End of summer training.....

We’re getting towards the end of summer training now – just one more week to go…

Summer training was a concept my instructor introduced to our club a few years ago to help deal with the drop in student numbers over the summer holiday period.  Basically, the junior and senior classes are merged into one all summer. For the senior students this means starting classes an hour earlier than usual and for junior students its means they get 1.5 hour classes instead of just 1 hour.

There are obviously pros and cons to merging the classes this way. Sensei has to design lessons that suit the entire spectrum of students from white to black belts and from 6 year olds to middle-aged people. This is almost an impossible task and there are generally winners and losers. The main winners are probably the mid-graders, particularly the older children and adults as the classes are pitched much more to their level. The main losers are probably those at the extremes of the class – the youngest lower grades and the older senior grades.

It has been a challenge for sensei to get the right balance for these classes to ensure everyone gets something out of them. In previous years (in my opinion) the balance has been too much in favour of the children with lots of drills, sparring and games to keep the kids interested. However, this year sensei managed to pick a formula that has worked better for adults too.

We have spent the entire summer focussing on basic kihon and its relationship to the pinan katas, including bunkai. All of us benefit from really drilling the kihon and I mean really drilling the kihon – until you’re dripping with sweat and your legs feel like lead! Our younger or more junior members are particularly benefiting from this as there is plenty of scope for improvement in their basics but we  more senior students are also getting some insights into how to improve our body alignment and correct some simple mistakes or bad habits in our execution of kihon.  I particularly appreciate the opportunity to do this as I was pulled up on some fundamental errors in my basic kihon at my pre-dan course a couple of months ago. I’ve particularly been working on my spinal alignment and hip positioning over the summer and it’s all starting to feel much more natural now to tuck my pelvis under more during stance transitions.

We have also spent every lesson going through all the pinan kata in detail to improve both our performance of the kata but also the understanding of the applications of the kata in the form of ‘pinan drills’. This has been particularly suitable for the more senior students who value the opportunity to work on applications and benefit the most from doing so.

The classes have been very physically demanding all summer.  The warm-ups have been more like demanding work-outs and some of us oldies could have done with a warm-up before the warm-up! We have then gone straight into a demanding kihon session for about 20 minutes before being allowed a drink – and it’s been unusually hot weather here for a change. Then we’ve done all the kata several times each which, as you know, can be a workout in itself. This high-paced, physically demanding karate has suited the teenagers and older children best, though having said that the only students who have had to sit down because they felt ill have been teenage boys. We oldies stoically endure the discomfort so as not to be upstaged by some young pretenders (but we’ve been quietly feeling like death inside).

As Abraham Lincoln said: “You can please some of the people some of the time all of the people some of the time some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”  This has been true of these summer classes. On a personal level I am fairly easy to please most of the time so although these summer classes have been a bit of a beasting, on the whole I have enjoyed them and have got a lot out of them. Other students have found them less enjoyable and some students have avoided them altogether. I have missed not being able to work on the stuff that is more relevant to my forthcoming dan grading so I have had to work on that on my own at home but the classes are not all about me and I know that I will be getting plenty of attention as the grading draws closer.

We have one more week of the summer classes and then we will be back to our usual schedule and hopefully back to more application based karate and less fitness based karate.  The kids and junior grades will have gained a lot from working with the seniors and will have gleamed some insight into what to expect as they move up the ranks but will ultimately be better off returning to their normal classes where the pace is a little easier for little ones. Likewise the seniors should all be a lot fitter and sharper with their basics and understanding of the pinan katas but will be grateful to return to their usual training patterns.  

Does the style of your training change over the summer months? What do you think about it?

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Seipai - not just a Goju Ryu kata

One of my current kata is the Naha-te derived kata, Seipai. This kata is generally a staple of the Goju Ryu stylists and remains remarkably unaltered across all Gojo ryu schools. However, it is also a kata that was taught by Kenwa Mabuni in his Shito Ryu style and is still taught in many branch styles of Shito Ryu, including Shukokai. In our system of Shukokai karate this kata is first introduced once 1st dan is achieved.

There is little to found on the history and origins of this kata other than the kanji for Seipai apparently translates to the number 18 if you use the Okinawan dialect. However, the kanji for Sei can also mean 'controlling'. The kata is generally attributed to Kanryo Higaonna who is said to have brought the kata back from Fuzhou district in China. However there is no evidence to support this. It is also thought that seipai may have its origins in the Dragon style of Shaolin kung fu.

Wherever Seipai has it's origins it is typically a Naha-te style kata, with it's fairly slow tempo and rooted stances, particularly the use of sanchin dachi and shiko dachi. There are also lots of circular arm movements, again typical of the Naha-te style. This kata pairs well with Seienchin kata and anyone who has learnt both kata will notice that they have a similar 'feel' to them.

I love these Naha-te kata and wish we had more of them in our syllabus. They make a nice counter-balance to the faster, more explosive linear katas of the Shuri-te style. I actually found the embusen to Seipai difficult to learn  as there are lots of changes of direction and it can be easy to lose sight of where the 'front' is when you are first learning this kata. However, now that I've got the hang of it it is one of my favourite kata and there's some pretty interesting bunkai to learn too.

Here's a video of Seipai:

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Kata: Nipaipo (karate), Er Shi Ba (White Crane Kung Fu)

Nipaipo (Nepai) meaning 28 ‘beats’ or steps, is a shito-ryu kata developed by Kenwa Mabuni. It descends through the Naha-te lineage of shito-ryu. Mabuni’s influence for this kata came from Gokenki, a Chinese tea merchant who moved to Okinawa in 1912. An expert in the Southern Chinese style of Whooping Crane Kung Fu (Baihequan) he set up home in Kume village just a short distance away from Matsuyama Park and close to the Ryukyu Tode-jutsu Kenkyukai (a hidden and secret underground Karate research society).  

