Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you should Know from house Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. He and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Josh Clark, just Charles W Chuck Bryant, and Jerry and
Speaker 1: this is stuff you should know the Kata Day edition.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. I looked up a bunch of these
Speaker 1: pronunciations for once because we get the random email. Still,
Speaker 1: it's like, it's really lazy that you guys don't pronounce
Speaker 1: things right. I had a guy the other day on
Speaker 1: Facebook said that he's brand new to the show and
Speaker 1: it's a big turn off for him, and I just said,
Speaker 1: you are in for a long, frustrating experience, my friend,
Speaker 1: because it's kind of a hallmark of the show that
Speaker 1: we botch pronunciations. Don't try we botched pronunciations. That's good stuff. Check. Thanks.
Speaker 1: You do you know a need karate? No, I never
Speaker 1: took any of that stuff, did you. I took taekwondo
Speaker 1: for in it. Yeah, And then I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm surprised I didn't do it after the Karate Kid
Speaker 1: movie because I was the age where I should have
Speaker 1: run right out to the nearest dojo and signed up.
Speaker 1: But um, I think I remember even back then thinking
Speaker 1: I don't ever want to get hit in the face
Speaker 1: if I can help it, which is the same reason
Speaker 1: I've never been in a fistfight. I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think they hit you in the face. I think, as
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, if if you do go to
Speaker 1: a dojo or a karate school and they hit you
Speaker 1: in the face, you should tell somebody, because I don't
Speaker 1: think they're supposed to do that. Well, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to be hit at all. And
Speaker 1: once you see karate kid, all bets are off, you know,
Speaker 1: because if you you never know, if there's a cobra
Speaker 1: kai next door. They don't play by the rules. No,
Speaker 1: they really don't. You know. They don't have sleeves to
Speaker 1: their g now they well, they're just bad kids. They
Speaker 1: sweep legs, injured legs all like like I bleedingly blonde. Yeah, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're bad guys. Did you watch that recently? I watched
Speaker 1: some of it today, I did. I watched a little
Speaker 1: bit of it. Um last week it was on And
Speaker 1: I have to say that there's no bigger disappointment in life. Well,
Speaker 1: of course there are, but the more disappointing things in
Speaker 1: your cable TV watching life than when you're scrolling through
Speaker 1: and you see, oh, karate Kid and you turn it
Speaker 1: on and you see Will Smith's son. Whoa, it's such
Speaker 1: a letdown. I can't imagine you know that it was
Speaker 1: at all enjoyable. So I've been burned. No, I didn't
Speaker 1: watch any of it. I've been burned a lot lately
Speaker 1: with that. And so the other day, Yeah, the other
Speaker 1: day I saw karate Kid and I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: not even gonna try, and I did, and I saw
Speaker 1: Ralph Macchio and my heart just burst. That's the real
Speaker 1: karate Kid. They should put on the cable list karate
Speaker 1: Kid sucky version for the other one, I still say
Speaker 1: to that moment where um Pat mur Da has been
Speaker 1: training him with all the unknowingly training him with all
Speaker 1: the tasks he performs, Yeah, like wax on, wax off,
Speaker 1: sand floor, paint, fence, paint, house, jump on. When he
Speaker 1: finally has it, the big climax of that part when
Speaker 1: he's like, that's it, I'm out of here and he
Speaker 1: tells him to show me all this stuff and then
Speaker 1: he just starts in on him and he blocks all
Speaker 1: the stuff. I'm getting chill bumps just thinking about it
Speaker 1: all these years later, you really are Yeah, Wow, it's
Speaker 1: it's powerful. They do that zoom in and he just
Speaker 1: goes and he just starts wailing on him and he
Speaker 1: blocks it all and then they bow and that just
Speaker 1: should have been the end of the movie. Oh no.
Speaker 1: I watched the end of the movie today and I
Speaker 1: was like, hoping this is still good, like the whole
Speaker 1: montage with the best around, you're the best around. Uh
Speaker 1: and then the of course crane kick at the end
Speaker 1: where he sends Billy's avka, Yeah, sprawling ye great stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And if you want to feel super old, last year,
Speaker 1: Ralph Mancio turned the same age that At Marida was
Speaker 1: when they shot Karate Kid. What yeah, oh wow, because
Speaker 1: he was rob Macho was old when they made that movie.
Speaker 1: He was playing sixteen. But he was like, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: much older. Wonderful actor then he had met. I worked
Speaker 1: with Pat Marida once on a music video. He was awesome,
Speaker 1: which one I can't remember actually it might have been
Speaker 1: uh Alien Aunt Farm there they were banned. Okay, they
Speaker 1: weren't very good, but they had a video with Pat
Speaker 1: Marida and it and he uh, Pat Marida drank white
Speaker 1: wine all day long. Yeah, in his trailer he had
Speaker 1: like a couple of bottles of chardone on ice. I
Speaker 1: thought that's my only story. Was he in the Karate
Speaker 1: Kid three with Hilary Swank. I didn't watch any of
Speaker 1: the sequels. Actually, the second one was pretty good. It
Speaker 1: had at Peterson Tara song in it. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: see that one. Good one he goes as he goes
Speaker 1: to Okan. Now, all right one and there's like the
Speaker 1: hurricane and the bad guy who turns out to be
Speaker 1: a good guy in the end. And he probably has
Speaker 1: a Japanese girlfriend in that one, right, he falls in
Speaker 1: the love over there. Yeah, I'm not Elizabeth Shoe. No, no,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't even know if she made an
Speaker 1: appearance in the second one. But anyway, Chuck, you realize
Speaker 1: we've just dedicated it eight minutes to talking about Karate Kid. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't not. Every other line in this
Speaker 1: article made me think of the Karate Kid movie. It's
Speaker 1: funny you point out this article because reading this article
Speaker 1: made me laugh for a different reason. Every time I
Speaker 1: saw martial arts expert or karate Master, I thought of
Speaker 1: like Napoleon Dynamite. I couldn't get past that. So if
Speaker 1: you're if you want to real treat, read this article
Speaker 1: and just think read it in the voice of Napoleon Dynamite.
