HOME OF TEAM USKA
& MIXED MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING

UNITED SCORPION KARATE
A COMPLETE MARTIAL ART
By Issachar Manasseh James / Master and Founder of United Scorpion Karate

            Scorpion Karate that of ( sound, body and mind) has evolved into not only the most effective method of unarmed self-defense, but also an intricate art, an exciting life sport, and a holistic method of reaching and maintaining physical and mental fitness .The techniques as taught and practiced in the USKA represent the state of the art in modern unarmed martial arts. Scorpion Karate is a holistic discipline. Who you are is just as important as what you can do. Your spiritual and moral development are equally important. The qualities spelled out in our Tenets are vital in their significance: Self-control, Courage, Opportunity, Respect, Perseverance, Integrity, Obviate. Scorpion Karate strive to express rhythm, balance, coordination, power, grace, speed, freedom, accuracy, perfection, and beauty, either individually, as in formal exercise, or with a partner, as in free sparring. You may wonder why three of the things we strive for is darken and underlined. That is because those are some of the most important and vital  things in this style of Martial Arts, that you will learn and  need to learn although all is important. Scorpion Karate is a method of developing and maintaining physical fitness. Through flexibility, coordination, and agility. Scorpion Karate is a complete body exercise program, and will tone and strengthen every muscle group and increase cardiovascular efficiency. I once heard a Master  and a inventor of another style state that martial arts appears to be the perfect exercise not just for the body, but also to impart the qualities of inner strength, patriotism, sense of justice and leadership that are needed to be a leader of men. As United Scorpion Karate Academy students, we take great pride in conforming to school etiquette ( practical application of the tenets ) and in developing proficiency in physical skills. We begin to help new students coming into the school understand and practice the appropriate behavior, and eventually many of us become USKA Instructors, and one day a  school owner of  United Scorpion Karate Academy, so that this style of martial arts can  spread through out the world and become the most effective unarmed martial arts around. Thus, the classroom atmosphere in the USKA member school is a microcosm of an ideal society, with the higher-ranking members assisting lower-ranking members with the physical and mental skills, self-discipline, self concept, and spirit appropriate for achieving higher proficiency and rank within the United Scorpion Karate Academy. USKA does not include any formal philosophy or religion. The founder (my-self ) believe in universal values of courtesy, integrity, respect, and the moral courage to stand up for the upmost highest sense of right. The United Scorpion Karate Academy believe in the potential greatness that one can achieve by joining the USKA in paving an individual road in his/her lifetime. This, is an Complete Martial Art.   

INTRODUCTION

            KARATE (Japanese, “empty hand”) , martial art of unarmed self-defense in which directed or focused blows of the hands and feet, accompanied by special breathing and shouts, are dealt from poised positions. More than a method of combat, karate emphasizes self-discipline, positive attitude, and high moral purpose as said on another page in the manual. It is taught professionally at different levels, and under different Asian names, as a self-defense skill, a competitive sport, and a free-style exercise.

            We in the United Scorpion Karate Academy recognize Karate, Japanese in origin, and Taekwondo, Korean in origin as the preeminent martial arts, an unequaled method of empty hand self-defense that is also highly artistic in their execution. Karate techniques have evolved more than 1000 years to achieve the greatest speed, power, and artistic beauty. 

HISTORY

            The art of karate is more than 1000 years old and originated in eastern Asia, first as monastic training and later as a defense method used by Chinese peasants against armed bandits. During the 17th century it became highly developed as an art on the island of Okinawa, Japan. In 1922 karate was introduced to the Japanese public by Okinawan, Funakoshi Gichin, and the art is today chiefly associated with Japan. It was introduced into the U. S. after World war 11. Many types, including Korean (tae kwon do) and Chinese styles, are taught in the U. S.

TECHNIQUE AND TRAINING

            Karate is related to judo and jujutsu, but stresses techniques for striking, with lethal kicks and punches, rather than wrestling or throwing an opponent. as explained on another page in the manual in different words. The three elements of speed, strength, and technique are vital to karate expertise. Constant alertness and a keen sense of timing and surprise are also requisites.

            Great attention is given to knowing the most vulnerable points of the human body, which may be attacked by the hands, elbows, knees, or feet. These areas include the face, neck, solar plexus, spinal column, groin, and kidneys. In ordinary karate competitions or exhibitions, only the area of the body above the waist is allowed as a target, and all blows are to be pulled. The most common blows used are chops or knife hands, knuckle punches, hammer blows, finger jabs, and front, side, back, round, jump, and stamping kicks. In actual fighting, any of these blows can be fatal. The ability of a karate master to break boards or bricks with a chop of the bare hand is proverbial.

            The karate trainee toughens hands and feet by driving them into containers of sand, rice, or gravel and by striking sandbags and special punching boards. Constant exercises are important for limbering up and for strengthening the muscles of the body. Deep breathing exercises are also useful because exhalation and sudden shouts accompany the directed blows, particularly the final or so called blows. Such breathing and cries help the rhythm of the karate attack, focus more force in each blow or block, and psychologically invigorate a person while disconcerting the opponent.

INSTRUCTION AND ACHIEVEMENT

            The language of karate is chiefly Japanese. A karate training hall or gym is called a dojo, and the white, pajama like garment worn in all training is called the gi. More than 200 specific Japanese terms are used for the various blows and moves that are employed in formal exercises called kata. A top karate instructor is known as a sensei. Most sensei must train for years to reach this level.

            Degrees of achievement are formally recognized in karate training, each represented by a cloth belt of a particular color worn around the gi, the usual colors being, in ascending order, white, green, purple, brown, and black. Qualifications and colors for belts differ from school to school, depending upon the style and standard of karate taught.