He started teaching his brand of white crane kung fu to karate masters at the Ryukyu Tode-jutsu Kenkyukai, including Kenwa Mabuni, Chojun Miyagi, Juhatsu Kyoda and Shinpo Matayoshi. He taught several white crane forms including Nipaipo. However this version of the kata is not the same as the karate version developed by Mabuni, though it did influence it; the original Chinese white crane version, called Er shi Ba (28 constellations), is longer and performed using the softer, more flowing moves of kung-fu.

Here’s the karate version of the kata: 

Here's the original White Crane version:

The World Karate Federation has adopted Nipaipo as a mandatory kata to be performed in the early stages of WKF kata competitions. 

Nipaipo is a 2nd dan kata on our syllabus and thus one of my current kata.

22nd June update: 

Since writing this post I have had some e-mail correspondence with Joe Harte, a Taiji instructor of over 20 years experience. He said:

“Traditionally in the white crane world the form was called ershiba lohan, meaning “28buddhas" or "28sages" but sometimes shortened to just  ershiba.

In the Taiji syllabus we refer to it as Quickfist as it’s the only fast form we use in master Huangs system of taiji.  More formally it’s called SanFeng Quickfist in reference to the legendary founder of Taiji, Chang San Feng, and also in recognition that master Huang changed the emphasis of this form over his lifetime so now it is externally the same as the white crane version but internally has a different flavour – towards the pure taiji principles.”

Thanks Joe, look forward to meeting you at Marfest!

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Kenwa Mabuni books - now translated into English...

Just when I thought it was impossible to get hold of any books written by Kenwa Mabuni, founder of shito ryu, that were translated into English I came across Lulu.com - a self-publishing website. Here I discovered two books written by Mabuni and translated into English by karate sensei - Mario McKenna.

The first is Karate Kempo: The art of self-defense. Mabuni wrote this in 1934. Interestingly this book is about the art of 'goju-ryu kenpo'. It is one of Mabuni's early written works (he was a very prolific writer, writing several books and articles during the 1930s and 1940s, but none were ever translated into English). It is a work about the then fledgling art of karate-do and was intended as a general introduction to the art.

As McKenna says in the blurb: Karate Kenpo provides a rare glimpse of Mabuni's ideas about the history and development of karate-do on Okinawa. It also introduces the fundamentals of his art including warm-up, basic techniques, stances, training equipment and the fundamental kata san chin and the advanced kata seiunchin.

In the book Mabuni outlines the steps for sanchin kata and seiunchin using line drawings. He also covers bunkai for seiunchin. I'm always amazed at how well conserved many kata are. I could only identify one small difference between Mabuni's description of seiunchin and the way I have been taught it today - remarkable!

The second Mabuni book that was available was: The study of Seipai: the secrets of self-defence karate kenpo. In this book Mabuni chose to use photos (mainly of himself) to illustrate the steps of the kata seipai rather than line drawings. Again the bunkai is described and illustrated clearly.

The second half of this book reveals the (then) secret text and diagrams called the Bubishi. Kenwa Mabuni was the first person to publish this text which is now known as the 'karate bible'. In McKenna's translation of Mabuni's book he has left the Bubishi untranslated stating that there are now many English translations of this book available.

Mabuni writes this foreword to the Bubishi section of his book:

"On the recommendation of my friend, I made a copy of a Chinese book on kenpo called Bubishi that my venerated teacher, Anko Itosu, had duplocated himself. I have used the Bubishi in my research and have secretly treasured it, however in this current age of growth and popularity of karate kenpo, I am hesitant to keep this book to myself for even one more day. If this benefits even a little those researchers' passionate about karate, then I will be very pleased. Kenwa Mabuni"


What I particularly like about owning these books is that not only is it like hearing it straight from the horses mouth but I feel like I own a little bit of karate history myself. The book is obviously written in the present tense but it is about the practice of karate in the 1930's in Okinawa and Japan. Thus you get statements like:

"...The founder of our style, Goju-Ryu kenpo, Kanryo higaonna Sensei travelled to China to study Kenpo (mastering Chinese Fujian style Kenpo). Furthermore, my senior Chojun Miyagi travelled to China to conduct study into Kenpo and is presently still there."


and: "Presently on Okinawa young people freely practice in various systems such as Higaonna-ha, Itosu-ha, Maezato-ha, Shimabuku-ha, Ishimine-ha, Azato-ha etc."


Reading books like these very much makes karate history come alive to me, so thank you Sensei McKenna for bringing these translations to us.

I also have to praise the Lulu.com service: all their books are printed and bound after you order them and then shipped out. Both these books could only be shipped to the UK from the US but from initial order to receiving the books took less than a week, so well done Lulu!

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Kosokun Shio - 'To view the sky'

One of the kata that I am currently learning for nidan is Kosokun Shio. Whenever I learn a new kata I like to explore the origins and history of it. I think this is important because many kata, particularly older ones, have many cultural or historical references in them that may make them difficult to understand or interpret if you are not aware of the kata’s founder or the political/cultural situation at the time the kata was developed.

Kosokun shio is almost an exclusively Shito Ryu/Shukokai kata and is generally attributed to Mabuni Kenwa (the founder of Shito Ryu). This makes the kata comparatively modern (i.e. early 20^th Century) but since this kata is almost certainly an amalgam of the kata Kushanku Dai and Kushanku Sho, it‘s roots are much older. We therefore, need to look at the origins of the Kushanku kata to truly understand Kosokun shio.

The Kushanku kata are attributed to ‘Tode’ Sakugawa (b.1733) who developed them in recognition and remembrance of one of his teachers – Kushanku (Also known as Kong Su Kung, Kwang Shang Fu and Guan Kui) who was a Chinese envoy sent to Okinawa around 1756. It is said that Kushanku learned the art of ch’uan Fa in China from a Shaolin Monk. 

