Four Playful Animals: Strategy For Kumite
By Kate Barrett Stewart
Freefighting in karate (kumite) can be intimidating,
especially if students are new, relatively small,
or women. Often these students feel that they are
easily bullied by larger, stronger opponents or those
with a longer reach.
I learned about the Four Playful Animals Model while
attending a National Women's Martial Arts Seminar
a number of years ago. Since then I have had a lot
of fun using it with my students. It has also helped
my own fighting skills.
In this model the bear and crane represent two typical
adversaries while the snake and the praying mantis
represent opposing strategies. The model prompts students
to analyze the relative reach, strengths and weakness
of opponents and to adjust their own fighting strategies
accordingly.
The model is helpful for all students. If they are
small, have a short reach or are not very strong,
the model teaches a strategy that can be used against
bigger, stronger opponents or those with a longer
reach. Bigger, stronger students can benefit too.
Often they fight the same group of students in their
dojo and adopt a single fighting style that seems
to work. They get stuck in a strategy. They don't
recognize that there are opponents bigger, or more
powerful than themselves who could use their own strategy
against them. Thus the model teaches these students
also to analyze, think and be more flexible in approach.
Learning the model actually makes freefighting more
fun too, because if you always fight the same way
you get stale. If, on the other hand, you try different
techniques, different combinations, different attitudes,
then freefighting stays fresh.
The Bear versus the Snake. This analogy is
used to demonstrate how size and strength can be countered
by speed and agility. The bear has many advantages
-- size, weight, strength and reach -- but they are
not impervious. Bears move straight forward. They
intimidate, try to overpower and maul you, but also
try to maintain a distance in order to use their strength
and reach. Their techniques are often straight attacks
-- jabs, straight punches and front kicks. Bear limitations
include lack of agility and a need to maintain a distance
so as to continue to attack you effectively.
Strategy for fighting a bear is to become a snake.
Snakes are smaller, weaker and have a shorter reach
than bears, but they have advantage of speed and agility.
Against a bear, snakes should avoid frontal attacks
and use their speed, to move in from angles to get
close to attack or counter, to move side to side,
or to move to the bears backside if he tries to turn
to catch you. A snake should keep close to a bear
because as soon as the distance between them increases
the bear again has the advantage. The bear can hit
you going in or away, so if you manage to get in,
stay in and fight side to side and don't get caught.
Good snake techniques include the roundhouse kick
(targets including the shins if allowed), hook punch
to the body and short punches to the opponent's side.
The Crane versus the Praying Mantis. This analogy
is used to illustrate how a person with shorter reach
but who is stronger can effectively fight a person
with a longer reach. Picture a crane standing on one
leg using the other to kick at you to keep you away.
They have a longer reach but are weaker. Cranes uses
their advantage, reach, to kick, pushing you away.
They also use attacks on angles and circles around
the opponent to neutralize their strength. Cranes
use quick, powerful side kicks or back kicks to push
you away, or they attack from angles with roundhouse
kicks, hook kicks and spinning back kicks. Others
use front hand jabs too. They are not going to use
the reverse arm as much because with the front arm
they maximize reach with their arm and their torso.
If you fight a crane, become a praying mantis. The
praying mantis is the stronger of the two opponents
but has the shorter reach. Its strategy is to get
in close to the crane to attack the front, the crane's
torso. This is especially effective if the crane is
leaning back, off balance, on one leg. Even if the
crane punches, the techniques won't be very effective
since he is weaker. So the praying mantis doesn't
have to move side to side very much. Good techniques
for the praying mantis include short punches and hooks
to the body, elbows (if permitted), and roundhouse
kicks (including shin kicks, if allowed).
Summary. "The Four Playful Animals model is
a starting point for developing strategy. It provides
a way for everyone to approach free-fighting. I have
found it personally helpful too because I'm small,
pretty strong, but definitely not the strongest or
biggest. So sometimes I'm a praying mantis, sometimes
a snake, and when I'm freefighting my children students
I'm sometimes a bear. While there are many other techniques
and strategies which may be developed outside this
model, this model teaches one essential thing: "The
bear does not always win."
For Teachers
Non-Contact Competition Drills
These Drills use no contact. They are fun and useful
at all belt levels and ages.
Non-Contact Competition Drill 1 - Bears versus
Snakes
Form two lines of people facing each other. Tell one
side to be bears. Tell the other side to be snakes.
Let them fight with no contact for one minute. Then
reverse roles. Have the bears become snakes and the
snakes become bears. Let them continue to fight with
no contact for one minute. Ask them what techniques
they chose to use. Rotate the lines to get different
partners and repeat.
Non-Contact Competition Drill 1 - Cranes versus
Praying Mantises
Form two lines of people facing each other. Tell one
side to be cranes. Tell the other side to be praying
mantises. Let them fight with no contact for one minute.
Then reverse roles. Have the cranes become praying
mantises and the praying mantises become cranes. Let
them fight without contact for one minute. Ask them
what techniques they chose to use. Rotate the lines
to get different partners and repeat.
Non-Contact Competition Drill 3 - Play Acting
Let one side secretly pick an animal to emulate. Tell
the other side to observe and try to identify the
animal. Fight without contact for one minute. See
if the observers were right and how they reached their
conclusion. Change sides and repeat.
Contact Fighting Drills
These are contact drills. These drills should be light
contact only. People will be assigned animals without
regard to relative reach or strength.
Contact Fighting Drill 1 - Bears versus Snakes
This drill is the same as the above non-contact drill
but permits light contact.
Contact Fighting Drill 2 - Cranes versus Praying
Mantises
This drill is the same as the above non-contact drill
but permits light contact.
Contact Fighting Drill 3- Fun Drill
Do the above fighting drills but add the appropriate
animal noises and gestures!
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