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I personally don't like to practice the kata only one way, I like to do them in a variety of ways, often depending on my mood at the time. Sometimes the stereotypical Japanese karate, hard and snappy with a lot of stop and go; sometimes the stereotypical southern Chinese, fast, fluid, and energized; sometimes the stereotypical Taiji, very slow, soft, and flowing; sometimes a combination of these.

I'll admit I'm not very good at the first or fourth ways and lean toward the second and third, but I try to pay attention to the mechanics and principles that each way is trying to tell me. There is no reason to get locked into only one way of performing a kata, in my opinion.

Borrowing performance speed, focus, and energy from other styles and applying them to your kata can be very educational. Moreso in my opinion than learning a bunch of kata from the other styles, because this way you always have the same kata pattern as your baseline.

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Glenn

there is a lot more to it than just muscle tension and speed .

A lot of technical changes also

the shotokai/shotokan diversity is a prime example , a clearly more synchronous movement in keeping the harmonies aligned .

where as the shotokan power is celarly sequential summation of joint forces .

egads were way of topic ........ didnt mean to highjack the thread .

Let the conversation flow...

When we take the crane on rock posture and start adding movement to it we get all kinds of neat things. John's example of how Mr. Gushi does it for example. I don't think you can discuss karate "postures" without discussing various methods of movement.

Gushi's version of the "salute" sounds a bit like the very brief right hand "salute" in Kanku and Heian Yondan which seems to be a block but also loading the shuto.

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I was dreaming of the past...

And just for reference (if anybody cares) here is Gankaku (Crane on Rock). In this case the lack of flow makes it easier to follow.

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I was dreaming of the past...

WOW, that is an awesome kata and expression.

Thanks for that.

Marcus,
I found a site hosting the Shotokai kata video.

Click Here

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I was dreaming of the past...

Warning: Necro Thread!

Hey Bill,
A variation in everyones favorite bird stance and a few more applications to go with it.
It takes a full minute to get to the actual lesson though the intro is worth mining all by itself.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bTr-aPnKY

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I was dreaming of the past...

Hello.

Too bad the thread is too old and the photos are gone. Can someone repost (or link to) the original photo of Kanei Sensei that generated the thread?

Too much weekend time on my hands, now that Japanese schools are into the summer break...

Seizan

Hello, Seizan! Glad to have you on board.

I had to read a bit of my reply to Mike's original post. From it and the references I gave, I'm 100% certain that it was of Uechi Kanei in a "Seisan jump" posture. I made references to other kata where pieces of that posture (e.g. the high-low arm position) can be found with a slight variation on the theme. For example the relative supination/pronation of the hands in this high/low hand posture is affected by the absence (Uechi Kanei) or presence (tonfa or sai) of weapons in the hand. The idea is to present a "receiving surface" if you will for your intercepting forearms. The leg lift may or may not be involved, depending on whether you're considering the leg either as flinching from an attack to it, or even presenting a third receiving surface.

As I read my comments to Mike, I can visualize what I was commenting on. I tend to do my upper arm like the boxer's "answer the telephone" posture that they use to intercept a hook or haymaker. What you sometimes see some Uechi practitioners do is something like a "salute" with the fingers touching the forehead. That makes no martial sense to me. But that would be something I believe a military person finds natural within the context of saluting a military peer.

I hope that helps. And feel free to punch holes in my thinking. They're just opinions after all.

- Bill

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about, Seizan. And thanks to the two young students here who are allowing me to critique their form.

..... >> Photo removed due to a peripheral issue -- Bill <<

If these were my students, then I would make the following three "suggestions". And again... these are my opinions and my approach.

• Change the upper arm from the current position. I would tell the student to visualize taking a cell phone and answering it. I reinforce the posture by putting some light gloves on and having them do looping punches to my head. The perfect intercepting posture doesn't collide with the looping punch, and doesn't reach out to it. Rather it feels to the puncher as if his fist is jumping off a ski slope. There's no sense of collision.
  
  More importantly... you get your fingers the hell away from the eyes. In a fight, Murphy's law applies.
  ...
• Change the lower arm posture to one where the tips of the fingers are pointed out and to their left. As Takamiyagi once told me (and I loved it...), this is nothing more than another Sanchin nukite pointing sideways. The cupped-hand posture can be used either to attack (tips of fingers) or to catch.
  ...
• As with the upper hand, changing the leg posture to one of a ramp rather than a surface to collide with. I often challenge people to kick me in the nuts, and show how I can intercept their kick without any painful leg collision. The same would be true of any lateral swinging motion of a weapon. You don't "block" it; you receive and/or redirect it. If a blade, you're using both hip flexion and lower leg tilting to avoid contact as quickly as possible.

With either tonfa or sai in the hands, the forearm orientations change. In the context of having those weapons, you now reorient the forearm to intercept with the surface of those weapons. Your hard weapon surfaces can be attacking the incoming attack. So the upper forearm is farther away from the head. And the lower leg is safely tucked far away from an incoming weapon.

Here are some weapon variations on the theme. Note the subtle differences.













I hope that helps.

- Bill

Hello Bill,

If I knew how to post photos to the forum, I would have posted the one I thought the thread referred to. It wouldn't have been that pose (Crane ready position) but I'll allow that it might be.

The two young students in your first photo... Please write me off-line. You know my e-mail.

By now I think you are aware there are elements of the style that have been eliminated since Kanbun Sensei's day. I have an already-published (therefore public-knowledge) article to send you, if you e-mail me. Nothing "private", just some good info.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Seizan

Will do, Seizan. Always fun to learn!

Congrats on your published article.

- Bill

Bill,

Read again, I wrote "I have an already-published article", not "my published article".

The article is an interview with Takamiyagi Sensei.

The two young students in the first photo - they permitted you to critique them? Whose students are they, please? Nice dojo.

Seizan