The Spin in Chinto Kata.

Now I trained with more than a few people acquiring a great deal about how a variety of systems applied the techniques of their forms. Then I began my own analysis of what kata technique might be. Meeting Sherman Harrill was a real eye opener, experiencing what he worked out over his decades. But the more important lesson was how he worked out the underlying principles and then could use those over and over to work out different answers for different kata techniques.

 

Several years after his passing what I found more important were the principles Sherman revealed, and how that would influence me going forward. I never saw everything he worked out.

 

Then one day, when I was working out so many different answers I decided to work on another technique series on my own. A use for the section of Chinto kata that contains the spin.

 

I had seen various answers from other Okinawan schools, but they did not satisfy me.

 

I began looking at the Principles I held regarding Chinto kata, and related knowledge.

 

1.      One principle I held was that one of the secrets of Chinto kata were the ability to use the turns from the kata as a complete weapon system in their own right. The spin of Chinto fit that to a T.

2.      From my tai chi instructor I learned a great deal how the correct body alignment in a technique could increase the power and usage of the technique. That proved to be critical to understand how to make the most of the movement used.

3.      Use could be made for the full utilization of the kata section under consideration.

4.      This was nothing close to the whole answer, just an effective one in its own right.

 

Start with someone grabbing toward your back, or grabbing your collar from the year.

 

You are facing the front and first you step into a horse stance to the side, frustrating their grab attempt, As you do that you simultaneously form a left high block and a right low block. The purpose it to deflect their grabbing arm away from you, the nature of the simultaneous Ho/Low block is to better align your body to increase the power of that right parry block.

 

Then your left leg places your foot behind your right knee and you spin counter-clockwise on the right leg. This is done in increase the momentum of the spin with the left leg moving into your centerline. At the same time the right hand chambers with a slashing right fist across the right ribs on the side of their body. Also at the same time the left hand crosses in front of the face to high chamber along slid the left side of the face. These 3 movements, left foot behind the knee, right hand slashing back to chamber and left hand moving along side the face, all better align the body to increase the speed of the turn. The strike to the ribs also makes the opponents mind shift to the area being struck, weakening their ability to respond.

 

As the spin concludes that left leg comes out ( slides out, slices out) to place your left foot cutting forward behind their knee (no matter whether their right knee or their left knee). This causes them to drop.

 

The conclusion of your spin uses their knee to force them to fall. Finished with your spin the left foot steps down on their bent and downed leg (or more correctly on their calf) and at the conclusion you perform a downward strike into the downed opponent.

 

It is wordy but descriptive of what I found.

 

Of course this is just one option. But it works for me.

 

 

The first set of photos are of Young Lee performing Chinto back in 1990. Closer to the version described in this application analysis.

 

The second set of photos are also of Young Lee performing Chinto with a bit of different focus on his mind. It is important to realize that there are variations of performance each having slightly different application potential. IMO this is not a consideration of right or wrong, just as aspect of different focus on what you are using the form for. It does not preclude using application potential from either version as the situation offers.

That gets into the larger purpose of kata application study to move toward the day when you can fit any technique into the space of any attack and conclude that attack. No form, no specific function, Just potentially using any it as you chose.