Apparently Kushanku was a specialist in ‘night fighting’ and grappling. In Okinawa during the mid 18^th century (during the Satsuma occupation and the banning of bladed weapons) military combat usually occurred during the daytime but ‘self-defence’ fighting between civilians usually occurred at night.  It would have been a fairly common experience to be attacked whilst walking home in the dark, perhaps beaten unconscious and robbed. Grappling techniques are ideal for dealing with an attacker in the dark when you cannot see to kick and punch.

Kushanku taught his night fighting techniques to Sakugawa, who was his student for 6 years. There is a story that Sakugawa, on route to China in a boat, was attacked by pirates at night as they approached Fuzhou harbour. The pirates' usual tactic would be to board the boat and throw everyone overboard to drown, thus escaping with the entire ship and any treasure. However, on this occasion, Sakugawa’s night fighting skills took the pirates by surprise. He was able to single-handedly defeat the pirate crew, grappling with them and throwing them all overboard!

It is not surprising then that the Kushanku katas that Sakugawa went on to develop were designed to be ‘night fighting’ kata. The opening move of the kata, where the arms draw a big circle in front of the body, is thought to represent the moon and is to remind you that this kata is teaching you how to fight in the dark.

According to Bruce Clayton in Shotokan’s secrets, the kata has three aims: (1) To avoid being caught by the enemy, (2) To locate and attack the enemy in the dark and (3) To remain in control of the enemy until he has been defeated.  In other words you need to touch the enemy before you can strike them and once you’ve got hold of them you need to finish them off.

It is said that the kata should also teach the enhancement of the senses, particularly hearing and touch both of which would be particularly important in the dark.

As I said earlier Kosokun shio is an amalgam of the two Kushanku kata or at least combines many techniques from both of them. Though Kosokun shio is practised only by shito ryu stylists, Kushanku kata are practised by Isshin ryu, shotokan (where it is called Kanku Dai) and possibly other styles of shuri-te karate.

If you are familiar with Kosokun shio or the Kushanku katas then you will have noticed that they have several combinations that appear in the pinan kata series, particularly pinans shodan, yondan and godan. It is thought that Itosu created the pinan katas partly from the Kushanku katas.

Here’s a video of Kosokun Shio:

References: 
Shotokan's Secret, the hidden truth behind karate's fighting origins. by Bruce D Clayton Ph.D
To view the sky: http://www.newsfinder.org/site/readings/kushanku_to_view_the_sky/
Kusanku, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%ABsank%C5%AB

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Competition judging - my first experience...

I had my first experience of competition judging last Saturday. It was a club level kata competition mainly for the kids in our club and for most of them it was also a first time experience. Sensei was having some difficulty getting sufficient numbers of black belts to help so he asked me and my husband if we'd give it a go.


Always one to support club level activities I jumped at the chance to have a go. I also thought it would be useful to be on the other end of the marking scheme which was the same scheme that will be used in my grading.  As it was just a fairly small competition (around 30 competitors) we just had one area in use with 5 judges. Most of the competitors were our youngest students (6 - 10 year olds) with a few older children and young teens. Though we had a full range of coloured belts represented the majority were still in the very junior ranks.

Sensei gave us a briefing on how to assess and score each competitor. He told us not to worry if our marks seemed a little higher or lower than other judges - scoring consistently within the category was more important.

Things I learned about judging:

• It's a lot easier to judge a kata performance if you know the kata. Since most of the competitors performed one of the pinan katas or a familiar kyu grade kata this wasn't a problem. However, we had one senior category with 2 competitors performing 2nd dan katas which I don't know yet so I just had to look at the details of stances, hand positions, general tidiness and precision of moves. I've no idea if they made mistakes!
• I'm a hard marker. I seemed to consistently score between a half and one and a half marks less than other judges. It's not always easy to know how much to add on for a particularly good performance and how much to deduct for mistakes. I was starting to feel embarrassed that watching parents would see me as the 'mean old woman' of the judging panel! 
• Different judges notice different strengths and weaknesses in a performance. This is probably partly due to the fact we each see the performance from a different angle and a mistake may not be noticeable from a particular judge's angle. It may also be because each judge has a slightly different set of criteria. I have a particular thing about stance work - I spend so much time in the junior class getting the kids to bend their front knee in zenkutsu dachi or bend their back leg in cat stance that any straight legs seen in the competition lost them a half mark! (I'm so mean). Other judges may have had their own particular 'thing' that they looked for.
• You have to concentrate very hard and not let your mind wander - you have to be in the moment. Most of these katas take around 30 - 40 seconds to perform so if you let your mind drift you've missed it! 
• The standard was more variable in the very junior ranks than in the more senior kyu ranks. This made the purple and brown belt category much harder to judge and we did have a few tie breakers to decide who went through to the next round. The winners were a lot more clear cut in the lower ranks.

I was really impressed with the standard of our kids. A few on them were particularly outstanding even though they were only very junior belts. I thought they all rose to the challenge very well - it must be very intimidating to a 6 or 7 year old to perform their kata in front of judges and watching parents. I was very proud of them.

I really enjoyed my judging experience, it has helped me understand the marking scheme a bit better and given me a better overview of the standard of the kata performance of our junior students, and I was impressed!


Do you have any judging stories to tell?

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Ippon kumite and kata applications

A bit of a brain teaser this one but if you can make sense of what I’m trying to say then I would welcome your feedback……..

This may seem like a strange question to ask for someone who is very close to grading for shodan in karate! My question is: What is the difference between ippon kumite and bunkai?


I thought I knew the answer to this until last Saturday when I went on a black belt/brown belt course with my organisation. We didn’t focus at all on kata or bunkai but spent a lot of the time practising ippon kumite. It was made clear to us that what was being looked for in our demonstration was a clear understanding of the application of basic kihon moves to a one step attack showing particular heed to distance and timing.