            The black belt, or dan, signifies the highest proficiency in karate. Like the other belts the black belt is qualified by degrees of honor or skill, with the tenth being the highest dan.

COMPETITION

            The Japan Karate Association, established by Funakoshi in 1949, held the first all-Japan karate championships in 1957. Since then the association has become an international organization, with affiliated karate clubs around the world. Karate schools have also come into being, particularly in the U. S., where it has become highly popular as a sport and a method for self-protection. Karate has also been incorporated in training programs for police, soldiers, and college athletes.

            No international karate organization exists, largely because of the difficulties in standardizing the many different schools and styles of karate. In the U. S., although no single organization conducts official national competitions, hundreds of tournaments are held each year throughout the country. Among the best known are the annual American championships of the Japan Karate Association, held usually on the West Coast or in Hawaii, and the All-American Open Karate Championships, held annually at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The United Scorpio Karate Academy (USKA) pledges itself to contributing to the art of Karate providing leadership and instruction in an ancient  discipline that represents an alternative allowing practitioners to avoid the stresses and pitfalls of life in this modern age and by strengthening their minds and bodies. This mission will be undertaken within the guidelines of our tenets: Self-Control, Courage, Opportunity, Respect, Perseverance, Integrity, and Obviate. Note: The USKA will like to thank Master Funakoshi -Gichin martial arts historian.  

The Roots Of Martial Arts

The histories of the various martial arts are inextricably entiwined with the histories of the countries in which they originated and practiced today. For example, the Shao-lin temple, built by emperor Haiao-when, was a focal point in the evolution of martial arts in China.
Sho-Lin Temple

          Chinese Buddhist monastery of the “Chan” school located in the Sung-Shan mountains of Tung-Feng county Honan  province. The temple is named after it’s surrounding “small forest”of trees. Build by Emperor Hsiao Owen in the late 5th century A.D. its construction honored the Indian monk Bodhiruchi. Robert W. Smith, in his book Asian Fighting arts, quotes a source describing the temple: “It) had twelve upper and lower courts and was ringed almost completely by the mountains, festooned with bamboo, casia, and cedar trees, and laced with waterfalls.”
          In the Sui dynasty, early Ch’ ing, and once again in the early 20th century, the temple was seriously damaged. Surviving structures renovated by the People’s Republic of China include the front gate, guest hall, Bodhidharma pavilion, and the white rob hall, with two frescoes depicting monks exercising and sparring-the northern wall depicts sparring exercises of the liu-hech’uan (six-methods boxing) and on the southern wall are a number of monks engaged in weapons training. Also surviving are the thousands-Biddha hall and the forest of stone tablets.
          This temple became a focal point for martial arts training at one period of china, but not on the grand scale Western journalist and film makers depicted. More often than not, kung-fu  styles have little if any religious background. Religion’s role in the martial arts was very small in the overall scheme of things. The  Shao-lin order was the exception, not the rule. Evidence identifying the creators of the Shao-lin style itself is inconclusive. Three theories have emerged. The first attributes the creation to the Indian priest Ta-mo (Bodhidharma), who followed his predecessor, Bod hiruchi, to the middle kingdom several decades after the construction of the temple. This story, though unsubstantiated , is the most popular. It paints a colorful picture of Ta-mo as a staunch ascetic, confining himself to a cave for nine years, where he sat facing a wall in meditation (the cave can still be viewed). The second theory attributes its creation to Hwei-Kuang and Sung-Chou, monks preceding the most probable, attributes the style’s origin not to any single individual, but to the collective efforts
 of the priests over the years. The People’s Republic of China had been investigating the temple’s origins and development. One source, the History of the Shao-lin Monastery, appeared as a four-volume work. Yang- Ya-Shan referred to this work in a translated article, stating that the Shao-lin school of ch’ uan-shu (kung-fu), and that is originated in the Sui (581-618) and T’ Ang (618-907) dynasties, after which it branched into a number of subsystems.
          Shao-lin,” he explains, “first served military purposes in the early T’’Ang dynasty when the first emperor, T’ ai-Chung, appealed to the Shao-lin monastery for reinforcements against Wang “She-Ch’’ung,who sought to establish a separate regime in Lo-Yang. Joining the punitive expedition, the Shao-lin monk- soldiers captured Wang alive. Thirteen of them were sited for meritorious service, including monk T’ an-chung, on whom was conferred the title of Major General. In addition, the monastery was granted 400 mu of land and allowed to set up barracks to give the monks military training. At its peak, Shao-lin boasted a force of 5,000 monk-soldiers. It was known far and wide as the ‘number-one monastery under heaven.  “Apart from the bare hand Shao-lin ch’ uan exercises, monks also learned chi-kung(breathing excercises), horsemanship, and combat with weapons. They became, in effect, a special detachment of the Imperial army.
          While the upper ranks of the military class were exposed to education, their retainers seem to have concentrated almost exclusively upon perfecting military skills. The lower samurai was trained at home or in clan centers for military instruction. His education in the literary sense was neglected; there was a continuing condition of the establishment of schools of lower samurai. The tokugawa encouraged the establishment os schools of lower samurai, but with a limited curriculum. During this period, the noticeably inferior quality of the education of low ranking retainers only widened with respect to the attainments of ranking leaders
          As you know, the history and understanding of martial arts can’t possibly be told in only a few sheets of paper, nor, without any martial arts training as a practitioner.  Because  of  that, we the United Scorpion Karate Academy have given you some basic history of what martial arts is and how it begun, and hope that your training experience in U.S.K.A. is a learning one and that it will pave roads to success in your future. Welcome to the United Scorpion Karate Academy.