflex,” Webb told the court via Zoom. “So what happened here, I believe, is when the gun was grabbed and when [Hedrick] started to pull the gun away his finger naturally pressed the trigger and he fired.”

People, Webb said, can take action to protect themselves against an “imminent threat” and displaying a gun does not represent an escalation, he said.

Webb noted that Brookshire was only a few feet away — a gap he could quickly close. Given their proximity, it was reasonable that Hedrick cocked the weapon during the exchange, he said.

But what if the shooting wasn’t an accident, Gordon asked.

“Even if the shooting was intentional, it would be justified,” Webb replied.

https://youtu.be/mtAQusc-678

NAIHANCHI SAN DAN TORI EXPLANATION Nakamura Okinawa Kenpo Karate Naihanchi San Dan Kata's Tori (Hidden Moves) Explained.

HICK'S LAW (REACTION TIME) APPLIED IN KARATE

In my previous posting, I stated that I would identify where modern motor skills and performance research concepts are found in the Nakamura family's martial art (Okinawa Kenpo). This is the first posting on this topic; there will be more to follow.

To help you understand Hick's Law as it applies to karate, I will first explain the conceptual model of the stages of reaction time (RT).

Stage One: Imput. This is the stimulus (the environmental information) that the fighter perceives.

Stage Two: Stimulus Identification. In this process, the subconscious mind filters through the perceived movements for the stimuli (the attack) that the fighter is programmed to respond to.

Stage Three: Response Selection. The subconscious mind searches through the response options in the long term memory and selects the proper reaction (defense and counter).

Stage Four: Response Programing: The subconscious mind downloads the selected programmed reaction into the motor program.

Stage Five: Output. The motor program executes the selected defense and counter.

RT is measured from when the Imput Stage begins to when the Output Stage starts.

Hick's Law has two parts: First part, the more defense actions to choose from the longer the RT. Second part, the more stimuli to evaluate and react to the longer the RT.

Hick's Law Part One Applied: Through five hundred years of combat trial and error, the Nakamura Family grandmasters learned to reduce their reaction times by limiting their defensive and offensive options.

For example, Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura only taught three blocking techniques: raising, outward, and downward. Further, he emphasized the Crescent Block (moving the forearm outward and down or downward and outward pivoting off the elbow) for 95% of defensive blocking. For offensive and defensive-counter attacking, he only taught Forward and Reverse Punches; front snap kick; side kick; and turning side kick. This shortened RT by reducing the blocking and striking counter-attack options to filter through in the Response Selection Stage.

Hick's Law Part Two: Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura did not teach specific defensive and counter-attack reactions to specific offensive attacks. Like you see practiced in Modern karate's bunkai self-defense techniques. He taught to defend the target area that was threatened regardless of the attack.

For example, if the opponent attacked the face, the face area is defended with an outward block regardless of the hand for foot attack. The same was true for an attack to the torso or a leg. For the torso attack (punch or kick), the downward block is used. For the leg attack (kick or sweep), the foot is snap rearward at the knee to move it out of reach. This shortened RT by having only one threat stimuli to detect per area in the Stimulus Selection Stage.

Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura's martial art strategy for reducing RT was proven effective and reinforced by his students' success in full-contact in bogu kumite.

Scientific Conclusion. The fewer the self-defense combinations you practice for a specific attack technique the faster your reaction to the attack will be. In addition, the more different offensive techniques that your opponent must filter through and to respond to, the slower your opponent's reaction time will be to your offensive attack.

I find it remarkable that the evolutionary improvements of the Nakamura's family's martial art can be explained through modern motor skill and performance science.


In the next posting, I will explain how the motor skill science concept of Automaticity was used by the Nakamura's family martial art to reduce defensive reaction time.

Sensei Howard Webb
Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute
HICK'S LAW (REACTION TIME) APPLIED IN KARATE

In my previous posting, I stated that I would identify where modern motor skills and performance research concepts are found in the Nakamura family's martial art (Okinawa Kenpo). This is the first posting on this topic; there will be more to follow.

To help you understand Hick's Law as it applies to karate, I will first explain the conceptual model of the stages of reaction time (RT).

Stage One: Imput. This is the stimulus (the environmental information) that the fighter perceives.

Stage Two: Stimulus Identification. In this process, the subconscious mind filters through the perceived movements for the stimuli (the attack) that the fighter is programmed to respond to.

Stage Three: Response Selection. The subconscious mind searches through the response options in the long term memory and selects the proper reaction (defense and counter).

Stage Four: Response Programing: The subconscious mind downloads the selected programmed reaction into the motor program.

Stage Five: Output. The motor program executes the selected defense and counter.

RT is measured from when the Imput Stage begins to when the Output Stage starts.