Well, that explanation tightened up my understanding of ippon kumite a bit but didn’t offer any new major revelations – I already knew what ippon kumite was about.

Here’s a definition of ippon kumite: Ippon kumite is the practice of not allowing your opponent more than one attack. In other words, due to the evasive and blocking actions of the defender the opponent is prevented from continuing his attack. A counter attack may or may not be necessary. It's all about shutting down your opponent's attack quickly. Ippon kumite techniques are generally learned against a range of pre-defined attacks.

Here’s a definition of bunkai: The analysis of moves extracted from a kata. In other words, a study of the applications of movements taken directly from a kata or an analysis of the meaning of the kata.

These two definitions don’t sound too similar until you delve a bit deeper.

Old karate master, Chotoku Kyan said, “First learn the movements of karate, learn how to strike, block and immobilize, learn the kata and you will then be ready for kumite.” The implication here is that kumite is the application of kata movements. Dan Smith Kyoshi of Shorin Ryu Seibukan adds, “…the kata is designed to always provide an ‘ippon’.”

So if ippon kumite techniques are built from basic kihon techniques; kata are the assembly of kihon techniques into set sequences and combinations, and kata provide us with sets of ‘ippons’ then isn’t the analysis of kata (bunkai) just the analysis of ippon kumite techniques within the kata? Are bunkai and ippon kumite essentially the same thing?

All the bunkai I have learned are effective against a single step attack (bar one*) and are therefore essentially ippon kumite techniques. However, many of the ‘ippons’ I have learnt have not necessarily come directly from a kata. So does that mean that all bunkai are ippons but not all ippons are bunkai?

Not many people will talk about ippon kumite and bunkai in the same breath (or even write about it in the same book) suggesting that they are different things. In fact, some people who consider themselves bunkai experts may even be very dismissive of ippon kumite considering it to be too stylised and people who are proponents of ippon kumite may not even refer to specific kata in their teachings of it.

So, what is the difference between ippon kumite and bunkai? Perhaps they are just different sides of the same coin or perhaps bunkai is a process and ippon kumite a practice? Perhaps bunkai just assumes more realistic attacks and ippons use more stylised 'karate' attacks? I’m just thinking aloud here.

What do you think about this condundrum? Ippons and bunkai – same or different?


* I have learnt a kata application from Bassai Dai which requires the attacker to throw two punches. In Iain Abernethy's Bunkai Jutsu book he suggests that one should not assume that the attacker will act in a pre-determined way and throw a second (known) attack in response to a block. If your bunkai application requires a second predicted attack then perhaps the interpretation should be looked at again.

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Gyaku Zuki - odd punch out?

I have been working on individual kihon techniques quite a lot recently as part of my shodan preparations and have come to the conclusion that gyaku zuki (reverse punch) is the odd man out. Gyaku zuki is often considered to be the definitive punch in karate with lots written about it's bio mechanics and its ability to deliver a hard, powerful punch.

If you think about it though the principle of the reverse punch is contra to just about every other technique in karate. Let me explain.....

A while back I wrote an article about nanba aruki which is a principle of moving in which the same arm and leg are moved together so that movement pivots around the centre line of the body. The Japanese people used to walk like this all the time prior to the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century after which they started to adopt all things Western, including walking with opposing arms and legs. However the principle of nanba aruki in inherent in most classical martial arts.

Lets think of a few techniques and examine whether they use nanba aruki principles:
oi zuki (lunge punch) - yes (punching over the leading leg)
sekyaku zuki (half step punch) - yes (punch with same leg that you step with)
maeken zuki (leading hand punch) - yes ( leading hand pulls back and then punches out over leading leg)
empi (elbow) strikes - yes (if you step back into cat stance to strike behind you its same side arm as leg. If you step forward to strike it's also the same side.)

Common combinations of stances and blocks:
Niko ashi dachi (cat stance) with shuto uchi uke (knife hand strike)- yes
Kokutsu dachi (back stance) with gedan barai (downward sweeping block) - yes

Sanchin dachi (hour glass stance) with tsukami uke (2 handed grasping block) - yes

All tai sabaki movements utilise nanba aruki as well - it's quicker and more efficient to move this way.

Then there's gyaku zuki! This punch is generally performed in zenkutsu dachi (forward stance) though it can be performed in cat stance. Whatever the stance, by definition the gyaku zuki contradicts the principle of nanba aruki and is therefore definitely the odd man out!

So where has it come from? I'm not doubting for one moment the effectiveness of this punch, merely the origin. If you examine the kata you find that the gyaku zuki does not appear very often. I could only examine the kata that I know but I have found that the older the kata the less likely you are to see gyaku zuki. In the kyu grade kata of our system the gyaku zuki appears in only 5 out of 13 kata: Pinan shodan, Pinan godan, Annanku, Neiseishi and Matsukazi (Wankan). The Pinans and Annanku are relatively modern kata (late 19th, early 20th Century), Neiseishi has many versions, some of them fairly modern i.e early 20th Century. However all these kata were developed post Meiji restoration and are all Shuri te or Tomari te kata. The exception to the rule is Matsukazi kata which is very ancient (its origin may be 400 years old), its roots are in the Hakkyoku ken system from Northern China.

I initially thought that the gyaku zuki was a modern addition to karate (20th century) but the fact that it is in Matsukazi kata suggests that it has been around a while. However I would suspect that it has been popularised by the rise in sports karate during the mid-late 20th century and by the fact that the Japanese adopted Western principles of movement in sport.

What do you think about gyaku zuki? Old or modern? Odd man out? Do you know any other karate techniques that are contra to the nanba aruki principle?

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Six things I'm looking forward to post black belt....