Speaker 1: It works really well. Uh, and just a bit of
Speaker 1: c O, a real quick with a lot of things
Speaker 1: like chess and things that people are really into. This
Speaker 1: is a very broad introduction to kadate. This is uh.
Speaker 1: We should even call it kata te for non practitioners,
Speaker 1: kada te for people who pronounce it karate right be
Speaker 1: because this is gonna be a nice overview and a
Speaker 1: nice introduction. But um, please do not think we are
Speaker 1: kata te experts or masters, because we are not. Let's begin, Yes,
Speaker 1: so chuck. It turns out and you're pronouncing it correctly,
Speaker 1: kata t. It's actually two words, and I guess okinawan
Speaker 1: because that's where it was originally invented okinawa. Um. And
Speaker 1: basically the whole premise of I am forgive me everyone
Speaker 1: who's appears, but karate. That's how I was brought up
Speaker 1: to say it. Yeah, we'll just say it like that, yes, um.
Speaker 1: The whole purpose of it is to basically manipulate basic
Speaker 1: physics to your advantage. So no matter how big or
Speaker 1: small you are, you could conceivably win a fight or
Speaker 1: thwart an attack. That's right, um. And like I said,
Speaker 1: the whole the whole thing began in Okinawa, and most
Speaker 1: martial arts came out of India, Japan or China. And Um,
Speaker 1: karate is, from what I could see, the second most
Speaker 1: widely practiced martial art, so after taekwondo. Interesting. I I
Speaker 1: saw it like in a couple of places, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily verified. And then, um, that's really saying something
Speaker 1: because over the years of the last few millennia, since
Speaker 1: people started practicing martial arts, um, there have been thousands
Speaker 1: of variations on the theme. But karate is definitely its
Speaker 1: own thing, and it arose out of this these periods
Speaker 1: of strife where the peasantry often had their weapons forcibly
Speaker 1: removed from them by the ruling classes so they couldn't rebel.
Speaker 1: And so the o'kanawan said, you know what, Um, fine,
Speaker 1: We're going to teach ourselves to use our bodies as weapons,
Speaker 1: and thus began the groundwork for karate. That's right. And
Speaker 1: there's a father and son who are credited as the
Speaker 1: uh sort of the father of modern kata te um.
Speaker 1: The father was Funa Kochi gi Chin Chichen and he
Speaker 1: wrote the original twenty guiding principles of kada Te. And
Speaker 1: his son they developed the Shoto Khan style. And the
Speaker 1: son his name g I g O. What is that? Gijo, Gijo?
Speaker 1: Where do you see that? Well? That was his his
Speaker 1: His full name is Funakoshi Yoshitaka, but I think he
Speaker 1: went by Guijo, Uh, Funakochi. It would probably be gi
Speaker 1: Jo because name is chi Chin, which I verified with
Speaker 1: my wife by the way, okay, and she knows much
Speaker 1: more than me. So uh, that's the father and son.
Speaker 1: The son started doing kada te because he had tuberculosis
Speaker 1: and you know, well, as we'll get into this krid,
Speaker 1: he's very much about breathing and so he did to
Speaker 1: help with that, which it did. But he did dive
Speaker 1: tuberculosis at thirty nine. But they were the modern founders,
Speaker 1: and Dad was a little more aggressive than son. He
Speaker 1: was full contact. And the sun came around and said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I believe in a more peaceful application
Speaker 1: of this and this karate dough or the karate way
Speaker 1: is more of approach to life and um than just
Speaker 1: like a combat style. Right. He took it from like
Speaker 1: being a like a kind of a lunghead, like just
Speaker 1: like his old man, right, just beating people up kind
Speaker 1: of things too. You don't really have to actually hurt anybody.
Speaker 1: You don't even necessarily have to land a blow on
Speaker 1: another person to be a karate master. And that's what
Speaker 1: he came up with, Like you said, the karate dough,
Speaker 1: um and this is this is all fairly recent. I
Speaker 1: mean we're talking like the early twentieth century. Yeah, um
Speaker 1: and the dad uh Funukoshi ji chin he took it
Speaker 1: from Okinawa to Japan. But his son, um Funukoshi Yoshitaka
Speaker 1: what did you say, his nickname was sure he uh
Speaker 1: kind of introduced it to the world, made it a
Speaker 1: lot more like two guys like you or like I
Speaker 1: don't want to get kicked in the face. Yeah, he said,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna kick you in the face. Let me
Speaker 1: teach you the karate way, and he did. But a
Speaker 1: way to really know you're not getting kicked in the
Speaker 1: face is to never take karate. Let's just watch from
Speaker 1: the sidelines. Yeah, to be a student, and the students
Speaker 1: are called a kata taka um or karate ka from
Speaker 1: the American South, And like you said, that's actually two
Speaker 1: words in Japanese. It means a kada is open and
Speaker 1: ta means hand, So it means open hand and reference
Speaker 1: to your body as your weapons. And there is the
Speaker 1: weapon and then openness. It's all about being open to
Speaker 1: the world around you and very observant um for many reasons,
Speaker 1: but one reason is so you can be aware of
Speaker 1: when the street thugs are coming after you, right the Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're open to your roundings. And I didn't realize that
Speaker 1: they were, that they signified two separate things. I thought
Speaker 1: it was open hand, like you know, like slat fighting
Speaker 1: or something like that. I knew it wasn't. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a lot of slapping in karate, but um, I thought
Speaker 1: open hand meant that you had no weapon in your hand.
