Then about 1983
a student of mine (a yellow belt ) began to attend Ithica College and as she
was a former diving students of my wife’s swim coaching days, she stayed in
contact. She told us there was a Goju karate program at Ithica and that she
joined it. When she returned home at Winter break, and for Summer, she returned
to train with us. I became aware of how she progressed through that progam. Then
one day she invited me to come and watch her train, and I did that. Drove up to
Ithica, which was 2 hours from Scranton, to watch that program.
The instructor
was Ed Savage. What was unusual because I was there he left his students to
conduct their own training, instead spending the day with me. From the corner
of my eye I saw my first Goju Hondo Undo training. He and I talked, then I
showed my Isshinryu Seiunchin and he showed me his Goju Seiunchin. After that
he insisted I learn his Saifa kata. We spent the remaining class time on that
form.
And showing
anything new, I continued to practice it.
The next summer
Cindy heard that Ed was having a summer training session outside along one the
lakes outside of Ithica, and she asked me if I would like to come along.
I did and again
Ed ignored the students to conduct their own training. Instead he showed me how
to do, Shiochin and Sansriryu kata. Even giving me some text printouts of
Saifa, Seiunchin, Shiochin and Sanseiryu. Of course that meant I really knew
next to nothing,
As the years
passed I visited other Goju dojo, and when requested (possibly because they
wanted to have some fun with me, I jumped into the kata being done, frequently
Saifa. And they were surprised that I was able to follow along.
Of course all of
those versions were different versions. I just did what that school did. Never
attempting to keep to one pure version. I practiced what I am sure became a
mutated version of Saifa.
I picked up an
early Panther VHS of a Japanese instructor covering Saifa.
Then when in
Derry, a local Goju school rented the Boys and Girls Club to hold a seminar
with Chinen Sensei, where among many
other things he covered all his kata. His
Saifa was done to, again different from what I had learned. (irrelevant
aside, the Goju school who had brought him in, after he departed, their
students were told not to practice their kata that way, but of course that is another story.)
Now this was way
before the internet, very few sources for any Goju information back then except
for the magazines. It was not very clear what Goju organizations there were.
Shortly
thereafter I added supplemental mandatory training to my kyu progam. Those form
studies were
Fyugata Sho
Shorin,
Annaku Shorin,
Saifa Goju,
Nijushiho Shotokan
and
Supple Dragon
Pai Lum.
There were a
number of reasons for this occurring.
1. I wanted to honor my friends who shared with
me.
2. I wanted to
slow down the course for instruction for the youth I was teaching.
3. I wanted all
of my students to touch a piece of those systems, thus with some knowledge of
what others studied they might be a touch more comfortable should the day come
when ever they might face them.
There was much
more behind my decisions but these are sufficient for now,.
So in the case
of Saifa I was no longer sure which version I was doing, and of course I didn’t
care which if any tradition it followed. That I had a version was sufficient
for me, and that in turn was what I taught. This would be about 1987 or so.
Of course over
the decades I taught this Saifa, and studied it, the more I became to
appreciate it Then when I went further into my Isshinryu application studies, I
found many reasons why I appreciated it even more.
I never sought
out more Goju training. That was not my purpose.
I came, I saw
and I guess I conquered, whatever that means.
I am sure
somewhere in my notebooks that scan of saifa is there. Somewhere. Someday it
might show up. Perhaps it would be interesting to see how far I varied what I
was originally shown. Perhaps in time.
So here is mine.
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