Stuff You Should Know - How Karate Works

Episode Date: October 7, 2014

Karate, meaning "open" and "hand", was developed in Okinawa before being exported to Japan and then the rest of the world. It is one of the most widely practiced martial arts and one of the most difficult to master. Learn about it in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hiya, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, this is Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry, and this is Stuff You Should Know. This is the Karate edition. That's pretty good. I looked up a bunch of these pronunciations for once because we get the random email still

that's like, it's really lazy that you guys don't pronounce things right. I had a guy the other day on Facebook that said that he's brand new to the show, and it's a big turn off for him, and I just said, you are in for a long, frustrating experience with my friend. Yeah, because it's kind of a hallmark of the show that we botch pronunciations. Don't try. We botch pronunciations. That was good stuff, Chuck.

You know any karate? No, I never took any of that stuff. Did you? I took Taekwondo for a minute, and then I was like, meh. Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't do it after the Karate Kid movie because I was the age where I should have run right out to the nearest dojo and signed up, but I think I remember even back then thinking, I don't ever want to get hit in the face if I can help it, which is the same reason I've never been in a fist fight.

I don't think they hit you in the face. I think as a matter of fact, if you do go to a dojo or a karate school and they hit you in the face, you should tell somebody because I don't think they're supposed to do that. Well, yeah, you're right. I just didn't want to be hit at all, and once you see Karate Kid, all bets are off, you know, because if you never know if there's a Cobra Kai next door, they don't play by the rules.

No, they really don't. You know? They don't have sleeves to their gi. No. They, well, they're just bad kids. They sweep legs. They injured legs. All like, like, eye bleedingly blonde.

Yeah. Yeah, they're bad guys. Yeah. Did you watch that recently? I watched some of it today. I did. I watched a little bit of it last week. It was on, and I have to say that there's no bigger disappointment in life.

Well, of course there are, but more disappointing things in your cable TV watching life than when you're scrolling through and you see, oh, Karate Kid and you turn it on and you see Will Smith's son. Whoa. It's such a let down. I can't imagine, you know, that it was at all enjoyable. So I've been burnt. No, I didn't watch any of it.

I've been burned a lot lately with that. And so the other day. Oh, he keeps kidding you? The other day I saw Karate Kid and I was like, I'm not even going to try this time. And I did. And I saw Ralph Machio and my heart just burst. That's the real Karate Kid. They should put on the cable list Karate Kid sucky version for the other one.

I still say to that moment where Pat Merida has been training him with all the unknowingly training him with all the tasks he performs. Yeah. And wax off, sand floor, paint fence, paint house, jump on pier. When he finally has it, the big climax of that part, when he's like, that's it. I'm out of here and he tells them to show me all this stuff and then he just starts in on him and he blocks all the stuff. I'm getting chill bumps just thinking about it all these years later.

You really are. Yeah. Wow. It's powerful. They do that zoom in and he just goes, and he starts wailing on him and he blocks it all. That's Karate. And then they bow and that just should have been the end of the movie.

Oh, no. I watched the end of the movie today and I was like, this is still good. The whole montage with the best around, you're the best around. And then the, of course, crane kick at the end where he sends Billy Zabka sprawling. Great stuff. Yeah. And if you want to feel super old, last year, Ralph Macchio turned the same age that Pat Merida was when they shot Karate Kid.

What? Yeah. Oh, wow. Well, Ralph Macchio was old when they made that movie, he was playing 16, but he was like 25. Oh, really? Yeah. He's much older.

Wonderful actor, then. He had me full. He's great. I worked with Pat Merida once on a music video. He was awesome. Which one? I can't remember, actually. It might have been, oh, I know, Alien Ant Farm.

They were banned. Okay. They weren't very good, but they had a video with Pat Merida in it and he, Pat Merida drank white wine all day long in his trailer. He had like a couple of bottles of Chardonnay on ice. That's awesome. That's my only story. Was he in the Karate Kid 3 with Hilary Swank?

I didn't watch any of the sequels, actually. The second one was pretty good. It had that Peter Seterra song in it. Yeah, I didn't see that one. Good one. He goes to Okinawa right when there's like the Hurricane and the bad guy, which turns out to be a good guy in the end. And he probably has a Japanese girlfriend in that one, right?

