Uraken Mawashi Uchi vs. "Casting Punches".

[Thunderstorm]

I've often seen karate's Uraken Mawashi Uchi being compared to (or even being considered the same thing as; this personally I doubt) some styles' "casting punches".

As someone who's so far only ever been exposed to the technique via kata, I've wondered a lot about the technique. At the gym I've occasionally hit a heavy bag with it (just doing kihon-style practice, not in a "heavy bag workout" or the like), but haven't yet found many answers.

Some stuff I've wondered about regarding Uraken Mawashi Uchi:
- Is it a punch or a back-fist?
- On a related note, does one deliver force via driving into the strike (like a punch), or via whipping with the strike (like a backfist)?
- What is it normally thrown in combination with?
- Has anyone used it as a technique for tameshiwari?
- What are the main differences between that and "casting punches"?

Thanks to any for insights.

[ashiharakaicho]

Some stuff I've wondered about regarding Uraken Mawashi Uchi: - Is it a punch or a back-fist?


Funnily, in the week we spoke about this. Some people refer it to as Seiken mawashi uchi and other Uraken mawashi uchi.

We make contact with the backhand rolling to the seiken with a flick of the wrist movement at the end, so I guess for us it could be named both and possibly still be correct. However, we call it Uraken.

- On a related note, does one deliver force via driving into the strike (like a punch), or via whipping with the strike (like a backfist)?

In Ashihara Karate (AKI), we use the no striking hand as either a type of soto uke to block for a chudan punch or to break loose if someone grabs you by the chest whilst the striking hand goes behind the back. The "blocking" type movement also serves as a winding up movement so the whipping type movement is also supported by the push up from the striking side supporting foot and rotation of the hip into the movement.


- What is it normally thrown in combination with?
- Has anyone used it as a technique for tameshiwari?
- What are the main differences between that and "casting punches"?
Thanks to any for insights.

We generally do it for kihon but used as a close range self defence application.

OSU-EN2