Speaker 1: But that's just what the hand meant. The open part
Speaker 1: was I'm aware of everything right now, and I'm open
Speaker 1: to changing possibilities and options, which is a huge fundamental
Speaker 1: part of karate. Yeah, your spirit is open as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah this, uh, this UM article gets kind of esoteric
Speaker 1: at the end. It does, but I think that's part
Speaker 1: of it for a lot of people. So we'll cover that.
Speaker 1: So if you are a non cobra kai member of
Speaker 1: a karate school, you're gonna wear what's called a G
Speaker 1: in white. It's the loose fitting pants in the robe
Speaker 1: that's pulled together by a belt. It's not a black
Speaker 1: muscle shirt. I know that's disappointing with a cover on
Speaker 1: the back. Uh, that's right. And you are ranked by
Speaker 1: your dawn d A N and these are the rankings
Speaker 1: in ascending order, from ninth to six Q. That's your
Speaker 1: skill level. Right, you can mean novice. You can just
Speaker 1: give a little white belt. Your your belt is gonna
Speaker 1: match your g You're gonna feel silly. It's a little
Speaker 1: white uh mess of a six year old. That's probably
Speaker 1: when you're gonna do kta tell these days. The fifth
Speaker 1: que is you're gonna get the yellow belt. You can
Speaker 1: feel a little bit better about yourself because you have
Speaker 1: color now. Then you're gonna get your orange belt at
Speaker 1: the fourth level. You're gonna get your green belt at
Speaker 1: the third, your blue belt at the second, the brown
Speaker 1: belt at the first, and then from first to eighth.
Speaker 1: Don you're gonna get that old black belt, which I
Speaker 1: always thought was the top level. Apparently there's a red
Speaker 1: one after that, did not know that ninth and tenth
Speaker 1: dawn And it even says in quotes rarely awarded. Um,
Speaker 1: but now that you mentioned it, the bad guy from
Speaker 1: Karate Kid, I believe we're a red belt man. What's
Speaker 1: his name? I don't remember. He was from the pac
Speaker 1: Man headroom. Yeah. I was gonna say Mr Lawrence, but
Speaker 1: that was the kid because he's the one that said
Speaker 1: you have a problem, Mr Lawrence. Oh yeah, with sweeping
Speaker 1: the leg just since. Yes, everybody knows him as since.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think he had a red belt. But
Speaker 1: boy he got his come up and send the parking lot.
Speaker 1: He sure did. Spoiler alert. But the Q actually the k,
Speaker 1: the kyu, the different levels. Um, that's not just used
Speaker 1: in karate. They use it in flower arranging, ichibanabana um
Speaker 1: and tea ceremonies and basically any Japanese pursuit where there
Speaker 1: are masters and there are novices. Maybe I didn't see that,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't be all that surprise fly catching with
Speaker 1: chopsticks maybe. So, Um, you go through queues. Interesting, that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. They really take that stuff seriously, Like it
Speaker 1: seems like I don't know, I just appreciate the culture.
Speaker 1: Of like if something's worth pursuing, it's worth pursuing, like
Speaker 1: with all you got right exactly. They don't do things
Speaker 1: halfway like we do here in the United States. Like
Speaker 1: I'd stop at the green belt, right, you'd be like,
Speaker 1: I'm at the green I'm doing good now you you you.
Speaker 1: They definitely do pursue things all the way. Um. And
Speaker 1: there was another point that I went and clarified with
Speaker 1: your cue with going from like a white belt to
Speaker 1: a yellow belt to an orange belt. It doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean like you are like a karate master or even
Speaker 1: like a tea ceremony master. What it means is, um,
Speaker 1: you are capable of performing certain um acts that are
Speaker 1: expected to be performed by somebody of that level. Okay,
Speaker 1: because I wanted that, because I'll see on Facebook, like
Speaker 1: a friend's like eight year old son is a black belt,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, really, like really, I mean that means
Speaker 1: that they can do like X kicks or something. It
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have to do with talent, although I'm sure
Speaker 1: a lot of people dispute that. I think it's more
Speaker 1: like your technical proficiency is described by your belt. I think,
Speaker 1: all right, oh man, we're gonna have a murder for
Speaker 1: that one. I can already hear the keys, the hands
Speaker 1: on the keyboard. So we're gonna talk about physics and
Speaker 1: probably a lot more about the karate kid right after this.
Speaker 1: So physics, buddy, If you're moving and doing anything in
Speaker 1: this office, it's going to be described in terms of physics,
Speaker 1: because that's what we do here. And when it comes
Speaker 1: to katte or any fight, really, um, you've got potential
Speaker 1: energy going on, and uh, just because you're a big,
Speaker 1: strong dude doesn't mean you're gonna necessarily win a fight
Speaker 1: against someone smaller and weaker, because there are different ways
Speaker 1: of applying that energy, and karate exploits all that it
Speaker 1: does not exploits, but I guess well, it teaches you
Speaker 1: to exploit it because if you've got your energy and
Speaker 1: you've got somebody else's energy, if you can figure out
Speaker 1: a way to put them together, then you have just
Speaker 1: doubled or done whatever to your energy. By adding theirs
Speaker 1: to yours, that's right, you create an advantage for yourself.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the key to being a little
Speaker 1: guy like Ralph Maccio and still winning the tournament like
Speaker 1: a broken leg even that's right, Um, so the first
Speaker 1: stuff you want to focus on is learning to concentrate
Speaker 1: your energy. Um, I think manipulating your opponent's energy. What
Speaker 1: we'll talk about next. That seems to be like a
Speaker 1: possibly a more advanced step. First you start out on
Speaker 1: yourself and um, there's a couple of ways to do this.
