Not Every Idea Works Out- then try again

Back in 1987-1988 I worked on a project of my own design. While not the way I had trained, in the magazines I read about systems that used to have brown belts write papers about their karate, and of systems requiring their students to maintain extensive note books.

 

As I thought about I came up with an amended design that I intended to use in my own program.

 

Not having my brown belts write papers. As far as I was concerned karate was experienced on the floor via correct training.

 

But I thought I might be useful to create a series of manuals for my students to use as they advanced. Not to hand them out as they were learning the various belt standards. Rather to hand to them when they advanced to newer more difficult challenges. Then to be serious reference of what they had studied, to try and better allow them to retain their studies.

 

So I created a very extensive series of manuals covering White, Yellow, Blue, Green and Brown Belt studies.  They went into detail of everything they had studies. So they would be something to assist them when preparing for Black Belt initiation and beyond. Showing them how they might document their studies in the future to better understand what they kept learning.

 

So I worked them all up. Then came to the realization that while that might have been useful for me,  it was not best those students who were advancing. Their material was correctly taught, and of course those lessons repeated as necessary from then on.  But the thing they needed was the understanding they really were responsible for all of it. No one thing was more important than everything.

 

I just ran across my sole copy of those documents, along with monthly newsletters that I distribute each month.

 

The newsletters were another attempt to share more ‘knowledge’ about Isshinryu But there I also realized that knowledge that was not being taught in class,  became vaporware for students. I was not teaching an academic Isshinryu after all.

 

But I retained what I wrote. It gives me a context how my program did and did not change as time passed. And brings other things to mind, supplemental drills,  that were set aside as time passed.  Often for other reasons,  always to create a stronger program for my students.

One of my successes were these Advanced Drills I created.

Advanced Upper and Lower Body Combinations

1.      High Block, Middle  Block,  Low Block – Reverse Punch

2.      Cross Block,  Front Kick,  Side Block,  Reverse Punch – Cross Block

3.     Low  Block,  High Block,  Shuto,  Front Kick – Back fist

4.     High ‘X’ Block, Augmented Block, Side Hammer fist – Reverse Punch

5.     Low ‘X’ Block, High ‘X’ Block, Side Hammer fist – Reverse Punch

6.     Low Block,  High Block, Low  ’X’ Block,  Side Block, Side Block – Front Kick.

7.     Back fist,  Elbow Strike, Low Block – Hook Punch

8.     Crescent Kick, Low Block, Side Block, High Block to Side,  Low Block – Side Block

9.     Side Hammerfist – Hook Punch

10.     Cross Block, Parry, Grab, Elbow Strike – Back fist

11.      Side Block, Back fist – Double Reverse Punch

12.     Crescent Kick, Low Block,  Side Hammer fist – Reverse Punch

13.     Back fist, Front Kick, Low Block, Reverse Punch – High Block

14.     Back fist,  Crescent Kick, Low Punch – Double High Block

15.     Front Kick, Roundhouse Kick – Side Kick

16.     Front Kick, Roundhouse Kick, Front Kick
 
17.     Front Kick, Roundhouse Kick, Side Kick – Back Side Kick

18.     Triple Roundhouse Kick – High, Middle, Low

19.      Outside Crescent Kick, Inside Crescent Kick – Side Kick

20.      Side Kick, Side Kick – Back Kick

21.      Side Kick, Side Kick,  Back Kick – Front Kick

22.       Front Kick, Front Kick – Jumping Front Kick

23.       Alternating Legs – Side Kick, Side Kick, Front Kick, Front Kick, Roundhouse Kick, Roundhouse Kick, Back Kick – Back Kick

When Victor became Santa

 Sunday, December 8, 2013

 https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2013/12/when-victor-became-santa.html

 

When Victor became Santa

 

A few years ago some friends from FightingArts.com came to visit me at my fathers. We swapped a few ideas. They took the photo of me and George Scott and photo shopped it to this form.  Although I no longer resemble this, I feel this way every Christmas. Have a Merry One!

Monday, May 16, 2022
The day a group from Fighting Arts.com came to visit me at my fathers house in Red Lion, Pa.

 https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-day-group-from-fighting-artscom.html

A Very Sinanju Christmas  

 A story from the Destroyer series Victor-verse.

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-very-sinanju-christmas.html

Drills from the elbow smash in Wansu

 February 6, 2010

If you really are in the study of Isshinryu you find gem’s of understanding in many arts that will help your journey.