He falls in love over there, yeah. Not Elizabeth Shoe? No. Yeah. I don't even know if she made an appearance in the second one. But anyway, Chuck, you realize we've just dedicated at least eight minutes to talking about Karate Kid. Well, I mean, you can't not.

Every other line in this article made me think of the Karate Kid movie. It's funny you point out this article because reading this article made me laugh for a different reason. Every time I saw Marshall Arts Expert or Karate Master, I thought of like Napoleon Dynamite saying, yeah, I couldn't get past that. So if you're if you want a real treat, read this article and just think read it in the voice of Napoleon Dynamite. It works really well.

And just a bit of COA real quick with a lot of things like chess and things that people are really into. This is a very broad introduction to Karate. This is what we should even call it Karate for non-practitioners Karate for people who pronounce it karate, right? Because this is going to be a nice overview and a nice introduction, but please do not think we are Karate experts or masters because we are not. Let's begin.

Yes. So, Chuck, it turns out in your pronouncing it correctly, Karate, it's actually two words and I guess Okinawan because that's where it was originally invented, Okinawa. And basically the whole premise of, forgive me everyone who appears, but karate, that's how I was brought up to say it. Yeah, we'll just say it like that. Yes. The whole purpose of it is to basically manipulate basic physics to your advantage.

So no matter how big or small you are, you can conceivably win a fight or thwart an attack. That's right. And like I said, the whole thing began in Okinawa and most martial arts came out of India, Japan or China. And karate is, from what I could see, the second most widely practiced martial art to what? After Taekwondo. Oh, interesting.

I saw it like in a couple of places, but it wasn't necessarily verified. And then that's really saying something because over the years of the last few millennia since people started practicing martial arts, there have been thousands of variations on the theme. But karate is definitely its own thing. And it arose out of these periods of strife where the peasantry often had their weapons forcibly removed from them by the ruling classes so they couldn't rebel. And so the Okinawan said, you know what, fine. We're going to teach ourselves to use our bodies as weapons and thus began the groundwork

for karate. That's right. And there's a father and son who are credited as the sort of the fathers of modern karate. The father was Funakoshi Gichin. And he wrote the original 20 guiding principles of karate and his son, they developed the Shotokan style and the son, his name G-I-G-O. What is that? Gijo?

Gijo? Where do you see that? Well, that was his full name is Funakoshi Yoshitaka, but I think he went by Gijo Funakoshi. It would probably be Gijo because his last name is Gichin, which I verified with my wife, by the way. Okay. And she knows. Right.

Much more than me. So that's the father and son. And the son started doing karate because he had tuberculosis and, you know, as we'll get into this karate, he's very much about breathing. And so he did it to help with that. That's smart. Which it did, but he did die of tuberculosis at 39. But they were the modern founders and dad was a little more aggressive than son.

He was full contact. And the son came around and said, you know what, I believe in a more peaceful application of this and this karate dough or the karate way is more of a approach to life and then just like a combat style. Right. He took it from like being a, like a kind of a long head, like just like his old man. Right. Just beating people up kind of thing.

Sure. To you don't really have to actually hurt anybody. You don't even necessarily have to land a blow on another person to be a karate master. And that's what he came up with. Like you said, the karate dough. And this, this was all fairly recent. I mean, we're talking like the early 20th century. Yeah.

And the dad, uh, Funakoshi Jichen, he took it from Okinawa to Japan, but his son, um, Funakoshi Yoshitaka, what'd you say his nickname was? Gijo. Sure. He, uh, kind of introduced it to the world. Made it a lot more. Like two, two guys like you are like, I don't want to get kicked in the face. Yeah.

He said, no one's going to kick you in the face. All right. Let me teach you the karate way. And he did, but a way to really know you're not getting kicked in the face is to never take karate. Let's just watch from the sidelines. Yeah. Uh, to be a student and the students are called a kata take a, um, or karate car from the

American South. Right. And like you said, that's actually two words in Japanese. That means a kata is open and they means hand. So it's means open hand and reference to your body as your weapon is, and there is the weapon and then openness. It's all about being open to the world around you and very observant, um, for many reasons, but one reason is so you can be aware of when the street bugs are coming after you.

