Gedan Barai (Japanese style low level block or parry)

Imagine Gedan Barai? all the principles involved within sweeps and parries! And the circumstances for which they can apply, the whole picture if you will.

Gedan Barai is just one of those isolated “standard way” type blocks in most Japanese styles. Skeletal & muscular alignments, trajectories and other considerations of a needed response are more important to any basic or advanced technique or student.

Swinging the arm down in a pendulum like action is about all you really need to know of the action called gedan barai. The effective factors that need to be involved in the action out way the action itself, and are more important to grasp conceptually. Thus providing the necessary skills to produce an effective sweep or parry, IMHO!

I have a theory that karate-ka ultimately reverse engineer most of the actions that they have spent years learning. Because I think that “karate” encapsulates the essence and not the reality of movements.