To all Karateka out there, have you been shown how to apply Kime to your technique? Also do many Sensei's teach this? It does hurt as I have felt it before.
Pretty much how we teach it - Focus / Spirit, so you are not Sparring, drilling your techniques or hitting pads, with all the grit and determination of a wet lettuce... ...Do not get the sense that this is the same 'Kime' that the OP is referring to though. Travess
What do the Karateka here think of this definition? [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-WwCVUjNL4"]What is "Kime"? Dr. Lucio Maurino (World Karate Champion) Explains & Demonstrates - YouTube[/ame]
That's pretty much how it was explained to me. I was taught Kime is the tension at the end of the technique, when you briefly tighten your muscles at the same time as you exhale and relax right after that. At my school we are quite often reminded to use kime correctly in practising techniques, sparring, hitting the makiwara, in kata, etc. There are even some basic kata applications when you strike and then push away the opponent mostly just tightening the muscles and pushing forward a little. I think this might be taken "the application" of kime, too? (It's shown in the video below at the end of the bunkai starting at 2:15) And if I'm not mistaken, applying kime to punches in sparring can make quite a bit of difference. I suspect this is the reason my sensei's punches are much worse to take than anyone else's. He hits like he would hit a makiwara and it's more painful. https://youtu.be/RSZQoY0q8dY
Kime is the part of a karate punch that a boxer would call 'proper timing'. Boxers develop it by hitting things. Karateka develop it by not hitting things. Boxers do it better.
That YT explanation came across as being a round about way of explaining "chinkuchi". That is the instant on the end of a strike where the body becomes rigid for a split second to cause the greatest amount of energy from your strike to be transferred to the target (the difference between a punch a push, if that makes more sense). The word kime as I understand it just means focus, relating specifically to mental focus. OP, if you're asking specifically about chinkuchi and how to effectively apply it in striking then you'll find many karateka from many branches of karate teach this (albeit in different ways and varying degrees of use). In many ryu it's not specifically taught though, I know a bunch of places that don't teach it specifically but it's sort of overlayed when coaching proper form and techniques. I think on the whole it's more heavily emphasised (along with gamaku, especially) in Goju ryu. I read a Jesse Enkamp article a while back where he wrote about chinkuchi, gamaku and muchimi. Google either of those words and it's likely to pop up near the top.
Yeah, well he does competition Kata, what would he know? :evil: Seriously though, his explanation was basically the way I've always understood it. Some people I've spoken to have expanded it to be about the entire technique and having good form and precision as well, which I always felt was a slightly different thing.
Yeah what I meant to say was the tensing of the fist at the end of each punch. What I wanted to ask was, did you guys find it easy? I'm finding it extremely difficult along with using my hips.
It's very easy when you are hitting pads/bags. Developing proper timing when you're punching air is extremely difficult (and completely unnecessary).
Refining that kind of minute timing just takes time and practice. As Holyheadjch says, the best way is to hit pads and bags often. Although I wouldn't say that it is "very easy", it depends on what level of economy and effect you are happy with I suppose.
Spot on. Unless you're aiming to be a kata performer and enter into all that jazz it's pointless to dedicate all that time to a technique that won't be used to strike. Besides that, there is more to effective striking than just that moment of tension.