Speaker 1: By concentrating your energy, we mean you're concentrating the force
Speaker 1: that you're delivering with a punch or a kick to
Speaker 1: a very small surface area of your body. Like if
Speaker 1: you come up and you shove me, and you're like
Speaker 1: you got something to say, huh, and your hand displayed, Um,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna push me backwards, but you're not gonna
Speaker 1: break my rib because the force of your shove is
Speaker 1: distributed across your palm, your fingers, your fingertips. Um, you
Speaker 1: know all the jewelry you wear, all of that is
Speaker 1: going to be spread across my chest. If you took
Speaker 1: that same amount of force and put all of your
Speaker 1: fingers in your thumb together, I delivered it all form
Speaker 1: basically a point um with your with your fingers and thumb,
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you are going to break
Speaker 1: my ribs. You probably would punch right through my chest
Speaker 1: and out of my back, I would rip out your
Speaker 1: heart and like a street fighter, right. Um. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you can do that on your own body. If you
Speaker 1: take like your five fingers and just kind of pound
Speaker 1: them on your chest and then with the same amount
Speaker 1: of energy put them all together, it's gonna feel much different. Yes,
Speaker 1: very simple concept. You're you're diminishing this the s this
Speaker 1: area of the point of impact and thereby increasing the
Speaker 1: amount of damage you can do to an opponent. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And in case of punches and kicks, you're you're probably
Speaker 1: reducing that to a bony area of your hand or
Speaker 1: your foot. And uh, a lot of training goes into
Speaker 1: strengthening those areas of your body. Um. And that's your
Speaker 1: technique because uh, you know, if I just went and
Speaker 1: flailed at someone and punched them, I'll probably break my
Speaker 1: hand because I don't know how to do it. But
Speaker 1: it's all about technique and karate. So um, you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna have those parts of your body ready to absorb
Speaker 1: that impact on your end as well. Yeah. And apparently
Speaker 1: up until not too terribly long ago, UM kata techas
Speaker 1: which are karate students again, UM would in their training
Speaker 1: once they said Yeah, I think I'm gonna get serious
Speaker 1: about this. Yeah, they would break their middle fingers of
Speaker 1: their own hands and larger knuckle. Yeah. Crazy, As as
Speaker 1: it healed back, the knuckle would just be larger, and
Speaker 1: so that little point of impact is strengthened and um
Speaker 1: made just a little larger so that they could really
Speaker 1: focus it in there and hurt people. Wow. Yeah uh
Speaker 1: and that that they don't do that anymore, Right, that's
Speaker 1: out of practice, out of fashion probably you never know, Um,
Speaker 1: did you see that article I sent to the Science
Speaker 1: of Bruce Lee's one inch punch? That is a pretty
Speaker 1: good example of concentrating your energy over a small surface area. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and there's a video that goes along with it too,
Speaker 1: that was it's pretty cool to watch, you know. He's
Speaker 1: he was famous for that for being able to hold
Speaker 1: his hand one inch away from a board and then
Speaker 1: send that fist through the board without like reaching back
Speaker 1: and rearing back. And he does it so quick and
Speaker 1: there's so much power. It's it's just like it really
Speaker 1: comes through even this old, grainy black and white video,
Speaker 1: like you have to rewind it ten times just to
Speaker 1: be like, man, did that just happen? Yeah? That quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the bride famously used it to punch her way
Speaker 1: out of a coffin when she was buried alive and
Speaker 1: kill Bill. Yeah. I'm calling total bs on that now though,
Speaker 1: what that she the way out? Yeah, because if you
Speaker 1: watch and then I guess it's a good time to
Speaker 1: talk about this. Uh. Karate is all about putting as
Speaker 1: much um impact with your whole body behind that puncher kick.
Speaker 1: So when you see someone kicking karate, it's uh, they're
Speaker 1: not just kicking at you like Daniel Son did at first.
Speaker 1: They're usually standing sideways and winging their whole body around
Speaker 1: to get their whole the whole energy of their whole
Speaker 1: body into that kick or punch. And that's what Bruce
Speaker 1: Lee does. You see him, He lunges forward super fast
Speaker 1: with his body and just puts all that energy into
Speaker 1: his little one inch punch. But Uma Thurman's in a
Speaker 1: coffin like she can't move at all. So I just
Speaker 1: called total bs on that. So with Bruce Lee's punch,
Speaker 1: and that's the only thing that movie that wasn't realistic, right,
Speaker 1: everything else is totally dead on. Beat somebody baby, Uh.