I was inspired to write this post by Michele’s post, “Things I only understood after Black Belt”. Of course I don’t really know what things I will come to understand after attaining my Black Belt as this is in the future for me. However, I know the things I’m looking forward to!

1. Being liberated from grading. Though I support the coloured belt and grading system and our club is not focused only on training for your next belt I am looking forward to some respite from it. Once I achieve 1st dan level it will be at least 2-3 years before the subject of grading rears its head again. This is a lot of breathing space to just enjoy the training!

2. Consolidating the basics. I think post black belt will be a good time to reflect on what I have already learnt and identify and improve on the basics that I am still weaker on.

3. Learning to spell! I’ve been told that all pre black belt training is about teaching you the alphabet and post black belt training is about teaching you to spell. Well, I’m looking forward to learning to spell.

4. Learning some ‘off’ syllabus stuff. This could be things learnt within the club or externally through attendance at seminars and courses. I always like the chance to meet new students and new instructors and try new things.

5. Spending more time dissecting and understanding the kata and bunkai. As kyu graders we learn some bunkai from each kata but I don’t feel we really get our teeth into them properly, mainly because the syllabus is so packed there just isn’t time. I’m hoping to have more time to study the kata after black belt grading

6. Spend more time teaching. Though I currently help out as an assistant instructor with the junior class I’d like to eventually take on more. Hopefully I’ll have more time to work with my instructor on improving my own teaching skills and knowledge.

I’m really hoping to avoid the ‘black belt blues’ that many new black belts seem to suffer from. I don’t feel that it is an inevitability that one should feel like that after grading and maybe thinking about what you want to achieve after black belt is a good way of avoiding it. Too many people drop out completely after achieving their black belts; I don’t intend to be one of them.

Did you think ahead to what you wanted to achieve post black belt? Has post black belt training been all you expected it to be?

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Self defence training - are you scared enough?

Do you ever think of why you are doing karate? I expect that between us we have a variety of reasons – general fitness, sociability, sport and competition or maybe we like the aesthetics of martial arts. Some of us may have slightly loftier aims of mental and spiritual development. However, all these goals can be achieved through other types of activity such as aerobics, gymnastics, dance, team sports, yoga or meditational practices. Therefore, there must be another aim that binds us all together – a desire to learn self-defence.

For some of us learning effective self-defence will be the main, overriding aim of training in karate and for others it will be a secondary consideration. How important the self-defence element is to you, may depend on your perception of your risk of being attacked and needing to use it. This will be related to your upbringing, past experiences, job and probably your gender.

If you were brought up in the rough end of town, witnessed or were involved in several street fights and/or work as a bouncer , or, as a woman, you’ve been the victim/witness of domestic violence, then learning karate may be all about self-defence and not much else. However, if you are a middle class housewife who’s never even seen a fight or ever felt threatened by violence in any way, or, a mild mannered man who knows how to stay away from trouble, then your motivation to really learn self-defence may be much lower.

Whatever your circumstances, learning self-defence must be in the back of your mind somewhere because you are reading this blog and you’ve joined a karate club; in which case, you will probably agree that there is no point in approaching the self-defence elements of karate in a half-hearted fashion. Yet many of us do!

However remote the possibility that we may get attacked, if it happens, it may be a life or death situation. You will either get attacked or you won’t – it’s all or nothing. So is there any point in only half-heartedly preparing for such an eventuality, however remote the possibility seems?

There is a Japanese phrase – Ichi-go, ichi-e, which means, “one encounter, one chance”. This is what it will be like if it ever happens to you – you will get only one chance to defend yourself, so you have to make your training count. Do you train as if you are preparing yourself for a real encounter? Are you scared? If you train half-heartedly then you are clearly not scared enough.

So, what is a real fight like? Obviously your attacker won’t hold out their arm or leg six inches from your body whilst you think about what to do with it. Neither will they casually hold onto your lapels and wait patiently for you to respond whilst having a nice chat about something. They won’t let go as soon as you attempt to put a lock on or fall over as soon as you start to push or pull them.

In reality, an attack is fast, furious and unrelenting – at least a man on man or woman on woman attack will most likely be like that. The attack generally consists of repetitive punching and kicking. There will no ‘thinking’ time, no time to use complicated techniques, no time at all. The person who seizes control first will be the winner. You will only seize control if you have trained to do so and practiced to the point where you need ‘no time’ to think.

A man on woman attack is a slightly different scenario. According to crime statistics, the most common ways in which a woman is attacked by a man is by being grabbed. The five most common ways of attack are by variations on the wrist grab or arm and wrist grab. This is followed by bear hugs and strangles. A man rarely starts the ‘fight’ by striking the woman, though striking may come later if the woman needs to be subdued.

So, how will you react if you are attacked? Well, according to the experts in self-defence training, “you will fight as you train”. They also say that, “You won’t rise to the level of your expectations but instead you will fall to the level of your training”. Depending on your attitude to training this will either sound encouraging or alternatively, make you very scared!

Perhaps this is a good time to examine you own attitude and motivation to your training. Take kata for instance. It is said that when a lay person watches a kata performance they should recognise that they are watching a ‘fight’ in progress. Not only that, they should realise that you are winning! Do you perform your kata to win the fight?

Then there’s kihon (basics). Do you ever get bored standing in rows drilling basic punches, kicks and blocks? Maybe you think that you’ve been doing this so long now you can do those kihon combinations with your eyes shut. Good! That means you’re reaching a state of ‘no mind’ (mushin). Remember, you’ll have no time to think in a real fight, a state of mushin is what is required – so keep drilling!

And what about kumite? We do light contact point kumite; it’s not fighting as such, it’s sport. So does it have any value in self-defence training? It depends how you look at it but I think it has a lot of value. It teaches you to deal with confrontation, control your fear, speed up your reaction times, deal with unpredictability and ultimately achieve a state of mushin. The best ‘fighters’ just spar and don’t think but you have to train extensively to reach this mental state.

