One tough woman. . .

[gmattson]

Found this clip taken at the "Hut" and thought you might enjoy it. Pat Saunders, who owns and operates the "Stow Martial Arts Center" demonstrates a keen understanding of body dynamics in this slow motion video clip of her very powerful Sanchin.

http://uechi-ryu.com/videos/pat_saunders_1.wmv

[chewy]

I'm a student of Saunders Sensei at Stow-MAC and am constantly amazed by her power and balance. I easily outweight her by 2x, but she can cause me to lose my center almost effortlessly.

Unfortunatelyy, Sensei Saunders doesn't get to demonstrate a full kata to us very often (she is too busy helping all of us make ours stonger), but when she does it is truley a treat! I also want to throw a nod to Sensei Saunder's instructor (Sensei Fedele Cacia); his kata also incredible to watch.


cheers,

chewy

[Bill Glasheen]

Watch the hips! Had I not already worked with some of Nakamatsu's methods, I wouldn't be able to see all the subtleties.

Dana will love this.

- Bill

[chef]

That was also the first thing I noticed was how she used her hips in everything....watch her belt move as she executes each move. Talk about shades of Dana.

I wonder if it is easier for women to accomplish that hip action, given that we have a lower center of gravity and proportionately wider hips for our size than men.

Regards,
Vicki

[Rick Wilson]

George, this is a great Kata.

Do you have a clip at regular speed it would be a joy to watch?

[Bill Glasheen]

I wonder if it is easier for women to accomplish that hip action, given that we have a lower center of gravity and proportionately wider hips for our size than men.

I have a theory on this, Vicki.

Guys - particularly the younger ones - often fall back on upper body strength to hack their way through stuff. Consequently many guys never put the mental or physical energy into learning good mechanics, movement, and sensitivity. Thus these men never find their potential.

Women on the other hand need to learn proper body mechanics and movement out of necessity. Tapping into upper body strength is out of the question, because it doesn't exist at the same level. On the other hand, they can more or less match men pound for pound from the waist down. Like the blind man who has hypersensitive hearing, they consequently "get it" before the men do.

And if they don't...



Consequently I rely on women in the dojo to see and understand certain physical and mental aspects of martial arts before and perhaps sometimes better than the men. They have something to teach us because of their own sets of abilities, or lack thereof.

And... if a pocket rocket can make something work, that tells you something about the effectiveness of the concept. Then it's time to take note, be humble, and ask them to teach how they do it.

- Bill

[Rick Wilson]

Bill: “Guys - particularly the younger ones - often fall back on upper body strength to hack their way through stuff. Consequently many guys never put the mental or physical energy into learning good mechanics, movement, and sensitivity. Thus these men never find their potential.”

Dead right, Bill.

This is very true and more so for strong men whose strength has always worked for them it is hard for them to envision a time when it won’t – until you start to play that is.

[chewy]

In fact, I found that for years I had been relying on strength to overpower my uke's. The point was driven home when I threw my back out twice in 6 months. After physical therapy I went back to the dojo, but realized I couldn't keep balance with my larger uke's any longer. My back was (and is still) not 100% and, as a result, I could no longer "cheat" my way to success with my upper body strength. I realized I had started getting sloppy with my technique and hip rotation since my Chito-ryu days.

In some ways the back injuries were the best thing for my training. I got to relearn proper technique in order to hold my own with our shodan and brown belts. Sensei Saunders agreed with this assesment. The teen agers, small men, and all the women in the class were all better karateka BECAUSE of their size; it is almost an advantage in training. They couldn't cheat their way to success.

cheers,

chewy

PS- I'm going to ask Saunder's Sensei if she has a full speed video at our next class. If not maybe we can put one together and post it.

[gmattson]

I pulled this clip on "arm conditioning", because so many people strain their shoulders, attempting to move a strong arm without using their bodies. I was demonstrating how easy it is to move the strongest arm, when the wauke is performed properly.

The body/shoulder movement offer many advantages to the rigid, robotic movements most people learn as white belts and never alter. Yes, they get stronger, but the joints pay the price when you don't maintain that sanchin arm angle.

http://uechi-ryu.com/videos/gem_cond_1.wmv

[Bill Glasheen]

Look very carefully to see the ever-so-slight blading that George does with the body to make the circle less arm and more whole-body. Plus, it's part of finding those ideal angles (particularly shoulder vs. the body in this case) that suddenly make these postures relatively easy to hold either statically or dynamically.

Pat and George actually are showing two different variations on the same theme. With Pat, the energy from hips to arms is more wave-like. With George for this application, it's all in synchrony. It has to be because Pat's execution starts as no-load, whereas George's movement of the resisting arm is high-load from the start.

Note how George's partner is struggling with moving his arm. It isn't because we find George spending long hours in Gold's Gym.

- Bill

[Stryke]

Great stuff !!

[Dana Sheets]

It is always wonderful to see another woman doing Uechi with explosive power!

I truly feel that once you can move your own body this way and develop power using alignment and compression you'll be able to add it into all of your techniques and eventually reduce the outward movement for efficiency.

Pat started off with a base in gymnastics according to her website - that kind of body awareness has obviously helped her in her current training. Most folks who walk into the dojo may not have a history of collegiate-level sports skills - so we need to do what we can to help everyone develop this awareness to their own best ability.

I'm glad to hear her school is going well, her students are training hard and to see that her own training is obviously strong.

Yahoo!

[Stryke]

Just wanted to note Gems clip again .

Classic use of body mechanics , I`m coming to beleive kotekitae is much more a remnant of a push hands type drill than just a conditioing excercise .

At least i`m using it this way .

this use of contact and leverage and power is what Uechi should be about IMHO , it`s very much to me a bridging style , incorporating both striking and grappling , but concentrating on the entry and disruption .

but thats just my Newbie observation .