Hick's Law has two parts: First part, the more defense actions to choose from the longer the RT. Second part, the more stimuli to evaluate and react to the longer the RT.

Hick's Law Part One Applied: Through five hundred years of combat trial and error, the Nakamura Family grandmasters learned to reduce their reaction times by limiting their defensive and offensive options.

For example, Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura only taught three blocking techniques: raising, outward, and downward. Further, he emphasized the Crescent Block (moving the forearm outward and down or downward and outward pivoting off the elbow) for 95% of defensive blocking. For offensive and defensive-counter attacking, he only taught Forward and Reverse Punches; front snap kick; side kick; and turning side kick. This shortened RT by reducing the blocking and striking counter-attack options to filter through in the Response Selection Stage.

Hick's Law Part Two: Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura did not teach specific defensive and counter-attack reactions to specific offensive attacks. Like you see practiced in Modern karate's bunkai self-defense techniques. He taught to defend the target area that was threatened regardless of the attack.

For example, if the opponent attacked the face, the face area is defended with an outward block regardless of the hand for foot attack. The same was true for an attack to the torso or a leg. For the torso attack (punch or kick), the downward block is used. For the leg attack (kick or sweep), the foot is snap rearward at the knee to move it out of reach. This shortened RT by having only one threat stimuli to detect per area in the Stimulus Selection Stage.

Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura's martial art strategy for reducing RT was proven effective and reinforced by his students' success in full-contact in bogu kumite.

Scientific Conclusion. The fewer the self-defense combinations you practice for a specific attack technique the faster your reaction to the attack will be. In addition, the more different offensive techniques that your opponent must filter through and to respond to, the slower your opponent's reaction time will be to your offensive attack.

I find it remarkable that the evolutionary improvements of the Nakamura's family's martial art can be explained through modern motor skill and performance science.


In the next posting, I will explain how the motor skill science concept of Automaticity was used by the Nakamura's family martial art to reduce defensive reaction time.

Sensei Howard Webb
Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute

"THE DEATH OF DOGMA GIVES BIRTH TO REALITY"
Immanuel Kant - 1724 to 1802

Dogma: a fixed belief or set of beliefs that people are expected to accept without any doubts. Cambridge Dictionary

Do the sensei of traditional martial arts suffer from dogma regarding their training methodologies?

Does the adherence to training methodologies created centuries ago by sensei with no knowledge of modern motor learning and performance research constitute dogma?

Until recently on FB, I had never read a critique of traditional karate training methods that referenced modern motor learning and performance research as the basis of the critique.

The commenting author identified Hick's Law as one reason why traditional training methodology was not effective. Hick was a motor performance researcher. Hick's Law deals with Reaction Time (RT). RT is defined as "The interval of time from a suddenly presented, unanticipated, stimulus until the beginning of the response."

Motor performance research divides RT into two categories: Simple Reaction Time (SRT) and Choice Reaction Time (CRT). SRT is the reaction to single stimuli (punch or kick). CRT is the reaction to multiple stimulus or response alternatives.

W.E. Hick (1952) discovered that Choice Reaction Time is lengthened in two ways.

One: When you increase the number of response alternatives (defensive options) to a stimuli (a specific attack), your reaction time increases. Example: When you double the number of possible defensive options from one to two, RT is increased by 58 percent. With every additional defensive option, RT continues to lengthen.

This aspect of Hick's Law applied: The more counter-attack options you practice for a specific attack the slower you reaction time will be to the attack.

Two: When the number of stimuli increases, Choice RT increases. For example: When the stimulus number doubles, Choice RT increases by 58 percent.

This aspect of Hick's Law applied. Your offensive attacks should be thrown in the combinations of two, four, eight, etc. to negatively impact the opponent's ability to defend. The opponent will react at his or her fastest to a single technique attack.

"Hick's Law is one of the most important laws of human performance………The delays can be of critical importance in determining success in many rapid skills, such as defending against a punch in boxing." Professor Richard A. Schmidt, MOTOR LEARNING & PERFORMANCE.

I was hired (full-time in 1988) as the Chief Survival Skills Instructor at the Oregon Police Academy. As you are aware, I had practiced and taught Nakamura Okinawa Kenpo prior to becoming a police officer/trainer. So, my training background was in traditional Okinawan karate.

I took (and still take) my responsibility to effectively train officers to survive violent life-threatening encounters very seriously. Consequently, I researched the science of motor learning and performance to ensure the information and training methodologies I used was based on solid scientific research.

The research I conducted and its application in law enforcement training at the academy heavily influenced the way I conduct my martial arts training and the ex*****on of my fighting techniques. As a result, I adhere to the customs, protocols, and rituals of traditional Nakamura Okinawa Kenpo. However, except for kata as physical textbooks (tori), makiwara training, and bogu kumite, my physical training is based on modern motor performance and skill science.

