Kakie (Okinawan Sticky Hands)

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

IN my recent studies through Rory Miller’s latest book about drills he talks about the use of our tactile system, i.e., he talks about more than mere sticky hands as often practiced and I will theorize that sticky hands is a solid introduction to this concept but wholly inadequate to teaching how one can use tactile methodologies especially as Mr. Miller indicated that they are far superior overall than other more visual methods. 

He states (note: I may have transcribed and implanted some of my own words and/or ideas herein; fact check it with the book):

• Note: Humans are wet meat machines of nature, we are all similar as the wet meat sits around our bones, the skeletal system, and are connected by tendons, cartilage and muscles. Once you have two points of contact with another human, you will be able to feel, tactile sensory systems, any shift in that persons movement through the bones. Sensitivity drills are about feeling others in motion so that you feel how, when and where they move their bodies and then to feel how you can exploit those moved to your benefit. 
• Note: Most karate sensitivity drills are limited and incomplete for they only deal with what they call sticky-hands. To truly learn, condition, experience and apply tactile systems for self-defense you have to connect to the entire skeletal system through touch and such drills as appropriate. 
• Learn to analyze exactly what sensitivity means in a given context. 
• Learn to FEEL incoming forces. 
• Mass moving in any direction, particularly force coming in, can be exploited. 
• When it comes learn to control the power necessary to move it in any appropriate direction. 
• Note: It is common not to have the use of vision in a fight. You need to learn how to deal with darkness, the threat behind you, and blood in your eyes, etc. Sometimes violence is so close - in your face - and so fast, with a flurry of strikes coming in, that your eyes can’t handle it. Touch is still available tool when in that state.
• Note: Touch, tactile sensitivity, gives a faster reaction than focused sight and is less hampered by adrenaline. 
• Note: Reaction time to touch is faster than peripheral vision reaction time and much faster than focused vision. 
• Note: Conditioned tactile self-fense will allow you to respond to the precursors in a fight increasing speed. Kind of like feeling the tell and acting rather than reacting after the method is in motion. You will find yourself defending actions before they happen, sometimes before the attacker has consciously decided to move. It could be called, “Combat Precognition.”
• Note: Push shoulders, effects the hips and legs; shoulder girdle is a lever arm attached to the pelvis; pelvis is a lever arm too. 
• Note: The Proverbial Bear Hug Defense; every time you see a self-defense instructor teach an escape from a bear hug you have to be puzzled because the only people ever seen to use the bear hug just stand there comes from cops and bouncers - the good guys. A bear hug is something used by cops and bouncers to slam someone into a wall or throw them into a closet or car trunk. It is fast and mobile: you are whipped off your feet. 
• Note: Fighting is dynamic, it happens moving even with firearms and when the emphasis is on the range with a stable platform and good site picture … gunfights involve a lot of running and ducking. Practicing static defense or two-dimensional motion of sparring, the wild action of a fight will be unfamiliar. The crashing, running, pushing, pulling, and dropping will confuse you. Worse, if your skills require a solid base, they will simply fall. 

These revelations, for me anyway, indicates that sticky hands or kakie or Shokusokugi training are most excellent in providing students a pre-requisite like intro to just how our sense of touch can achieve survival goals This is why I stop here before I get to far out past my expertise and understanding and “HIGHLY RECOMMEND” Rory Miller’s book:

Miller, Rory. “Training for Sudden Violence: 72 Practical Drills.” YMAA Publications. New Hampshire. 2016

As I read the introduction I am again pleased and not too surprised that in a short and terse chapter Mr. Miller has once again inspired and informed me on the most seriously deep subject, most awesome! 

Read also the following for more information on the two terms I reference.

Kakie (kagi) [カキエ] [鉤]

The characters/ideograms mean "to hook." This particular term also means in martial arts circles "push hands; sticky hands, etc." The character means, "hook; barb; gaff; brackets."

This term also makes references through the ninth ken-po goku-i, tactile or tactual or tactility or haptic, as a means to train and practice both the mind and body to "sense" body movement, body alignment, body pressures, rhythms and cadence. It is a method to discover through tactile ability the strategy, tactile and technique. It is a method to sense how your body moves and how your adversary's body moves and how to make changes through tactile ability to move your body with that of an adversary in a manner allowing proper counters to take strategic and tactical advantage. 

Kakie is an Okinawan dialect that means "to hook." It is a part of the ancient Ti/Te tradition of the culture and denotes training with a partner for a tactile development of the body-mind connection and is best practiced with eyes closed after the initial learning curve is passed. It involves motions with constant arm contact while moving the hands in a circular motion while the entire body also moves and senses minute changes in motion, cadence, rhythms, etc.

Kakie also has as "bunkai" a number of close combat techniques and counter techniques that are also applied in a tactile manner. It is important the one not rely on sight and hearing alone but enhance the ability to feel tactually, to feel and use feeling to apply such techniques. There are three general categories of kakie, i.e. Hichi Gaki, Ushi Gaki and Hani Gaki.

Kakie is unique to the Okinawan fighting system of Ti/Te and should not be assumed a part of or concept of the Chinese push/sticky hands techniques. Keep in mind it is not an exercise for timing and body conditioning (karada kitae is body conditioning); it is not just practiced in Goju but rather in all Okinawan Ti/Te; finally it is NOT a form of kumite.

It might also be that kakie is a basic or fundamental practice leading toward "Shokusokugi." 

Shokusokugi [触即技]

The characters/ideograms mean "instant touch technique; or touch, feel and go technique." The first character means, "contact; touch; feel; hit; proclaim; announce; conflict," the second technique means, "instant; namely; as is; conform; agree; adapt," the third character means, "skill; art; craft; ability; feat; performance; vocation; arts."

If your touch sensitive or use touch sense mode than you will find this concept easy to understand and practice but if you're a sight or hearing sense person you may find this one a bit touchy. This aspect of the kakie and shokusokugi pair also introduces practitioners to the concept of in-yo or in Chinese yin-yang. 

This is something that teaches a martial artist the proper actions when a person and adversary have that first physical contact. It is the ability and model to teach and learn how to perceive an adversaries intentions by tactual contact alone - by touch. It is a means to sense an impending attack and giving the person a lead in applying a proper counter, etc.

Instant touch technique; or touch, feel and go technique.

Bibliography (Click the link)