Sherman Harrill Birthday Rememberance

Today marking what would have been the birthday of Sherman Harrill, I wish nothing but good memories for his students and friends.

 

 

I was not a student of Sherman Harrill.

 

In fact one evening Garry Gerossie walked onto my dojo and asked to attend the class for the night. Garry was from Concord an hour north of me, and we had met at a few local tournaments. So I knew him and of course knew nothing of him.

 

He watched some of what we were working on then remarked it was similar to what his instructor was teaching him. He then offered to show what he meant, and showed an application for Seisan kata, one I had not seen before. Of course we were intreagued.

 

Garry then explained to me he was training with Sherman Harrill from Carson, Iowa. That and he understood Sherman trained on Okinawa the same time my instructor, Tom Lewis, trained there. I knew nothing about Sherman.

 

Garry then invited me to attend a clinic he was having Sherman teach at, and I decided to go.

 

When I got there at Garry’s school, I met Sherman. He explained that on Okinawa he trained alongside Tom and that Tom had brought his silks back from Okinawa when his tour was finished. He also clearly explained he was not looking for new students. So I responded “that’s ok, for I am not looking for a new Sensei.”

 

After that opening, both of us were cool.

 

And I watched Sherman, go on and on and on, movement by movement, kata by kata a never ending exposition of what Isshinryu could do.

 

I had to travel for business the next day, as I was doing so I made noted of what I remembered. It was about 20 applications, strong applications. I would have fun showing them to the guy’s.

 

Now I was 25 years into my own study, many of those instructors I worked with were very impressive in their own right. But the depth that Sherman showed was very, very impressive too. For the life of me I could never decide which of them was the better martial artist (For there were 5 of them) each had different strengths.

 

My own art had more than enough to keep my busy for a lifetime. But that beginning with Sherman offered a different direction for my own studies.

 

It turned out Garry had filmed that clinic, and a year later gave me a copy. There were many times more that 20 applications shown by Sherman that day. But as Sherman later said, it often took people more than one meeting to understand what was going on.

 

So Garry and I hosted a joint clinic with Sherman, On that day he asked what I would like to see. I told him “Why not some Chinto, Kusanku and Sunsu?”

 

I remember him laughing then telling me “any one of them could be an entire clinic, but he would try.”

 

For the first several hours he showed applications for the opening movement from Chinto, after that he moved on and on and on.

 

Over the years I experienced at my location his use for Wansu, Chinto, Kusanku, Sunsu and Bo a bit.  And attended other New England clinics covering much of the rest. But I realized no  matter what I saw he had ever so much more. Much too advanced to share at clinics where he had not developed anyone to accept what his students shared. Of course that was logical. You can’t pour an ocean into a tea cup.

 

Through my students and my association with Sherman we developed a real admiration of what he was doing.

 

I did not spend personal time with Sherman on his clinic visits to our area. I did not want to intrude with his personal time with Garry. And the time Tom Lewis came to visit, except at the dinner afterward, I let Tom had his time alone with his friend the rest of the weekend. That dinner was something hearing them reminisce about times on Okinawa, I heard many things I never heard before.

 

We also became aware of health issues Sherman was dealing with, One of my students was a surgeon, and he tried to assist Sherman over the years. There were times he was concerned with Sherman health when a clinic would begin, but as the day progressed and Sherman got further in kata application potential, he also got stronger and stronger. He could not turn if off at the clinic end and kept sharing ideas in the changing room. Unstoppable.

 

At my last meeting with Sherman, he had heard one of my students, John Dinger, was dying, John had been his favorite uke for demonstrations in his clinic at our school. He wanted me to drag John to an upcoming New England clinic for he wanted very much to see him again.

Unfortunately John passed away first, and then I heard the sad news of Sherman’s death too.

 

I was very shaken by this, and as a result began a 3 month effort to gather all my notes and videos from those clinics together. I began compiling what Sherman showed. It came to 800 applications for Isshinryu’s kata. Along with a study of the underlying principles involved. And I knew it was just a piece of what Sherman was about.

 

Everyone missed him and John. The loss made a profound change in my program, but we went on. That’s what you do in life, keep living.