These three cornerstones of karate: kata, kihon and kumite, all feed into the ultimate aim of self-defence training. So if you are giving your all to these elements of training then it makes sense to give your all to the self-defence element of training too. Remember itchi-go, itchi-e – one encounter, one chance…..make sure you will win.

 

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Seienchin kata - calm in the storm

In preparation for my black belt grading next year I have begun to learn the kata, Seienchin. Anyone who knows this kata will immediately remember the lingering pain in the thighs as much of this kata is spent in a deep shiko dachi (horse stance)!

Seienchin is the only kata in our kyu grade syllabus that comes from the Naha-te style of karate in Okinawa. The name of this kata is most commonly believed to mean "Calm in the storm". It seems likely that the kata originates from China and was brought back to Okinawa by Higashionna (Higaonna) Kanryo around 1883. Higashionna spent many years in  Fuzhou, a town in the Fujian province of China and learnt several styles of gongfu or 'monk fist boxing'.  On his return to Okinawa he developed the style of karate known as Naha-te, the forerunner of Goju Ryu karate.

Higashionna had many notable students, including Chojun Miyagi (founder of Goju-Ryu) and Kenwa Mabuni (founder of Shito-Ryu). Both of these masters would have learnt the kata from him and Seienchin kata is preserved in both these systems as well as in Isshin-ryu (Isshin-ryu's founder, Tatsuo Shimabuku, had been a student of Miyagi in his earlier years). Mabuni is generally credited with being the person who took Seienchin kata to Japan when he moved there with his family in 1920. Seienchin is believed to be one of the most conserved kata practiced by different styles.

Seienchin kata is described as having 'Yin and Yang' in its performance due to the contrast between hard and soft or slow and explosive. It is as if the 'storm erupts from the calm phases of the kata'. It utilises very low shiko dachi stances, and the dynamic breathing and block/striking techniques are typical of the Naha-te style.

Here's a video of the Shito-Ryu version of the kata:

 Sources: Seienchin (2nd edition) karate and the kata. Dr Jason Armstrong. http://www.downloadkarate.com/

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How do you teach 'Do' in the dojo?

Karate is often described as being a 'Do' art, a Way of life, not just a means of self-defence or sport. Most martial arts have a 'do' side and a 'jutsu' side. Practitioners of karate-jutsu are very much focused on applied karate: the development of karate as a realistic and effective fighting system. Practitioners of karate-do use karate as a means of improving the self through the development of positive character traits, the elimination of ego and the unity of mind, body and spirit. A karate-do practitioner may also look at how this self-development can be applied to other aspects of their lives.

 

This does not mean that karate-do practitioners are not interested in learning effective applied karate or that karate-jutsu practitioners do not develop any of the mental or spiritual aspects of a martial Way, but their focus may be different. In fact, you may argue that you can't become an effective 'fighter' without developing some of the deeper mental/spiritual states associated with the 'do' side of the art; or that you won't develop the desired mental states without hard training and developing the practical application of fighting techniques.

 

How do you teach someone the 'do' aspects of karate in a dojo? Can you teach this? It is easy to see how you can teach the practical side of karate - how to block and punch, how to kick, how to escape from grabs or defend from various attacks. But how do you teach the higher mental states such as zanshin, mushin or kime? Are these just the consequences of years of hard training or do they require acquisition through more conscious, active means?

 

Take kata for instance. Some people refer to kata as moving meditation. It has been said that all martial artists should learn to meditate in order to develop focus, mental clarity and mind-body unity. Well we don't meditate in our dojo so does kata practice count as meditation? People's attitude to kata practice varies enormously. For some people it is just about learning a pattern (a 'dance' mindset); for others it's about perfecting the pattern for competition (an 'aesthetic' mindset); for others it's about learning fighting techniques ('practical/applied' mindset) and only for a few does kata seem to be about mind-body unity (a 'do' mindset) and can therefore be considered meditational. In other words it doesn't matter how you teach kata, it's how you learn it that matters.

 

What about kihon practice? Does that teach the 'do' aspects of  karate? I have often thought that standing in lines doing constant repetitions of punching and kicking in front of a 'critical' instructor who makes constant corrections is not just physically exhausting but is a test of the spirit too. One competes with oneself not to slow down or give up - to put the same effort into the last punch as the first. Is forging the spirit in this way intentional on part of the teacher or is it a 'side-effect' of this teaching method?

 

My more limited experience of training in a jujitsu club is that this repetitive training to the point of exhaustion is not in their teaching repertoire. Teaching is much more pragmatic and technical in nature. Does that mean that jujitsukas don't have a mental/spiritual dimension to their training? I find that hard to believe, after all, the samurai (the original jujitsukas) had highly honed mental focus and clarity of mind when going into battle.

 

Perhaps the 'do' aspects of a martial art are taught through the dojo rules and observance of etiquette? The emphasis on bowing and showing respect, the honouring of your partner's technique and working cooperatively with each other for mutual benefit. Perhaps insisting on this type of behaviour helps to hone the positive character traits required in one who 'seeks the Way'.

 

I can't help thinking that perhaps the onus is more on the student than the teacher. Perhaps only those that seek the Way will actually find it.....

 

So, is it possible to teach student's about the 'do' aspects of karate or other martial arts within the dojo? Do you actively do this in your dojo? How do you teach it?

 

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Some karate teaching conundrums....

Last night our karate classes started to get back to normal following the summer holidays. Since numbers drop off quite significantly during the summer, Sensei decided to combine the junior and senior classes together for six weeks. This meant that I didn't do any teaching at all over the summer though I did get to train with the students that I'm normally helping to teach.