Right. Yeah. You're open. Yeah. It's just that they were, that they signified two separate things. I thought it was open hand, like, you know, slap fighting or something like that. Yeah. I knew it wasn't, so there wasn't a lot of slapping in karate, but, um, I thought open

hand meant that you had no weapon in your hand, but, oh, that makes sense. That's just what the hand meant. Right. That part was, I'm aware of everything right now and I'm open to changing possibilities and options, which is a huge fundamental part of karate. Yeah, your spirit is open as well. Yeah. This, uh, this, um, article gets kind of esoteric at the end.

Yeah, it does, but I think that's part of it for a lot of people. So we'll, we'll cover that. So if you are a non-Kobra Kai member of a karate school, you're going to wear what's called a gi in white. It's the loose fitting pants and the robe that's pulled together by a belt. It's not a black muscle shirt. No. Yeah, that's disappointing.

With a Kobra on the back, uh, that's right. And you are ranked by your Don, uh, D A N and these are the rankings in ascending order, uh, from ninth to sixth Q, uh, that's your skill level. Right. You're going to be a novice. You're just going to be a little white belt. Your belt is going to match your gi. You're going to feel silly.

There's a little white, uh, mess of a six year old. That's probably when you're going to do karate these days. Right. The fifth Q is you're going to get that yellow belt and feel a little bit better about yourself because you have color now. Right. Then you're going to get your orange belt at the fourth level. Yeah.

You're going to get your green belt at the third, your blue belt at the second, the brown belt at the first, and then from first to eighth Don, you're going to get that old black belt, which I always thought was the top level. Apparently there's a red one after that. Did not know that ninth and 10th Don. And it even says in quotes, rarely awarded, um, but now that you mentioned it, the bad guy from karate kid, I believe wore a red belt. Oh, uh, man, what's his name?

I don't remember. He was from the 80 pack man headroom. Yeah. I was going to say Mr. Lawrence, but that was the kid cause, uh, he's the one that said, you have a problem. Mr. Lawrence. Oh yeah. With sweeping the leg.

Just sensei. Yeah. Everybody knows him as sensei. But yeah, I think he had a red belt, but boy, he got his come up and send the parking line. He sure did. Spoiler alert. Yeah.

Uh, but the Q actually, the K, the KYU, the different levels, um, that's not just used in karate. They use it in flower ranging, Ichibana, Ichibana, um, and tea ceremonies and basically any Japanese pursuit where there are masters and there are novices, bonsai, maybe. I didn't see that, but I wouldn't be all that surprised. Fly catching with chopsticks. So, um, you go through Q's. Interesting.

Yeah. That's pretty cool. They really take that stuff seriously. Like it seems like, I don't know, I just appreciate the culture of like, if something's worth pursuing, it's worth pursuing like with all you got. Right. Exactly. They don't do things halfway like we do here in the United States.

Like I'd stop at the green belt. Right. You'd be like, I'm up to green. I'm doing good. Good. No. I definitely do pursue things all the way. And there was another point that I went and clarified with your Q with going from like

a white belt to a yellow belt to an orange belt. It doesn't necessarily mean like you are like a karate master or even like a tea ceremony master. Yeah. What it means is, um, you are capable of performing certain, um, acts that are expected to be performed by somebody of that level. Okay. Cause I wanted that cause I'll see on Facebook, like a friend's like eight year old son is

a black belt and I'm like, really? Like really? Yeah. I mean, that means that they can do like X kicks or something. It doesn't necessarily have to do with talent, although I'm sure a lot of people dispute that. Sure. I think it's more like your technical proficiency is described by your belt. Okay.

I think. All right. Oh man, we're going to get murdered for that one. Yep. I can already hear the keys, the hands on the keyboard. So we're going to talk about physics and probably a lot more about the karate kid right after this. Hey guys, it's cheekies from cheekies and chill podcast.

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So physics buddy, if you're moving and doing anything in this office, it's going to be described in terms of physics because that's what we do here. And when it comes to karate or any fight, really, you've got potential energy going on. And just because you're a big strong dude doesn't mean you're going to necessarily win a fight against someone smaller and weaker because there are different ways of applying that energy. Karate and Karate exploits all that.

It does. They're not exploits, but I guess. Well, it teaches you to exploit it. Yeah. You've got your energy and you've got somebody else's energy. If you can figure out a way to put them together, then you have just doubled or done whatever to your energy by adding theirs to yours. That's right.