Speaker 1: When uh Bruce Lee does that one inch punch he
Speaker 1: um and you say he lunges forward a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you're seeing right there from that lunge to the
Speaker 1: point where he's broken through the board um is actually
Speaker 1: a sequence. They figured out. It's a sequence of muscle
Speaker 1: movements to where he starts out generating energy or force
Speaker 1: through his huge through the big muscles in his legs,
Speaker 1: and then moves him up through his hips by and
Speaker 1: then twists his torso and then basically shoots it out
Speaker 1: of his arm. It's crazy. So basically he's he's generating
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of force and power in his legs
Speaker 1: and directing it up through his body and out his
Speaker 1: arm and then shooting his his hand and inch out
Speaker 1: and all of that force that's been generated by his
Speaker 1: muscles is focused right onto his little knuckles and it
Speaker 1: goes right through a board. It's it's pretty awesome, like
Speaker 1: someone should animate that, like the the energy of that
Speaker 1: from the who knows, from his little toes all the
Speaker 1: way up. It seems like every part of his body
Speaker 1: is going into that tiny little area. Yeah, it's pretty pressive.
Speaker 1: And that they in this article that was on Popular Science,
Speaker 1: they figured out that, yes, the the muscles definitely count
Speaker 1: like somebody who didn't have these muscles wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to do this. But even more important was um the
Speaker 1: white matter, the the the material that connects neurons, that
Speaker 1: transfers energy or not energy information between your brain cells. Um.
Speaker 1: Because the timing that was required to fully focus this
Speaker 1: force in this perfect sequence over this very short period
Speaker 1: of time took a lot of white matter and Bruce
Speaker 1: Lee must have had that stuff in aces. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was awesome. Man, those movies are still so great. Uh.
Speaker 1: The other thing Bruce Lee is doing there is following through,
Speaker 1: which is huge in uh in Katte, what's it called
Speaker 1: the the breaking of the boards that has its own name.
Speaker 1: It is called temeshi wari. Yes, and that's when you
Speaker 1: see people breaking bricks and boards and things like that.
Speaker 1: It's a demonstration of force. But Bruce Lee is doing
Speaker 1: there is he's following through. He's not looking at that board.
Speaker 1: He is imagining punching through to Utah, you know, like
Speaker 1: at some point well beyond that board. Because humans have
Speaker 1: an instinct if you're gonna punch a wall, even if
Speaker 1: you're super angry, you're gonna hesitate. You may not even
Speaker 1: realize it right before you punch your fist into that
Speaker 1: brick wall out of anger you made even know it,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be hesitation, hesitating because you have that hesitation instinct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's called self preservation. Yeah, and katte basically trains
Speaker 1: you to get past that and through breathing in and out.
Speaker 1: Remember karate ki again, it's all about the breathing breathing out.
Speaker 1: When you're releasing that punch and following through. You are
Speaker 1: not punching that board. You were punching two ft beyond
Speaker 1: that board. Yeah. The board just happens to being the
Speaker 1: way and the board is sorry, it got in the west, right.
Speaker 1: So that's offense. Basically, you're you're learning to focus your
Speaker 1: energy um into punches and kicks, learning how to um
Speaker 1: lower the surface area of the point of contact, and
Speaker 1: just basically becoming an explosive force of the universe. That's
Speaker 1: the first part. The second part is defense, learning to
Speaker 1: take your opponent's energy and use it against them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is a very important part of karate as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it also has to do with physics because we're
Speaker 1: talking about momentum, which is obviously a product of mass
Speaker 1: and velocity, but also of direction. So, um, let's say
Speaker 1: you are a brick wall and your opponent's fist as
Speaker 1: a car. If they drive straight into you, it's gonna hurt. Uh.
Speaker 1: Let's say you're a guide rail on a highway and
Speaker 1: the car is driving down the highway and sideswipes you.
Speaker 1: It's gonna hurt a lot less less And that's the
Speaker 1: whole basic premise of codat a defense is to try
Speaker 1: and angle yourself to deflect as much of that blow
Speaker 1: as possible at a different angle and take it straight on.
Speaker 1: You want to deflect their the momentum of the force
Speaker 1: of their punch or and apparently you use your arms. Um.
Speaker 1: I've seen people like use their legs to deflect blows,
Speaker 1: but this article makes it sound like you just use
Speaker 1: your arms and karate Daniel Son uses legs. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: makes sense that you would use your legs. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: that was which one was the training thing was the legs.
Speaker 1: I don't know, was it the crane kick training? Now?
Speaker 1: Because he had already uh had something. We'll see. He
Speaker 1: waxed on, he waxed off, He washed the car, that
Speaker 1: was the cars he painted up and down the windmill
Speaker 1: on the refrigerator box, he sanded the floor. No, I
Speaker 1: don't think he used kicks. He defended the kicks with
Speaker 1: his hands. That's what I'm thinking. Okay, So then that's
Speaker 1: the premise of karate. Is like when you defend yourself
Speaker 1: against blows, whether it's a kick or a punch. In defense,
Speaker 1: you're using your arms the whole time, and like we said,
Speaker 1: you're you're deflecting it, so you're forcing this um, the
Speaker 1: momentum of this punch off of yourself at an angle.
Speaker 1: There's another thing you can do with momentum is when
Speaker 1: you when you do deflect it. If somebody's going to
Speaker 1: punch you in the chest and they put everything into it,
Speaker 1: like they started this punch in their little toes and
Speaker 1: now it's coming at you in their big broken middle
Speaker 1: finger knuckle school, and you managed to sidestep slightly and
Speaker 1: and deflect the blow downward. They still have that momentum,
Speaker 1: the product of their mass types of velocity, which is
Speaker 1: speed and direction, and that direction is forward toward you.