 

And 5 years later I met John Kerker, Sherman’s senior student. Along the way meeting him I learned a  great deal, a very great deal, about the part of his art Sherman never had the time to share.

I know Sherman’s art lives on in the outstand efforts of his students and friends.

 

What Sherman meant to me was how he shaped my own explorations into the meaning of Kata movement application potential, and kata movement application realization. That was  a very large legacy to follow.

 

 

http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2016/11/memories-of-instructors-who-made-impact.html

http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2013/05/sherman-harrill-giant-presence-who-is.html

http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-clinic.html

http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2016/05/one-technique-from-sherman-harrill.html

 

 

One of my most precious possessions

 

A bit ago Charles returned from a trip back to Okinawa.

There he got a gift for me.

 

I have always considered it one of my most precious possessions.

Black Belt Keri Wazza - Kicking Exercises Updated

 

I. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch

      1. Right front kick to their left thigh
      2. Right cross Slice kick to their right knee (from naifanchi)

II. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch      
      1. Right roundhouse (squat) kick to the left side of their body
      2. Continue with a right stomp kick their right knee

III. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch
       1. Right foot steps forward Hooking around attackers right heel with the right instep.
       2. Right swing kicking the direction attacker is stepping
       (See how good their splits are)

IV. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch

       1. Right roundhouse kick to their abdomen
       2. Left spinning back kick to their solar plexus
       3. Right spinning outside crescent kick to their head

V. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch

       1. Right crescent kick to their head
       2.  Left turning side kick to the abdomen

VI. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch
       1. Step forward with your left foot (outside their attack) and hi block with your
            Right arm
       2.Pivot to the right with both feet as your left punch strikes into their chest
       3.Immediately following that strike the right hand backfists their face.
       4. Pivot to the left with both feet as your right foot sweeps in across their lead leg
            This sweeps their lead leg out and they go down

 Not Shown

 VIII. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch

       1. Step left outside of their attack
       2. Reap the rightt foot forward in a counter-clockwise motion cutting their leg out

 IX. Attacker Left Foot forward Left Hooking Punch

       1. Right crescent step behind their left foot sweeping it out
       2. Right crescent step into their right foot (or right ankle)
       3. (alternate) Right shin kicks into their right thigh (trom tjimande)
       4. (alternate) Right front kick into their groin

X. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch

       1. Step out with the right foot forcefully to break their foot
       2. Execute U strike (borrowed from Mutsu Passai description)

XI. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch
       1. Step left with a left downward parry
       2. Right crescent step past their right foot
       3. Spin counter-clockwise with your left foot as a sweep and take them down
       4. Follow them to the floor and right front kick their face
            (borrowed from a demonstration by Ernest Rothrock)

XII. Attacker Right Foot forward Right Punch

       1. Step left outside their attack with a left parry to keep their attack away       
       2. Right crescent step past the attack
       3. Right heel reverse strike into their groin

A Deep Dip into Kama kata I have seen.

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

 

Back when I was a beginner, not that long ago, in the mid 1970s, I only studied Isshinryu Karate. I knew kobudo was a part of the system, though I only saw the brown belts studying bo kata, I was not privy to dan training.

 

Then when a brown belt myself,  I was force fed the Isshinryu Kobudo by Charles Murray, that he had studied with Lewis Sensei, and in Agena. Those studies consisted of Bo, Sai and Tonfa. In fact the first kata I studied with him was Chantan Yara No Sai. I really did not know what other systems did, and as a black belt slowly came aware of what others were doing through tournaments.

 

Kobudo as I understood it was interesting. There was not much focus on what the use of those weapons were used for. And I realized that time, decades, with the weapon made a real difference in the performance. I worked hard over those years on my own studies, but when I saw Lewis Sensei perform his bo, his effort showed incredible mastery of the bo as he did it. The study of kobudo, the correct study of kobudo, was one place that the work over the years made a difference.

 

I came to realize most systems did not do weapons as part of their karate, at that time. And a great many of the competition forms were kobudo versions of traditional karate kata, or completely new forms created in the USA, that was in the Penna., Maryland, New Jersey and New York area. The judges often were judging forms they did not know, and I assume their judging was based on performance execution and not knowledge of the forms.

