Master Al Abidin, (above) trained by DOK Lee himself, demonstrates a possible scenario on an airplane. In the top photo, a terrorist threatens him. In the middle photo, he initiates the gun defense. In the bottom photo, he employs the Hikuta Relaxed Hand Strike.

All martial arts are bathed in myth. The story is generally the same. The location is different.

A leader is faced with the problem of fighting back the infidels; over time he develops an unbeatable martial art and defeats the invaders. The tale often takes place in India or China.

The story of Hikuta boxing, instead, begins in the Land of the Pharaohs as depicted below.

Though the tales of the history of many arts may have been embellished through the years and can be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, their effectiveness remains unchallenged.

Canadian Combato

In the past number of years, I got lucky and discovered Canadian Combato, an effective and easy-to-learn system of self-survival developed by Dave Walmsley and based on the military combatives taught during World War II at Lochailart in Scotland and Camp X, Canada. I practice Canadian Combato regularly, as I feel that it is worth my while to do so and is a good investment of two of my most precious assets, my time and energy. I have much more confidence in my ability to survive a violent street assault now than I ever did when I wasted all those years training in what you might describe in America as "strip mall dojos."

I can hit harder and faster now than I could when I was in my early twenties AND I know where to hit, which is just as important. I am more than satisfied with it and heartily recommend it to anyone interested in real-life survival-defence. Walmsley's clear style of teaching and his no-nonsense approach are hard to beat.

Musings About Hikuta

So why on earth am I writing an article about Hikuta? The answer is simple: Just because I talk with an accent doesn't mean I think with one, i.e. I am not stupid. I keep an open mind and am fully aware that I do not "know it all" and hopefully never will. If I see something else that will add to what I already have and augment my existing skill set, then I will pursue it. In American, "I ain't no dummy". So, do I find Hikuta a worthwhile art to practice? Most definitely. However, before explaining why, please let me deal with the single biggest problem Hikuta has had to date in gaining wider acceptance among the martial arts community and among the general public: its history. Because of the purported history of Hikuta, it has sometimes been the butt of cruel jokes and (regrettably) some fairly vicious invective. While I am all in favor of exposing charlatans and calling a spade a spade (and have done so frequently), I do feel that Hikuta's critics have done a less than rigorous job of separating the history from the actual techniques themselves and really trying them out. I personally couldn't care less where it came from or how it survived to the present day. What matters to me is "Does it work?" Why get hung up on history alone, while ignoring the rest of it? Why damn the whole thing simply because of one aspect of it?

Due to the nature of Hikuta, it is not widely taught. It has little publicity and the people who have websites where material is available do little to publicize their art. Clearly, everyone should not know this lethal art and few should become Masters. The Masters today will train a select few to carry on the tradition. Although available to anyone, the nature of the course itself tends to discourage those who want to learn Hikuta for the wrong reasons.

There are few available photos of Hikuta training. Training courses are available. Below are a few photos Dolfzine has been able to procure.

A Definitive History of Hikuta -- Sort of

This is a brief version of the history of Hikuta --as far as I know it. The last known 'old-time' teacher of Hikuta was an American known as DOK Lee ( DOK stands for "Defender of Kings."), who claimed to have learned it from a man known only as Pappy Joe.

Pappy Joe was one of the last surviving members of a group of mercenaries, who were based in England. These mercenaries had developed "Hikuta" (meaning "High Kuta") from an ancient system of self-defence called simply "Kuta", to which they added various elements from other arts, most notably improvised weapons and some throws and locks.

So, "High Kuta" basically means "Kuta" with some additions from other sources. The original "Kuta" had originated in ancient Egypt and was based on rigorous scientific research and methodologies. It was the method in which the bodyguards of the Pharaoh were trained to protect the Pharaoh and his family. This science of Kuta evolved from the ancient Egyptian preoccupation with how the human body moved naturally in normal, everyday life.

This in turn gave rise to an investigation of how the average person acted and reacted to various stimuli, specifically with regard to defending oneself and one's group from physical assault. Ancient Egyptian scientists then took the results of this investigation and, based on their findings, developed "Kuta" as the ultimate method to protect their Pharaoh.

With ancient Egypt's demise, Kuta survived by flight, as its teachers and some of its practitioners went into exile in other countries. In their new homes, their readily apparent expertise in protecting the "great and the good" brought them into the highest positions of authority as trainers of willing students. This took place predominantly in the Middle East and each successive generation of students continued to teach newcomers. Over time, however, knowledge of Kuta became restricted to small bands of professional mercenaries, who trained in the same way as they operated-in secret.