Allow me to present an analytical study of one Siliat series because:  It’s a neat two person exercise – nothing wrong with enjoying your study.


Looking into the underlying principles yields understanding that helps in other places of our study.


The entire drill is an exercise in Wansu application.


The technique is Danny Inosanto presenting one Siliat technique application study on youtube.

 

 Dan Inosanto Serak Silat  2:03

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HrfkvPr4UU&t=11s

 

It definitely not Wansu but incorporates similar principles if you use your mind to see them.

 (note I often download the .flv file from youtube to save and use in future analysis and reference)




Next I have developed my own descriptive shorthand to describe two person interaction. It is never exactly the same as what is done on the floor, but it helps break the series into pieces making analysis easier.


The following is how I first describe how Danny Inosanto is working the technique series.


1. Attacker uses right low roundhouse

  1.a. Defender raises left leg to parry kick  (note how both arms are extended in front of the Defender)


2. Attacker returns right foot to ground and strikes with the right hand

  2.a. Defender presses across the Attackers punch with both arms  and counter right knee strikes into their abdomen



3. Attacker strikes with their left hand

  3.a. Defender just presses both hand into the inside of the Attacker’s strike to deflect it
  3.b. Then the Defenders right arm circles the attacker down (clockwise) to be followed with a right strike to the Attackers head – they shy from that strike.
  3.c.  Next the Defender’s left hand grabs the Attacker’s arm and the Defender’s right arm pulls back from the punch as he shifts slightly to the rear. This drags the Defender forward destroying their center and balance.
  3.d. The Defender concludes by using their right arm to circle behind the Attacker’s head and rotate them down to the ground, following them down for effect.



So we have three main attack sequences and three sets of defensive counters taking place at close range inside an attack.




Analysis of Underlying Principles (in no particular order).


Keeping the arms out in front begins a protective barrier against attack. This resembles the kamae in Wansu kata. Right punch or left punch the arms are just inserted into the attack to deflect it (interior and exterior line of defense).


The close order defense against a low round kick is raising the lead foot into a rising knee strike that parries that kick. At that distance it is the quickest response Directly from Wansu’s closing sections.  Yes Wansu then turns that response into a kick, by using a fractal (or piece) the original movement you are actualizing other potentials.


Deeper analysis of replacing the foot after an attack. While not over emphasized in the sequence practice, to counter what may have been an incomplete attack, the quicker you can return the foot to the ground you can use that returning bounce to strike out harder. Offensively you can see how the counter attack comes from the bounce of the return foot.  But defense is the other side of the offensive use. The video shows the knee strike scoring, but if they had slightly shifted their center that following left is better countered by quickly returning the right knee strike leg to the ground to allow you to enter their attack with your kamae in force.



Insight into countering a counter.  



If the right punch is countered with the kamae, an immediate right chambering and left striking are a counter for that kamae.

If the knee strike is to be countered, using the left chamber right strike can insert into the knee strike attack to counter it.

All correctly structured two person sequences are always showing the attack, the counter and the counter to the counter. We most frequently see one and two, but can readily miss three is there too.

Point 4.c. above shows the problem with drawing obvious lines what is and isn’t an attack. Breaking this series into 3 sequences (useful of course) doesn’t necessarily imply those techniques stop and start by what you first observe. Only a slight shift in practice and it is an entirely different drill. To fully understand it you need to take those next steps at some point in practice.

Both sides of the drill are performing important studies. A correctly structured two person drill has both partners working on important studies.




More telling is the relationship between using this sequence to counter a knee strike with a punch to that showed by Harrill Sensei to counter a two hand press countering your Wansu knee strike and then driving that foot to the ground as your sequence closing punch strikes down into their lower abdomen, in towards their bladder.  Each case a study of counter to the counter.

Martial Literature and Reliability of what is published

 Saturday, August 29, 2020

Martial publications have certain characteristics (in no particular order):

1.     Most of them are one time vanity productions, Designed to fill a need, and make an immediate profit for the producer. Not to be sold on a continuing basis.

2.      Anything once in print becomes ‘truth’ liable to be repeated over and over in future authors works, And having been in print becomes a useful footnote.

3.     There is little verifiable martial history that is published in most books.  That does not mean the oral history is wrong, just unverifiable.

4.     And reality is that there are multiple histories based on differing viewpoints which have become realities for those students.

Working out which details are’ truth’ becomes a very complicated endeavor.

Take one real event in time, the Battle of Gettysburg from the American Civil War.