Speaker 1: You and your chest are not there any longer. So
Speaker 1: this frequently results in your opponent losing his or her
Speaker 1: balance and all of a sudden, what's opened up is
Speaker 1: in karate circles known as an opportunity for you to
Speaker 1: beat them badly. That's right, you can throw them, even
Speaker 1: though they point out that that is more noted in
Speaker 1: judo and aikido. Throwing isn't central in katte. But um,
Speaker 1: I'm sure someone will throw someone if they need to,
Speaker 1: like use their own momentum and pull them past and
Speaker 1: then get the old solar plexus blow. Yeah. You also
Speaker 1: could um, Yeah, you can punch them as as if
Speaker 1: if you don't throw them, there's all they're just open up.
Speaker 1: You can pin them on the ground. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: punch them. Yeah. What you don't want to do is
Speaker 1: um anything illegal. No, you don't do anything legal. And
Speaker 1: your your stance while you're doing this. The reason you're
Speaker 1: able to deflect these punches and kick so well, it's
Speaker 1: because you're not standing there like a dumb frat boy
Speaker 1: in a bar saying come on, man, bring it. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're standing to the side saying come on, man, bring it.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna have a smaller surface area for someone
Speaker 1: to punch. And you've got that one leg in front
Speaker 1: and the one leg behind. You've got your center of
Speaker 1: gravity low and um, you're you're just you're ready for
Speaker 1: all comers at that point to deflect all those blows.
Speaker 1: And again, all that is about being open and paying
Speaker 1: attention to your surroundings. Yeah, you're you're watching your opponent
Speaker 1: and you're just looking for a chance to throw their
Speaker 1: momentum or deflect the punch or a kick or what
Speaker 1: have you. Um, and we'll talk about some of the ways,
Speaker 1: because if a couple of karate experts um displayed their
Speaker 1: full power skill, there would be two deag karate experts
Speaker 1: or at least one so over the years, because karate
Speaker 1: dough isn't about like killing other people, it's it's about
Speaker 1: showing your skills, they've developed some ways to do that
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about those right after this. So, Josh,
Speaker 1: you mentioned, um, two dead karate masters. If they went
Speaker 1: full bore at one another, Uh, there would be bloodshed
Speaker 1: on the mat. And that's not what you're after. If
Speaker 1: you're a student of karate, you to display your skill
Speaker 1: in a way that shows that you're very skilled, but
Speaker 1: not necessarily inflicting violence because it's not about violence. About
Speaker 1: a lot of things for a lot of people, but
Speaker 1: never is it just about like learning violence like learning
Speaker 1: how to beat someone up really good. Yeah, And like
Speaker 1: you said, it's a lot of different things to different people.
Speaker 1: Like some people go there for exercise, building self confidence
Speaker 1: or tuberculosis and to help your health and your breathing.
Speaker 1: Apparently doesn't work for tuberculosis though, you know. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: but I'll bet he had tons of confidence, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes just learning some self defense, maybe feeling feeling good
Speaker 1: about walking through a dark alley at night alone, because
Speaker 1: the point is not beating up your opponent, but knowing
Speaker 1: or making it apparent to other people that they don't
Speaker 1: want to mess with you in the first place, because
Speaker 1: if they did, then it's trouble for them. And you
Speaker 1: do that or you advance to different cues through um,
Speaker 1: different types of demonstrations. Basically yeah, well, first though, it's
Speaker 1: not to say that you can't like do some serious damage.
Speaker 1: It's just not the main purpose. Like the famous uh
Speaker 1: eken he saw to the one punch kill is the
Speaker 1: thing in karate is yeah, and some people say like
Speaker 1: it's impossible, and some people say it is possible, an
Speaker 1: others say it's not even a real thing. It's just
Speaker 1: like a statement of attitude. One fist certain death and
Speaker 1: it's just sort of the mindset you should have, Like
Speaker 1: with this fist, I could kill you, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to. But I'm not gonna be I'm a nice guy, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm in a shopping center between a lot smith
Speaker 1: and a tax preparation center in the valley in California.
Speaker 1: But I could kill them both if I wanted to.
Speaker 1: They even said shopping centers in this article, which I
Speaker 1: thought was funny because it seems like they are always
Speaker 1: in a shopping center. I don't see very many like freestanding.
Speaker 1: Joe's all right, So you mentioned the the there's different
Speaker 1: ways to measure your skill and to flaunt your skill.
Speaker 1: Want to combat such simulation called a kata, and that
Speaker 1: is where, um, you're basically fighting uh ghost attackers that
Speaker 1: don't exist. Yeah, Like anytime you see somebody going hayah
Speaker 1: and they're just doing it by themselves, that's kata. And
Speaker 1: the whole thing is um like a prescribed rigamarole of
Speaker 1: moves any way, and that's that's kata. That's something you
Speaker 1: would have to perform to move on to another belt.
Speaker 1: That's right. Uh. The next thing, if you actually want
Speaker 1: to get a live person involved and not just look
Speaker 1: like some crazy person fighting nobody. You could practice sparring
Speaker 1: or kumata. And there are four levels of that. Um.
Speaker 1: The first is footwork only, the second is shadow boxing,
Speaker 1: the third is blocking contact only in the fourth is
Speaker 1: light contact. And the idea is it's a very controlled,
Speaker 1: supervised sparring session where you're not laying blows raining blows
Speaker 1: upon one another, you're pulling your punches, you're stopping them,
Speaker 1: or there's very light contact. You're probably wearing headgear like
Speaker 1: some sort of protective gear. Yeah, and um, this is
Speaker 1: typical of what like a karate tournament will have in it.
