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Students begin each drill in the zanshin, or ready, position. At the command kamae-te from the instructor, they are supposed to shift forward into a downward blocking position. Beginners frequently have to be told to recover their ready position and begin again, moving more quickly than the first time. Some think the instructor simply wants them to move faster, but what is desired is that they accelerate their response to the instructor’s voice stimulus.

Basic training requires the student to march back and forth, punching, kicking, and blocking at the air, and it is necessary to train the stimulus-response process against a voice command, since there is no actual opponent. Students are told by the instructor to imagine an opponent in front of them at all times. By doing this, students benefit from training more than if they don’t “see” an opponent at all. Such concentration on an imaginary opponent makes the practice of techniques much more realistic, and the students actually put more into and receive more from their training. The voice command of the instructor, coupled with the imaginary opponent visualized by the student, provides the necessary stimulus for valuable training to take place. Therefore, it is necessary for the student to listen closely for the instructor’s count, and to immediately execute the next technique when he hears the count. This will aid in later sparring practice, since the stimulus-response ability has been developed in basic training.