Thus, over time, knowledge of it became restricted to just a small handful of men. Kuta survived like this for the next two and a half thousand years, until the early part of the last century. One of these groups of modern-day practitioners of Kuta, based in the Middle East, taught the group of mercenaries to which Pappy Joe belonged as a young man. When he retired, Pappy Joe moved to America and taught the young DOK Lee, at that time a teenager who had already studied some boxing. DOK Lee held the title "Master of Hikuta" for over forty years.

My first reaction on reading and hearing about all of this for the first time was "Aye, and if my granny had wheels, she would be a wagon". (Note to the reader: This is a polite version of what I really thought and may be paraphrased for the benefit of any Americans reading this as "What a load of baloney!")

For all I know, it may well be a load of baloney, composed entirely of the pungent brown stuff that makes grass grow green. I am certainly no historian. I don't even own a tweed jacket nor do I smoke a pipe. However, what I noted early on in my reading of discussions of Hikuta and peoples' views on it was that many of the people who so vociferously attacked it, were themselves practitioners of some far Eastern art or other which itself had a highly dubious history. They were wholly ignorant of the many contradictions of the history of their own art.

Consider Shaolin Kung Fu. Its definitive history is equally dubious.

The story is that Bodhidharma (one of the Buddha's own disciples) traveled to China. He found the monks there in poor condition so he gave them eighteen exercises to do based on the movements of animals which he devised after meditating in front of a wall for nine years. They practiced these for some years. The physical condition of the monks improved dramatically.

Later, a band of these monks were attacked outside the monastery by bandits but, due to the physical condition of the monks and the application of their exercises to self-defence, the bandits were defeated.

Sounds good, doesn't it? All very succinct and historical (especially as there is still a Shaolin temple in existence to this day).

Not to be too difficult, five questions plague us:

1. Why did Bodhidharma go to China at all? Why didn't he stay in India, particularly as Buddhism was still such a small religion and in need of strengthening before it travelled to other lands? As one of Buddha's main disciples, why weaken the new religion by traveling away over the Himalayas, when it hadn't taken root yet in its homeland?

2. The Shaolin temple has only been in existence since six centuries AFTER the death of Buddha. If Bodhidharma was one of Buddha's own disciples, this means that he was over 600 years old when he went to China to begin with. Remarkable, to say the least.

3. Buddhism is a pacifist religion. It does not advocate the use of weapons and in the main (though there are a few exceptions in the newer schools) shuns violence, especially lethal force. Yet, Shaolin Kung Fu is replete with weapons training of all sorts and has many supposedly lethal techniques. Given this, how could a traditional Buddhist who was there when Buddhism began, have had any part in inventing or founding such a violent art as Shaolin Kung Fu?

4. How could anyone sit in front of a wall for nine years? The human body cannot last that long without the need to defecate, eat and drink. Even the yogis of today in modern India do not fast anywhere near this long.

5. How many monks were in this band that was attacked? How many bandits attacked them? Were any weapons involved? Were the monks armed? Were the bandits unarmed? How many monks died? How many bandits died? Did the ancient Chinese keep crime statistics of this nature? If so, where are they and how reliable are they? If they didn't, then of what use is this story to anyone? Without answers, this story of the attack is meaningless.

None of these questions are or ever have been really answered. Yet, the definitive answer to any one of them would change completely how Shaolin Kung Fu is viewed. Whole parts of the history of it are demonstrably ridiculous. Yet, millions of people believe it all without thinking twice about it. Why? How come they don't think twice about it? Equally, why are they not willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to anything which does not lay claim to having far Eastern origins? If millions of people believe the Shaolin history without question despite the huge holes in it, then why not the Hikuta history also? In fact, compared with the history of Shaolin Kung Fu (one of the most respected and revered schools of martial arts in existence), the history of Hikuta (ancient Egypt, pharaonic scientists, secret military groups, Pappy Joe...) doesn't seem so ridiculous or, perhaps, much of the traditional histories of all the martial art are more myth than truth.

I am not questioning the efficacy of some styles of Shaolin Kung Fu in any way. This stream of far Eastern martial arts has produced some excellent fighters and claims many sincere and devoted followers among its ranks. What I am getting at here is the validity of the history itself.