Over the last few months, I have begun analyzing the Nakamura Okinawa Kenpo fighting system through the microscope of modern motor skill science. In doing, I have discovered that the generations of karate masters in the Nakamura family, through trial and error in personal combat, had unknowingly developed fighting principles and strategies grounded in modern motor performance knowledge.

In future postings, I will explain the connection between specific Nakamura technique applications and the motor skill science that makes them effective.

Sensei Howard Webb
Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute

LITTLE KNOWN OKINAWAN KARATE HISTORY

First, I want to thank those of you who gave positive feedback on my article about kata. I publish FB articles to bring a different perspective to the martial arts, to share information and experiences, and to discuss information I have read from group members.

Regarding my last article, there were a few comments stating the information I presented was dishonest and/or historically wrong. In this article, I am going to address and expand on the latter comment.

But first, I want to inform you that I have never practiced Shorin Ryu, Goju Ryu, Issin Ryu, and any other form of Okinawan karate. I have only studied, practiced, and taught Nakamura Okinawa Kenpo Karate and kobudo for the last forty-two years. Further, I have only deployed and executed karate in full-contact bogu kumite and as a police officer in the field. Consequently, my interest, perspective, and understanding of the martial arts are formed by those two areas of application.

General Historical Background

According to Shoshin Nagmine's textbook THE ESSENCE OF OKINAWAN KARATE-DO, Okinawa's original native martial art "te" consisted of mainly closed fist strikes. When Sakugawa introduced a Chinese martial art (that utilized open-hand techniques) to Okinawa in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, the Okinawan te masters integrated the Chinese open-hand techniques into their martial art. This of course is the Shorin Ryu historical explanation.

Further, Shoshin states that in the 19th Century Okinawan te was still limited to the warrior class and practiced and taught in the strictest secrecy. With the end of the Satsuma occupation (1609 - 1875) and the official recognition of Okinawa as part of Japan the need for secrecy ended.

In addition, he explained that in 1936 a meeting was held among Chojun Miyagi, Chomo Hanashiro, Chotoku Kyan, and Choki Motobu. In this meeting, they agreed that the title for their martial art should be represented as an empty-handed self-defense art, "karate."

Nakamura Family Martial Art History

The sources of the following historical information: Sensei Nick Flores, Sensei Seikichi Odo, and Grandmaster Taketo Nakamura.

The Nakamura family's martial art came from China to Okinawa in the 7th Century. At the time of its immigration, it was call kempo. The martial art was passed on from father to son until 1472 AD. In that year, Naha Bushi Sakiyama made the decision to accept students who were not Okinawan royalty. To ensure that the lineage of his system would stay true, he created a scroll to document the consecutive grandmasters of his fighting methodology. This scroll exists today in possession of the Nakamura family in Okinawa.

It is unrolled once in a lifetime when at the death of the grandmaster the name of his successor is added.

The Sakiyama scroll is one of a few Okinawan artifacts to survive World War II. In preparation for war, the Japanese government collected all known Okinawan artifacts and stored them in Shuri Castle for safe keeping. During the invasion of Okinawa, Shuri Castle was destroyed and along with it the stored artifacts.

Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura did not trust the Japanese to keep the scroll safe; consequently, he hid it in a cave in northern Okinawa.

Currently, three copies of the Sakiyama scroll exist outside of the Nakamura family. Sensei Odo honored Sensei Flores for his dedication to Okinawa Kenpo with a copy of the scroll. While on Okinawa, Sensei Flores had an expert on the Chinese and Okinawan languages translate the scroll. During the translation, she determined that the first half of the grandmasters’ names are written in an ancient Chinese dialect that was no longer used. This authenticated the dates listed on the scroll.

In 1981, at the direction of Sensei Odo, Sensei Flores honored me with a copy of the Sakiyama scroll. There has been no public acknowledgement of the Nakamura family scroll presented in or outside of Okinawa. Only the Nakamura family is allowed to view it, with one exception. Seikichi Odo because he was appointed the Chief Instructor of the Nakamura family martial art by Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura, prior to his death.

When I was given my copy of the scroll, I was told by Sensei Odo and Sensei Flores it was not to be copied and give out. Further, it was not to be displayed publicly.

Four years ago, in an article I posted on my Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute FB page, I announced the existence of the scroll. At that time, some people who had practiced Okinawa Kenpo under Seikichi Odo claimed there was no scroll and accused me of being dishonest. Although I have ambivalent feelings about publicly displaying the scroll, I have attached a picture of it. It is not a very clear image, that is the internal compromise I have made with Sensei Odo's and Sensei Flores' directive not to display it.