Speaker 1: It's mostly commit or points sparring. Um. And if again
Speaker 1: you've ever seen Karate Kid, you'll notice that those matches
Speaker 1: are over pretty quick. Yeah, I mean this seems pretty
Speaker 1: accurate for karate the Karate Kid movie. Did once I
Speaker 1: read this right and vice versa. Yeah, um, but with
Speaker 1: points sparring, usually you'll have one to three minute about
Speaker 1: or fight, and whoever has the most points at the
Speaker 1: end wins or if you score a certain number of
Speaker 1: points typically three within a fight, you're you want that's right,
Speaker 1: and the points are called epons I P P O
Speaker 1: N s and um, Apparently I didn't realize this. The
Speaker 1: points are awarded not just on the the strikes that
Speaker 1: you're getting, but also the attitude in which you do
Speaker 1: it in your technique, so they're sort of judging you
Speaker 1: on an aesthetic level as well on a spiritual level.
Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense, like if your opponent walks
Speaker 1: into the back of your hand, you can get a
Speaker 1: point for that, you know. And then chuck, there's um
Speaker 1: the Temesha warri which we mentioned already, which is board breaking,
Speaker 1: block breaking, um, which is the real deal. It's not
Speaker 1: magic or illusion like this person is breaking through a board. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember being a kid and people saying, like, you know,
Speaker 1: those boards are weakened. It's not true. They just know
Speaker 1: what they're doing. They know how to exploit the the
Speaker 1: weakest parts of those boards. Maybe, but there, as the
Speaker 1: article puts it, they turned their appendages into natural chisels.
Speaker 1: And um, they find out where the board might be
Speaker 1: weakest and they punch right through it, right through it,
Speaker 1: or the ones that get me, or the with the
Speaker 1: like the karate chopped through the bricks. Let's see how
Speaker 1: they do that stuff physics. It's crazy. And then you
Speaker 1: mentioned schools man Um. Yes, they are mostly in shopping centers,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean they're not good. Yeah, well you're
Speaker 1: in your mom's getting too taxes done next door while
Speaker 1: you're in there learning things. And uh, if you want
Speaker 1: to look for a school, there are If you're in
Speaker 1: a big city, you're gonna have your choice of a
Speaker 1: lot of different kinds um catering to a wide range
Speaker 1: of students. If you're a little kid, you want to
Speaker 1: send your you're an adult, you want to send your
Speaker 1: little kid to one. There are lots of options, but
Speaker 1: send your kid to one that caters to kids. Don't
Speaker 1: take them to Cobra Kai no else they're gonna turn
Speaker 1: out like Johnny. I actually found an article I can't
Speaker 1: remember what was called, but it was about how to
Speaker 1: tell if your martial arts group is toxic? Oh really yeah,
Speaker 1: because the author um is there an opium den in
Speaker 1: the back. It's probably one dead giveaway. But the author
Speaker 1: was saying, like, especially if you're new to martial arts,
Speaker 1: you may think, like, oh, you know the sense they's
Speaker 1: supposed to be an abusive jerk who yells and screams
Speaker 1: all the time, and it's a students and stuff like, no,
Speaker 1: there's uh, there's it's supposed to be a normal, respectful,
Speaker 1: calm environment. You know, it's not supposed to be like
Speaker 1: run by a megalomaniac or something like that. So if
Speaker 1: you have your kid and that kind of school, may
Speaker 1: want to get them out and get them into a
Speaker 1: different school. Yes, and what wisely as well, they suggest,
Speaker 1: um that it all be very open to the parents
Speaker 1: and they're not be any private rooms for your children
Speaker 1: that are off limits. That's just good said. No matter
Speaker 1: what kind of school you're taking to. If you're a lady,
Speaker 1: you might want to, um find a dojo that maybe
Speaker 1: has a lady instructor or maybe um. They they're just
Speaker 1: respectful toward women in general. Like again, think it's if
Speaker 1: you don't want your kids to go there, you probably
Speaker 1: and because of some jerk megalomaniac, you probably wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to go there as a lady either, Yeah, or if
Speaker 1: there's like a jerk lady megalomaniac, Yeah, I'm sure they're
Speaker 1: out there, right, there's got to be. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: that guy had a wife in karate kid. Megalomania transcends gender. Um,
Speaker 1: And then Chuck, we said that people go to take
Speaker 1: karate to UM to gain self confidence and to understand
Speaker 1: UM their body a little more. But a lot of
Speaker 1: people find along the way, even if they're not going
Speaker 1: for this UM, they find that they UH what's called
Speaker 1: their center, the center of their key, spiritual center basically
Speaker 1: and UM in in karate practice. Well, Karate is linked
Speaker 1: to Zen Buddhism, and one of the points of Zen
Speaker 1: Buddhism is that you can you can attain spiritual fulfillment
Speaker 1: and enlightenment through everyday practices, including karate UM. And that
Speaker 1: once you start to practice karate, once you start breathing,
Speaker 1: once you start paying attention to your surroundings at all times,
Speaker 1: when you just find yourself in tune and in focus,
Speaker 1: you're going to find your key yeah also known as Q,
Speaker 1: your spiritual energy. That the same thing and where it
Speaker 1: sits in your body, and you'll be able to learn
Speaker 1: to raise or lower it right your energy UM to
Speaker 1: attack yeah and UH. If you're like you said, if
Speaker 1: you're just going for you know, up through a certain
Speaker 1: few levels, you may not hear much about that, but
Speaker 1: it definitely comes into play at the higher levels. And
Speaker 1: how fast you work up those ranks and get those
Speaker 1: belts is sort of up to you. Like anything else.