Literally thousands of books have been published to explain what occurred on those 3 days, and many more books are to be published in the future, for sure.

If one 3 day period generates so much publication, why would you believe any martial system would be less complicated to understand.

 

 
Not suggesting it should not be done,

Just there will be other points of view no matter what effort is made.

 

Bugsy Malone - So You Wanna Be A Boxer

There is a lot of truth in this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ9KtuRHXRc

The Bushi No Te Isshinryu story about Nijushiho

 Sunday, October 17, 2021

 

I learned Nijushiho (the 24 steps) when Tris taught it at the first Bushi No Te Summer Camp at an instructors clinic. That was back in 1981.  I did not learn its history, etc. Of course I remembered the form, even once competing with it in 1984 for fun. That camp experience was all the instruction I received.

 

Then in 1988 I was thinking of including one of Tris’ forms in my student curricula, thinking I would teach Bassai Dai.  Tris was up for a clinic and to attend a tournament over at Richie  Beernard's and I asked him about my idea, however he thought I should teach Nijushiho an then proceeded to teach the form and its bunkai the next day for a clinic.

 

Note I did video the entire clinic (viewing that video series one time, then setting it aside).

 

During the clinic I did not pay much attention to how he taught, instead working with everyone to help them learn the form. I spent more time on the applications.

 

The next week when I saw everyone practicing I noticed some technique sequences were a bit different  from what I did, and I worked to correct them, figuring out some memories were incorrect. And the version we did was what I was originally taught.

 

Never really went forward exploring his bunkai, probably because I was getting into my own bunkai paradigm at that time.

 

Those videos were VHS decades later I copied them onto CD’s and finally saved them on YouTube.

 

One day 20 years after the clinic I actually viewed  those videos and I discovered the Nijushiho kata Tris taught then was not the version I was showed at that summer camp.

 

What I believed Tris showed at the clinic was his source Nijushiho Kata that he would teach to his students. And then the version I learned was the bunkai version of Nijushiho kata. An amended version, for I had learned that when black belts study the bunkai of a kata, they get an amended version of that kata to mnemonically help them for their studies. That version was to remain secret for them alone. I believe, helped by too much drinking, that he taught the bunkai version at that summer camp. Not believing anyone would remember it. Of course we know I did and practiced it for a decade too.

 

After I saw what the video showed I know I shared  that information with you, your decision what to teach going forward.

 

Just saw an old blog post on Nijushiho Applications at https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2015/12/nijushiho-bunkai-notes-from-1988.html

 

But my notes were scanned and are not easy to read. So I created this .pdf of the notes. And these are the original videos my notes came from 

 

 

Young Lee performing my Nijushiho 

 

This is now Tris taught the clinic.

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 1

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 2

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 3

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 4

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 5

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 6

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 7

Sutrisno Nijushiho Clinic 8

 

Everything is a story with me.

Shaped Charges Redoux

 

As I think back on it one of the more interesting principles I got from Sherman Harrill was that the manner of striking could be more than hard or soft, but the manner of striking could be to deliver a variety of shaped charges into an opponent’s body. This would be ever so much more than just striking making a more complete use of the Isshinryu system. At least from my perspective.

 
To begin I would put the manner of striking. From what I learned Sherman used three different methods (which paralleled  two of which I was originally taught.)

 
First there was the fast vertical strike with the tight fist.

 
Second was the fast vertical strike with the fist kept lose until the moment of impact, then the fist would tighten for the strike to then loosen on the fist retraction.  This strike creates a shock wave into the opponents body where the strike wave rises through the torso to reach into  the opponent’s throat,

 
Third was a very slight change to the first 2 strikes, but instead of striking with the first 2 knuckles of the vertical fist, the strike would shift to strike instead with the ridge of knuckles of the fist being used. This would create a smaller striking surface and a more intense pain experience from those strikes.
 

Of the above 3 methods one was not better than the other, each had their uses and in the end it the one used stopped the attack, it was a successful strike.
 

A different method of striking involved the retraction of the fist after an initial strike. It would become a slashing retraction of the fist chambering process, using a strike unexpected by the opponent, in effect the initial strike becoming a 1-2 strike.

 
Before I go further to clarify whatever use of the initial hand technique (block or strike) the act of the changer allows this process to become another strike.
 

Targets could be the side of the chest, the side of the neck, the side of the head, or a slashing strike unto a block into the opponents other striking limb.
 

