Genyukan Dojo

In Shotokan karate, Sanbon kumite involves two people working as partners, with one of the partners training attacking and the other training counterattacking techniques and strategies. The attacking side moves toward the counterattacking partner while doing exactly the same technique three times in succession, hence the name.

In the most basic form of sanbon kumite, the specific attacking technique is assigned by the instructor, and each of the three sequential attacks is initiated by commands from the Genyukan Dojo instructor. Later, all three of the sequential attacks are executed independently by the attacking partner. In either case, both partners know before starting which techniques will be done, and which target areas are to be struck in a given three attack exchange.