Bowing Question for GEM

[Allen M.]

Bowing question for George.

Hello Mattson Sensei. I considered disguising myself as a white-belt to find out how bowing was being taught to Uechi-ryu students these days, because I never have seen anyone else teach how to do it, except for Van, and only lately.

The way to stand at attention to bow has been a sore-spot between Chong and I for years. I learned to stand at “Uechi-ryu attention” with my feet angled at 90 or so degrees. Chong says feet together and parallel (different country, different martial art). I know of no one who starts their kata with their feet together and parallel in Uechi-ryu.

Please shed some light as to your method of doing this.


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Allen, now at his new website http://www.ury2k.com/pulse/index.htm

[gmattson]

I can only define 'bowing' in the context it was taught to me.

Heels touching, feet angled outward. Someone explained that the meaning behind this stance was a transition from an average, everyday posture to a martial art's correct stance. (parallel foot position)



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GEM

[Allen M.]

Thanks, George.

One of my students calls it a "Penguin Stance" and has difficulty starting his bow that way.

Heels touching... A person with short feet would have difficulty pivoting out to shoulder-width on only one pivot.

When senseis Higa and Takamiyagi spent some time with Chong and I several years ago concerning my second and third books, Chong seeked an answer from them as to why the bow was done with the feet angled open, and I believe sensei Takamiyagi said something like that was the way it was done. To me that meant "Tradition." Maybe someone just did it that way and everyone followed him.

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Allen, now at his new website http://www.ury2k.com/pulse/index.htm

[Shelly King]

Hi Allen

Funny you should mention this...I was just reading Uechi 2000 last night on sanchin. We do the feet angled with heels touching but we don't do the pivot thing shown in the book...we just step out with the left foot into heiko dachi.

[Allen M.]

Hello Shelly,

The one thing I found standard in Uechi-ryu is that there are few standards, one of the reason I put in the opening page "...follow your instructor..."

Sometimes, even the simplest things most take for granted, like the opening bow and associated movements, tend to bug me.

I've practiced at least three or four different ways of doing the opening movements. Sometimes I illustrated differences in techniques and such, but didn't want Uechi-ryu 2000 to degenerate into a catalog of different ways to do the same thing.

Have been designing a new webpage that focuses around Uechi-ryu 2000, and will post it as soon as the next printing is out. Feel free to send email to <A HREF="mailto:uechi@ici.net">uechi@ici.net</A> at any time concerning issues you may have.

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Allen, now at his new website http://www.ury2k.com/pulse/index.htm