Knife hand block.

shadowspawn · Orange Belt

Ours comes downward at an angle with the blocking hand starting as high up as we can raise it while still keeping it behind our head. Application is that coming down at an attack increases the momentum behind it due to gravitational force. It also trains students for a followup grab of the arm by getting them to instinctively use gravity and their hips to strike downwards with an open hand so when they apply it in sparring, it becomes a lot easier to understand.

As per hand starting positions, we use both, or rather we have used both at various points in time. We originally started with the hand up, hand down method with the intention of the downed hand covering the relatively large opening created when lifting your arm so high above your head (same mentality that we use for our gedan barai). The both hands up method allows your hips to more easily get into the motion since both hands are moving in the same direction. And because of the lack of a pulling hand, there's no resistance to the hip rotation when performing the technique. Both have their applications depending on what your intention is and none are inherently wrong. The only "wrong" way I see people doing an open hand block is by extending their arm and blocking with only the area from the fingertip to the base of the palm rather than from the fingertip to the elbow. For one thing, it leaves a huge margin of error that can easily have you missing the strike completely. Another thing is that leaving your hand so far out from your body makes it extremely easy to lose control of that hand if it were to be grabbed. Another is that you should never have to reach that far out to deflect an incoming attack unless you're like a 4 foot person up against an 8 foot tall giant (and even then, good luck generating enough leverage with your arm extended so far). If anyone can explain to me a significant benefit for blocking in such a way, please share because I honestly see absolutely no practical use for such a technique outside of an eye rake.

Open minded · Yellow Belt

Any block is my favourite block if it defends me!

The best way to defend is attack
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Martial Arts

straightblast · Orange Belt

I don't like the term "block". we are really striking the incoming limb. I either strike the attack with a shuto or parry the attack and strike the neck.

Take the rising block for example, think of using it as a jab, quickly rising and striking the undside the the arm then returning. Can be very painful for the attacker.

I have stopped using the blocks as in the traditional way of locking the block out and use them as you would a strike or kick.

Regards
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Enter-pressure-terminate

Montana · Brown Belt

sensei8 · KF Sempai

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

sensei8 · KF Sempai

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