Document Downloads
Please use the downloads provided for club use to understand the meaning of the Mon and to develop the necessary understanding of the karate terminology found in class training sessions, both for the children and adults.
Translation of the Mon
The classics say “look for the straight line within the circle” this would imply that
our movements revolve to blend with the force thus neutralising an attack. From
this circular motion we direct our attack to the closest point on our opponent, this is what
is meant by “look for the straight line within the circle” and is depicted by the eight
triangles within the circle pointing outwards. Each triangle is divided into black and
white reflecting a Yang (hard) or Yin (soft) attack, between the eight triangles can be
seen eight further triangles pointing inwards representing a hard attack towards us,
one of the Yin Yang triangles is used to simultaneously meet this force, the yang part
is to ground and the Yin part is used to neutralise. The eight triangles also reflect the
eight directions, North, South, East and West as well as the four corners, all points of the
triangles are attached to a circle which upon contact will turn. Each of these circles remind
us of the four distances, the outside circle would be kicking range, the next circle is
punching range, then trapping range and finally grappling range. The outer circle
depicting the smaller triangles are our total awareness to all of the sub directions with the
interplay of Yin and Yang throughout our whole body, because we become the spinning
ball in a constant state of flux. Lastly the Yin Yang symbol in the Centre of the Mon
is to internalise this concept and never to deviate form our Centre.
