The Makiwara

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Is it actually true to say, “This tool is paramount to good karate?” Is the makiwara more important than anything else in karate? I think we can assign importance to many things within karate training and practice. It sometimes depends on the manner and reason of study often crossing over into two or more ways, i.e., sport to self-defense to combative and so on.

I also, personally, feel that it depends on what you use the tool for and what you get back from using it, i.e., is it about power; is it about timing; is it about body conditioning and so on. I tend to think in today’s karate that the makiwara serves as a means of learning, testing and experiencing the how and why of fundamental principles usually encompassing such things as stated above. 

It is a basic tool to test your understanding and use of those fundamental principles such as structure, alignment and energy generation and transference, etc. You can find more on the principles by searching the blog and Internet.

In short, the makiwara is not paramount to karate but not more or less important to any other aspect of karate training, it can be a matter of perspective. I do believe that for traditional karate, call it classical if you wish, and as it applies to self-fense the makiwara is a great tool that provides a lot of physical feedback at the basic, novice, levels. 

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