 But that chamber strike did not stop there because the act of chambering could also be an elbow strike to an opponent behind you. Everything was situational.
 

I ever recall one example where the right strike was into the opponents lower right abdomen, then becoming a 2nd glancing strike to the other side of the body ending up with a vertical thumb strike across the underside of the opponents striking arm. Then to become another vertical thumb strike to the underside of that arm as the chambering of the fist beginning, to continue into a slashing strike into their ribs. One movement becoming 5 separate strikes. Unleashing a whole range of pain into the attacker.
 

Yet another sort of shaped charge came from the 2nd row of techniques in Kata Seisan. The movement where the palm rises then turns over. This movement potential offers two different shaped charges.

 
As the palm sweeps up it can be used to be a palm strike into the lower abdomen. This too creates a shock wave that rises into the opponents torso.  Not to be forgotten would be the use of such a strike into the kidney area of the opponents back.

 
Then when the rising of the arm is finished the hand can overturn and the back of the hand can be used as a striking surface that fits into the side of the neck, under the jaw of the opponent. The use of this target allows you back hand to deliver a descending shock into the opponent. This move can destabilize or even KO the opponent.

 
Then there is the issue of nukite strikes into the armpit. Where the strike inserted in one direction can cause one leg to buckle or in another direction can cause the other leg to buckle. Hooking the nukite down yields a very different potential.
 

The armpit has no natural protection making such strikes even akin to KO.

 
Even the use of kicks can deliver shock waves into the opponents body. How depends on the use of the kick selected.
 

This is not a complete study of every possible use of shaped strike charges in Isshinryu. Just a presentation of one potential rarely discussed.


Post Script

 

    These are not just words in a blog. Of course they are that.

    But these are some of the experiences my students and I felt, bent and dropped, experienced from Sherman. They contain the wisdom of pain.

    Several times Sherman privately explained to me he was always holding back, because everyone at those clinics were not his students. He had not trained them and did not intimately know how any of us would respond to the full pain of such a response. Then because of time, there was much that he put into his own studies and actual students he could not cover. There just was never enough time to attempt that.

    What he was doing is providing a view of what he saw within the Isshinryu system. A starting point should any be committed enough to continue.

    Five years after his death I was able to attend a clinic with his senior student, John Kerker. It was then I saw the full application of such techniques again, and again and again. From John from other of his own clinics, I obtained a fuller idea of what Sherman was talking about.

    May my students continue to be inspired by what Sherman showed.

Karate and the question of Super Heroes.

 8-13-2021

When you begin it is if you are taken to a gigantic ladder, given a white belt and begin to climb.

The belt shows you where you are on that ladder.

Then when you climb higher, you reach rungs where you get different belts. Purple, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, Brown and finally you are ready to test for a youth black belt. And there are three levels to that.

All of those belts are not rewards, but indicators that you are ready for new challenges. And on the average that journey takes 7 to 9 years. You can see some of those members who have already spent years in this class. Along that journey your body changes, and you have developed many skills.

The journey is the same as for the adult members, but because they have more control of their time, and are not in school, which is more important, and because many of you are in other sports too, the journey takes longer. The ranking system used for the adults cover the same steps, but the at a different pace.

Reaching Black Belt (of any category – youth or adult) does not mean you are a fighter, or supposed to fight with people. Rather it indicates that you are now a beginner. The ladder stretches far into the sky, How long a black belt will climb depends on what the black belt themselves need from the training..They have earned the right to make that decision on their own, but if asked I would assist them.

Adult black belts are new black belts, learning how to begin to use the skills they have developed. Black belts then may be training for their own purposes, or they may be training to contribute to the art, of they might begin training to eventually become instructors after say 20 years of training, as well as for many other reasons. As an example I have been training over 40 years, and still have more to learn, I told you that ladder stretches a long way up and still higher.

 

Karate is not a comic book training. The goal to be able to defend yourself is complex, and takes a long time.

On the other hand those who are black belts are Super Heroes. Each one here is my Super Hero for sharing in the training. Assisting me, even becoming the instructors.

What Charles heard in 1971 when training with Shinso Shimabuku,

Charles Murray was trained in how to perform Chinkuchi (what he heard as Chinkotz in 1971) by Shinso Shimabuku when he was stationed in the US Airforce on Okinawa. He later trained with Angi Uzeu. At my request he shared his training experiences with me on a visit to Derry in the 2010's.


