“In Karate, Seika Tanden or using Hara is literally bracing your core or creating IAP (Interabdominal Pressure).”
Sanchin Kata is an isometric workout that has been passed down via the Nahate system over the ages. In Sanchin, Fukushiki Kokyu, or abdominal breathing, is utilized to maintain a healthy physical and mental state, with the most essential benefit being that breathing provides the strength to perform technique.
Our spine is not held up just by muscles working individually to contract and hold the spine rather those muscles working together in concrete to create pressure inside the abdomen.
What happens is the inside pressure pushes against the spine and then your musculature on the outside pushes against in the opposite direction, creating stability.
When we learn how to use this properly, it’s our natural weightlifting belt which is actually using Hara or engaging Seika Tanden which we should have it in Karate and Sanchin training.
Training this allows us to create a stable anchor, or fixed point or connection, for our shoulders and our hips to pull from, to create efficient movement.
The core is not meant to be an engine, rather a transmission of forces.