You create an advantage for yourself and that's kind of the key to being a little guy like Ralph Machio and still winning the tournament. It's like a broken leg, even. That's right. So the first stuff you want to focus on is learning to concentrate your energy. I think manipulating your opponent's energy, which we'll talk about next, that seems to be like possibly a more advanced step. First you start out on yourself and there's a couple ways to do this.

By concentrating your energy, we mean you're concentrating the force that you're delivering with a punch or a kick to a very small surface area of your body. If you come up and you shove me and you've got something to say and your hand is played, you're going to push me backwards, but you're not going to break my rib because the force of your shove is distributed across your palm, your fingers, your fingertips, all the jewelry you wear, all of that is going to be spread across my chest. If you took that same amount of force and put all of your fingers and your thumb together and delivered it all, formed basically a point with your fingers and thumb, then all

of a sudden you are going to break my ribs. You probably would punch right through my chest and out of my back. I would rip out your heart like a street fighter. You can do that on your own body if you take your five fingers and just pound them on your chest and then with the same amount of energy put them all together, it's going to feel much different. Yes. It's a very simple concept.

You're diminishing the surface area of the point of impact and thereby increasing the amount of damage you can do to an opponent. In case of punches and kicks, you're probably reducing that to a bony area of your hand or your foot. Yes. A lot of training goes into strengthening those areas of your body and that's your technique because if I just went and flailed at someone and punched them, I would probably break my hand because I don't know how to do it.

It's all about technique and karate. You're going to have those parts of your body ready to absorb that impact on your end as well. It's probably up until not too terribly long ago, Karatekas which are karate students again in their training once they said, yes, I think I'm going to get serious about this. Yes. They would break their middle fingers of their own hands. Did it enlarge their knuckle?

Yes. Crazy. As it healed back, the knuckle would just be larger and so that little point of impact is strengthened and made just a little larger so that they could really focus it in there and hurt people. Wow. Yes. They don't do that anymore, right?

That's out of practice, out of fashion. Probably. I never know. Did you see that article I sent you, the science of Bruce Lee's One-Inch Punch? Yes. That is a pretty good example of concentrating your energy over a small surface area. Yes. There's a video that goes along with it too that's pretty cool to watch.

He was famous for being able to hold his hand one inch away from a board and then send that fist through the board without reaching back and raring back. He does it so quick and there's so much power, it really comes through even in this old grainy black and white video. You have to rewind it 10 times just to be like, man, did that just happen? Yes. That quickly? Yes.

The bride famously used it to punch her way out of a coffin when she was buried alive and killed Bill. Yes. I'm calling total BS on that now though. What? That she punched her way out? Yes. She punched and then I guess it's a good time to talk about this, Karate is all about

putting as much impact with your whole body behind that puncher kick. When you see someone kicking karate, they're not just kicking at you like Danielsson did at first. They're usually standing sideways and winging their whole body around to get the whole energy of their whole body into that kick or punch. That's what Bruce Lee does. Damn, he lunges forward super fast with his body and just puts all that energy into his little one-inch punch, but Uma Thurman's in a coffin.

She can't move at all, so I just call total BS on that. With Bruce Lee's punch, and that's the only thing that movie that wasn't realistic, right? Everything else is totally dead on. Be somebody, baby. When Bruce Lee does that one-inch punch and you say he lunges forward a little bit, what you're seeing right there from that lunge to the point where he's broken through the board is actually a sequence, they figured out, it's a sequence of muscle movements to where he starts out generating energy or force through his huge, through the big muscles

in his legs and then moves him up through his hips and then twists his torso and then basically shoots it out of his arm. It's crazy. Basically, he's generating a tremendous amount of force and power in his legs and directing it up through his body and out his arm and then shooting his hand an inch out. All that force that's been generated by his muscles is focused right onto his little knuckles and it goes right through a board. It's pretty awesome.

Someone should animate that, like the energy of that from the, who knows, from his little toes all the way up, it seems like every part of his body is going into that tiny little area. Yeah. It's pretty impressive. And in this article that was on Popular Science, they figured out that, yes, the muscles definitely count as somebody who didn't have these muscles wouldn't be able to do this, but even more important was the white matter, the material that connects neurons that transfers energy

or not energy, information between your brain cells because the timing that was required to fully focus this force in this perfect sequence over this very short period of time took a lot of white matter and Bruce Lee must have had that stuff in aces. Yeah. He was awesome, man. Those movies are still so great. The other thing Bruce Lee's doing there is following through, which is huge in Katate. What's it called with the breaking of the boards that has its own name?

