Baka-chikara means, "stupid crazy person brute strength." (this borrowed from the classic budoka blog) Although my first introduction to this phrase was on the subject of kata tournament competitions I still use it to explain a current model of karate practice. I am not saying what I am about to post does not have benefits but rather that those who perceive this type of practice as strong and powerful are mistaken. It seems that way.
When practicing karate we have two fundamental methods of practice that lead to all other things, first is the basics or fundamental techniques. These are called, in Isshinryu, the upper and lower basics. Second, are the kata.
When you see a kata being performed with an appearance of straining, struggling, turning red in the face effort with lots of hard snaps and pops you may say to yourself, "WoW, what a powerful karate-ka." This is baka-chikara. When you see a competitor who looks like they are about to have a heart attack from the effort and the kiai is yelled in such a manner that you can almost feel and see their throat and vocal cords exploding you have a baka-chikara.
This is not karate, it is not powerful, it is not true strength and the yell is counterproductive. Power when properly applied doesn't seem powerful when viewed similar to watching kata practice. Yes, it is a good way to get a type of exercise that once was called dynamic tension exercise. It is similar to doing the breathing and tensioning effort in sanchin. It is not powerful in the model of power transferred out of your body and into the target. It does demonstrate strong muscles, tendons, and cartilage, etc. but it is not a demonstration of principles such as sequential locking, body alignment, posture, etc.. that all contribute to power, speed and strength, etc. The kiai is a whole different subject and post for this type of baka-chikara kiai is merely a demonstration of dancing with the stars, i.e. a way to impress judges who don't have a clue about the martial arts or the clue they have is a mistaken one.
It is all counterproductive because it wastes energy. In the fight you want all your energy to go to stopping the fight and seeking safety. That means all or as much of your energy production should flow to the target and not get wasted by inappropriate tensioning, etc. The only "instance" of tensioning is approximately when you hit the target when all the body is aligned, balanced, properly postured, moving in the right direction and then in one split millisecond of tension is applied as long as other principles such as distancing, penetration, etc. are involved and balanced.
When I witness such demonstrations I don't say what wonderful power and speed and ability, I say, "nice exercise." If you are simply using kata practice such as this type then you are providing exercise for conditioning and a model for practicing and implementing properly applied principles. Then again, if you are doing this correctly then the baka-chikara goes away and that perception of power, strength, speed, etc. is less detectable until you see it applied in the fight.
I can also see this type of training model, like the deep stances used in some systems, as a means of building and conditioning the body and yet that is novice level practice. It is important that as one achieves understanding of the various techniques that they then begin applying the principles that involve things like "economical motion" and so on until they apply all the principles in every technique with the ability to mix, match and morph them into appropriate technique for any given moment and situation. This is one reason it takes time, effort and due diligence to gain this type of expertise and hopefully mastery.
When you can perform kata with principles then you will perceive strength, power, speed, etc. but it won't look like someone is straining, struggling and appearing exhausted, etc. It will appear powerful and strong but the practitioner will appear relaxed in a positive way and will make it seem easy while not easy. This is hard to describe but when you see it you will know. Take a look at the early films, not the USA films, of Tatsuo-san in the honbu dojo doing his kata, i.e. strong, fast, powerful yet not strong, fast or powerful as if pushing the body hard, holding dynamic tensioning outside of the actual contact with a target, etc.
Again, there are benefits from using dynamic tensioning and manifesting the principles such as sequential locking but there is a right way and a wrong way to demonstrate them. Finding the balance that allows you to adhere strictly to the fundamentals principles of martial systems (which is manifestation of chinkuchi as well) that is often demonstrated by those who have mastered karate but all the other stuff is meant to impress the uninitiated or the ignorant while promoting ego pride driven power of self. This is not karate.
When one is doing sanchin they are not fighting but using the kata to develop chinkuchi through breathing, dynamic tensioning and sequential locking and sequential relaxation, etc. That is what is being tested with sanchin shime, etc. Watch even the hard system when they actually practice kata drills and kumite sparring, etc.
I feel it is time to stop taking extremes of either hard or soft aspects toward our karate and focus on using those in the principals to achieve proper balance toward perfecting the use of principles in all the techniques we derive from our system and other systems we study. I wish that I had discovered these things twenty or more years ago and I am grateful I am now able to implement many of these things into my practice today. It is never too late, I am sixty years and loving it.
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