Many years ago, one of my friends came weight training with me, I felt good, I had been weight training to supplement my karate, 3 times per week, for years. My good friend was an academic, pen pusher (which I mean in the nicest way possible), he was a karate black belt, but had never pushed weights before. I said to him, ‘take it easy, if you haven’t pushed weights before, you could seriously injure yourself’. Boy, was I wrong, he pushed out as many reps as I did, with heavier weights! I was devastated, I couldn’t work it out, how could this happen, I was weak, useless and had been destroyed by someone who’s never lifted anything heavier than a pen! I thought about this event, a lot. Back in the karate dojo, I came to respect his natural strength, whenever we paired up, I would use my speed (he was relatively slow), to keep me out of trouble. I realised that all karateka have different physical skills, some are fast, some strong and some have incredible technique. So I tried using opposite responses when sparring, if someone was strong, I would use my speed, If someone was fast, I would attack with strong techniques. This worked well for a lot of opponents, but when you came up against someone who was, fast, strong and had great technique, it didn’t work so well. One thing I have noticed over the years, the top karateka in the world, have all three! Speed, strength and amazing technique. At our karate club, I encourage everyone to develop all three of these areas, I believe everyone can improve in all three and really excel in at least one of these physical skills. I know these are just physical skills and without the right attitude, the karateka will get nowhere, but I believe all karate students should have the right attitude (another article), if not, try something other than karate! Ossu Linden

Linden Huckle

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