HOW CAN THE RATIONAL
THE MASTER IN KARATE-DO
BRAIN BE BYPASSED?
Shihan Avi Rokah and the
contemporary neuroscience
* Sensei Avi Rokah, 7 DAN, was a direct student of Sen-
sei Hidetaka Nishiyama for 27 years. World champion
(2004), quintuple champion of the United States (1990,
1991, 1992, 1994, 2000), Avi Rokah teaches traditional
karate in the United States and delivers traditional ka-
rate lectures and training seminars worldwide.
What is the mystery behind the skills of an experienced
practitioner of martial arts who manages to make an en-
tire audience stand up in applause, be it on the occasion
of an amical practice or of an actual or competitive com-
bat in which high-calibre opponents abruptly fall down
on the tatami within fractions of a second, without even
Pag.12
managing to realised what it was that hit them? What
fundaments, in terms of neuroscience and bio-mechan-
ics, these magician-like performances that seem to defy
the laws of movement? The tradition of budo had its own
explanations from the very beginning, satisfying the
need for an explanation of the persons who embraced
the challenge of knowing and practicing martial arts.
Bodidharma, who is regarded as the founder of martial
arts, appealed to metaphysical-theological explanations,
which are extremely hard to draw upon in the paradigm
of our times. To be honest, each school of martial arts
sought the optimum-explanatory paradigm of its prac-
tices within the intellectual resources of those times.
This rule also applies to our present times. This is why
one can only rejoice on seeing that there are authorized
voices amidst some of the most distinguished contempo-
rary masters of traditional karate that regard martial arts
from a perspective that is both scientifically comprehen-
sive and able to inspire experimental research. Wouldn’t
it be wonderful to find that the discipline of traditional
karate, beyond being a form of sports exercise, is more
than an admirable means of improving human charac-
ter, being also an extraordinary tool in terms of learning
essential facts about our potential as humans? What if
these are facts that can be exported way beyond the as-
pect of the dojo, to the sphere of social interaction, so as
to improve it by conveying the added value of the martial
arts discipline?
In this current issue of our journal we thereby regard the
statement made by Avi Rokah* as an argument. His close
friends talk about him in a manner in which tradition
and modernity are harmoniously depicted:
‘Sensei Rokah continues the legacy of Grand Master Nishi-
yama, combining the traditions of Japanese Karate and
Budo (Japanese martial arts tradition), with the mod-
ern sciences of psychology and kinesiology. This fusion of
modern and traditional techniques creates a one of a kind
experience that is studied by kids, adults, and top Karate
practitioners worldwide’.
The perspective expressed herein furthers the statements
in an article written by Avi Rokah, article that was pub-
lished on his personal blog (http://avirokahkarate.blog-
spot.ro/) on August 6th 2014. The title of the article is
‘Bypass the brain in karate and in soccer. Study shows
Neymar is ‘bypassing the brain’ as we teach in karate’ and
it was posted as a reaction to a study published the same
year by two Japanese researchers, Eiichi Naito and Sa-
toshi Hirose (Efficient foot motor control by Neymar’s
 THE MASTER IN KARATE-DO
brain, 2014). It seems that the renowned teacher of tra- Performance can also be reached in sports activities if
ditional karate is not only familiar with the discoveries this rule is followed: good quality practice – trainers of
in science, but he also makes an attempt – a successful good quality. The mere viewing of the dribbling actions
one, we might add, of placing the karate-do ideology in performed by a professional football player of the calibre
the middle of the research in science. The attempts of of the Brazilian player Neymar indicates to the presence
following the sources indicated by Avi Rokah and the of such brain circuits which result in spectacular mo-
correlations we made to the scientific discoveries of re- ments that make entire stadiums stand up in applause.
cent years resulted in the text herein. While such performances can be seen only as exceptions
That which seems surrealist to a novice, carries a con- in sports, in karate, as stated by Avi Rokah, ‘the method
vincing explanation on behalf of a martial arts maestro is passed from on generation to another, benefiting from
(sensei). In essence, the performance in martial arts, a system through which every person can manage to at-
sometimes viewed as more related to magic than to tain this state of mind’.
martial arts, is regarded by the connoisseurs of this field As mentioned in the above, Avi Rokah refers to the study
as an effect of ‘bypassing the brain’. In order to execute made by the Japanese researchers Naito and Hirose. In
a coherent movement, the novices of all fields use their their turn, they built on the outcomes of previous studies
rational brains. They plan, decide, repeat each sequence on the movements of the fingers of the hand in pianists
of the movement, then multiple sequences and after a and joystickers. In the study performed by Jancke et al.
