Hiki-te: ‘two hands are better than one’

The hiki-te (pull hand) of karate has two main points. Today, I will briefly outline both of these; furthermore, which of these two "...must be prioritized, in training, to maximize effectiveness".

The first main point of hiki-te, as the title of this brief article states, is that ‘two hands are better than one’; that is, using the hikite purely to increase the ‘ballistic effectiveness’ of the opposite wrist/hand/arm. This aspect of hikite is firstly ruled by form (initiation, trajectory, completion and correct use of the body) and secondly ruled by physical prowess (speed, power and subconscious re-activity).

The second main point of hiki-te is the destabilizing an opponents balance—and positioning them ideally—for your technique (and/or placing them “…where their ability to attack you is neutralized or mitigated”). This aspect of hikite is ruled by application.

So what is the most important of the two? Probably surprising for some who read this, whilst application is ‘the objective’, it is even more important to be able to execute ones hiki-te both correctly and sharply. This is because application knowledge/understanding—more often than not—will be useless without sufficient technical skill and physical prowess. It is like ‘knowing how to win a Formula One race and knowing the moves to get around the track'; nevertheless, not having a car with 'an engine reliable enough' to do so. This illustrates a very-very important point, which goes far beyond the topic of hiki-te’: “...Effective application, first and fore-mostly, requires  form and physical prowess”. 

© André Bertel. Oita, Japan (2016).