I have used the history of Shaolin Kung Fu (one of the most respected and revered schools of martial arts in existence), merely as one example of willful blindness and uncritical acceptance of a history with huge holes in it. I could just as easily have used the history of aikijutsu, Wing Chun, San Soo or a whole host of other martial arts to illustrate my point. They all suffer from similar amounts of logical fallacies -- in some instances, quite glaring.

Getting Down to Hikuta
Startle-Power and Speed

So what is similar and different about Hikuta, as compared with other arts?

Anyone who has the original book and video produced by DOK Lee entitled "Hikuta: The Art of Controlled Violence" will know that there are a few very strange looking drills and concepts contained therein. They don't even look esoteric or quasi-mystical, just plain peculiar and very different from other more familiar systems of survival-defence. Furthermore, they bear no resemblance to Yoga, Tai Chi or any of the more exotic forms of exercise which have made their way westwards.

The Hikuta drills are very short, easy to learn and the inherent simplicity of them was what drew me back to DOK Lee's package time and time again.

In its fullest expression, Hikuta has unique hand strikes, kicks, improvised weapons, escapes from wristlocks plus a number of throws and other elements (mostly incorporated from Middle Eastern and African systems of self-defence such as Juday and Juisu).

Then What makes Hikuta distinct? Why bother with it? For me, the beginning of the answer to this question is the concept of "startle." This is the core movement of Hikuta. It has two aspects: naturalness and spontaneity.

An Explanation of Naturalness

In order to explain naturalness, consider the act of raking leaves. It is far easier to pull the rake than to push the rake. By pulling the rake, there is more power in the movement; you collect more leaves with each sweep and you can keep going for much longer and despite the fact that you are using much more power you don't feel as tired as if you were pushing the rake in front of you.

This is because, for the task at hand, gathering fallen leaves with a wooden implement, it is more natural for the body to function in this manner, i.e, pulling rather than pushing. This is why you have so much more power, why you can keep going for much longer and why you have fewer resultant aches and pains.

In brief, you are moving naturally for the task at hand, that's all. No mystery, no mumbo-jumbo, no "lost secrets" -- just a simple, observable and readily apparent fact, based on human anatomy and human movement.

Spontaneity

In order to explain spontaneity, have you ever had the misfortune to touch a hot stove or other hot surface? If so, didn't your hand yank itself away immediately? You did not stop to think, "Oh no, this stove is hot. I must remove my hand from it at once, or else I will get burned." Of course not. The very suggestion is absurd. You reacted without thinking on a conscious level. It is the fastest way for your entire body to get your hand away from the damaging heat with which it is in contact.

If you had to think about it first and then remove your hand, you would have a badly burnt hand. To have gone through the steps of conscious thought , the entire movement is just too slow. Your body itself has this inbuilt spontaneous mode of action. It manifests itself in all manner of ways whenever the body is threatened by flinching, catching an object which has been unexpectedly thrown your way, retrieving an ornament which has unexpectedly fallen from a shelf and so on. This is natural to us all and we all have this quality.

What is critical about this (from our present viewpoint) is the fact that there is no conscious thought involved. Your body moves of its own accord to protect you. Again, no lost ancient secrets here, no mystical mumbo-jumbo. Just plain common sense.

Take the two concepts of naturalness and spontaneity and apply them to how you strike, kick, throw and so on. As we have already realized, if your body is moving naturally, you have much more power. Also, if you are acting in a spontaneous manner to external stimuli, you have much more speed.

The Hikuta drills, peculiar though they may look, seek to combine these two elements into one, which is labeled as the concept of "Startle".

Though this this concept may seem similar to concepts in a number of other martial arts, i.e,. the idea of body movement and turning (irimi and taisabaki) in aikibudo and jujitsu, there is a marked difference. In aikibudo, the power of the technique comes from the explosive movement of the body itself at the outset. However, it is not isolated or identified as such. In many martial arts, it isn't even "named" as a core element of generating power at all.

In Hikuta, it is given centre stage from the outset. DOK Lee has a few simple drills: placing one's hands on a table and then pulling away while making a grasping shape with the hands, for example-which claim to develop one's "Startle" or "Kuta Power." I was highly dubious about this the first time I heard of it. However, after a number of months of steady practice, I have found that my speed in all hand and leg motions has increased dramatically as has the power of all my strikes and movements.

The most fascinating manifestation of this "Startle" concept is (for me) the Hikuta Low Kick. Here, the kick is low (no Hollywood high jinks, thank you very much) and the torso leans backwards away from the direction of the kick while the hands are brought to the chest.