Speaker 1: If you go three or four days a week and
Speaker 1: you're super dedicated, you might zoom up four belts in
Speaker 1: the first few months. And I think from that point
Speaker 1: things start to slow down a little bit. Uh. If
Speaker 1: you don't put much into it, might take it a
Speaker 1: little longer. But from what I've read, people to get
Speaker 1: into it, like really get into it. Yeah. And in
Speaker 1: this article says for the average person, getting to black belt,
Speaker 1: um would take about three years. If you were super
Speaker 1: athletic and talented and and went like five days a week,
Speaker 1: it might take eighteen months. But it's still going to
Speaker 1: be difficult and take you a little while. And it's
Speaker 1: a life pursuit. Yeah, um for a lot of people. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And and again this article points out getting to the
Speaker 1: highest belt is not necessarily the pursuit of karate, Like
Speaker 1: the point of karate. The pursuit of is to find
Speaker 1: your center into feel self confident, and get whatever you
Speaker 1: want out of it. Yeah, just understand the mechanics of it. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you want to go to karate school to learn
Speaker 1: how to throw Japanese throwing stars and kill someone with nunchucks,
Speaker 1: you're probably out of luck. Um there, Maybe you may
Speaker 1: can take like a nunchuck class or something, but um,
Speaker 1: it's it's not a typical thing to use weapons uh
Speaker 1: in the classes. Um. I actually saw that as one
Speaker 1: of the points of a school to avoid. Really, if
Speaker 1: they say they can teach you ninja ninja to or
Speaker 1: make you a ninja, stay away. I remember taking ninja
Speaker 1: can make training when I was a kid. Um. There
Speaker 1: is a funny um nunchuck video on the internet. This
Speaker 1: just look up Redneck nunchuck And there's this guy in
Speaker 1: a living room and his I guess his mother is
Speaker 1: shooting him and he's demonstrating and he hits himself in
Speaker 1: the face and breaks his glasses, and his reaction as briceles. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: he just gets really mad, really fast, and he starts
Speaker 1: to stomp off, and you just hear the mom go like,
Speaker 1: don't pitch a fair. It was really funny. Even though
Speaker 1: I typically try to avoid anything that says fail yeah,
Speaker 1: because those videos are just so dumb. It's like the
Speaker 1: worst of the Internet. I just hate that word. But
Speaker 1: Redneck nunchuck fail was pretty good. You got anything else?
Speaker 1: I have nothing else, sir um did this make you
Speaker 1: want to try this in anyway, it made me way
Speaker 1: said stuff to taekwondo a little more. Yeah, um, minor
Speaker 1: regret and that's about it. Yeah. No, I probably won't
Speaker 1: pursue karate Yeah, me neither. Um, but hopefully there will
Speaker 1: be somebody out there who is inspired to give it
Speaker 1: a try because it is pretty awesome. Uh. If you
Speaker 1: want to know more about karate a, you can type
Speaker 1: that word k A r A T in the search
Speaker 1: part how stuff works dot Com. I'll bring up this article.
Speaker 1: Since I said search part, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this something about um police interrogation. Um. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: want to write in and let you know how much
Speaker 1: I enjoy the podcast spoiler alert a bunch. Hopefully I
Speaker 1: can also add something I'm currently studying to be apparent
Speaker 1: legal and we spend a lot of time learning about
Speaker 1: trial proceedings and what evidence is admissible in court. During
Speaker 1: the episode and police interrogation, you mentioned the rates of
Speaker 1: convictions that were based solely on confessions. Courts in my
Speaker 1: state of Pennsylvania have to follow something called the nanti
Speaker 1: glow rule. In a n T Y g l o
Speaker 1: U of ladies wrestling. Yeah, that's what I thought too. Uh.
Speaker 1: This rule states that motions for sary judgment cannot be
Speaker 1: based solely on depositions, or more specifically, the confessions they're in.
Speaker 1: So basically, if a party has confessed, their confession alone
Speaker 1: isn't enough to convict them. The record, like other motives
Speaker 1: or affidavits filed with the court, would need to contain
Speaker 1: other evidence in order for the motion to be granted. Uh.
Speaker 1: If anyone confessed after being interrogated, they might not be
Speaker 1: completely doomed. If they're in Pennsylvania, motions for summary judgment
Speaker 1: is a pre trial motion, so this rule wouldn't affect
Speaker 1: the case that had already made it to a trial
Speaker 1: with a jury. And I don't remember this is only
Speaker 1: a rule in civil cases or if it applies to
Speaker 1: criminal ones as well. I haven't heard of other states
Speaker 1: having a similar rule. Every few years there will be
Speaker 1: editorials about how nanti Glow is outdated. I know the
Speaker 1: name is outdated, uh, and it needs to go. But
Speaker 1: as of this email, there hasn't been a case to overturn,
Speaker 1: so still binding anyway. Really enjoy it. I hope this
Speaker 1: is informative. Uh. Stuff you Should Know is the perfect
Speaker 1: thing to listen to while I'm knitting, and I always
Speaker 1: look forward to a new episode that is from Haley.
Speaker 1: Thanks Haley. We appreciate that. In Pennsylvania. Have you seen
Speaker 1: the Glow the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling documentary? Now? It's
Speaker 1: pretty good. Yeah. Is China in it? I don't think
Speaker 1: she was in Glow? Was she? Oh? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just that's the only female restaurant thing going. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: this is I think way before her time. Anyway, it's
Speaker 1: a It's a good, good documentary, strongly recommended. I'll check
Speaker 1: it out. If you want to recommend a documentary or
Speaker 1: talk about an arcane law to Chuck and I. We
Speaker 1: can be reached at s Y s K podcast on Twitter,
Speaker 1: on Facebook, at Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com, and as always, check out
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