So it was with a little bit of trepidation that I returned to the junior class last night to assist with teaching. About twenty students turned up, mainly young children and just a few adults; this is quite a large class for us.

Sensei had clearly planned to keep me very occupied and after a warm up allocated me six young white belts to go through their first kata. They were all reasonably familiar with the kata and I think Sensei is assessing their readiness for their first grading. With that in mind I set about helping them to fine tune some of the moves, particularly the 'look, prep, turn' bits which are often performed a bit sloppily in early kyu grades.

I find it incredibly difficult to watch more than one or two people at a time, especially when I'm trying to examine details so I decided that after we had run through the kata all together a couple of times, I would take them in pairs to watch whilst the other four practiced alone. I was then able to pick up more easily  which ones actually knew the kata independently and which ones were just copying and following the crowd! So although each child (and one adult) got some individual attention from me and hopefully benefited from that; I was also aware that the children who were left to practice alone soon became more interested in talking and playing together, so their time was not spent as productively as it could have been. Would I have been better to have kept them in a single group and just kept going through the kata with them altogether (which would keep them all occupied the whole time but made it more difficult to spot the ones that were 'hiding' behind others) or was it better to do it the way I did?

My next task was to take the red and white belts through a sanbon kumite exercise in pairs using an age uke block. There was an odd number of students so I had the problem of what to do with the 'odd' person. The choices are to partner the student myself, which then makes it difficult to watch what everybody is doing but gives the 'odd' student a good experience; or have one group of three students, which makes life easier for the teacher but not such a good experience for the student! I chose to partner the student myself and tried to watch the others as much as possible. Fortunately the students were familiar with the exercise and I was pleased with how well they did it, however I think if it had been a completely new exercise for them then my choice would have been the wrong one. What do you do when you have an odd number of students for a paired exercise?

My last task was to take the whole class for a sparring exercise. This was basically just getting them in pairs and getting them to practice bouncing correctly on the balls of their feet, switching stance, moving off line a bit, maintaining a guard and keeping the correct distance from their partners. With such a large group it's hard to know who to watch first. I think one of my problems is that I feel that I should try and give everyone some individual attention and that is not always possible with a large group. Sensei suggests leaving the adults to get on with it once they know the task - learning is their responsibility, and to focus my attention on the children. I think this was sensible advice.

Obviously adults must take responsibility for their own learning and be relied upon to practice alone or with a partner but my last question is:- to what extent should children be expected to take responsibility for their own learning, is it reasonable to expect young children (6-9yrs) to practice alone or should their learning be supervised at all times so that they remain occupied?

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Bassai Dai: to extract and block

Since becoming a 1st kyu student I have started to learn the first of the black belt katas – Bassai Dai. This is an important kata for many systems and is often chosen as the kata to test students for their black belt. It therefore resembles a ‘rite of passage’ for many karate students and so becomes a much coveted kata.

There are many variations of the Bassai kata (Passai in Okinawa) and it is found in Okinawan, Japanese and Korean styles of karate. It is likely that its origins are Chinese as it is thought to resemble Chinese Leopard and Lion boxing forms.

The origins of the kata are thought to be about 400 years old. The evidence for this is the existence of a carbon tested silk drawing of the form. It is said that the form was created as a left-handed one and if you bear that in mind when performing it then several hidden techniques are revealed!

However, this early history of the kata is a little vague and confused. What is clearer is that there were two versions of the kata practiced on Okinawa. First, there is the Matsumura version, which he allegedly brought to Okinawa following a stay in China. Matsumura learned Chinese boxing when he visited Fuchou and the Matsumura version is said to have a ‘Chinese flavour’ to it. Matsumura’s style of Passai was light and flowing with fast attacks and counters, but little power. It was circular and light.

The second version is accredited to the karate master kokan Oyadomari who lived in the Tomari district and practiced the Tomari-te style of karate. It is said that he was taught the kata from a visiting Chinese man. This version was more ‘Okinawanised’, showing a more linear style and a greater emphasis on muscle power over light speed and more direct force over whipping techniques.

Itosu was a student of Matsumura and a contemporary of Oyadomari (they all worked as bodyguards at the Shuri castle) and would probably have learnt both versions. However, instead of working with the Matsumura version as one would expect, he developed the Oyadomari version, making it even more linear and passing it onto his students, including Funakoshi who then took it to Japan.

There is much confusion over the meaning of the name Bassai. It is commonly thought to mean, ‘The storming of a fortress’, but this is more likely to be a misinterpretation and is certainly not a direct translation of the kanji characters for Bassai. A more literal translation of Bassai is, ‘To extract or remove (an obstruction) and to block (a corridor or passageway)’. It was Funakoshi who changed the name from Passai to Bassai when he took the kata to Japan.

The Bassai kata is characterised by the idea of changing a disadvantage into an advantage by the switching of strikes to blocks and blocks to strikes. It uses a lot of hip rotation to generate power and its execution requires a lot of spirit, with fast moves and proper attention given to an appropriate balance between speed and power.

The version of Bassai Dai that I am learning is the Itosu version as practiced by Shito Ryu stylists. Here is a video of it:

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1st Kyu Sue!

Before I tell you how my grading went on Saturday, I just want to make clear that I was grading for 1st kyu NOT 1st dan! My black belt grading is another 9 months away yet. 1st kyu is the highest kyu grade and in our system this means my brown belt now has 3 white tabs on it (we have 3 separate brown belt gradings spread over about 18 months - with each one you get an extra tab).

 

With that cleared up I'll tell you how it went!

 

The grading was well organised and started on time at 3.30pm. There were nine of us to grade, 4 people grading for 3rd kyu, one grading for 2nd kyu and 4 of us grading for 1st kyu. As is usual in our grading model we alternated sections between the different kyu grades, standing at the back when it wasn't our turn. This worked very efficiently as we only waited at the back for a few minutes at the time. The 1st kyu syllabus was by far longer than the other grades so unfortunately they did wait around a little longer than us.

