THREE-STEP FIGHT IS WHAT???

 by Phillip Starr

Three-step fight. I remember it all too well. When I was a fledgling karateka more than 60 years ago, my classmates and I engaged in this training routine very frequently. The Attacker steps forward and executes a pre-determined attack...he does this 3 times, in a nice, even rhythmical beat. The Receiver retreats a step and blocks the attack three times...and then he immediately fires out a pre-determined counter-attack. Very simple.

We were told that this routine would teach us how to apply the various blocking and striking techniques. And our instructor was determined to have us master this exercise, even though it was terribly, horribly boring. And we hated it. As the years passed, many new instructors tossed this seemingly pointless routine right out the window, fearing that their students would become so bored that they'd quit.

Many years later, I discovered that three-step fight actually develops a sense of correct DISTANCE! To those who thought it was pointless, it was actually quite difficult to do...by the third step, the Attacker would inevitably be stepping on the Receiver's toes! They hadn't practiced it enough to learn how to adjust their distance when receiving the attack – something that the older veterans had UNCONSCIOUSLY developed through hours and hours of repetition.

CORRECT distance isn't something you measure in feet and inches – it has to be FELT. And although this was never explained to us, we'd learned it by repeating this routine over and over. Visiting black belt instructors of various styles had great difficulty with this because they'd never practiced much (or at all). But there was more to it...

The years marched on and I was blessed with being able to train with Hidetaka Nishiyama sensei, who was truly one of the greatest karateka of all time. Even though I was practicing gong-fu by that time, I learned much from him.

Now, there are three basic “rhythms”:

*Broken Rhythm (in Japanese, go no sen): Striking the opponent after his attck. But it's not as simple as it sounds...you must execute your counter-attack BEFORE he can generate a second attack! You must learn to hit in a half or even a quarter, beat. I sometime make use of a metronome to teach students how to do this...strike between beats.

*Mutual Rhythm: Striking the opponent at the same instant that his attack (which you had evaded or parried) would have hit you.

*Preceding Rhythm: Learning to feel the opponent's yi (intention) and baet him to the draw; ashe just initiates his attack, you drtive forward and strike him first. This is, even today, regarded as a mystical skill that only a few masters possess, and it requires decades to develop it. Poppycock...

Nishiyama sensei showed me how Three-step is used as an exercise to teach students how to develop skill in all three types of rhythm! I discuss this in my book, MARTIAL MANEUVERS.

Soo this most-hated training routine is intended to teach distance, timing, and rhythm!!! One of the most critical (if not THE most critical element) in the routine is the proper use of YI (intention). The Attacker MUST actually have the intention of striking the Receiver and knocking him down! He needn't actually do so (he can control his attack), but he absolutely must have the intention of doing so.

The Receiver can, and will, learn to “pick up” the Attacker's intention. Thus, the attacks to which he responds are real, not lobbed in, sloppy techniques. More on this in the next article on the subject...