Makiwara Training

[Timothy.G.B.]

I am interested in how people train makiwara in their dojo.

Where do you get the makiwara's? Do you build them? What is the purpose of training makiwara in your dojo? How do you move in front of the makiwara and anything else that might be interesting when it comes to hitting.

Grateful for any input on what you do, hopefully it will spark some interesting discussions !!

Tim Black

[Gene Williams]

We made our own makiwara. I hit it before and after most workouts, using gyakuzuki, seiken, riken, and shuto. We have a beginner makiwara made of burlap wrapped around a 2x4. My seniors call it the sissy board I can't do anything with them.

[Blackwood]

We got ours from the factory in Okinawa. My Sensei carried it on the plane back. It is the standard 4x4 cut down to a taper. We have a leather pad on ours. We do shuto and front punch. Front and Reverse. Usually 12 to 15 per hand. There is a site on the internet that provides info on making one. We can order them through the Hombu occassionally when they are available, but they don't have any now.

The Hombu has a number of variations of wooden devices with various levels of springiness for kicking and hitting.

[Shorinman]

When I train on the makiwara, I start with gyaku zuki, the first 25 punches done lightly on each side. Then gradually punching harder as the knuckles warm up (or go numb). After that I do oi zuki, about 10 on each side, doing 1 to 2 sets. Then it’s on to uraken uchi 10 on each side – 1 to 2 sets. Then I do a uraken / gyaku zuki combination couple of sets of 25 on each side. Of course this is all done when I have enough time (in a perfect world) or if I don’t have the time I just do about 50 – 100 gyaku zuki and call it quits. Lately it’s been more of the latter.

My makiwara was made by someone who trained in the dojo at the time, who was a welder, they built me a base similar to the one that Shureido sells. As for the wood, I had someone who was a carpenter cut the oak board (4x4 at the bottom and tapered to about 1/2 inch at the top). The punching surface that I use is rope made out of Japanese rice straw that someone bought when they lived in Japan.

At the dojo we have a leather pad that was made by a shoemaker, that looks exactly like the one Shureido sells. We also have a pad on the middle of the makiwara to practice sune geri and tsumasaki geri.

I would be interested in what other ways people train on the makiwara and how they were built.

Thanks in advance,

[Raff]

There is a video tape issued by the Uechi-Ryu Karate do Kenyukai Europe in which you see Senseï Takemi Takayasu working on the makiwara. Senseï Takayasu shows how to work effectively on two different kinds of makiwara. The first one looks like a soccer's post and is quite rigid while the second one is much more flexible.

The Kenyukai Europe does have a web site which is hosted in France but there is a link to a web page in the U.K. You can contact them and ask if the tape has been translated in english or if the tape is simply available.

Search for Uechi-Ryu Kenyukai on Yahoo and you will find the web site.

Good Keiko


Raphael Deutsch

[Geoff]

Although I hesitate to mention it on the Okinawan board, there is a good description of how to construct a makiwara on the www.24fightingchickens.com site. I've constructed two of these and used them (weather permitting) for a few years. Each one seemed to last about a year or two outside in Maine. I used hemlock for the posts and cut them myself. Indoors I have a wall-mounted "clapper" type makiwara that is commercially available, but the resistance doesn't seem very good, so I usually just hit the heavy bag.

The best video source I have found for the makiwara is Tsunami Productions' "Power Training" by Morio Higaonna. I'm not a Goju practitioner, but it is one of a handful of MA tapes that I haven't culled from my collection.

Good luck,

Geoff Wingard