Saturday, January 12, 2019

Naifanchi Kata vs. Chinto Kata


To me Naifanchi is but a tool to prepare for a real kata study. That of Chinto, and once that is entered, Naifanchi becomes far less useful.
 


 

Naifanchi is part of the Isshinryu system and it ought to be as it teaches many valuable things.

And this is not about kata technique application potential. There are multitudes of ways to use the techniques found in Naifanchi. And one of the individual I trained with in his Shorin Ryu used to perform the form with turns in its execution, opening a whole different range of applications.

I always considered it a valuable study for my students.

But back when I was first starting to consider the underlying principles of all my kata, I became struck at what a powerful range of techniques were often, IMO, overlooked with the continual use of turns in Chinto kata. The further I looked the more convinced I became that many were not looking at the full destructive potential in those turns. That focused me at how to incorporate the power of turning in all my kata technique application studies.

This was not the only way I looked at Chinto technique application potential, any more than the way I was looking at Naifanchi technique application potential.

But beginning on seeing what I saw, I also saw one way Naifanchi could be used to better prepare the student for Chinto. One way was the use of striking from side to side in Naifanchi developed the  oblique abdominal muscles to more stronger work the initial Chinto spin turn as a stronger offensive weapon. Then there were other sections within Chinto kata, where the work on those same muscle groups increased the capability of turns and striking within Chinto too.

This is only a small section of the strength of Chinto kata technique, but build those strengths and other things follow.

Where one focuses in the long run determines exactly where you are leading your students.

I was never just looking at technique application potential, and its greater hand in hand study that of technique application realization. There was so much more to me.

 

1 comment:

Victor Smith said...

A hint perhaps, what I came to realize was that the turn itself was the weapon. The hands, arms and all the rest were just driven by the turn itself. And the act of turning was the key to that understanding. Chinto with constant turning was a prime example of what was possible. But one way or another there were so many other kata examples to use.

Naifanchi was important, imo, but for this concept as a way to build the oblique abdominals to be used in turning.

There are many ways to use all of the kata, and each way must be studied endlessly,

But there is much time over the decades to choose which concepts to concentrate on.

There is so much more than one way. Why limit your possibilities. Only when you explore them all, does what is beyond the system show itself. Of course you have to want to see is there is a beyond too.