It is called Tameshi Wari. Yes. And that's when you see people breaking bricks and boards and things like that. It's a demonstration of force, but what Bruce Lee's doing there is he's following through. He's not looking at that board. He is imagining punching through to Utah, you know, like at some point well beyond that board because humans have an instinct, if you're going to punch a wall, even if you're super angry, you're going to hesitate.

You may not even realize it. Right before you punch your fist into that brick wall out of anger, you may not even know it. You're going to be hesitating because you had that hesitation instinct. Yes. So it's called self-preservation. Yeah. And Katate basically trains you to get past that and through breathing in and out.

Remember Karate Kid again? Yeah. It's all about the breathing. Breathing out when you're releasing that punch and following through, you are not punching that board. You're getting two feet beyond that board. Yeah. The board just happens to be in the way.

Yep. And the board is sorry it got in the way. That's right. So that's offense. Basically you're learning to focus your energy into punches and kicks. Learning how to lower the surface area of the point of contact and just basically becoming an explosive force of the universe. Nice.

That's the first part. The second part is defense, learning to take your opponent's energy and use it against them. Yeah. And this is a very important part of Karate as well. Yeah. And it also has to do with physics because we're talking about momentum, which is obviously a product of mass and velocity, but also of direction.

Yeah. So let's say you are a brick wall and your opponent's fist is a car. If they drive straight into you, it's going to hurt. Let's say you're a guide rail on a highway and the car is driving down the highway and side swipes you, it's going to hurt a lot less. Way less. And that's the whole basic premise of Karate defense is to try and angle yourself to deflect as much of that blow as possible at a different angle and not take it straight on.

You want to deflect the momentum of the force of their punch or kick. And apparently you use your arms. I've seen people use their legs to deflect blows, but this article makes it sound like you just use your arms in Karate. Daniel Son uses legs. Yeah. It makes sense that you would use your legs. Yeah.

Because that was, which one was the training thing was the legs? I don't know. Was it the crane kick training? No. Because he had already had something, let's see, he waxed on, he waxed off, right? He washed the car. Yeah, that was the cars. He painted up and down.

He had to do the windmill on the refrigerator box. He sanded the floor. No, I don't think he used kicks. He defended the kicks with his hands. That's what I'm thinking. Okay, so then that's the premise of Karate. Yeah. Like when you defend yourself against blows, whether it's a kick or a punch, in defense

you're using your arms the whole time. Like we said, you're deflecting it. So you're forcing this, the momentum of this punch off of yourself at an angle. Because another thing you can do with momentum is when you, when you do deflect it, if somebody's going to punch you in the chest and they put everything into it, like they started this punch in their little toes and now it's coming at you in their big, broken middle finger knuckle. Yeah, they're old school.

And you manage to sidestep slightly and deflect the blow downward. They still have that momentum, the product of their mass times their velocity, which is speed and direction. And that direction is forward toward you. You and your chest are not there any longer. So this frequently results in your opponent losing his or her balance. And all of a sudden what's opened up is in Karate circles, known as an opportunity for you to beat them badly.

That's right. You can throw them even though they point out that that is more noted in Judo and Akito. Throwing isn't central in Karate, but I'm sure someone will throw someone if they need to. Sure. Like use their own momentum and pull them past and then get the old solar plexus blow. Yeah. You also could, yeah, you can punch them as if you don't throw them, they're just open

up. You can pin them on the ground. Yeah. And then punch them. Yeah. What you don't want to do is anything illegal. No. No.

You don't do anything illegal. And your stance while you're doing this, the reason you're able to deflect these punches and kick so well is because you're not standing there like a dumb frat boy in a bar saying, come on, man, bring it. You're standing to the side saying, come on, man, bring it. And you're going to have a smaller surface area for someone to punch. And you've got that one leg in front and the one leg behind. You got your center of gravity low.

And you're just, you're ready for all comers at that point to deflect all those blows. Yeah. And all that is about being open and paying attention to your surroundings. Yeah. You're watching your opponent and you're just looking for a chance to throw their momentum or deflect a punch or a kick or what have you. That's right. Yeah.

