Applied Methods by Adam Carter
Adam Carter, founder and senior instructor of Shuri Dojo, has over five decades of experience in karate training and teaching. Applied Methods explores practical karate, context, real-world application, and perspectives on practice, teaching, and experience.
Latest from Applied Methods
How Do We Use Kata Effectively?
If the original meaning is uncertain, what makes an application useful? When I talk about using kata effectively, I don’t […]
The Wrong Way Around
A thought that came out of revisiting an older article: Start with the problem, work the movement with a partner,…
Before It Becomes a Fight
Why self-protection begins long before physical contact. There was another shooting near me recently. One person was killed and another […]
Most self-defense classes begin when somebody grabs you, punches you, or attacks you.
Violence does not have to be directed at you before it becomes your problem. That is perhaps where many “self-defense”…
Sōke: Founder or Successor?
What happens when a position of succession becomes a title of status? Every so often I come across a martial […]
Sōke is often used in modern martial arts to mean “grandmaster”, “founder”, or simply the person at the top of an organization.
But historically, that is not quite what the word meant. Founder and successor are not the same thing. One begins…
According to Legend
How martial arts stories become martial arts history I remember this picture very clearly. Bodhidharma sitting in a cave, staring […]
For more than forty years I remembered Bodhidharma sitting in a cave, staring at the wall and “listening to the ants scream.”
When I went back to the book, I discovered I had remembered the story correctly. What I had forgotten were…
When Choreography Becomes Application
When unrealistic attacks, compliant partners, and inherited explanations are mistaken for practical bunkai. Every day on social media, you can […]
Every day, social media gives us another example of karate bunkai that only works because the attacker cooperates.
If your application requires the attacker to step in correctly, leave the arm out, remain balanced, and wait while you…
I Was Never Taught That
At some point, an instructor has to stop waiting to be shown every answer. One phrase I hear quite often […]
“I was never taught that” is perfectly reasonable for a beginner.
There is nothing wrong with saying, “I was never taught that.” But I think the meaning changes once you become…
Does Every Technique Have to Come From Somewhere Else?
Different cultures, familiar methods, and why the answers don’t always have to come from somewhere else. Whenever the practical application […]
Just because you haven’t trained it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
A throw doesn't become a Judo throw simply because someone recognizes it from Judo. Across different cultures, people have developed…
Three Years on a Kata?
What if learning another kata was meant to mean learning another way of dealing with the problem When we began […]
We spend years being told to “practice the basics”.
Perhaps one of the problems with kata is that we learn the movements after we have already decided what they…
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