Hidden Techniques

[Dana Sheets]

Always digging deeper into the kata - always looking for another interpretation -- is this something we're doing because we're unclear on the combat principles of Uechi-ryu (or any style for that matter?)

Is looking for hiddent techniques just of a function of boredom or is there actually another layer to kata that we're missing. Do katas teach ground techqniues from a standing position? Do low stance techniques also work from a high stance?

Are we trying, from time to time, to turn an apple into an orange?

Dana

[Bill Glasheen]

Dana

One of the things I liked about my aikido training and my observation of good judoka is that I saw how you could take a single technique and come up with a dozen or more different ways to pull it off. Take for example the classic kote gaeshi (wrist rotation). Most people start with a weak punch, go with it, get the proper grip, and then do the deed. Next you do an overhead strike. Then you do someone grabbing one wrist. Then both wrists from the front. Then both wrists from behind. Etc, etc.

A good judoka and a good jujistsu practitioner often spend all their time trying to get A SINGLE favorite technique to work. They wrestle here, they grapple there, they pull, they push, they shoot... Then it's a shoulder throw for the judoka, or an elbow hyperextension for the BJJ guy.

I know some folks seem to think that kata have these single, fairly direct meanings. This technique means so and so. This other one means that. Why? Because master Okihotstuff said so. That's the one, secret, original way passed down for centuries, and only revealed to those that know the secret handshake. Yada, yada, yada. Great! Go for it.

Me? I have been lucky (yes, lucky) enough not to have a great master tell me what it all means. I never had the gift of some of the Okinawa greats at my beck and call. So I had to study here, play there, spar with this person, watch that video, etc, etc.

I picked up a lot of stuff. For a long time, I would find that I had forgotten 10 times what I remembered.

But I kept doing my kata. And I kept working out with whomever would let me bow into their group.

And then I'd be doing some non-Uechi form or partner exercise, and experience this strong sense of deja vu. Why could I suddenly do this new technique right out of the blocks? Then I realized that it felt an awful lot like that technique in a form in my root system. It would happen in a yakusoku kumite. It would happen when someone online was talking about a contemporary martial artist. It would happen when a sparring guru was teaching a sparring technique. It kept happening again, and again, and again.

You know what? The more times I could make connections, the more the stuff stuck. And when a new technique stuck to something I was doing in a kata, it would (ever so slightly) influence the way I did the movement. It would make me want to find the simplest, most general way to do that movement. My kata became more and more abstract as I found more things to stick to individual movements.

You know what this process has done for me? It has made everything SIMPLER. I have less to remember. I don't really have to study 50 forms. I can take a handful and stick tons of things to them.

It works for me. Others have their own way to approach the problem.

- Bill

[Dana Sheets]

Good thoughts Bill.

I guess what I'm poking at is the difference between Martial Skills and a Style.

To me, there are endless combat skills to be learned - but each is a stand alone technique. Sure you need to learn how to set it up, and how to follow up, but those are around the particular skill.

A style on the other hand is a set of principles - grouped either loosely or formally. Wing Chun, for example, makes much of the fact that the style has very formal principles. Uechi-ryu - on the other hand, seems to me much less formal and therefore, much less clear on what are the defining principles of the style.

Is it worth it to try and articulate those Uechi principles?
Dana

[This message has been edited by Dana Sheets (edited August 07, 2002).]

[Bill Glasheen]

I happen to think that Uechi ryu is very principle oriented. In fact IMHO, it is the reason why there are so few kata. One need not get into a bunch of specifics if you can get the message across with a handful of principles codified in prearranged movement.

The fact that I personally see (or can attach) so many movements in a single kata technique says to me that these kata are more about principles than specifics. If someone else only sees a single movement and thinks I am trying to make apple juice out of oranges (to use your analogy), then that person thinks that the kata are more about specifics and less about principles. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

Is it worth it to try and articulate those Uechi principles?

Yes!

Here's a start:

1) Whenever possible, keep your head over the center. Whenever possible, seek to disrupt your opponent's control of center.

2) All significant power starts at the center and goes out - whether it be by hand or by foot.

3) Keep the arms up front, and the elbows protecting the ribs.

4) Choose efficiency over total power.

5) Go for vulnerable targets first.

6) Seek to control the opponent as quickly as possible.

7) Breathe when you need to take a breath.

8) Think "rock, paper, sizzors."

9) Think offense when in defensive mode.

10) Seek to occupy the center space (between you) first.

Considering the general nature of these examples, that should confirm my beliefs.

- Bill

[Stryke]

Just to add a thought , I sometimes feel unfortunately sometimes one has to step outside style to truly look at the martial skills , application wise i feel ive learnt far more observing other styles than pratising my own , not so much in copying there ways , but recognising commanalities and strengths and weaknesses in both interpretations .

I was just watching a bjj clip and the combination was straight out of my kata , well an interpretation was .