 

Most of what I saw was bo and sai in those days. Then there were an eclectic group of other weapons. Perhaps the rarest was kama kata.

 

Back in 1980 I had started visiting and training with Tristan Sutrisno. One evening he started training his then senior students in a new form for them. Chosen No Kama Sho. As I was there he invited me to join on in, lending me a pair of kama. The form was very new to me and I had no idea what I was getting into. It used a unique handling method for me of continually shifting the kama from an open to closed position during the forms execution. Having no kama, I practiced with tonfa back home.

 

The next week I visited and was shown a different version of the form Chosen No Kama Dai, much the same template with more advanced execution of some of the movements. So yet another thing to work on.

 

At the next tournament I attended I was able to purchase some kama, so my practice of those forms could be more realistic.

 

The constant shifts of the kama during the form was difficult for me. I was not working them for the idea of competition. Just focused on execution.

 

Then one day a friend invited me to attend a clinic with George Chung, and among what he was showing, was a West Coast Demo Team Kama form. Sort of TKD kicking with kama. Held in a different position from what I was show, just held behind the blade, I recognized this made all those kicks safer with the kama held that way.

 

Several years later I saw Tristan compete with a different version ‘ Chosen No Kama San’. I understood then how some of his kobudo studies were built on a template that the forms used, allowing focus on more advancing movements as studies progressed. I was interested in his execution but the ‘additions’ were way above my abilities and I did not attempt to retain what I observed.

 

Back around 1984 I saw Kise Fusie Sensei perform a kama kata with leaders. I knew this was taught on Okinawa, but had never seen it. His execution also held the kama behind the kama blade. That was the first I realized there were different kama executions. There  was no internet in those days, VHS was  just coming out and were expensive too.

 

I did not seek other kama instruction out. I just focused on what was shared with me.

A decade later I was given further training on the Dai version. He was impressed that I remembered it after seeing it that one time. And then he showed more advanced kama execution.

 

So I did receive instruction, and at the same time I was not instructed in a traditional way. What I got is what I got.

 

So Kama was a study but never a primary focus for me.

 

For one thing, I recognized what kama use was for, killing someone attacking you, most likely with a weapon attack. I was not interested in weapons for killing, recognizing there was value in skill acquisition however. It was not something I was sharing with my students, they had far more useful things to learn then.

 

Across New England, on those rare occasions I attended open tournaments, I observed a new trend, children doing kama kata (as with that West Coast Demo Team style of execution). Kobudo is one thing that was truly an adult study. Cut down weapons became the style for children to compensate for their strength, but still they did not approach the power of adult execution.

 

I believe the kama was chosen because with that style of handling it was safer for them to do with their fake blades. Less chance of injury, and it gave schools teaching that something else to teach, and have children compete with. It probably looked cute for the parents. And at to time did anyone mention the reality of what those kata swings were doing.

 

One wonders in today’s environment against firearms, what people would thing about kids being trained with kama. The mind boggles at what people do not see.

 

My son was born in 1989. In 1990 Mike Cassidy and I had a chance to attend a seminar with Kise Fusie Sensei where instruction was being given in bo, sai and kama. Basic instruction for sure. Having seen him I was interested I what he taught (for information not for continued study) ( I have attached my notes from that day.) What was most interesting was what he said about the kama.

 

For one thing on Okinawa every home had kama. It was the equivalent of our lawnmower. Used for household gardening, sold an the local hardware store. Kids used to carry them to school, to work in the field cutting cane, after class.

 

If you read my notes following you will find the Okinawan police had some requests for Karate schools about teaching kama, as a result of that.

From my notes of that clinic:

 

Back in the 1990s I attended a seminar with Kise Sensei, we were told then the police to stop teaching kama. The kama was a common household gardening implement on Okinawa used everywhere. Many of the kids would carry them to school to use in the fields cutting crops after classes were done for the day. Apparently they were having problems with youth using them on each other, and thought this might help the situation.