while of voluntary efforts they manage to go through (Cortical activations in primary and secondary motor
with the movement. This can be confirmed by any study areas for complex bimanual movements in profession-
on the psychology of habituation. al pianists, 2000), they investigated the cerebral activity
An experienced karateka manages to reduce much of the of two professional piano players (17-19 years of prac-
effort of this type of conscious activity. Instead of using tice) and of two amateur pianists (5-7 years of practice)
his conscious, planning and decision-oriented brain, a during the performance of certain scores. By employing
karateka uses his breathing (which also includes the en- fMRI techniques (functional magnetic resonance im-
semble of neural maps that are able to code the patterns aging), they arrived to the conclusion that professional
of spontaneous action that are formed during previous piano players, unlike amateur players, use more limit-
experiences) for the action of making decisions and put- ed neural networks in the primary and secondary mo-
ting them into practice. Following the line of tradition, tor areas which are responsible for the control of hand
Avi Rokah states in the split-second decision-making movement. This implicitly means that they are able to
process and while having to deal with the multitude of control the movement more efficiently as well.
information piling up, the practitioner is unable to com- Their reasoning involves the matter of ‘the degrees of
plete the action in an optimum manner unless he uses
a ‘calm brain’. A ‘calm brain’ is a brain which in spite of
initiating the movement, stops controlling it from one
point to another. That is an almost absent rational brain.
On the contrary, an agitated and extremely analytical
brain assaulted by a multitude of reasoning on the op-
ponent and on the situation of the combat will gener-
ate ‘doubt, hesitation and internal struggle’. Any kind of
action that follows this line of voluntary-consciousness
would always prove to be too slow and, as a result, a cer-
tain path to failure.
It seems that Avi Rokah is very familiar with the psy-
chology of the unconscious, not so much as a theoreti-
cian of the field, but mostly as a practitioner and as an
experienced martial arts mentor.
Building on the legacy of the teaching of the great maes-
tros (Funakoshi, Nishiyama), he is well aware of the fact
that although karate practitioners have all the sensorial
stimuli ‘projected on the screens of the conscious’, once
the action-response is initiated, it will take place below
the level of consciousness. It is only in this manner that
the action is able to become fluent and coherent enough
so as to be perceived by its author as ‘intended… made
for him’. There is no ‘magic’ in karate, states Avi Rokah.
In karate there are only refined outcomes following tens
of years of practice; the repeating of appropriate move-
ment patterns within a good quality practice leads to au-
tomatisms. The brain is put on ‘automated pilot’, which
helps avoiding the interferences with the brain’s rational
level, where a great deal of energy is consumed.

Pag.13
THE MASTER IN KARATE-DO
freedom’ in muscle movement: the more training a per- extensive conscious effort: the anticipation / prediction
son has in performing certain movements, the more and detection of other players’ actions. The hypothesis
categories of muscle movement are joined in a single on which the two Japanese researchers built was that
command by the motor centre, thus forming a more the neural resources from the motor cortical regions re-
complex movement. ‘Seven at one blow’, as in the well- sponsible for the control of foot movements in profes-
known tale. A smaller neural effort can help accomplish sional football players such as Neymar were involved in
great ‘mechanical work’. the movement to a lesser extent as compared to the ones
There are also studies which involved techniques such as of professional swimmers or amateur football players.
the electroencephalography (EEG) that were conducted, Their experiment successfully confirmed this hypothe-
in addition to the fMRI-based studies as the one dis- sis.
cussed in the above. The EEG represents a technique of We conclude, on the basis of the scientific articles dis-
recording and interpretation of the electrical activity of cussed in the above, in conjunction with other similar
the brain, by using electrodes disposed along the scalp. opinions expressed on this matter (Leonard Mlodi-
Another such study focusing on the understanding of nov, Subliminal; Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and
neural behaviour in the process of forming complex mo- Slow), but also on that of the perspective assumed by Avi
tor skills would be one conducted by Michael E Smith et Rokah, that the neocortex withdraws from the scheme
al. (Neurophysiological indices of strategy development of conscious action precisely so as to let the archaic bran
and skill acquisition, 1999). They examined the neu- (reptilian and limbic) perform the action in the most
ro-physiological changes involved in the development effective manner. This is the oldest part of our brains,
of cognitive and visual-motor abilities of several video formed over the course of millions of years of evolution,
gamers: six, respectively eight persons practiced a video which is capable of ensuring the survival in risk condi-
game that required the employment of highly difficult tions. When this ‘quiet’ brain manages to be connected
visual and motor skills. The alpha rhythm prevails in the with the conscious brain, the action is guaranteed to a
state of rest. Following the carrying out of experiment, success. This means that the levels of the brain, special-
a significant reduction in the players’ alpha rhythm was ised over the course of the evolution process, no longer
recorded by means of EEG, as complex skills were being work separately and successively, but simultaneously
acquired, which reflects a general decrease in the degree and unitedly. This provides a clear explanation for the
of cortical activity. The authors arrived to the conclusion professional and sports performances: a brain operating
that these increased values recorded on the alpha band at its lowest possible conscious capacity, but along with
indicate that the cortical regions were not necessary in a substantial involvement of the unconscious part of the
the execution of tasks, thus becoming less active. brain stands as the key to motor performance and, what
The study carried out by Naruto and Hiroshi involved a is more, to an exceptional one. The difference between
sample of 7 persons: four pro-
fessional football players, one
of them being the Brazilian
superstar Neymar, two profes-
sional swimmers and an ama-
teur football player. Following
the scanning by means of a
third generation Tesla fMRI of
the brain activity of the par-
ticipants in the experiment as
they rotated their right ankles,
the outcomes obtained were
compared.
