Keep You Chin Up:
Published 4-29-2011
Sensei Spencer
Many students wonder why they’re told to keep chip up while performing kata, yet when the student begins serious sparring, they’re instructed to tuck their chin to protect the throat and remove, as every full-contact fighter knows, the knock-out points under the chin. Tucking the chin is a fundamental necessity in fighting. A blow to the throat intentional or accidental can end a fight or possibly a life. I teach my students to tuck their chin even when doing light point fighting, so if they ever get into a real fight, they will naturally tuck their chin. The question is why the past masters placed so much emphasis on keeping the chin upright in traditional kata training. Surely after centuries of training the past masters knew that the throat needed to be protected since many kata contain strikes to this soft tissue area. It was not until I studied non-verbal communication and watched children performing kata in tournament that I developed my theory as to why kata teaches to keep the chin up. Remember kata mainly teaches how to respond to situational attacks, but sometimes it can teach us technique to preempt an attack.
The chin can tell you a great deal about a person’s emotional status at any point in time. Our lizard brain causes us to automatically drop the chin to protect the throat when we feel threatened. We do this without thinking. When a child approaches the kata judges in a tournament, especially if it is their first tournament, they will timidly approach the panel while looking down at their feet and their chin will be tucked. The judges’ first subconscious response is this kata is going to be weak because the child is not confident, or they do not posses the warrior’s spirit to live their kata. The old tournament professional walks confidently into the ring and snaps to attention. As they introduce themselves, they purposefully engage the eyes of each judge never leaving their gaze on one single official too long, and yes, their chin is held high. Obviously, these students tend to score higher. The position of the chin is your first communication with tournament judges during competition.
A martial artist must become a student of non-verbal communication. This non-verbal information can tell you if a person is afraid or ready to attack. As martial artist we must be able to read a person’s body language to know if we may need to use our life protection skills. Accidents carry no warning, but people’s lizard brain cannot be shut-off. An assailant tells you when they’re gong to attack you simply need to read the signs.
Someone ready to grab a women’s purse may be looking at his victim, but his feet will be pointing in the direction he is about run, and his nostrils will flair in preparation to pull in large quantities of air to fuel his escape. The attacker’s eyes will be larger than normal. These are all tale-tale indications of what’s coming. When one of these victims is interviewed afterwards by the police, they’re in shock claiming they never saw it coming. An attacker not realizing it communicates his intentions. If he is successful, it is because the victim could not read the warning signs.
Non-verbal communication is a two-way street. Victims also communicate with their attacker. Would-be victims will drop their chin and avert their gaze. In America it is acceptable to look at someone for about one second. In other cultures, the length of an acceptable stare is different, so in your efforts to be assertive do not become intrusive. Another thing you want to be aware of is what you’re doing with your hands. A woman may unconsciously begin to twist her purse straps after seeing someone that could pose a threat. Male victims might wring their hands telling the would-be-attacker they’re worried and in distress. Fear emboldens an attacker. This is an invitation to be robbed or worse. Kata teaches us to keep our chin high and project our readiness to defend ourselves. This is the first self-defense move in every kata. When the attacker sees someone with his/her chin held high and they’re looking at everything around them with focused intent, this behavior tells the assailant that this potential victim will create problems. In most cases the bad-guy will pick another victim. Control your non-verbal communication in stressful situations.
Non-verbal communication training, in a karateka’s life, is essential to good self-defense development. Seeing it coming gives you the advantage and allows you to move faster because you’ve already planned your response. Seeing an attacker’s nostrils flair and their eyes widen gives you advanced warning the attack is coming. A fighter can fake with a shoulder or shuffle forward to gage your reaction, but unless the fighter is a student of non-verbal communication, they cannot fake the lizard brain response. Reading an opponent is essential to good self-defense.
The samurai would ride up and down the enemies’ lines shouting their linage and challenging those on the other side to single combat. This posturing was to show their fearlessness and to create doubt within the enemy’s ranks. Their heads were held high as though they were convinced of their own invincibility. Peasants on the other hand kept their eyes cast towards the ground when in the presence of these warriors. In a show of respect, the samurai would lower his head to his daimyo. Karateka bow to show this same respect and humility towards fellow students and instructors. Tradition shows us that the ancient warriors understood the meaning of chin placement better that we do today.
The non-verbal communication developed through kata helps us in our everyday activities. When presenting information in a meeting or even while public speaking, by keeping your chin held high, the karate student projects confidence even when their knees are knocking. Karate training does not end when you bow off the dojo floor. Our karate training touches all aspects of our lives. Little imperceptible things like keeping our chin up are part of karate training. Tucking your chin while fighting is something our lizard brain causes us to do automatically, but we must train ourselves to keep our chin high to show confidence. Even in the smallest of things in our kata, we can see the past master’s wealth of information still to be learned.