And we'll talk about some of the ways because if a couple of karate experts displayed their full power skill, there would be two dead karate experts or at least one. So over the years, because karate dough isn't about like killing other people. No. It's, uh, it's about showing your skills. They've developed some ways to do that. And we'll talk about those right after this. Hey guys, it's Chikis from Chikis and Chill Podcast.

And I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience, were there any red flags that you think you missed? What I saw as a weakness of his, I wanted to embrace. The way I thought of it was whatever love I have from you is extra for me. Like I already love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner? Yes.

Is it required for me to feel good about myself? No. Listen to Chikis and Chill on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing.

Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you. Oh god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man.

And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael. A different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Uh-huh. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy.

You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. So Josh, you mentioned, um, two dead karate masters, right? If they went full bore at one another, uh, there would be bloodshed on the mat.

And that's not what you're after if you're a, uh, a student of karate. You want to display your skill in a way that shows that you're very skilled, but not necessarily inflicting violence. Right. It's not about violence. It's about a lot of things for a lot of people, but never is it just about like learning violence, like learning how to beat someone up really good. Yeah.

And like I said, it's a lot of different things to different people. Like some people go there for exercise, building self-confidence, or tuberculosis to help your health and your breathing. It apparently doesn't work for tuberculosis though, you know, but I'll bet he had tons of confidence. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Sometimes just learning some self-defense, maybe feeling, feeling good about walking

through a, uh, a dark alley at night alone. Because the point is not beating up your opponent, but knowing or making it apparent to other people that they don't want to mess with you in the first place. Because if they did, then it's trouble for them. And you do that or you advance to different cues through, um, different types of demonstrations basically. Yeah. I have to say that you can't like do some serious damage.

It's just not the main purpose. Like the, the famous, uh, uh, Iken Hisatu, the one punch kill is the thing in karate. Is it really? Yeah. And some people say like it's impossible and some people say it is possible and others say it's not even a real thing. It's just like a statement of attitude, uh, one fist, certain death, and it's just sort of the mindset you should have like with this fist, I could kill you, but I'm not going

to, but I'm not going to, cause I'm a nice guy. Right. And I'm in a shopping center between a locksmith and a tax preparation center in the valley in California, but I could kill them both if I wanted to. They even said shopping centers in this article, which I thought was funny because it seems like they are always in a shopping center. I don't see very many like freestanding though, just all right. So you mentioned the, the, there's different ways to, to measure your skill and to flaunt

your skill. Uh-huh. Uh, I want to combat such a simulation called the kata. And that is where, um, you're basically fighting, uh, ghost attackers that don't exist. Yeah. Like anytime you see somebody going, huh, yeah, huh. Yeah. And they're just doing it by themselves.

That's kata. Uh-huh. The next thing is, um, like a prescribed rigmarole of moves, you know, and that's, that's kata. That's something you would have to perform to move on to another belt. That's right. Uh, the next thing, if you actually want to get a live person involved and not just look like some crazy person fighting nobody, uh, you could practice, uh, sparring or kumite. And there are four levels of that.

Um, the first is footwork only the second is shadow boxing. The third is blocking contact only in the fourth is light contact. And the idea is it's a very controlled supervised sparring session where you're not laying blows, raining blows upon one another. You're pulling your punches, you're stopping them or there's very light contact. You're probably wearing headgear, right? Like some sort of protective gear. Yeah.

And, um, this is typical of what like a karate tournament will have in it. It's mostly kumite or point sparring. Um, and if again, you've ever seen karate kid, you'll notice that those matches are over pretty quick. Yeah. I mean, this seemed pretty accurate for karate. The karate kid movie did once I read this, right? And vice versa.

Yeah. Um, but with a point sparring, usually you'll have a one to three minute bout or fight. Uh, and whoever has the most points at the end wins or if you score a certain number of points, typically three, yes, within a fight year you want. That's right. And the points are called epons, I P P O N S. And, um, apparently I didn't realize this. The points are awarded not just on the, the strikes that you're getting, but also the,

the attitude in which you do it and your technique. So they're sort of judging you, uh, on a aesthetic level as well on a spiritual level. I mean, it makes sense, like if your opponent walks into the back of your hand, you shouldn't get a point for that, you know, that's true. And then Chuck, there's, um, the, uh, the Tameshi Wari, which we mentioned already, which is board breaking, yeah, block breaking, um, which is the real deal. Oh yeah. It's not magic or illusion.