The image herein is more than
illustrative in this regard: Ney-
mar’s part of the motor cortex
(which is narrower, as the im-
age shows) is much less en-
gaged in the performance of
the angle movement than that
of the other participants in the
experiment. As in the case of
the other experiments con-
ducted on pianists and video-
game players, this shows that
Neymar is able to control the
movements of his feet much
more effectively, conserving
his motor cortical neural re-
sources for activities which re-
quire attentiveness and a more

Pag.14

an amateur performer (musician, athlete, videogame
player or karateka) and a professional performer is not
so much linked to that person’s physical abilities as it is
to the cerebral capacities. We live in a complex reality.
This applies both to our society and to the tatami. The
stimuli come storming over our sensory centres, making
them generate efficient decisions and actions by working
with the other cortical and subcortical regions. This hap-
pens nevertheless only on certain occasions. There is no
need to examine Neymar so as to learn how this occurs.
Entering in a dojo would suffice.
All the practitioners of traditional karate, including the
author of this article, have themselves experienced the
truths illustrated in the above. We are all aware of the
internal and external changes generated by the thou-
sands of repetitions of the techniques, by the hundreds
of hours spent at the dojo. We reach a point where we
work instinctively, where we react spontaneously, which
sometimes takes us by surprise, leaving us wonder what
it was that just happened. The brain of an experienced
practitioner of martial arts changes imperceptibly, so that
one ceases to realise the progress attained since the first
hours of practice. In those first days of practice, even one
movement such as a simple gyaku tsuki used to make us
drip sweat off our foreheads and covered our kimonos
with litres of salty water. Back then, karate, this karate
practice, seemed difficult, it even seemed impossible! It
seemed inhuman! It is like nothing resembled our usual
positions and movements. Still, the weeks, months and
years that went by overturned this perspective.
Pag.15
THE MASTER IN KARATE-DO
Now, at this point we have
reached, it is what does not re-
semble the martial arts fluen-
cy and accuracy, the grace and
force alike, that seems down-
right caricature-like to us. The
rational brain has changed its
mental maps. And, most im-
portantly, it managed to expand
towards the region of its fellow
peer, which is a lot older and
impersonal than one might ex-
pect – the unconscious brain.
The more we further our pro-
gress in martial arts, the deep-
er our journey goes at the core
of this continent which we rely
on and intuit, on which science
has only begun to shed light my
means of theoretical approach.
It is to this and to all the prac-
titioners of traditional karate
who took it upon themselves
to follow the Path that we dedi-
cate the thoughts written in the
above.
This article was not intended to
stand as a scientific article, for
we leave this endeavour to the
specialists, nor was it written as
a mere review made by some-
one watching the martial-artis-
tic activity only from the sidelines. This is the confes-
sion of a martial arts practitioner who is interested in
examining what occurs in his brain and muscles when
practicing this discipline, a discipline which he wouldn’t
trade for the world.
Bibliography
Avi Rokah - Bypass the brain in karate and in soccer.
Study shows Neymar is “bypassing the brain” as we teach
in karate in http://avirokahkarate.blogspot.ro/2014/08/
bypass-brain-in-karate-and-in-soccer.html.
Eiichi Naito, Satoshi Hirose - Efficient foot motor con-
trol by Neymar’s brain in Frontiers in Human Neurosci-
ence, Published online 2014 Aug 1;
Michael E Smith, Linda K McEvoy, Alan Gevins -
Neurophysiological indices of strategy development and
skill acquisition in Cognitive Brain Research, Volume 7,
Issue 3, January 1999, Pages 389–404;
L. Jancke , N.J. Shah , M. Peters - Cortical activations in
primary and secondary motor areas for complex biman-
ual movements in professional pianists in Cognitive
Brain Research 10 (2000) 177–183;
Leonard Mlodinov, Subliminal, Humanitas Publishing,
Bucharest, 2013;
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Publica
Publishing, Bucharest, 2012.
Valeriu Sofronie, 2 DAN