"Hikite is useless"

 


Hiki-te, "pulling hand". This is a common feature of Judo, but for some reason when people discuss the Hiki-te of karate, they seem to lose all sense and reason, and come up with fanciful "power generation" theories, or dismiss karate entirely because they've decided that karate is a striking-only art, ignoring the actual history of karate and the writings of the old karate masters of Okinawa written in their own words, perhaps so they can have a monopoly on grappling. The other hand in Judo is called Tsuri-te, "lifting hand", while in karate it is called Tsuki-te, "thrusting hand". In both cases, that hand moves away from the karateka's body. In karate, which employs strikes as well as grappling/throwing/joint manipulation, "thrusting" is a better all purpose descriptor rather than "lifting".

However, a stand up grappling/clinch fighting system like karate, where all kata begin with flinch response, initiative recovery and immobilization of the enemy's limbs before daring to strike, is designed to use techniques that keep you in balance to lessen the chance of being thwarted or thrown when you strike or kick during a clinch. If you aren't grabbing something you can pull, why use a pulling hand? If you are so far away that you can't grab something to pull, why are you fighting? Not that there might not still be a reason to fight, but why are you fighting if neither of you are close enough to grab the other person? Answer that question, and you'll know when and why you'd need to change the techniques of a clinch fighting system into long range techniques.



One movement pattern, many applications.




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