As the year closes I have found an old video that Charles Murray made for me on time while visiting me. It shows what he was shown about Chinkotz (Chinkuchi) when he trained on Okinawa with Shinso (or as he heard it Cecil) Shimabuku, as he called him at that time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRgES2WzQmE

Karate Clinic in Cambridge - 9.28.20

 
Earlier I held a small clinic in Derry, the instructors were Jim Keenan, Fred Lohse and myself.

Folliwing that Fred invited me down to Cambrider, Mass for a small clinic for his own students.

I visited a Goju/Mataoyshi Kobudo group in Cambridge, Mass this day. The instructor Fred Lohse, is a friend of Joe Swift’s and his school has previously studied Bando Stick with me.


My clinic was explaining, demonstrating and teaching the basic principles of movement as I present them to my advanced students in Bushi No Te Isshinryu.


I used my basic form (Fukyugata Sho, with IR stance, blocks and strikes) to demonstrate how we utilize Stance, the Crescent Step, alignment theory, Breathing (intra and inter technique) in the development of power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jud6cd3vdkg

 

 

We explored how a technique may be defined (one move, or various groups of moves) with Fukyugata Sho.


Then we explored multiple striking, continuous striking and Chinese Jing Do as applied to Okinawna karate, still continuing to use Fukyugata Sho for the movement base.


Then we explored applications from Seisan and Seiunchin kata. His group presenting theirs and I, the ones we practice.   I also demonstrated our basic aikido practices.


I demo’ed several forms. Chosen No Kama Dai,  and the first section of Faan Tzi Ying Jow Pai Hon(g) Kuen.

Afterwards, the obligatory Chinese meal was enjoyed by all.

Hawaii Karate Museum Collection

 Tuesday, December 29, 2020

 

A martial treasure trove.

 

The University of Hawaii has a collection of ebooks of early books on karate that is awesome.

 

https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/1054

Hawaii Karate Museum Collection

The Okinawa Collection of UHM’s Hamilton Library received a major donation of books, magazines and multi-media resources (over 700 books and CDs/DVDs/video tapes) on karate from the Hawaii Karate Museum. With this important donation, UHM Hamilton Library has become a major resource for Okinawan/Japanese martial arts. The majority of the books are accessible at the Asia and East general collections (3rd & 4th floors). Over 260 rare books and journals have been placed in the Asia Special Collections (4th floor). Advance appointments are necessary to use materials in the Asia Special Collections. The use of the digitized materials on this website is limited to individual research and study

 

The titles available on line can be found at 

https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/1054/browse?type=title&submit_browse=Title

The following specific list for karate can be found at

https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/1054/browse?type=title&submit_browse=Title

 

Issue Date	Title
1958	Anata no mi o mamoru zukai setsumei karate gokui kyohan
1948	How to use the yawara stick for police
1966	Kaitei shashin zukai karate jutsu nyumon hyakuman nin no goshinjutsu
1967	Karate hayawakari
1956	Karate jotatsu ho
1959	Karate kenpo: goshinjutsu hiden (Chinese reprint)
1959	Karate kyohon jodoryu
15-Dec-43	Karate nyumon
1955	Karate-do
1957	Kassatsu jizai saishin goshin hijutsu zensho: zukai setsumei danjo oyo kyoteki hisshoho
1952	Kendo to shinai kyogi
1955	Me de miru karate nyumon
1956	Nyumon shinsho zukai karate nyumon: shindo jinen-ryu
1956	Okugi hijutsu karate-do
1951	Raifu gojunen kinen: Hawai Okinawa kenjin shashincho: tsuketari Hawai to Okinawa fukei
1952	The secret teachings of self-defense: jujutsu... of the yamato school
1940	Seinen goshinjutsu
195	She mao he hun xing quan
1959	Shoho yori okugi made zukai setsumei karate-do koza
1958	Tangsoo-do kyobon
1957	Zukai karate-do kyohon
1952	Zukai setsumei goshin-jutsu: kobudo kenpo karate katsuyo
1955	Zukai setsumei karate-do nyumon: hyakuman nin no goshinjutsu
1955	Zukai setsumei karate-do nyumon: hyakuman nin no goshinjutsu
Chinese Karate
195	She mao he hun xing quan
Itosu Anko
1956	Okugi hijutsu karate-do

 

Note these volumes are in Japanese. However when you select to view a specific work it opens a .pdf file to brose a copy of the book.

 

Even if y9u can’t read Japanese you can view the photos of the books or even copy them with tne normal .pdf restrictions.

 

This does not describe everything there.