Foreword:
Quality and length of videos varies as some date back decades. Some can be quite long (meaning 1+ hour). But for those interested in the topic hopefully do find them interesting and educating. I did mention somewhere before that, for me, this became more than just a hobby or sports exercise. It is something that will always be part of my life, also created many life-long friendships and bonds. And still learning, it never stops. It is not “only” a physical “thing” but much, much more.
Harada Sensei (Mitsusuke Harada) was our teacher. He was a a student of Gichin Funakoshi amd Shigeru Egami, And Billy among others were Sensei Harada’s key students with whom I’ve had an honor and opportunity to learn from and practice with them, including Sensei Harada. So, thank you for all who carried and developed that heritage onward, keep going at it.
Nijū kun, Twenty Principles by Gichin Funakoshi
Some video clips and other information related to my martial arts experiences below.
An article on a concept of Hakkei by Billy Haggerty
Foreword:
Hakkei (発勁, Hakkei; translated as “explosive/raw power”) is a special fighting technique. The purpose of Hakkei is to allow the fighter to use their energy in an explosive manner with the least amount of actual physical movement possible. In essence, it is the “strike without striking”, causing the muscles within the body to actually generate the energy and deliver the force of the attack without actually carrying out the attack. That energy then penetrates deep inside the body resulting in damage to the internal organs but leaving the surface untouched. In doing so, user can attack with immense force even if he is extremely limited in space, allowing him to attack with great strength no matter the situation.
Billy:
My thinking about releasing internal power, has me considering a variety of ways energy develops and is used and I think there are at least three main aspects to consider i.e., ‘Reason’, ‘Structure’ and ‘Orientation’, For example:
The ‘reason’ of tight rope walking would in my opinion be to display skill at fearless balancing, able to control their physical and mental ‘structure’ and demonstrating a belief of being able to achieve the task as their ‘orientation’ is challenged.
Having a ‘reason’ to learn how to use a hammer and chisel to cut heavy metals during my apprenticeship and bruising my hands many times, before it became natural then only after developing the correct ‘structure’ to hold, angle and strike the chisel, with the ‘orientation’ of why and how to cut the material to achieve the intended result.
A baseball player will have a ‘reason’ to play the game and will have practiced building the ‘structure’ of holding the bat and striking a ball but notice how the focus (‘orientation’) is entirely on the ball and timing to contact clearly.
The tennis player will have a ‘reason’ for playing or winning matches and have trained for many hours to get the timing, ‘structure’ and thinking ‘orientation’ in sequence to deliver desired strikes.
The football players ‘reason’ for playing and winning games would have them training repeatedly to combine the physical ‘structures’ and ‘orientation’ or confidence to believe in successfully use of the ball even in stressful situations like penalties.
Even having a ‘Reason’ of building a complicated issue such as nuclear power, required people with the ‘Orientation’ (thinking) to design how the action comes together and the ‘Structure’ of putting it all together is necessary.
In our karate practice the ‘reason’ could be about attacking or defending and the following examples give some idea of how I believe it may be achieved with the additional issue of being able to transfer skill over different situations.
Using implements such as pad work, tanto, shinai and bo staff the ‘orientation’ or thinking can be developed to bring the consciousness into the weapon or implement providing the ‘structure’ of the body has been trained to deliver the appropriate actions.
After learning how to extend thinking from body to the potential targets a wide variety of results take place and when people achieve the results from their kata and kumite practice they almost all suggest that the energy level seemed easy but the affect massive.