 

As the years passed I decided to pass my kama on to my senior students, they were over 20 years into their own study and had become instructors too. I shared both the Sho and Dai versions of Chosen No Kama with them. The purpose was to use them as instructors studies for advancing skill acquisition. Not as studies for students. I was very much against that because the purpose of the kama was to end life, but I trusted them and saw the value for advancing continuing study. They elected to chose the Chosen No Kama Dai version for their studies. The different technique execution for the Sho version they would retain as variant technique studies.

 

This is consistent with other instructor studies I shared.

 

Today is a very different world from when I began.

the Sutrisno Chosen No Kama Dao

Kama Shi pass 

 

 

Kama Dai pass

  

 

 

Kama around the Okinawan household

I once attended a Kobudo clinic with Fusie Kise Sensei.

 

When we got to the Kama portion of the clinic.

He told us on Okinawa Kama was a usual household item,

Used to garden around the house.

The Okinawan people got them at the local hardware store.

 

This photo brings that memory to mind.

 

 

Eagle Claw

Texture

 

When you begin you learn your art according to the paradigm your instructor follows. And likely it was a good paradigm to follow, for the dojo he ran.

  

You follow it, believe in it, and then you begin to instruct it. Perhaps not with the same group of students, but adapt it to those you teach.

  

Then you have time, a lack of proximity to others in your system, so you begin to train with a lot of other people and see what they are teaching.

  

You focus on several of those instructors, training deeply in what they offer.

 

Not changing what you are teaching, but at the same time observing and thinking.

 

You come to realize you are addressing a different student population, than your instructors, An entire group of young people, who prove they can learn that paradigm well. But you become sensitive that the needs of the young are different than adults, and after 5 years of thinking, choose to teach the original art within a different paradigm using supplementary form studies, mostly to slow down the pace of instruction, giving more time for them to develop stronger cores for your arts use.

  

You further come to realize you won’t keep most of the students, and the most valuable lesson you can share is that they can learn through their own efforts.

 

Another lesson, those students who spend the 7 to 9 years to develop into strong shodans, almost 100% of them will leave you for their own life needs. Such as College, Military Service, Work, Marriage etc. Other instructors with extremely strong youth programs share they find the same with their students, even the most gifted who have been international competitors.

 

You contribute to the Warp and Woof of their lives but move on they will.

 And you consider other subsidiary kata studies to add more texture to their Isshinryu. Both giving them knowledge of how other systems operate, in part, and provide tools to work against in advanced kata application studies.

 

Then beginning an adult program I found I was working with a very different class of students. Teaching for no compensation,  I was not dependant on continuing student enrollment to provide for cash flow.

 

These were adults in every sense of the word. Responsible for their family’s finances, they would not be able to attend every class. They often had more important things to do, and should do them. At the same time they were committed to their own training, staying for decades. They could learn very well, but the regular absences did not make the old paradigm fit them very well.

 

I came to realize that I was probably trying to juggle multiple paradigms at the same time.

 

1. A youth program 7 to 12

2. A older beginning youth program 13-17

3. A much stronger advancing teen program 13-17

4. A young adult program 19-30

5. An adult program 25-55

6. A mature adult program 45-75

7. Advancing dan studies 25-75

 

I might have looked like the same program, but really each group had very different needs to make them work.

I should add I had another program, probably my most important program.

 

8. My personal development studies, never ending, no limitations

All of this required continuing effort on my part. 

One of the choices I made was all would study the same fort template. The initial subsidiary form studies for youth development, were covered for the adults as well.

 

The advancing subsidiary studies in Goju, Shotokan, Pai Lum.  Really for use at dan study would be begun as advancing kyu’s for use decades later, Skilled execution use.

Sparring was another item that fit some groups and was not possible for others.

For the new youth I came to realize the stronger their base ability was the stronger use of sparring would be. So I choose to wait 2 years focusing on their core movement development before allowing sparring.

 Then advancing teens and the young adult group, providing they had the time to train, sparring was definitely a core study.

 

The adult were another matter, not having the ability to make every class, trying to teach strong sparring episodically as they had the time did not make sense. And my own studies into kata application potential and realization, provided another alternative.

I never found I had all these groups operating at the same time. The actual mixture changed as time progressed. Keeping everything focused became another requirement for my own study.