In closing, I have posted this article to present knowledge that an older and uniquely different style of Okinawan karate exists in its origin, philosophy, and application.

Sensei Howard Webb
Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute

KATA THE MODERN MARTIAL ARTS CONTROVERSY

The one topic that generates more love and more hate than any other among FB martial arts groups is the value of kata as a training methodology. The second topic that provokes the same emotional discussion is the effectiveness of a specific martial art in actual self-defense.

What I find most interesting is that each side of the debate does not seem to comprehend the obvious. That is in the 1920's the martial arts of China, Japan, and Okinawa began to evolve from being warrior martial arts into what they have become today: martial art cults.

Webster defines a cult as: "A great devotion to a person, idea, or thing. Esp: Devotion to an intellectual fad."

Martial art cult members possess great devotion to their art or martial sport because its effectiveness is never tested in real life-threatening attacks. Or if a methodology is available to test life or death combat effectiveness, they chose not to utilize it.

Because less than one percent of the people who practice a martial art will ever use their skills to defend against a life threatening attack, both those who criticize and those who defend kata have no actual foundation for their arguments. Both possess a cult devotion to their ideas.

When analyzing kata as an effective combat training method, one must beware of Okinawan karate's true history. Further, one must discount the modern Okinawan karate masters' evolved stated purpose for karate - "Life protection arts." The Okinawan masters are aware that less than one percent of karateka in Okinawa and the United State will use their karate for "life protection." Therefore, they have redefined Okinawan martial history to promote the non-violent applications of their martial art: sport, cultural exchange, physical fitness, hobby, and capitalism.

The true history of Okinawan Karate is twofold: First, prior to the early 1920's on Okinawa, karate was solely practiced by the warrior class as a "blood sport" to test their fighting prowess. Choki Motobu engaged in over one hundred of these full-contact matches. Shigeru Nakamura in his youth did as well.

These warriors knew that if they could defeat skilled warriors they could protect the villagers from untrained criminals. "Life protection" was not the main reason for training.

Second, the practice of bunkai is a modern training activity. Ronald Lindsey (who in 1970 studied with Fusei Kise, Hohan Soken, and Yuichi Kuda of Matsumura Seito) states in his interview, documented, in Matthew Apsokardu's book: Tales from the Western Generation - "Generally the Okinawans didn't teach bunkai……Mr. Kuda would say, Your bunkai good, his bunkai good, everybody bunkai good."

Since the practice of bunkai is a relatively modern occurrence, karateka possess no knowledge of how to apply karate techniques in actual life and death combat. It is this lack of real world combat experience that kata naysayers point to when criticizing kata.

The Kata naysayers use their experiences in boxing, kickboxing, BJJ, and MMA to proclaim kata's uselessness in self-defense/personal combat. However, this cult mentality on their part is the "pot calling the kettle black." How many of these fighters have used their arts in life and death combat? Much Less than one percent.
Further, these martial sports have weight divisions. How often will a violent criminal attacker be the same gender, same size, or a smaller size than the victim? Almost never. Only idiots attack a person bigger than they are.

So you can see neither the pros nor the cons in this argument have the personal combat experience to validate their positions. With this stablished, it is not their fault. Middle class and upper middle class martial artists do not fight in blood sport matches. There are civil and criminal repercussions to this behavior.

Grandmaster Shigeru Nakamura recognized the downside consequence to historic Okinawan karate with the Japanese ban on blood sport fighting in the early 1920's. He warned the Okinawan karateka publicly "If there is no (full-contact) fighting ineffective (fighting) techniques will replace effective ones." Further, he claimed "Fighting is the application kata (bunkai) - no fighting no karate."

To proactively resolve the future arguments over the effectiveness of kata training in actual combat, Nakamura developed the bogu armor for the full contact simulation of the outlawed blood sport matches.

Nakamura's bogu kumite: fighting is full-contact with all strikes and kicks legal. No points called. The fighting continues uninterrupted until one fighter submits. No joint attacks. Hit only padded areas. No gender, size, or weight divisions. Bogu is as close to real combat as can be safely conducted.

As you can see, there is a training activity that can be used to test both martial sports and traditional karate training for self-defense/combat effectiveness.

Prior to Nakamura's death, the majority of Okinawan karate dojos fought in the bogu armor. After his death, only a few continued its practice. Consequently, karate in all its forms evolved into what is practiced today.

In closing, here is my recommendation. Since almost no one in modern martial arts (traditional or sport) experiences life or death self-defense/personal combat, we should shed our cult false belief systems, accept the truth about the combat shortcomings of modern martial arts, focus on our own skill development, and respect each other's martial art, and each other a martial artists. We can disagree without being nasty.

Sensei Howard Webb
Shigeru Nakamura Ryukyu Martial Arts Institute