Shita-Tsuki: Kyokushin's Best Punch ("Open the Drawer, Close the Drawer")

What shita-tsuki is

Shita-tsuki is a close-range punch that travels up into the body with the fist turned palm up. In Kyokushin kumite we stand close and trade bare-knuckle shots to the body, and shita-tsuki is built for that distance. It comes in underneath and finds the midsection when the straight punches are getting smothered.

It is not a scooping uppercut. That difference is the whole lesson, and we’ll get to it.

The mistake: leaning and pushing

“When the shita-tsuki happens, people will make the mistake of not bending the knees, and leaning. That’s what happens: a bad punch.”

Leaning does two kinds of damage. First, the punch loses the legs, so all that is left is an arm pushing. Second, your head drifts forward past your front knee, which puts it right in front of whatever the other person is throwing back.

The fix lives in the legs. “If I’m going for the shita-tsuki, my knees bent, and I thrust.” You lower your level by bending the knees, not by folding forward at the waist. Your hips stay underneath you. Then they fire.

Open the drawer, close the drawer

This is the picture I give students. Think of a drawer. It only moves one way: in and out along its track. “The drawer can only go close and open.” You cannot swing a drawer in an arc.

So I drop my level, and the arm works like that drawer. Close the drawer, open the drawer. The upward angle of the punch comes from the knees bending and the hips driving, not from the arm looping up from below. “If you’re throwing an uppercut, there’s an uppercut. You can’t close a drawer that way.”

Get that motion clean and everything else improves. “The better you get at that, the better that shita-tsuki is going to be, and the more power you’re going to throw with it.”

The standard I watch for in class is short: “I just want to know it’s not leaning and pushing. I want to know the hips are going to bend and fire.”

The structure of the fist still matters here. Lead with the two front knuckles and keep the wrist straight, exactly as I teach in how to punch in Kyokushin. A rising punch with a soft wrist is a good way to hurt your hand on an elbow.

Where it fits in a combination

In the full kumite lesson, shita-tsuki comes at the end of a chain that starts with a basic one-two.

1. One-two.

2. Step and kick.

3. Recoil the kick.

4. Fire the cross-side shita-tsuki with the knees bent.

“Now the athleticism comes in.” When the kick recoils and your foot comes down, your weight is already dropping. Let that drop carry straight into bent knees and the punch. If you stand tall after the kick, you will have to lean to reach the body, and you’re back to the bad punch.

Here is the full lesson. The shita-tsuki section starts near the end, but the whole thing is worth your time.

Watch: Kyokushin Karate Lesson with Shihan – Improving Your Kumite [4K]

I break down the rest of that lesson, including the one-two reset and leg-kick defense, in improve your kumite fundamentals.

How to drill it

1. Shadow, slow. From your fighting stance, bend the knees and throw the punch at half speed. Watch your head in a mirror. It should drop with your knees, not travel forward past them.

2. Close-range bag work. Stand close to the heavy bag. Bend, fire, return. Do a set of ten on each side, thinking knees first, fist second.

3. Add the chain. One-two, step kick, recoil, cross-side shita-tsuki. Keep it slow until the level change happens on its own.

4. Partner pads. Have a partner hold a pad at body height and call you out every time you lean. In class you’ll hear me say it over and over: “Fire. Don’t lean.”

When it comes out wrong in a drill, keep throwing. I would rather see you firing than stopping to tell me you messed up. That is what I mean when I say you’re in the process.

Common mistakes

• Leaning forward at the waist instead of bending the knees.

• Scooping the punch up like an uppercut.

• Standing tall after a kick, then reaching for the body.

• Letting the wrist go soft on impact.

• Dropping the other hand away from the face while you punch.

We drill shita-tsuki constantly in our adult class, because almost every close-range exchange gives you a chance to throw it.