To many karateka, this will sound ludicrous at best. What about balance? What about leg retraction? What about driving with the knee? Why bring the hands to the chest?

With the Hikuta Low Kick, one brings his bodyweight in to apply it almost entirely into the target (the shin or instep). Also, one leans back because one does not make the knee of the kicking leg rise up when performing the kick. The lean backwards is quick and one returns to a neutral position just as quickly.

Regarding the bringing of the hands to the chest, think of an ice skater doing a spin. By bringing his hands to his chest, he generates much more momentum and force and the speed of his spin increases considerably. As for leaning backwards, this isn't unique to Hikuta. I spent some time training in Savate. In some of the Savate kicks, one is meant to lean backwards. This triangulates the body -- thus providing a stable platform for the execution of the kick as the axis of the movement is on three points. Also, one leans back because one does not make the knee of the kicking leg rise up when performing the kick.

The lean backwards is quick and one returns to a neutral position just as quickly and that is how you retract. This may sound strange but it does work.

Please consider any preconceptions you may have before you reject this. They are beliefs based on what you have been taught. Beliefs are not facts. Hikuta is after all, very different. Have an open mind. What convinced me of the need for openness in particular was seeing DOK Lee himself -- a large man who was obviously ill when the video was made -- moving with blinding speed and power. He is so fast that the first time I saw him I had to rewind the tape a number of times as I had assumed that the tape had missed a bit and was defective. However, the tape was fine.

There are many other elements to Hikuta. The emphasis on improvised weapons and the inventiveness and knowledge of how to make these more effective. As I am not a believer in knives and never carry one, improvised weapons are an area of special interest to me.

DOK Lee has obviously had vast experience in this arena. A tour of his house on his video gave me dozens of new ideas -- even though I had made the mistake of thinking that (with improvised weapons) I "knew it all". I couldn't have been more wrong.

There are also escapes from simple wrist locks and various other strikes which are unique to Hikuta. These can all be drilled in and trained very easily. There are no complex and technically difficult techniques, nor complicated breathing, mumbo-jumbo and hardly any terminology. There is only simplicity and directness. Hikuta delivers a minimalist system which gives speed and power and which is particularly thorough in the area of improvised weapons.

However, the most impressive weapon in the Hikuta arsenal and oftentimes the most reviled is the Hikuta Hand itself.

Two people attack Al Abidin in the parking lot. Using the speed of the Hikuta Hand, he strikes both of them, seemingly at the same time

The Hikuta Hand

If I had to categorize the Hikuta Hand, it would have to be as a "soft loose punch." Again, the idea of striking with a soft, loose fist is nothing new. There is a similar strike in Daito-ryu aikijutsu in particular which is meant to be used explicitly on hard areas of the opponent's body: the face, sternum, forearm etc.

However, what is different in Hikuta is the method of drilling the hand, plus the way the fingers fold or collapse to fit the shape of whatever is being struck.

I began by striking a phonebook flat on a table very softly and letting my hand fit the shape of the book's surface. After two or so months of this, I found that I was able to generate some force into the Hikuta Hand and the amount of force has increased more and more as time has gone by. I had to lay off it for a while due to an elbow injury sustained in my strength training but then returned to it again when my injury had subsided.

There is the potential for damage to the hand but only if one went too hard too fast with practicing any strike. It is not anything inherent in this strike.

Some Hikuta adherents claim that they could knock people down with one Hikuta Hand to the chest, and as the power and speed in my strike grew and grew, this claim grew more believable to me.

The deciding moment came when I went to a local aikibudo dojo where I go to "roll around the mat" with a few friends from time to time. I no longer practice aikibudo regularly having stopped doing so when I took up Canadian Combato. So, this was more in the nature of a social event for me as I still have quite a few aikibudo friends.

There was one new student there who was a legend in his own mind to put it mildly. This man went for the kill every time and seemed to take sadistic pleasure in injuring classmates. He appeared to live for the moments when he was standing over an opponent who was rolling around on the floor in agony. I freely admit that I was watching him warily trying to avoid his line of vision and hoping against hope that I wouldn't be paired up with him.

However, perhaps inevitably, I found myself staring straight at his chest in the lineup. Having seen what he had done to a few of my pals, I decided there and then that I was walking out of the dojo in one piece. I don't mind being called a coward as long as I survive. So, when the sensei called for us to begin, the "legend" swaggered over to me stared straight into my eyes and said, "You're going to regret coming here tonight."

