Shotokan Karate and homolateral movement
Shotokan Karate and homolateral movement
I recently read Mr. Kurz's opinion regarding jumping jacks and other types of homolateral exercise. I am a new student of Shotokan, and I got to wondering about our basic drills of marching up and down the floor doing crescent steps and throwing blocks and punches of different types that almost all feature "same arm same leg" movements. Did the Japanese have it all wrong or do I just not understand the concept of homolateral movement correctly?
Not to familiar with this myself but from what i understand homolateral movement is utilising one side at a time or "parallel procedure".This can be a hinderance if used and relied on all the time but there are instances where it may be necessary(for balance,power,etc).
So training in bilateral(i assume that's the opposite of homolateral)movement is obviously beneficial but it doesn't have to be applied to everything you do.
As for the question of whether or not the Japanese got it wrong:-
If what they did worked then that's all that matters really.I must admit though that some(and notice i use the word "some") Karate students who have come to the Kung Fu class where i train do sometimes have problems performing some simultaneous techniques(block and punch executed together as opposed to their usual method of block then punch for example).This may be just due to a new activity/enviroment though rather than a problem acessing only the right/left hemisphere of their brain.
Dragon
So training in bilateral(i assume that's the opposite of homolateral)movement is obviously beneficial but it doesn't have to be applied to everything you do.
As for the question of whether or not the Japanese got it wrong:-
If what they did worked then that's all that matters really.I must admit though that some(and notice i use the word "some") Karate students who have come to the Kung Fu class where i train do sometimes have problems performing some simultaneous techniques(block and punch executed together as opposed to their usual method of block then punch for example).This may be just due to a new activity/enviroment though rather than a problem acessing only the right/left hemisphere of their brain.
Dragon