Basics
Partner work is an opportunity to get hands on and practice what we have been doing to the air.
Don’t forget the basics!
In this case, specifically, we are a karate club so try to stick to our karate fundamentals:
- Always move
- Always block the attacking technique
- Always counter attack
After you have done that then you can, if you want to, or need to, add something extra like a lock, strangle, take down or perhaps another strike.
Sticking to the very basics you need to consider how you want the students to stand, either in a traditional stance or in our adopted self defence stance.
The next thing you need to do is decide what the attacker (Uke) is going to do. Whatever you decide make sure that they do it with an appropriate level of effort. Their attack has to be realistic and carry an appropriate level of threat (but still be controlled). It should go without saying that the attack should reached the defender (Tori) and be done properly. This is an opportunity for the Uke to practice their techniques to a target. However, you may need to remind students of this.
Unless you have a very good reason not to do so the Tori should always move forward and off line (and not leave a foot behind as that could be dangerous). You also need to be conscious of your distance to the Uke which shall be determined by what you plan to do next. You will most likely need to point out to the class how far away from the Uke you are as it won’t always be obvious.
When demonstrating be aware of where your students are viewing you from. You may need to gather them around you or rotate your demonstration at some point or do everything with the opposite hand.
After you have done your finishing technique you may like to formalise the ending by ensuring that both the Tori and Uke return to their starting points in a formal stance rather than a relaxed (and probably sloppy) ending.
Basic one on one partner work
Some of the more common partner work techniques are:
| Uke (the attacker and their attack) | Tori (Defender and counter attacker) |
| Step through Jodan oi tsuki | Move forward and off line to the outside, Shuto jodan uke with leading hand, other hand Gyaku tsuki |
| Step through Chudan oi tsuki | Move forward and off line to the outside, Chudan uchi uke with leading hand, other hand Gyaku tsuki |
| Step through Jodan mawashi tsuki | Move forward and into the punch, Nihon shuto uchi (double hand block), inside arm Jodan empi uche |
| Step through Chudan mae geri | Move forward and off line to the outside, Gedan barai with inside hand, then with the same hand Jodan uraken uchi |
| Step through Jodan oi tsuki | Move forward and off line to the outside further away from Uke than normal, Jodan keito uke (bent wrist block coming over the top) with inside hand, twist hand to grab arm, Chudan mawashi geri with same leg as hand used to block |
| Step through Jodan oi tsuki | Move forward and off line to the outside further away from Uke than normal, Jodan keito uke (bent wrist block coming over the top) with inside hand, twist hand to grab arm, Chudan mawashi geri with same leg as hand used to block |
| Step through Jodan mawashi tsuki | Move forward (at speed as this technique must be done before their punch starts to come round) and into the punch, Shuto uchi into their shoulder whilst other hand Chudan gyaku tsuki |
If you want to try something different you can borrow a short sequence from any kata and apply the bunkai to create a quick and simple piece of partner work.
The hand techniques above work just as well if the Uke is trying to grab.
Advanced training
As well as the traditional one on one partner work you may like to consider:
| Multiple partners |
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| A line up |
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| Single/multiple partners |
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When doing the above the Tori really needs to keep things simple in terms of what defence they are going to employ. The Ukes will move quickly, probably before the Tori has reset so things may not go according to plan so sticking to techniques they are familiar with for the most part is to be encouraged.
No examples of advanced partner work, based on the KISS principle, are shown here. There should be no reason to combine more than two karate counter attacks together in real life if they are done properly due to the power in the techniques and the correct selection of the technique. Longer sequences can be found in the falls & takedowns, locks & starangles and fast hand drills section. Longer sequences referred to above are just short sequences added together.
For rather advance students you can try free form attacks, perhaps limited to target areas or types of attack with a move, block and counter of the Toris choice.
For these students you can even try to work with the Tori predetermining their movement. This can be very difficult but the benefit is that it is one thing that the student doesn’t need to worry about when being attacked. To be more specific they don’t need to analyse the attacker’s technique and then decide where to move to using up precious fractions of a second.