He then leaned in to push me backwards and he startled me. I panicked. I freely admit it. My face flushed. My heart began hammering. My hands were clammy. I was not aware of any intent or conscious thought on my part. My hand which had somehow formed the Hikuta Hand was now where his chest used to be and the "legend" was on his back at my feet holding his torso and groaning loudly.

He turned out later to be OK, but has not come back to that dojo since. A number of my aikibudo friends have since asked for a loan of the DOK Lee book and video. These are seasoned martial artists, some of whom have black belts in two or more arts.

Normally, in a situation like that, I would be shaking like a leaf. But, the whole thing happened so fast that I didn't get a chance to be afraid at all. The threat was gone before I had time to even recognize it properly. It was this incident which prompted me to write this article. This was not a situation where I was in deadly peril, so eye gouges , throat strikes and other maiming-type strikes were out of the question both legally and morally (for me). The Hikuta Hand -- just one technique -- did the trick. Nothing fancy, nothing complex -- just one powerful strike. Because he was clearly being aggressive (and in front of witnesses), I was not culpable in any way.

What is different about the Hikuta Hand is that the angle is straight and the object being molded to -- whether the face, chest or whatever -- can be either hard or soft. It is not as if you have to use one strike for a soft area (such as the stomach) and a different one for a hard area (such as the chin). This opens it up much more and makes it far more usable.

It is simpler to learn and execute than an many other kinds of strikes as the placement of the hips and ankles are not essential as they are in many Eastern arts. There is much more freedom through all angles. There is a saying "Less is More" and this is particularly true in the case of the Hikuta Hand.

Please bear in mind that there are no magic answers nor is there one supreme solution. The Hikuta Hand is an extraordinary strike, but it is just one of a number.

Practice, Practice

Please understand that I am a student of both Hikuta and Canadian Combato. I am not a master of either nor an expert. I am not a world champion in anything nor was I ever in the Olympic Games (though I have watched them on TV a few times).

If I have misrepresented Hikuta in any way, then the fault is mine and no-one else's. I am just an ordinary family man who is looking for the best way FOR ME to be able to defend myself and my family should the need ever arise. I am not a military man, a "tough guy" of any sort and I dislike fighting intensely.

As I practice Canadian Combato already, I had to find a way of integrating both it and Hikuta into one workout AND for the whole thing to take no more than twenty minutes or so, three times a week. As a father of young children, I simply don't have any more time than that to devote to training in self-defence (and don't forget that I do strength-training also). So, I have had to construct my training sessions such that one element builds on from the other and I am not repeating anything needlessly. Time-efficiency and a frill-free structure were (and are) my guiding motifs in designing my workouts.

A Sample Lesson

Here is a sample session, which I hope will stimulate some thought. Please note that each movement is practiced ten times (with each hand, where applicable).

Startle or "Kuta Power" (Speed and Power Drills): Done slowly and lightly using a tabletop with a phone book on it for drills.

Horizontal Plane of Motion: This is where I practice each drill slowly, smoothly and deliberately with controlled movements from a standing position. There are no jerky or awkward motions. Everything is kept smooth and done with concentration. The movement ends with a light flick.

Heavy Bag: (Speed and Power Against a Solid Object) This is where I build more power into the strikes by using them on a heavy bag. My first blow on the bag (whatever the strike in question may be) is the lightest. The tenth is the heaviest. I have also recently started taking the heavy bag off its hooks and tripping and throwing it. "Shadow wrestling" if you like. There is a considerable increase in both speed and power also. This is just for variety. The strikes I land on the heavy bag are the Hikuta strikes followed by the Canadian Combato ones. I don't do any combinations.

Every strike is a "Heavy Single". I have broken the Canadian Combato strikes I like into three groups and I cycle between these groups each weekday. This keeps the time down. I am not a professional boxer. I am not training for endurance. Most street fights last three to five seconds at most. There are no rounds, no rules and no referee. Endurance doesn't enter into the equation but speed and power definitely do.

This has had an enormous beneficial effect on my Canadian Combato. My speed and power have increased across the board for ALL of my strikes and moves regardless of their source. I know of people who claim to have seen benefits from Hikuta in activities as diverse as drawing a pistol and playing tennis. All I can say is, "I don't doubt it".

_________

Ray Brennan was born in Northern Ireland and has been involved in martial arts, mostly aikido and aiki-jutsu for a number of years. He is currently studying Canadian Combato and Hikuta. Ray has been doing strength training for almost a decade. He may be contacted by e-mail.

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