Chris Denwood.com
  • Blog
  • About
  • Store
  • Virtual Dojo
  • Mailing List
  • Blog
  • About
  • Store
  • Virtual Dojo
  • Mailing List
Picture

TRADITIONAL KARATE FOR HOLISTIC GROWTH

Okinawa karate should be both life preserving and life enhancing.
Join Chris as he explores the essence and application of this incredible art...

Some Thoughts on Indexing

19/8/2016

2 Comments

 
Attaching to the opponent's centre line or head/neck are two prime areas for indexing.
I'm currently working on the draft of the upcoming second volume of my Seed of Shuri Karate book series and I thought that followers of my work may enjoy this little segment taken from the chapter on percussive impact delivery. The finished publication will no doubt read different to this as I always extensively edit, but nevertheless, I hope you'll find this sneak peek on the principle of 'indexing' a nice complement to your cup of coffee...
Indexing (also known as a 'set up', 'controlling', gauge' or 'leveraging arm') is an important concept taught in modern day self-defence systems and is also a key tactic expressed throughout the application of classical movements found in karate kata. You only need to spend a few moments searching YouTube for footage of real street attacks, self-defence encounters or bar brawls and you will see that the use of indexing is rife.  This is simply due to the fact that it is both natural and highly advantageous. It is also a strategy used extensively in weapon attacks (especially puncture weapons such as knives or screwdrivers), where repetitive thrusting or clubbing 'sewing machine' styles are employed to devastating effect. 
Check out the videos below that shows ​indexing being used to help facilitate some pretty brutal attacks employing both weapons and empty hands...
​In a combative sense, the term ‘indexing’ essentially means to actively use one hand in order to make contact with the opponent for means of control, deception and/or to increase the success rate of subsequent strikes with the other limb.  Rather than attacking the opponent 'unattached', the use of indexing works to support the use of your primary strategy (percussive impact delivery) and ultimately makes your self-protection game plan much more effective.

​Indexing is most often applied with the lead hand as it is reached out like a tentacle in order to touch the opponent.  The tactile stimulus here offers vital and almost instant information that far surpasses visual stimulus alone, making a physical response far more substantial.  To understand the clear advantages that indexing can offer in a close-range altercation, you can try out this simple drill...
"Have your partner hold a focus mitt in front of you as the intended target to strike and close your eyes.  First, try to hit the focus mitt stationary and then ask your partner to move the focus mitt between shots without letting you know.  Without any visual stimulus to rely on, you should find it extremely difficult to land a solid shot. Next, simply take hold of the back of the focus mitt with your non-striking limb and repeat the exercise.  Hey presto – who needs eyes to fight!"
In reality, your opponent is very unlikely to stand still and make it easy for you to throw repetitive shots. So, by attaching to the target with your non-striking limb, Your reference is to strike towards your own indexing hand, because this will go wherever the target goes.

Now of course, you would never voluntarily close your eyes in a self-defence scenario so in most applications you can expect to make the best use of both visual and tactile sensory information.  However, what’s to say you haven’t already been hit and are disorientated, or maybe you have tears or blood in your eyes.  Add the potential of weapons or multiple opponents to the mix, plus high levels of situational stress/fatigue and you can then begin to appreciate how difficult it can be to land accurate strikes that carry enough purchase to end the altercation swiftly. Thus, it becomes clear that the unregulated and sheer chaotic nature of combat makes the use of indexing essential.

To summarise some of the main advantages of indexing...
  • It improves accuracy and the ability to locate target areas.
  • It increases the level of control, forward pressure and dominance.
  • It enhances the net effect of strikes (hammer/anvil & 'collision' principle).
  • It facilitates quick adaptation to changing circumstances.
  • It allows for swift limb clearance and the ability to clear potential strike paths.
  • It helps to manage and maintain combative ranges.
  • It offers more seamless transition to auxiliary strategies such as joint attacks, clinch work,, chokes & strangles, throws & take downs or anti-grappling skills.
  • It can be used to distract and/or create opportunities to attack under the veil of deception.
As you can see from the video clips above, indexing is such a natural tactic that most antagonists will tend to employ it unconsciously. Therefore, it's also imperative that you practice drills in the dojo that aim to counteract or exploit an opponents attempts to control via indexing. Again, it's not surprising that many classical kata contain these methods too.
Here's a video clip of Iain Abernethy teaching a common application found in numerous classical kata, which includes the use of indexing, limb control and tactile mapping for dominating at close-range....
I've also added below a short montage of clips taken from a much longer video tutorial I made a few years ago on focus mitt training. The full lesson was focused on providing fundamental strategies to help construct specific drills for self-protection and as you'll see, a few examples include the use of indexing...
So, I think it's very important that traditional karate practitioners deeply consider the application of indexing, how the tactic may be best employed, how it can be swiftly countered if used against you and where these strategies show up within the choreography of the classical forms. You may be surprised at how often kata makes reference to it...another aspect of meotode in action! 
Thanks for taking the time to read this post, I hope it was informative and as always, my best wishes,
Picture
2 Comments
Luca Levorato
27/8/2016 12:07:21 am

Great post Sensei Chris! It makes me wonder about the future of Karate now that it had been accepted in the Olympic. Maybe we can get a little more of visibility, but I hope that It won't erase the practice in the "old way" ( meaning functional Karate). If I'm not wrong Judo and TKD had a similar path. Hope that my friends in the TKD community do not take personally, but the little of TKD that I saw in Rio was unwatchable. Thank you for your time.
Luca

Reply
Chris Denwood link
28/8/2016 05:46:32 pm

Hi Luca, thanks for your comments and great to hear you found the post interesting! I understand what you mean about the change in TKD and I suppose only time will tell whether the Olympic emphasis will be good or bad for karate. Personally, it won't change anything I (or my students) do in the dojo and for the sport karate community, I hold only admiration for their hard work in their efforts to have the art officially recognised by the Olympic Committee. Best wishes and thanks again for your support, Chris.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Articles
    Books
    Bunkai
    Health & Fitness
    History
    Hojo Undo
    Inspiration
    Interviews
    Kata
    Knowledge
    News & Updates
    Principles
    Reviews
    Training
    Video

    Archives

    March 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2019
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    August 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    RSS Feed

Picture

Terms & Conditions  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact 
Copyright © Chris Denwood 2013 All Rights Reserved
Photos used under Creative Commons from Genista, SLImagesCa, ser..., The Consortium, perpetualplum, cphoffman42, ennuidesign, stoermchen, Ksenia Ruta