A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Karate and the triune brain

(according to the theories of the neurobiologist Paul D. Maclean and Olivier R. Grim’s research on psychometrics)

Maclean states that evolution has given humans three brains that must work together and communicate despite the major structural differences between them.

The oldest and most advanced part of the brain is reptilian. It is called the 'R-complex'. As the primitive cortex, this brain represents evolution’s gift to humanity: the best tools for environmental awareness and survival, such as establishing and claiming territory, domesticating, hunting, eating, and creating a social hierarchy. Maclean writes that left to its own devices, the reptile in man does whatever he must do. For the purposes of KI-Coaching, martial arts, long considered a savoir-faire for survival, addresses this part of the brain.


Example:
If a person becomes red with rage during a conflictual situation, if he grimaces with bulging eyes, hurls insults and gesticulates wildly with raised fists, he is using his entire ritual panoply to be as imposing as possible on the surface. This person is rarely dangerous, even if he attacks. On the other hand, if this same person turns pale, his blood retreating into his body to avoid hemorrhagic damage from eventual injury; if his pupils shrink, if he does not scream or speak, if he lowers his center of gravity as if to leap and keeps his palms open, then this person has become a 'reptilian' predator who is ready to sacrifice his life. Since it will be virtually impossible to calm him down by, for example, making him talk, it would be wise to move away from this person as quickly as possible. The familiar expression, 'in cold blood', alludes to a reptile and is relevant in this case.

The second brain, the 'limbic system', was inherited from primitive mammals. This brain is nature’s attempt to endow the reptilian brain with a kind of 'thinking helmet' that frees it of stereotypical and genetically programmed behavior. The limbic system plays a key role in the integration, experience and expression of emotions. It does not enable speaking, reading, and writing, but it gives the feeling of self-consciousness, solidifies beliefs and convictions in regards to reality and to what we believe to be important in the outside world, to our ideas and theories, whether true or false.

Maclean describes the limbic system’s emotional dimension at the heart of the brain: It seems that feelings are first composed within the circuits of the limbic brain. Instead of transforming experience into compulsive behavior, as the reptilian brain does, the mental process of the limbic system seems to possess a mechanism through which information is codified in terms of emotional sentiments that influence decisions and their method of action.


Example:
Overwhelming fear, worry or terror can make us lose all or some of our coping mechanisms in a moment of truth and can prove fatal. In this sense, proper martial arts training is an extraordinary psychomotricity, a therapy, even a rehabilitation. It rejuvenates the strong emotions created in the limbic system. It helps identify, resolve, master, control, and recycle emotions subjectively: feelings become a liberation, not a barrier.

The third brain, the 'neo-cortex', is a recent development whose culminating point was the creation of man. Maclean defines it in this way: ´The neo-cortex culminates in the human brain where a multitude of nerve cells is developed, is responsible for the production of symbolic language and for the functions associated with reading, writing and calculation. The mother of invention and the father of abstract thought, the neo-cortex promotes the preservation and procreation of ideas.


Example:
The neo-cortex is often called upon when learning a martial art. The left hemisphere, the one that reasons, speaks, writes and calculates, intellectualizes the activity. The right hemisphere, the spatial one, brings an artistic element to the practice of martial arts. Flexibility, swiftness, precision, fluidity, and power are all at the service of the beauty of movement and can make up an authentic martial dramaturgy. However, in our modern era, the more we are in the art, the less we are dealing with survival. In katas (complex, pre-defined sequences with a partner), we develop a pure neo-cortical creation that will most likely not be implemented in a real, dangerous situation. These sophisticated sequences would be too complicated and haphazard for the reptilian brain, which would take the reins at that moment.

Violence and aggressiveness are at the heart of human nature

The French doctor and psychoanalyst, Jean Bergeret, claims that traditional martial arts are a pure expression of basic violence, which he clearly differentiates from the aggressiveness found in modern “combat sports”.

Humans possess a natural, innate violence that preserves life. This basic instinct resolves the radical equation: 'It is either him or me'. Only one person can survive. This perspective leads J. Bergeret to draw our attention to the fact that we must not confuse violence and aggressiveness. The former is on the side of life preservation, while the latter is on the side of love and emotions.

KI-Coaching deciphers and recycles these two energies by instructing karate combat techniques that lead to greater self-control and an awareness of the true effectiveness of these techniques in an actual dangerous situation.

Karate and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP)

Programming : Our unconscious creates and develops behavioral programs at birth, even at the fetal stage.

Neuro : Every behavioral program rests upon a neuronal base, which is the fruit of an engram (a memory trace) from our sensory perceptions.

Linguistic : Language can be considered a manifestation of internal states experienced by a person. These internal states come from neuronal programs.


With numerous exercises taken from traditional karate and approached psychotherapeutically, KI-Coaching can help stabilize and recycle certain behavioral programs and create new regulatory ones. For example, KI-Coaching can improve psycomotricity to help reduce an acute stutter or a systematic and embarrassing reaction to a fearful situation, such as finding yourself in complete darkness or faced with a potential aggressor.

CONCLUSION

Martial arts and karate, in particular, are a prescription in the medical sense of the word. Like any pharmacological active principal, it can heal but also poison. It must be correctly prescribed to the practitioner, and its dosage must be strictly respected. The goal of the cure is to harmonize and balance brain function in order to make this often dissonant triple brain a complete and coordinated entity.

KI-Coaching offers a study of karate centered on the improvement of functions linked to the three conductors of the human brain: intellectual (neo-cortex), emotional (limbic system) and motor (the reptilian brain).

Its vision parallels that of modern karate’s founding father, Gichin Funakoshi, who conceived karate according to three main points. First, it is a practice that anyone can do. It is suitable for men, women and children of all ages and each one can adapt it to their capacities. Its simple application does not necessarily require equipment or a specific venue. It can be performed alone or in a group. It offers complete, balanced and harmonious body development and improves physical condition. Second, as a self-defense tool, karate is essentially based on simultaneous, rapid defense and attack combinations that transform the entire body into a sharp, penetrating weapon. Whatever your age or gender, it will help you effectively protect yourself, even if you possess modest natural strength. Third, it is a spiritual approach whose guiding force is Gichin Funakoshi’s postulate, “karate is in essence non-violent”. This statement may appear paradoxical, but it is a testament to the work you should undertake for yourself.