This weekend, I have finally got the opportunity to be taught by Ana-Sensei from the Tora Shotokan Dojo in Tasmania. Senseis Catharine, Ben and Andrew are methodical and thoughtful in the way they teach. But it's also great to have different Sensei come and teach us new exercises 'cause they all have a different perspective on teaching. ; Sensei Arie focused on strengthening and flexibility exercises; and Sensei Ana showed us exercises that are good at showing the weaknesses of all the belts.
As 9th Kyuu, the kata that I will be grading in when I return to Australia will be Heian Shoudan. I'm not sure what shoudan means, but 平安 means "peace," which always confuses people. The first character can mean "flat" or in the broader sense, "unchanging," and is a simple character with no further meaning one can derive from radicals. The second character means "safety" in both Japanese and Chinese. The components of the second character are a woman under a roof. Despite all this knowledge about language, I have no idea why the first kata of karate is a peaceful one.
I will try to explain the kata and what the movements mean to me. I invite any other practitioners of Shotokan to comment, because there is never enough time to discuss this sort of thing in the dojo.
In the Seminar, we did blind katas. This was interesting, because even some of the black belts froze or hesitated mid kata due to being unsure. And despite this, as Ana commented, most of us stuffed up our kata at some point and then recovered, before finishing. This reminded me of when I was a white belt and I was told to close my eyes whilst doing movements so that I could focus on what my body was doing. This had involved being guided into the perfect starting and ending positions for movements. This hadn't entirely worked because my problems arose from the way I moved and lack of arm/leg coordination rather than the static positions. But doing the movements blind worked from the point of view that I attained the concept of trying to do a certain thing with my body, but in such a way that I do not lose too much stability in my stance.
We also did katas in which we dragged two people either side of us. One thing I noticed was, how it was more effective to drag the people after stepping into stance and how similar this was to how the Senseis are always telling me to punch or block after I step.
Another thing we did was punch into the open hands of our partners, who had to push against the punch once it became stationary. I felt that if I pushed my blocking hip forward, my stance became stronger.
Doing the katas in the opposite direction was confusing for nearly everyone.
My biggest challenge in Karate at the moment is hand and feet coordination. I understand that in many movements, unless there is an exception specified, that the hand that is blocking or punching should be on the same side as the active leg (forward stance = active forward leg), and that the best way to block someone is to begin by matching the position of their forward leg. But I'm terrible at listening to instructions, often mixing up my right hand with my "other right hand."
As 9th Kyuu, the kata that I will be grading in when I return to Australia will be Heian Shoudan. I'm not sure what shoudan means, but 平安 means "peace," which always confuses people. The first character can mean "flat" or in the broader sense, "unchanging," and is a simple character with no further meaning one can derive from radicals. The second character means "safety" in both Japanese and Chinese. The components of the second character are a woman under a roof. Despite all this knowledge about language, I have no idea why the first kata of karate is a peaceful one.
I will try to explain the kata and what the movements mean to me. I invite any other practitioners of Shotokan to comment, because there is never enough time to discuss this sort of thing in the dojo.
- Zenkutsu Dachi (前屈立ち）: Front stance (first character means front, third character means stand). The purpose of the stances is to have the correct balance of stability and movement. The lower and wider your stance is, the more stability you have, but if it is too wide or low, it may become too slow and irresponsive.
- Gedan berai (下段べらい）: The low block. You are turning to the side and covering the region from your legs to your stomach from kicks or punches. You are moving your hips forward because you want to prepare to punch or kick and use the force from your hips, legs and feet to do so. You are timing your breathing with the moment so that the breath is as fast as the movement.
- Churn chokuzuki（中段直ずき）: The power of the forward mid-height punch depends a lot on the previous block.
- The high block after the first 180° turn: grabbing free of an attacker who is clutching your arm and hitting them on the head with the edge of your forearm.
- Ageuke (上げ受け/lit: rising block): Using the edge of your arm to drive away strikes directed towards your upper body.
- Koukutsu dachi (後屈立ち: lit back bending stance): a very narrow stance that can be stabilised by lowering, but enables one to approach their attackers from various angles (the two 45° stances in the kata being a good example).
- Nukite block: the block that accompanies Koukutsu dachi.
In the Seminar, we did blind katas. This was interesting, because even some of the black belts froze or hesitated mid kata due to being unsure. And despite this, as Ana commented, most of us stuffed up our kata at some point and then recovered, before finishing. This reminded me of when I was a white belt and I was told to close my eyes whilst doing movements so that I could focus on what my body was doing. This had involved being guided into the perfect starting and ending positions for movements. This hadn't entirely worked because my problems arose from the way I moved and lack of arm/leg coordination rather than the static positions. But doing the movements blind worked from the point of view that I attained the concept of trying to do a certain thing with my body, but in such a way that I do not lose too much stability in my stance.
We also did katas in which we dragged two people either side of us. One thing I noticed was, how it was more effective to drag the people after stepping into stance and how similar this was to how the Senseis are always telling me to punch or block after I step.
Another thing we did was punch into the open hands of our partners, who had to push against the punch once it became stationary. I felt that if I pushed my blocking hip forward, my stance became stronger.
Doing the katas in the opposite direction was confusing for nearly everyone.
My biggest challenge in Karate at the moment is hand and feet coordination. I understand that in many movements, unless there is an exception specified, that the hand that is blocking or punching should be on the same side as the active leg (forward stance = active forward leg), and that the best way to block someone is to begin by matching the position of their forward leg. But I'm terrible at listening to instructions, often mixing up my right hand with my "other right hand."
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