Part 1: Introduction and First Exercise
I think first I have to qualify what I mean by “The Snapping
Shoulder”. I have thought long and hard about what term I could
use that would adequately describe this particular movement, however,
I have failed to come up with any comprehensive term. Therefore, I
have deferred to those who are in the know. At the Japan Karate Shotorenmei
Headquarters Kagawa Sensei always refers to it as the shoulder snap,
and consequently, so will I. But please remember it is merely a name
for the action, rather than a description of it.
In May 2001 I accompanied Kagawa Sensei on a trip to Manchester, to
help teach and translate on a course that had been organized by SKM.
It goes without saying that Kagawa Sensei’s technique and teaching
style impressed and inspired those in attendance. However, after the
course, talking to the various karate-ka from around the UK, the major
topic of discussion was how Kagawa Sensei used and taught the shoulder
snap.
So what is the shoulder snap? Well in essence it’s very simple
and there are three quick exercises that can help to teach your body
how to maximize the shoulder’s potential. First, stand in shizentai
and put both hands out making choku-tsuki position (both fists should
be touching side to side). Now, keeping your chest perfectly square-on,
and not changing the angle between your chest and left arm, relax
your right shoulder and allow your arm to move directly forward, as
if its growing. Now return your right arm back to its previous position
and do the same exercise with your left arm. It seems such a simple
exercise, but it is remarkable how many people don’t use this
extra extension when they punch.
Part 2: A Second Exercise to Practice
The second exercise is equally easy. Simply throw (or imagine throwing) a basketball, with both hands, straightforward. The idea is to keep the elbows tucked in and concentrate on the shoulders “snap” to push the elbows forward, propelling the ball. This little exercise helps you concentrate on the sharp twitch movement of the shoulder, which acts as the impetus of the punch, plus the follow through shoulder extension, which provides the greater penetration of the technique.
Part 3: Loosening Up
Once you have mastered the extension of the first exercise and the snap of the second, it is important to loosen-up your shoulder. For the third exercise, start with your right leg slightly forward, and your body in a relaxed hamne position. You left hand is unimportant, but you right hand should be at the hikite position, but completely relaxed. Starting from there, perform age uke, but without kime, just solely concentrating on the snap and extension of the shoulder. When performing this shoulder snap think of how you move when you shrug your shoulders. Of course, you are only using your right shoulder at this time, be you should have the same feeling.
The sharp movement upwards of your shoulder should act as an impetus for your blocking arm, allowing your shoulder to produce a greater extension than usual. Once your arm has reached its greatest extension, bring you fist back to hikite. Throughout the exercise your arm shouldn’t stop or reach a point of kime, so as soon as your fist reaches hikite, perform mawashi empi, going from right to left across your body in a wide, sweeping arc. Again the technique is not so important, just concentrate on the snap and extension of the shoulder that you need to do this technique. This snapping technique should feel like a shoulder barge, a sharp, snapping action forward, again acting as an impetus for the mawashi empi.
Finally, as the mawashi empi reaches a greater than normal extension to the left, snap the shoulder again in the opposite direction, like a reverse shoulder barge, performing yoko empi to the right, once again concentrating on the snap and extension of the shoulder. Once you reach maximum extension, allow your fist to return to hikite, and repeat the exercise again and again. The three techniques should be performed in one smooth and rounded action, using the shoulder as the impetus for each movement.
This is a very long-winded explanation for a simple little exercise, but believe me we do this exercise 40 or 50 times a day with each arm on the instructors course, and it’s very effective for loosening-up the shoulder.
Part 4: Applying it
So once you have mastered these little ideas, how do you apply them to techniques? Well I think for many years now we have been overwhelmingly concerned with how to use the hips correctly, and how they should act as the impetus for the punching hand. And rightly so. In fact, we can see, certainly with British karate, that about 10-15 years ago, it had an almost paradigmal shift in thinking, followed by what could be described as an explosion of innovation regarding body pivoting, relaxed back leg, hip rotation in kokutsu and kiba dachi, etc. The result of this was an emphasis on hip movement as the impetus for punching. If we use right hand gyuku tsuki as an example, we can see that we use the relaxed back (right) leg to snap the right side hip forward (much in the same way as the shoulder snap, after all they are both ball and socket joints), transferring the power to the fist, resulting in gyaku tsuki kime. Of course we often concentrate on keeping the elbow tucked in to stop flicking the punch, but rarely have I seen people teach that the elbow should be used to propel the fist forward. If we only concentrate on the hip we neglect a major power source for our punch.
At the start of the punch the shoulder, in a relaxed state, should be snapped forward. Its best to imagine that the power that this generates flows to your elbow, not your fist, pushing it forward. This movement should be allowed to continue until you reach full extension, with the shoulder relaxed forward, and you reach kime. When this is done in unison with the hip snap, it’s useful to imagine that the hip is propelling the fist forward, whereas the shoulder is propelling the elbow forward. Like most things in karate, imagining the mechanics of your body is vital to achieving the potential of this technique.
Another important key to this idea is not to tense the shoulder when punching. I have seen so many people tense all their shoulder muscles at the moment of kime, but if you do this its impossible to gain the extra penetration. Your shoulder will naturally use and tense the correct muscles it needs on the point of kime, without hindering your action by over-tensing. If done correctly, this shoulder extension will bring into play not only the lat muscles, but also the back muscles running down along the spine, which, I feel, is often a part of the body underused by most karateka.
Finally, it is important to point out two basic concepts. Firstly, when executing the technique, you must still breathe out, like we do with all techniques. In fact, just because you are trying something new, please don’t abandon old, correct principles that you have been practicing for years. And secondly, this concept can be applied to any hand technique, whether it is a punch, block, or strike. I have only used gyaku tsuki and choku tsuki as examples for this article, however, the shoulder snap and extension can improve the power, speed and add several inches reach to any technique, please don’t fixate on punching.
I think that this very simple idea is capable of improving both power and penetration of one’s technique. And with the simple exercises it is easy to incorporate this principle into one’s existing karate. However, in conclusion, I feel I must point out that the use of the idea should not result in gyaku-hamne. Gyaku-hamne is an entirely different technique where the upper body and hips continue pivoting so, if punching right hand gyaku tsuki, the right side of the body is in front of the left side. The idea that I have just described does not effect the finish position of the hips, upper body or shoulder of the hikite hand, it only effects the shoulder of the punching hand.
1:
Gyaku tsuki without using the shoulder extension to maximize penetration.
2:
Gyaku tsuki with shoulder extension.
3:
Gyaku tsuki using gyaku hamne.
4:
Choku tsuki performed without shoulder extension.
5:
Choku tsuki using shoulder extension.
This article © Scott Langley 2002
