Kime (Focus)

[Richard Kimura]

I am pretty sure that all of you in your karate training have been told to apply "kime" or focus in executing your techniques. The standard blurb regarding kime is that power is transferred to the technique.
What is everyone's opinion ? Do you "believe" in kime?
Just as an example, take breaking. Often in breaking examples, one sees the demonstrator go through various motions before the break (sanchin, pre-playing the break etc,)
But in the actual break, rarely do I see the "kime". I sometimes think that Kime is like stomping on your brakes while going at 100 MPH.

[Matsway]

Kime might be misunderstood. But I lack the knowledge to discuss it further or well enough to get my point through.
I think that kime comes after the hit connected to something. Else the energy is absorbed by the practicionner's body. To transfer the energy, there has to be a contact somewhere. That's when kime happens. Else, it's just (again, my lowly 1st kyu opinion) wasted energy and a false sense of energy transfer.

I also think that it's applying brakes and if you only hit air, then all that was in the train moves to the front and if the front connect with something, then what happens? When hitting the bag, do you stop at the surface or do you strike a bit further?

I hit a bit further. Hitting the surface doesn't quite deliver the same impact.

So what is kime? If it's focus, then an angry set of eyes and a stopped punch will do. If it's penetrating energy, then it's something else. I think it's a concept of martial arts that not quite understood right. But that's just me! Does focus lead to penetrating energy?

I'm curious as to what other think.

[Richard Kimura]

Aloha Mat (?)
Thanks for the only input so far.
Heck, it is a mysterious topic. I personally have never done tameshiwari by focusing on the top board, I always went through.
It remains a mystery to this day for me. I had an opportunity to observe an instructor at Kendokai (拳道会）in Yokohama demonstrate a mae geri against a sand bag. His thoughts ( he was instructing some beginners) were that anyone could kick a bag and make it swing back and forth, but a "real kick" vibrates the sand bag because all the energy is "properly focused'.
It may be hard to visualize this, but the sand bag actually "vibrated"rather than swinging. I did not offer my body as a test to experience the results of being hit by such a kick. Of course I had a hard time visualizing myself vibrating head to toe (written in jest).
Aloha
Richard

[Matsway]

Hi again Richard,

You know, I might be off, but I visualise a semi-full bottle of coca. Imagine it hitting a wall. How is power translated if :

a- the neck hits the wall?
b- the bottom hits the wall?

I'm sure you can imagine those two scenarios, or maybe I'm the only one who ever threw and hall-full bottle on something :)

Bottom line is : think of your body part that strikes as that bottle. How you hit makes the power transfer different. When and how are, I believe (again, lowly 1st kyu understanding) what determines the outcome and effect on said thing that gets hit. There is a difference between a penetrating attack and a moving attack.

This leads to body mechanics. If one gets the timing right, contraction and relaxation of the striking limb are key to determining the effect of a strike.

Here, I'd have to draw in order to properly image what I think because my english is limited. :)

quote : "Of course I had a hard time visualizing myself vibrating head to toe (written in jest)."
as jell-o?

Be well

Mathieu

[John W. Zimmer]

While this is my first exposure to "kime" as coming from an Americanized system, we might call this concept focus. From what I can gather from these posts, might not a good example of focus (kime) be the application of a two finger eye-shot thrown loosely and flicking the wrist down to focus the power on the finger tips at the moment of impact? The finger tips do not normally have the rigidity to formidably strike otherwise (noted exceptions for spear hands and such).

Digressing a bit but kind of on topic about breaks. I saw this video on one of those discovery channels showing how the hand looks while breaking a brick. I had always envisioned the hand stayed stiff and the brick gave way. Here the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9BvKvILvxI

Did I get the concept of kime right?

Warm regards,

John