Makiwara training

Makiwara is "the soul" of karate and I see it as a training where great commitment is needed. Why is the makiwara lasting for hundreds of years in an almost unchanged form? And why is it so important?
1) by makiwara training we develop hitting power of the whole body and project that power through a single point on an impact surface;
2) we learn the rotation and contraction of the whole body;
3) we gain speed;
4) we practice the distance;
5) we strengthen the impact area;
6) the mental aspect "focus and concentration" (we direct the strength through one point on makiwara)
7) we move the threshold of pain, which is important in a real fight: if the pain disrupts our concentration, we have already lost that fight;
8) we boost our confidence and strengthen the fighting spirit.
Before we get started, we must do "the mental aspect", concentration, relaxing, removing daily troubles and and we must focus on the training. Warming the muscles and tendons up is needed and accelerating blood circulation in order to prepare our cardiovascular system for greater efforts.
There are two levels of training on the makiwara: HIGHER and LOWER.
The lower level:
Makiwara is set in that way that her length is in the intermediate level (chudan) in order to exercise from the deep position, because the lower level implies fundamental technique. It is exercised from zenkutsu dachi and fudo dachi positions. In we do the beginning zenkutsu and when we overcome it and strengthen an impact area, we go to fudo dachi. In fudo dachi the center of gravity of the body is in the middle, so we can perform a greater rotation and the back leg is slightly bent and it looks like "a spring", so it increases the stroke.
Working principles:
the body is relaxed but concentrated;
the hip rotation (from open to closed position) - at the moment of the impact the leg is stretched and the foot pushes the floor;
forces of action and reaction (one hand forward, the other backward)
contraction (KIME) of the whole body in the moment of impact;
it is important that the hand we make an impact with is by our body from the very beginning because that way we use the whole body. In the final part of the impact we go forward.
It is individual for how long we should stay in the lower level, It depends the most on how much time we have spent training. If you don't have time for the whole training, than you repeat it multiple times for 15 to 20 minutes, but one day you should get out of zenkutsu position an move on to a real thing.
The higher level:
The attitude is normal (fighting attitude). You can set the makiwara higher , it is practiced from a static position, but also from a movement, a kick with a less rotation. Here we use more of our inner strength. If you have enough space, you can set two or three makwaras up in different ways, you can imagine your opponents and make the training more interesting. When you take up makiwara once, you've got the entertainment for a lifetime.
Working with multiple makiwaras is very useful. It helps you to orient in space, to gather speed (the initial one) and exercise your accuracy, which is very important for a real fight.Makiwara training Vukicevic Milovan