Warning... Warning
If you are not my student or a practitioner of Isshinryu Karate, please do not read further. LOL
While not exactly what I am describing,
this is the closest diagram I have found relating to this topic.
Today I am recalling one of the most powerful lessons I ever learned. It came one rainy night when I was performing my t'ai chi chaun before my instructor, Ernest Rothrock. After 15 years of effort in my studies that 1993 night, he immediately began criticizing everything I was doing. Then he had be begin again and continually had me stopping and gave me a lightest touch continually causing me to lose my balance and continually tumble to the ground.
Obviously I felt very incompetent, wondering how those many years of study went so wrong. However Ernest explained the same happened to him after 15 years of study too. Then he explained why it was occuring and more importantly how to correct it and become better.
I learned an important lesson that night. The next week when I returned to my karate class, I worked out it applied to Isshinryu too. Asked Young Lee to perform Seisan, and to mistakenly hold his left shoulder back a 1/2". I then lightly touched his chest and he immediately fell down. Then I had him perform Seisan correctly and the light touch had no effect on him. Proving the same principles applied.
So I had a new tool to allow my students to perform stronger Isshinryu.
But by extension it also gave me and my students something else.
And of course they would just be performing Isshinryu exactly as they had been taught. No magic, just a way to learn why not to make mistakes (something everyone might do ).
For example when I would judge anyone, from any system, if I saw they were out of alignment, no matter what they did. It became an objective way to base my judging scores on.
Additionally understanding what was ocurring, I and my students could now know where to attack an opponents own mis-allignment.
A very powerful tool indeed.
Below is a paper I prepared for Joe Swift explaining this long ago shortly after we became internet friends.
Basic Energy Point Alignment
Private Paper for Joe Swift
This came from my studies in Yang Tai Chi Chaun with Ernest Rothrock, after 15 years of study. He demonstrated what I didn’t know and how to correct it. I then applied it to my karate students, and the vocabulary describing what we had been slowly working towards in our kata came into existence.
The basic theory behind energy point alignment is that when the parts of the body (symbolized by the energy alignment points) are correctly aligned, the bodies power is more fully harnessed in a technique.
The points used for alignment are on the front of the body. They are:
The 3rd eye
In the front of the right shoulder
In the front of the left shoulder
The Solar Plexus
In the front of the right hip
In the front of the left hip
The groin
Energy Point Alignment basically I think of alignment of a triangulation of lines coming off from the points. If the shoulder points center on the center-line (from the solar plexus) they are aligned.
The example we used, your stepping out with a left front side block, required the block stopping aligned with the left shoulder and hip points, A fraction of an inch off, and a simple touch to the left shoulder point causes you to buckle, where as correct alignment remains solid when touched.
Even the placement of the eyes (to be on the center-line) can affect the alignment.
Essentially a correct technique will be aligned, not open to body buckling if an energy point is touched, and the alignment increases power behind the technique.
How to teach
First keep it non-verbal. When somebody is doing a technique wrong, touch a point and prove it to yourself, then correct their position and touch again, proving they’re now in alignment.
Eventually you’ll recognize the alignment scheme you’re using for your art from sight (BTW you likely already are doing this when you correct a student, this just gives you a tactile overview why you’re making the correction.
But basic technique correction is only the opening to the story.
Next take a basic kata, (not an advanced one) and make sure the students are executing it 100%, or begin working towards it. There you begin working alignment in more advanced motion (than just one technique). I use Fyugata Sho for this as I really like the technique series.
In time you can vary the timing, breathing patterns, even techniques, but keep reinforcing correct technique (alignment).
Wait until they begin really getting that kata down, then slowly transfer that to their other kata studies. Consistence in movement pattern, alignment and breathing all will help move towards better technique.
Subsidiary values
I discover anytime the two hands are together (as in Chinto’s ‘X’ blocks, or Seiunchin’s augmented block) what actually is happening the 2nd hand is keeping the body alignment correct, increasing power correspondingly.
Likewise, when working a lock, having the 2nd hand involved (even with slight touch) keeps the body alignment more correct, increasing the power of the technique. This also is where you discover keeping the eyes and the center-line focused on the area being locked, and rolling the center to counter and then work into the attacker, increases the power too.
The touching hand is an automatic countering device against grappling, the slight touch keeps your alignment, and disrupts the perfect touching of both attacker and defenders bubbles of focus that must be perfect for a lock to work. Couple that with the knee release mechanism, and almost instantly an automatic grab counter is born.
In the very complex book on tai chi chaun, “Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan” by Fu Zhongwen, he goes into incredible detail on a very small piece of the tai chi movement, showing how the energy point (the focus of the alignment points IMO) moves around in technique execution. What I take from this, is the moving point is actually changing the alignment for an incredible array of different fractal uses, within a simple technique series.
Thus this can be a simple or as complex as you wish.
Other theories describe alignment in bow theory. This always seems like alignment described from the rear of a person. By keeping 5 bows in correct position the power and energy of a technique is enhanced.
In fact, the basic theories behind Kishaba Juku, always seemed to me to draw upon the same theory. And the root is likely a verbalization of correct tai chi theory.
Should you be further interested in Energy Point Alignment here are a variety of posts I have made to my blog:
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2013/06/basics-of-energy-point-alignment.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2021/01/how-sherman-harrill-increased-his-power.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2017/07/correct-alignment.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-diagram-showing-energy-point-alignment.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2012/05/borrowed-from-2004-on-power.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2017/11/an-issue-of-alignment.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2024/01/attacking-balance-points.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2022/10/isshinryu-alignment.html
https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2015/07/shishee-and-haabeeruu.html
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