Like this person is breaking through a board. Yeah. I remember being a kid and people saying, like, you know, those boards are weakened. Right. It's not true. They just know what they're doing. They know how to exploit, uh, the, the weakest parts of those boards, maybe, but they're, as the article puts it, they turn their appendages into natural chisels.

Right. And, um, they find out where the board might be weakest and they punch right through it. Right through it. Or the ones that get me are the, with the, like the karate chop through the bricks. Man. Let me see how they do that stuff. Physics. It's crazy.

And then you mentioned schools, man, um, yes, they are mostly in shopping centers, but that doesn't mean they're not good. Yeah. While you're in, your mom's getting her taxes done next door while you're in there learning things. And, uh, if you want to look for a school, there are, if you're in a big city, you're going to have your choice of a lot of different kinds, um, catering to a wide range of students. Uh, if you're a little kid and you want to send your, or you're an adult and you want

to send your little kid to one, there are lots of options. But send your kid to one that caters to kids. Don't take them to Cobra Kai. No. Or else they're going to turn out like Johnny. I actually found an article, I can't remember what it was called, but it was about how to tell if the, your martial arts group is toxic. Oh, really?

Yeah. Because the, the author, um, is there an opium den in the back? It's probably one dead giveaway, but the author was saying like, especially if you're new to martial arts, you may think like, Oh, you know, the sensei is supposed to be an abusive jerk. Right. Uh, who yells and screams all the time and like hits his students and stuff like, no, there's, uh, there's, it's supposed to be a normal, respectful, calm environment.

Yeah. You know, it's not supposed to be like run by a megalomaniac or something like that. So if you have your kid in that kind of school, you may want to get them out and get them into a different school. Yes. And wisely as well, they suggest, um, that it all be very open to the parents and there not be any private rooms for your children that are off limits. That's just good advice.

Same thing I said. No matter what kind of school you're taking them to, if you're a lady, you might want to, um, find a dojo that, uh, maybe has a lady instructor or maybe, um, they, they're just, uh, respectful toward women in general. Like again, I think it's, if you don't want your kids to go there, you probably, and because of some jerk megalomaniac, you probably wouldn't want to go there as a lady either. Yeah. Or if there's like a jerk lady megalomaniac, yeah, I'm sure they're,

they're out there, right? There's got to be, I'm sure that, that guy had a wife and karate kid megalomania transcends gender. It sure does. Um, and then Chuck, we said that people go to take karate to, um, to gain self confidence and to understand, um, their body a little more, but a lot of people find along the way, even if they're not going for this, um, they find that they, uh, what's called their center, the center of their key spiritual center, basically, and, um, in karate practice, well, karate

is linked to Zen Buddhism. Yeah. And one of the points of Zen Buddhism is that you can, uh, full, you can attain spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment through everyday practices, including karate. Sure. Um, and that once you start to practice karate, once you start breathing, once you start paying attention to your surroundings at all times, once you just find yourself in, in tune and in focus, you're going to find your key.

Yeah. Also known as Chi. Uh-huh. Your spiritual energy. Oh, is that the same thing? I believe so. Okay. And where it sits in your body and you'll be able to learn to raise or lower it, right,

your energy, um, to attack, right, to fit, right. Yeah. And, uh, if you're, like you said, if you're just going for, you know, up through a certain few levels, you may not hear much about that, but it definitely comes into play at the higher levels. Right. And how fast you work up those ranks and get those belts is sort of up to you, like anything else.

If you go three or four days a week and you're super dedicated, you might zoom up four belts in the first few months. Yeah. And I think from that point, things start to slow down a little bit, uh, if you don't put much into it, it might take you a little longer. But from what I've read, people that get into it, like really get into it. Yeah. And this article says for the average person getting the black belt, um, would take about

three years. Yeah. If you were super athletic and talented and, and went like five days a week, it might take 18 months, but it's still going to be difficult and take a little while. And it's a life pursuit for a lot of people. Yeah. And again, this article points out, getting to the highest belt is not necessarily the pursuit of karate, like the, the point of karate, the pursuit of it is to find your

center and to feel self-confident and get whatever you want out of it. Yeah. Just understand the mechanics of it. If you want to go to karate school to learn how to throw Japanese throwing stars and kill someone with nunchucks, you're probably out of luck. There may be, you may can take like a nunchuck class or something, but, um, it's, it's not a typical thing to use weapons, uh, in the classes. Um, I actually saw that as a, uh, one of the points of a school to avoid.

Oh, really? If they say they can teach you ninja, ninja too, or make you a ninja, stay away. I remember taking ninja training when I was a kid. Yeah. You had throwing stars, right? Yeah. Um, there is a funny, um, nunchuck, uh, video on the internet this, just look up redneck nunchuck.

Yeah. And there's this guy in a living room and his, I guess his mother is shooting him and he's demonstrating and he hits himself in the face and breaks his glasses and his reaction is priceless afterward. He just gets really mad, really fast and he starts to stomp off and you just hear the mom go like, don't pitch a fit. It was really funny. Uh, even though I typically try to avoid anything that says fail, yeah, because those videos

are just so dumb. Yeah. It's like the worst of the internet. I just hate that word. But, uh, redneck nunchuck fail was pretty good. You got anything else? Uh, I have nothing else, sir. Um, did this make you want to try this in any way?

It made me wish I'd stuck to Taekwondo a little more. Yeah. Um, just a minor regret. That's about it. Yeah. No, I probably won't pursue karate. Yeah. Me neither.

Um, but hopefully there will be somebody out there who is inspired to give it a try because it is pretty awesome. Agreed. Uh, if you want to know more about karate, you can type that word K-A-R-A-T-E in the search bar at howstuffworks.com and I'll bring up this article since that's the search bar. It's time for Listener Mail. Uh, I'm going to call this something about, um, police interrogation.

Um, hey guys, I wanted to write in and let you know how much I enjoy the podcast spoiler alert a bunch. Hopefully I can also add something. Uh, I'm currently studying to be a paralegal and we spent a lot of time learning about trial proceedings and what evidence is admissible. In court during the episode on police interrogation, you mentioned the rates of convictions that were based solely on confessions. Courts in my state of Pennsylvania have to follow something called the nanti-glow rule

in a N-T-Y-G-L-O, um, this rule states that motions for summary judgment cannot be based solely on depositions or more specifically the confessions therein. So basically if a party has confessed their confession alone isn't enough to convict them. Uh, the record like other motives or affidavits filed with the court would need to contain other evidence in order for the motion to be granted. Uh, if anyone confessed after being interrogated, they might not be completely doomed if they're in Pennsylvania. Motions for summary judgment is a pretrial motion.

So this rule wouldn't affect a case that had already made it to a trial with a jury and I don't remember this is only a rule in civil cases or applies to criminal ones as well. I haven't heard of other states having a similar rule. Every few years there will be editorials about how nanti-glow is outdated. I know the name is outdated and it needs to go, but as of this email there hasn't been a case to overturn so it's still binding. Anyway, I really enjoy it, hope this is informative, uh, stuff you should know is the perfect thing to listen to while I'm knitting and I always look forward to a new episode and that is

from Haley. Thanks Haley, we appreciate that. In Pennsylvania. Have you seen the glow, the gorgeous ladies of wrestling documentary? No. It's pretty good. Yeah. There's China in it.

I don't think she was in glow, was she? Oh, I don't know. I just, that's the only female wrestler I could think of. No, no, no, no. This is, I think, way before her time. Anyway, it's a good documentary. I strongly recommend it. I'll check it out.

If you want to recommend a documentary or talk about an arcane law to Chuck and I, we can be reached at SYSK Podcast on Twitter on Facebook at facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com and as always, check out our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. I'm Munga Shatigler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe.

You can find it in Major League Baseball, international banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey guys, it's Chikis from Chikis and Chill Podcast and I want to tell you about a really exciting episode. We're going to be talking to Nancy Rodriguez from Netflix's Love is Blind Season 3. Looking back at your experience, were there any red flags that you think you missed? What I saw as a weakness of his, I wanted to embrace. The way I thought of it was whatever love I have from you is extra for me. I really love myself enough. Do I need you to validate me as a partner?

Yes. Is it required for me to feel good about myself? No. Listen to Chikis and Chill on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.