Technical aspects
The technical aspects of Ashihara karate are shaped around 6 basic areas:
- The basics.
- The four movements.
- The positioning.
- The sabaki
- The Ashihara karate katas.
- The realistic approaches to fighting.

These areas combined shape the technical essence of the Ashihara karate.

The basics is 21 basic techniques. These techniques will provide the students with a fundamental approach to Ashihara karate. The student must strive to perfect these techniques in order to overcome many obstacles. The 21 basic tecniques can be directly implemented into fighting giving Ashihara karate the "nickname" figthing karate.

The four movements are in many ways descriptive for Ashihara karate. The ideology of moving around your opponent to a more advantegeous position instead of colliding head on shows that Ashihara karate can be applicable to other than merely the strongest of fighters.

The positioning is a direct consequence of the four movements. Naturally, using the four movements to get around your opponent will place you in various positions. These positions will provide the students with tools to practice this approach.

The sabaki is a difficult concept to translate. The closest translation is probably "partner-control". It is the effective way of benefitting from the positioning. Giving even the weaker fighter an advantage in controlling the opponent. In Ashihara karate sabaki is largely emphasized allowing any person of any shape, strength or size to benefit from the training.

The Ashihara karate katas are based on basic control techniques. The katas are applicable to real fighting situations making them unique in the world of karate.
There are six kata types:
- Beginners kata – Shoshin no kata.
- Basic kata – Kihon no kata.
- Throwing kata – Nage no kata.
- Sparring kata – Kumite no kata.
- Fighting kata – Jissen no kata.
- Self-defense kata – Goshin no kata

In the katas there are three types of pattern: short, middle and long range.

The idea of creating so many katas is that they can be practised step by step according to the relative difficulty of the techniques required. Each kata can be used for solo combination practice or with a partner as control technique training.

The realistic approaches to fighting indicates where Ashihara karate departs from standard practice. In a real fight you have to win, and in Ashihara karate that is exactly what we aim to do. To reduce the possibillity of being hurt ourselves and to guarantee a win, we seek to attain the ultimate rational performance from the body, and work at improving our speed, techniques and power.

Rationality is what sets Ashihara karate far apart from traditional karate methods. In a fight where both fighters clash head on, making no attempt to block clearly the strongest fighter will win. Too many karate methods are like this – giving no thought to defense. This might have been acceptable in earlier days, but today we need a more realistic approach to fighting.