 

After a brief warm up, we started off with punching and kicking combinations (6 of each) which we repeated several times each - we were definitely warmed up after that! These seemed to go okay, well I remembered them all anyway! This was followed by demonstrations of our 2 kata and a bunkai application for each. We performed the kata individually.

 

Kata is my weak point! Though I performed all the steps correctly, tried hard to get the timing right and remembered to look and prep my arms/feet before turning, I am still not sharp enough, repeatedly forget to snap back my kicks properly and I'm still a little wobbly sometimes. Though I have not had the full feed back or the individual marks for each section from my instructor, he did tell me that my kata performances let me down and is the area that needs most work.

 

The standard is set very high for kata performance in our organisation. It is an organisation that has produced or is preparing people for World and European level competition. Though we are not all expected to reach this high competition standard, by setting the bar high, we more average karateka will at least be pushed to reach the highest standard possible for us as individuals - and I still have 9 months to get this right!

 

We then moved onto pad work and demonstrated 3 different punches and 3 different kicks against the pad. This went well, I'm fairly strong on pad work, I like beating the living daylights out of a pad, so I'm hopeful of a reasonable mark on this section.

 

Next we moved onto the partner work - the ippon kumite, goshin waza and ne waza techniques. I was able to partner my husband for this and I think we both gave a pretty strong performance in these sections, particularly my husband. My son was also very strong in the partner work. He's only 16 and very slim and light but he has lightening speed and whipped his partner around like a rag doll! Glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that!

 

The final section was the sparring - we each did 2 rounds of shiai kumite (competition sparring). I did my first round with a young lad of about 12 who was grading for 3rd kyu. Though he wasn't much smaller than me, he was still a lad (and not very confident with himself) so I didn't feel I could go too heavily with him. Having said that, he did show a reasonable range of techniques - just not assertively enough to score. My second round was with my son, and he showed his mum no mercy! In fact, our instructor had to remind us it was light sparring only. I think we scored 1 point each, and gained a few bruises!

 

Then it was time to line up to receive our marks. Usually we get the breakdown of each section as well as the overall mark but there was only time to get the overall mark ( the grading had taken 2 hours). Prior to giving the marks he warned us that the 1st kyu's had been graded to black belt standard (which is tough) and to expect that our marks would be lower than we are accustomed to. I scored 60/100, my husband 63 and my son 62. We generally score in the region of 68 - 75 so I'm glad Sensei warned us!

 

I averaged 6 marks per section. If I do this in the black belt grading I would score 90 marks (there are 15 sections). The pass mark at black belt is 90! I would scrape a pass. Obviously I don't want to scrape a pass, I want to pass well so I will need to use these next 9 months to train really hard and make sure I improve my standard.

 

I think the 3rd kyu's were slightly in awe watching us 1st kyus perform some of our ippon kumite and goshin waza techniques. The differential in standard between 1st kyu and 3rd kyu is quite high, in the same way that the differential in standard between 1st kyu and 1st dan is quite high. I think we all finished the grading satisfied that we'd given it our best on the day, but with no doubts that improvements are needed for our black belt grading next May!

 

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Fantastic seminar by Iain Abernethy

I attended an Iain Abernethy  seminar yesterday - what a treat! He's an excellent teacher and an amazing karateka to watch. The course was held at the SKK Judo Centre in Newton -le-Willows, near Manchester.
This is a brilliant place to hold a seminar because the mats are so soft (it's like walking on the moon!)

Holding the rank of 5th dan, Iain Abernethy is a leading exponent on applied karate in the UK and gives seminars all around the world. He has also written several books,  produced several DVDs and produces the online 'Jissen' martial arts magazine. He's also a really nice, approachable guy.

During the seminar we were looking at several different bunkai applications from the pinan katas. This included the proper use of shuto uchi, the need to use the correct stances as they appear in the kata, the application of arm locks and counters to those arm locks, take downs, escapes from grabs and various other locks. We also did some interesting exercises with our eyes shut to demonstrate how proprioception works.

We then finished off with some grappling and ground work skills, though this was more for fun than for serious self-defence.

He interspersed each drill with a discussion on the principles held within the kata as well as some useful historical context and some amusing anecdotes about the old masters in karate. The historical context was particularly interesting as he explained the reason why pinan shodan should precede pinan nidan (in most systems pinan shodan is generally taught as the second kata rather than the first as its name suggests). Though pinan nidan is technically easier to perform than pinan shodan, the bunkai applications are more complex than those for pinan shodan - that is why Itosu put it second. The pinan katas are ordered according the difficulty of their applications rather than their performance.

The things I most remember Sensei Abernethy saying are (slightly paraphrased):

"In a real fight, instead of rising to the level of your expectations you will fall to the level of your training, you will fight like you train".

I think he was actually quoting someone else as having said this but I can't remember who! Because of this he said you must train in the way you would want to respond in a real fight, so, never help your partner up in training after you have thrown them - you may find yourself helping up your attacker instead of running away! Always assume there is more than one attacker around so don't spend time holding people in locks - the second guy may get you if you do. Once you've thrown someone down or struck them down, back away looking to your left and right (you'll have tunnel vision as a response to the adrenaline dump). You should do this in your training because it won't come naturally when you are in a real fight and you may not notice the second guy next to you. Also, he said attack the head repeatedly and try and control their head by grabbing the hair or holding them behind the head. He also talked about the effectiveness of the pre-emptive strike - if a threat looks imminent then don't wait to be attacked first or you will lose.

Overall the course was very beneficial, enjoyable and relevant to our syllabus. Hopefully our organisation will be booking Sensei Abernethy again next year. If you get the chance to go to one of his seminars don't miss it.

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