Is it live or is it videotape (there was training and study before YouTube

Is it live or is it videotape (there was training and study before YouTube

 

GOJU-RYU SUPARINPEI KATA by MORIO HIGAONNA

 

 

When I started studying Isshinryu, what as available is what your instructor trained you in And it was the mid 1970s, not so long ago.

 

As fate had it after my first two years of Isshinryu, having to move meant I had to begin again in a very different art, Tang Soo Do and I studied to first red (brown) in that art learning all the required forms. But one of my seniors moved into that area and I was able to continue in Isshinru.

 

By the time I made shodan in Isshinryu I had studied all the forms of the Isshinryu system (14) a Bando staff form and those forms I learned in TSD (8). About a year later I took advantage of the proximity of a T’ai Chi instructor and spent 2 years studying the T’ai Chi 108 and T’ai Chi Sword form of the Yang system.

 

After a year I asked and was granted the chance to study some Chinese forms to become more knowledgeble about Chinese Systems. That meant a year learning on N. Shaolin form, a Year learning a Northern Eagle Claw form, and study of several Pai Lum forms. Some Chin Wu forms, a N. Mantis set and some others.

 

Just a note some of my Chinese studies were incredibly dense technique forms. Truly necessitating a long time to learn. Some of them were not as long but also challenging for an Okinawan stylist.

 

At the same time I visited with many other friends from tournaments and they allowed me to join in their classes. In the process I acquired several Shorin Ryu forms along with a smattering of other forms from other styles. As well as Goju studies, Kempo Goju studies and others.

 

Part of this was possible because my Isshinryu instructor drove me at a frantic pace and I learned how to learn. Then as a black belt I honed that every time I saw something else, committing myself not to forget what I saw. While it may seem like a lot what I acquired was kindergarten compared to some of instructors I was training with. Among the skills I acquired was a method to work on everything, and it worked.

 

But I did not stop there, one weekend I attended a Bando Summer camp and was taught their short staff form over 2 hours, that was it. Then I went crazy on the drive home working on the form in my head. Then I worked the form for the next 35 years or so.

 

Suffice it to say I sort of picked up a lot.

 

All of this was before VHS tapes began to be sold with forms from different systems. When the did become available I did buy some. Of course not to learn new forms But either by seeing some forms at tournaments or reading about them I was curious to see what they were.

 

One of the forms I was very curious about was the Goju Suparinpei had never seen it at any of the tournaments I had seen, had read about it constantly in the magazines wondering what it was?

 

So when Panther started selling the Hiagonna kata videos, I bought the Suparinpei one. I remember it contained two different versions of the form, but I could never distinguish the difference. Of course not being Goju perhaps I did not know what to look for.

 

Perhaps after all the Chinese forms I had studied, I thought it would be something else. At that time I was a little disappointed, But then agan I just wanted to see the actual form.

 

Then I read in a British martial arts magazine that Chinen Sensei suggested the logic that it could be the 2^nd form studied in the system.

 

I really did not think on it further. Oh I acquired most of the Hiagonna books and further video tapes over time, but that was more information gathering.

 

Perhaps a decade later when I was most into the logic of applying movements from Isshinryu kata, one  Sunday I woke up desiring to see Suparinpei again.

 

At that time my kata studies were of more use as a source of technique to work against, learning the possibilities of going through them with my Isshinryu.

 

But there were several techniques in Suparinpei that I saw different potential to work against. Of course I could just work against them, but also became curious about what the entire exercise offered.

 

So I spent 2 hour that morning, before the Sunday morning t’ai chi class I was teaching, learning the movement of Suparinpei.  I was well aware that doing so would not make me Goju. That was never my intent.

 

Then I went outside before my class, and used the time to practice what I acquired. My students were also some of my karate dans, one of them had prior Goju experience.

 

He sort of flipped out when he saw me practicing Suparinpei.  I simply replied I just taught myself the form over 2 hours that morning.

 

After what I had learnt, it was not so much after all. Of course I really didn’t have the form. And though I worked on it for several years, eventually I set it aside having gained what I was interested in from the study.

I never taught it to my students; they had more than enough to do in their own studies.

 

Around 5 years later I got involved with a group of very knowledgeable Goju instructors and learned a great deal more about the form. Soon after that YouTube began and information exploded.  Where it is possible to see everything possible,  and it is left to you to determine value.

 

As for Suparinpei I think it is a dandy form, I truly mean that, I gained so much for the effort.  Truly I did not train myself in the form, it was a study, abet in learning,   for the most part.