Ura-zuki 裏突き
Close punch, inverted punch
The technique, and its job.
A short punch delivered with the fist palm-upward and the elbow still bent, used at a range where nothing longer will fit. It is the karate answer to the uppercut, and it appears in kata wherever the opponent is imagined to be very close.
Application. Infighting, and the counter after closing inside an opponent’s guard.
Mechanics
What each part of the body does, in the order it does it.
- Starting position
- From the hip or the guard, at very close range.
- Hips
- Rotate as normal; the shortness is in the arm, not in the body.
- Elbows
- Stays bent — this is the defining feature, not a fault.
- Trajectory
- Short and upward-forward, the fist staying palm-up throughout.
- Contact surface
- First two knuckles, palm upward, to the solar plexus or the ribs.
- Distance
- Very close. It is a technique of last resort in range terms.
What survives when the name is forgotten.
- A bent arm is not a weak arm at close range; a straight arm simply does not fit.
- The body must still rotate. Removing the hip because the arm is short removes the power too.
Common errors, and how to fix them.
Naming a fault teaches nobody. Each one below carries why it happens and what corrects it.
Why it happens. Assuming every punch finishes straight.
The fix. Set the distance so that extension is impossible, and the technique teaches itself.
Drills
- Body-shot pad work at arm-fold distance, with the partner’s pad held against their own midsection.
Where it appears.
Kihon is the vocabulary, kata is the literature, kumite is the conversation. Every link below was written down deliberately; none of it was inferred from a name matching.
- Bassai Dai To storm a fortress, major
- Unsu Cloud hands
- Defensive kumite Defence and counter
- Choku-zuki Straight punch
- Oi-zuki Lunge punch, stepping punch
- Gyaku-zuki Reverse punch
- Kizami-zuki Jab, leading-hand punch
- Age-zuki Rising punch
- Tate-zuki Vertical-fist punch
- Morote-zuki Double-hand punch, augmented punch
The Japanese, explained.
- Ura-zuki 裏突き
- Close punch. A short punch with the fist palm-upward and the elbow still bent, for ranges where nothing longer fits.
Video
No recording in the register is tagged to Ura-zuki. MMAKF has not filmed this technique, and the discovery pass did not find an external recording specific enough to attribute to it without guessing.
Nothing is shown here rather than a search link dressed up as a demonstration. What has been found, checked and registered is listed in full on the source register.
The video source register →