My last night in the Salisbury dojo, Mr. Lewis
awarded me my green belt.
I remember that night because months earlier Sensei
told us there was no reason a green belt could not reach black belt. Of course such
things were not on my mind, it was my last night there because I had to move to
take a new job.
Also, that night Mr. Lewis started teaching me the
first section of Kata Chinto. It would have been my farewell moment.
When I moved to Scranton, Pa. I discovered there was
no Isshinryu nearby, and the only choice I had was to enter training in Tang
Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan. But I continued to train everywhere on my Isshinryu kata
that I had, Chinto’s opening section the last I had gotten.
That next summer I had a vacation due me, and wife and I went to
Salisbury, to a camping park, threw up a tent, and returned to the dojo. My
goal was to finish Chinto kata.
First in Salisbury, Mr. Lewis was happy for my
visit, and he did share a little more of Chinto kata that first night. The next
2 nights I attended classes with Wayne in the Princess Ann dojo and then Reese
Rigby in the Dover dojo, and while each of their versions was slightly
different, they continued sharing the kata with me. Finally Thursday night I
returned to the Salisbury dojo and completed receiving Chinto from Mr. Lewis.
Mission accomplished.
Of course exactly which version I got I was not
sure, but I had it,
Then returning to Scranton I practiced,
The next summer I returned to Salisbury on vacation,
and trained.
Labor Day I got a call from Charlie Murray, telling
me he had taken a chunch in the area, and would I like to train sometime. I was
over at his house before my phone hit the cradle. “Would I like to train, I
never stopped. I want you to continue to teach me Isshinryu.”
And we did.
Among the first things we did, was he reviewed my
kata. Again, what I had learned was slightly different from what he learned.
That was standard for Salisbury.
He told me to keep doing the kata through Chinto as
I had learned them, and the kata I leared there on, his versions, should be the
way he did them.
And that is how it went.
So
this is what I taught for the Chinto Kata opening
We did not study the application potential for those
movements, in those days.
In time I started working on my own interpretations,
receiving a giant boost
From Sherman Harrill. Literally dozens of potential
applications.
Which in turn started me down the path to think of others too.
Over my first 30 years kata application study took a
different place
In the black belt studies I offered.
But I never stop looking, and often find inspiration
in the most diverse places.
I was checking out a Baguazhang video, found it
interesting and then broke what was happening down taking screen shots of the
movement.
Taking that closer look what I saw is very close for
a different way to use my Chinto opening.
And another possibility
There are others, but this is sufficient for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment