Unrequested Editorial Opinion

I wonder how we can judge the effectiveness of an instructor best?

 

1. Is it how successfully the sort through thousand of students to train and promote those who reach Sho Dan?

 

2. Is it how successful they are at polishing that apple and having any of those who reach Sho Dan still training 15 years later?

 

3. Is it how successful they are at having more to teach and share with those who are training 30 years after their Sho dan?

Grasping that which Cannot be Grasped

 

First a disclaimer: Do not mistake me for an expert on the Bubishi, I am but an amatuer who perhaps has seen to much. And for that I am probably no more correct than anyone who howls at the moon. But my latest foray into the Bubishi, and perhaps also reading a bit about the reality of the pain of extended sitting while in true Zen meditation, I feel like howling at that moon.

 

There are many books on the Bubishi, in Japan, in America, in France and many other places. You know a book, it is tactile, has substance, makes you feel you have gained something. Of course the original Bubishi was none of those things.

 

What feel right to me is that it was a bunch of personal notes from a adept in a Chinese martial practice. It originally was just a loose leaf bunch of notes, ordered whatever was last of interest to look at. I am going to ramble around on this theme, no particular order but whatever follows.

 

However it really ended on Okinawa probably will remain a mystery. But as time passed it was passed along, between instructors and also passed to trusted senior students. It was not a published work, rather hand copied each passage, And that act likely changed some thing in the age old process of other hands retelling everything. At times personal copies, at times likely professional copyists. Likely no attempt to reconcile differences between different copies.

 

So  you ended up with copies of something you did not exactly know who wrote the original and had no idea how faithful the copy you possess matched the original source.

 

Yet when it moved into printed books there was a new implied structure. Perhaps different for each work, each with an authors ideas overlaying the copy of  a copy of a copy of the original notes. So just perhaps, we can understand the confusions around it if we change the work Bubishi to whatever karate system you follow and try to explain changes that have occurred.

 

What we can agree on was the adept of the Bubishi art, was as much into the medical side of their art as they were into the physical side. About one half the work is on  the medical side of training. Where to attack the body, how to heal the body after it has been attacked. How to heal various infirmities you or your friends must endure. Less frequently translated simply because less is known of that era’s practices perhaps.

 

Not that it always makes sense. On one hand it shows instant death follows if you strike XYZ, then in another section it describes how to treat someone who has been struck in that same place. Incongruous at best. Reminds me of the saying “the Lord give-ith, the Lord take-ith away.”

 

Of course I have no interest in trying to learn how to treat something from notes that are copies of copies of original notes, especially when I do not know if the translator was qualified to prepare those notes in the first place.

 

I can understand why they were included. It clearly suggests an art that cared about treating their members as well as understanding how to attack an attacker.

 

Partially because my physician, a surgeon, was a member of my adult program for many years. His own knowledge many times led to understanding what was happening when we were doing 123. Of course we grew when that occurred. I can readily imagine the Bubishi author undergoing similar experiences.

 

Then again, in this modern age, understanding the process is seen as a benefit. Even when the understanding cannot be shown as part of the original.

 

Let me explain. In the original Bubishi notes there were no Meridian Charts. But in most of the modern Bubishi versions, Japanese, English, French and other versions, the meridian charts and accompanying notes are present. They are not in the original.

 

I understand why they have been added. There is a logical gap or jump being made  that shows the Bubishi within a wider Chinese medical tradition. On the idea the meridians can be employed to heal, or that they can be places to attack in extremis. Sounds most logical.

 

But perhaps just wishful thinking. China is a big place, and has thousands of martial traditions, as well as many other practices. One of those traditions, a very old one, which uses vital point grasping and striking, does not include meridian theory in their practice. Actually more like the Bubishi than you might think. They only use one simple chart showing vital points, all the rest came from extensive  training.

 

While it may seem logical, it is not necessarily the original tradition. And I prefer to see that tradition in the raw not through other filters, no matter how well meaning.

 

So just a loose leaf collection of notes. A plausible explanation why there are different Bubishi published structures to the chapters. Each translation coming from collected notes in different orders. None right, none wrong.

 

The more you think you grasp of the Bubishi, the more you find you have but grasped a reflection of the moon in the water.

 

As we are martial artists (an assumption on my part) the sections about martial practices is more interesting. How it might be used by us, how some of the movements shown may be reflected within our kata.

 

Of course that might also just be wish fulfillment.

Translation of the Kempo Gokui from Andy Sloane

A technique from Shorinji Kempo – Maki-Nuki

 

The principle of Kagite Shuho where your elbows are anchored to your hip for the duration of a technique to allow the power of the hip movements to be added to a wrist lock.

Shuto giri . Using the palm edge on the little finger side =Shuto, Kirite with the elbow always bent, image push-cutting, mainly to the neck . 2.平拳切.

While I do not have a special favorite kata (this minute)

 

 

While I do not have a special favorite kata (this minute), I do favorite technique performed in a natural fashion, the circular block/strike.


Below are some basic drills to safely begin their study. More advanced understanding of their potential comes from the senior instructors. This is to promote safer practice and provide the material when the students control develops. This is dan level study.


The use of the lower body is not being addressed with these drills.


Block Left – the blocking action is to the left of one’s centerline.



Block Left



The attacker RFF with a Right Strike.


1. Step RFF (interior line of defense)(angling your center across their strike about 20 degrees), and parry to the left with your right palm (just before their 
elbow).

1.a. Your left open hand rises to the front of your right shoulder.

2. Then parry out with your left palm (also just before their elbow).

3. Execute a right rolling back hand strike into the side of their neck.

4. Then the left hand slips up to press into their shoulder from behind and you throw a right rising elbow strike into their shoulder.



And by just changing the angle, this is the rolling backfist strike at Seiunchin Kata ending (all versions), just with a different angle of execution. The palm strikes are done with 'mumichi' or a sticky flowing movement to press out and redirect their strike.



This technique really flows through a strike.



If the attacker is LFF with a Left Strike.



1. Step RFF (exterior line of defense)(angling your center across their strike about 20 degrees), and parry to the left with your right palm (just behind their 
elbow).

1.a.Your left open hand rises to the front of your right shoulder.

2. Step further forward and the left palm strikes into their face with a flowing sticky movement, turning their head clockwise and becoming a forced takedown.



The key to both of these movements rests on setp 1.a. where the left hand rises to the shoulder, otherwise it will never get there in time.



Block Left Extended



If the attacker is LFF with a Left Strike.



1. Step RFF (exterior line of defense)(angling your center across their strike about 20 degrees), and parry to the left with your right palm (just behind their elbow).

1.a Your left open hand rises to the front of your right shoulder.

2. Step further forward and the left palm strikes into their face with a
flowing sticky movement, turning their head and becoming a forced takedown.

3. Your left open palm presses into the jaw to rotate their head 
counter-clockwise, as your right elbow strikes to the rear of their neck.

4. The right open hand rolls out and presses the palm out and down 
(clockwise)and across the attackers neck, for a forced takedown.



Block Right – the blocking action is to the right of one’s centerline.



Block Right



If the attacker is LFF with a Left Strike.



1. RFF (interior line of defense) with a left rising back palm deflection parry as it rolls back to your shoulder.

2. Then use a right rising back palm deflection parry as it rolls back towards the shoulder.

3. Slide forward, the left hand presses in on their chest (and/or right arm) as you throw a rising right elbow strike to the side of the opponent’s rib cage.



Block Right Extended



If the attacker is LFF with a Left Strike.



1. RFF (interior line of defense) with a left rising back palm deflection parry as it rolls back to your shoulder.

2. Then use a right rising back palm deflection parry as it rolls back towards the shoulder.


If the attacker then launches a Right strike


3. Use your left to slice down into their right strike with a low block.

4. Slide forward, the left hand presses in on their chest (and/or right arm) as you throw a rising right elbow strike to the side of the opponent’s rib cage.



If the attacker is RFF with a Right Strike



1. RFF (exterior line of defense) with a left palm deflection parry as it rolls back to your shoulder.

2. Then use a right rising back palm deflection parry as it rolls back towards the shoulder.

3. Right arm folds into a rising elbow strike into their ribs





Block Right Extended



If the attacker is RFF with a Right Strike



1. RFF (exterior line of defense) with a left rising and then descending palm deflection parry as it rolls back to your shoulder.

2. Continue RFF but angle to the right and then use a right rising back palm to roll across their arm and in turn reach down to their left hip, as if to touch

it. The left hand flows to their back.

3. Right arm folds into a rising elbow strike into their face. The right forearm moves the face to rotate clockwise, and the left hand is placed behind their neck.



Strike Left – Instead of blocking to the left side – Strike



Strike Left



Attacker RFF Right Punch



Right cross hand parry at the wrist

1.a. Left hand is on the top to the right shoulder RFF as left open hand reaches out to flow across the attackers eyes, moving their head clockwise.



Strike Right – Instead of blocking to the right side – Strike



Attacker LFF Left Punch



Left cross hand parry at their wrist

Right hand reaches out and flows across their eyes rotating their neck clockwise.

Alternate

Left cross parry parry at their wrist

Attacker right punch

2. Right hand reaches out and flows across their striking arm, redirecting their strike back to their face



Classical Indonesian Method



Attacker RFF Right Punch



LFF Right cross parry to wrist

1.a. Left hand is on the top to the right shoulder

2. Left open hand reaches out to flow across the attackers eyes, moving their head clockwise.

3. RFF as left hand flows down behind their shoulder and right elbow strike (tip) across their chest (striking the rear hand with the body in between.

4. Follow with a right rising elbow strike to the upper chest

5. Rt hacksaw across and behind their neck with the right hand

6. Spiraling takedown, the right goes around the neck and comes out to the front behind.

7. As they rotate the head in (clockwise) the left hand hooks their right elbow and uses a circular throw to take them down.

8. Complete as their twisted by dropping down into horse stance, and press into their neck and rotate their arm the opposite turning direction, cranking them into a locking technique.





Difference between two hand technique and double hand technique.



Two hand technique is a one-two technique.

Double hand technique reaches both hands out simultaneously.





Double hand technique

Attacker RFF Right Punch



RFF turn left and both hand reach over the arm and pull back.

As this happens the right tip of the elbow impales their chest simultaneously.





There is much more potential here.

Rittenhouse Square on an October Evening

Flower children have no flowers,

Leaves have turned from green to brown,

Cold and darkness they are coming,

The summer has been run aground.

The first leave decides to take the chance

And jumps into the brave unknown

Floating, turning, ever falling,

Finally it hits the ground.

First one leaf, then another

Falling through colder skies

Till the last leaf takes the fall

Against the darkening and somber

Flower children have no flowers

They have left one by one

Bare Trees, Brown Grass,

Flower children gone.

Composed in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia October 1968

Memories with Karl Hovey

 

 

 

 

One Sunday while I was cleaning the dojo (which paid for my lessons) Karl Hovey and Lewis Sensei came into the dojo to work out a bit. Seeing me there Sensei invited me to join them, but as a yellow or blue belt I felt to intimidated. I did get to observe them though.

 

They were mostly talking in their gi’s when suddenly Sensei asked Karl if he had ever seen Tom’s Sea Gull kata. Karl replied he had not.

 

Then Sensei began the form (I now recognize it was the opening of his Kusanku kata, but at that time it was way beyond me.) He rei’d, then bowed down and raised his hands toward the sky, Then raised his hands circled down and raised up into kamae. At the same time Sensei raised his hands, his knees uncompressed and as if on time, his gi pants dropped toward the floor in unison with his hands. He may have uttered a sea gull call as that happened.

 

Karl and I were astounded expecting nothing like that.

 

 

The next year I remember when Tom took the club down to Karl’s tournament in Virginia. It was a very good tournament.

 

 

In 1976  Sensei took a group of us up to Sunnyside Gardens in NYC to a tournament to raise money for a monument for Shimabuku Tatsuo. There were Isshinryu competitors from all over the place, and many of the senior Isshinryu instructors across the States too. Master shimabuku’s oldest son, Kichero, was there too.

 

Karl was Okinawan, had studied Kempo over there, but learnt Isshinryu from Don Bohan in the states. That day both he and Tom were competing in the black belt forms division.

 

Karl did Chinto and his jumps from the floor when kicking were unreal, so high and precise. Of course it was his own interpretation of Chinto, not exactly standard. His scores reflected that, which was a shame, because his form was so good.

 

 

As I mentioned Tom also competed. To me he was perfect. As it turned out he took 2^nd place.

Later in that afternoon Karl came up to us to gather our attendance certificates to request Kichero to sign them.

 

When he approached Kichero there was an interpreter there saying Kichero didn’t speak English, and to have him sign the certificates would cost $20.00 a certificate.

Karl speaking Japanese directly asked Kichero to sign them, but Kichero pretended not to understand Karl.

 

Most mad, Karl came back and returned our certificates of attendance to us unsigned.

 

 

 

One year perhaps 8 years later, in the spring, I was attending a George Dillman tournament to compete. I decided to practice the Yang form to warm up after the drive there. Doing so alone in my section of the field-house floor a senior Isshinryu instructor, Karl Hovey, came up to me. “Hey you’re Isshinryu, how can you be doing Tai Chi?”

I had met Karl as a beginner at Mr. Lewis’ dojo in Salisbury in 74 but he didn’t know me. I replied “Why not?” and then explained who I was and how I came to study tai chi. Karl then remembered that day long ago.

 

 

 

Living far away from Virginia I never had occasion to see him again.

 

But this photo of him is how I see him in my mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mystery of Kin Ken (Golden Fist)

It is interesting going through old discussions from decades ago have current material making those discussions have more meaning.

 

One of them concerned a ‘secret form’ that came from Daniel Pai through George Dillman into Evan Pantazi.

 

Daniel was an early American Chinese Arts instructor from the 1970s and1980s. He taught his forms to his own Pai Lum students and even many karate instructors. One of them was George Dillman (who at one time competed with one of those forms the Pai Lum Kuen.)

 

Apparently George Dillman taught them to some of his students as in Evan Pantazi. The form in question was Kin Ken (Golden Fist)

 

I saved a long discussion about this form Kin Ken (Golden Fist) back in 2005. The discussion was around Pantazi teaching that form, and selling dvd’s of it for $159.00 a copy.

 

Most had never seen the form. There was a lot of discussion whether it originated with Daniel Pai or St. Charles (also a student of Pai) That discussion was endless and no  clear answer what that form was about came out of all that talk.

 

 

So finding that old discussion sparked my interest and as almost everything can be found on YouTube these days I trued just that.

 

 

Finding a video on Kin Ken, an introduction to sell videos:

 

The value of Kin Ken - Golden Fist Kata from Pai Lum (Dragon System)

 

 

Part of the form can only be seen in shadows.

 

 But I did find a video on Golden Fist and it does resemble the other video with a shadow performance.

 

Golden Fist

 

More than that I do not know. But something to ponder anew.

Dokko den irimi nage

Another thought on teaching youth bunkai (7/9/04)

Interesting topic. (At this time I was still working with using the concept ‘bunkai’ which I later abandoned for more accurate to me description of what was taking place. But this does not change the intent of this piece.) (But much of this reflects views as I saw them ijn 2004. Some of those views changed over time.)

 

Consider I was not teaching Isshinryu for any purpose but the practice of Isshinryu. I did not define the training for exercise, self defense or sport. Of course all of those can be accomplished from the training. But the goal was to just train and learn as the decades passed.

 

From my perspective after teaching youth for about 26 years now I don't change the curricula for youth or adult.  Essentially in my program nobody studies application of the kata until after shodan and then its a long gradual process.

 

On the other hand I'm continually demonstrating why their kata must be done in exact format, by demonstrating some of the application potential for the techniques.  I'm really starting to learn kata could have been made unchanging if the instructors of the past had really gotten into the head of their students as to why their version of Patsai was done in as specific manner. 

 

[Of course this is one of life's quandaries. Was the true lesson the path of mutability behind the kata and not unchanging structure? Beats me!]

 

There are real mixed messages as to what karate was and ought to  be from my perspective.  If the stories are anyway near correct showing beginners much about kata application potential was not the way it was studied on Okinawa. In similar light I can't in all serious use any Japanese terminology to describe the non-verbal approach of the Okinawan arts, preferring application potential to bunkai as a personal trait.

 

That a more complete understanding of any technique can yield dozens of application is true. On the other hand it isn't rational that anybody needs more than skill at a hand-full of techniques to stop any attack.

 

There's a lot of puzzlement there isn't there? 

 

Training people for a while, and trying to learn myself as time passed I think the critical piece of the puzzle is skill of the student. Not just being able to do a technique, but having the skill the presence of mind to actually accept its application potential against the pressure of the attack is not something that can be passed along in a short time, regardless of the student's age.

 

I strongly suspect in the past, from frustration of trying to teach what people weren't ready for, instructors discovered that don't press the application instead work on true skill development was a more rational way to develop an advancing student.

 

From that approach instead at beginner (non-shodan) levels of training  I stress a hand-full of parry and counter strikes, a hand-full of grab releases, a hand-full of tactical kicking applications and for the pre-shodan students a hand-full of aikido insertions and locks/projections.  More intent on their ability to fit into somebody and counter strike them, more intent on their ability to counter being grabbed, and some techniques to begin building more advanced skills.

 

Reality time, most of the youth will NOT be doing karate for life. The successful instructor loses 100% of them as they become successful young adults and move on to what their destiny holds. Giving them some sound skills they can draw on forever is the stronger answer.

 

And for those who find a different path, there's the rest of a life to  explore what karate has to offer.

 

Of course in Isshinryu we don't follow the path of the Pinan. But regardless of what you can or can't do with them, do you really think Itosu really meant them more than an initial stepping stone for students. Do you think he felt they should replace advances study for life of Chinto, Kusanku, Gojushiho or the other advanced kata?

 

I very strongly am coming to believe one kata may be the correct answer for some, but that one kata should also be a real fire breathing dragon of a kata.

 

On the other hand any one technique is unlimited isn't it.

 

I recall that Patrick McCarthy once wrote that karate might be translated as empty hand with empty being the empty infinity of space. I always liked that infinite hand.

 

An infinite number of kata with infinite variations.

 

Or an infinite number of things that fractal analysis shows is possible with any single technique.

Crossing that Bridge when you come to it

 ….. a remembered post from 2005

 

 

So much of our vision of karate’s origins is filtered through today’s experiences and knowledge. A current discussion on the understanding of Kusanku as a night fighting kata on ITOL perhaps make me realize why some have difficulty thinking there is even a remote possibility such is the case.

 

Just go back 100 years in Okinawan history.   Individuals who taught did so privately,  most likely they were studying karate because it was to be needed in their clan’s role in society also likely outside to boot. 

 

And lighting would have been at relative premium, I doubt electric lights were available across the Island. And even traveling to and from your instructor’s house you may well have been walking through the dark. So the intent of low level application wasn’t a theoretical possibility.

 

Was the origin of  the way to fight in the dark?  Perhaps, or perhaps the story was a way to heighten awareness and suggest some principles.  Some of the discussed applications seem quaint or impossible, but then if you haven’t been outside in rain and fog where you can’t see your hands, or in varying nighttime conditions, what is or isn’t reasonable is just opinion, not experience.  Believe it or not.

 

Couple that with nothing but physical and oral transmission of the art, and tying a story to a kata doesn’t really seem that unreasonable. That and the fact we have almost no idea as to what they actually trained in those days, just today’s reflections through time.  So the story may be true, it may just be an instructive pointer, or it may be deception. In fact the best deception may be its so true the non-trained won’t believe it….. Now that would be a true work of art wouldn’t it.

 

But this isn’t about Night fighting but a different journey across a bridge, one I’ve never left behind.

 

I’d like to take you back in time when I was a beginner, only 30 years ago. There were no applications to kata technique in my instructors training, and the stories, well perhaps they came from the Sensei, or perhaps the occasional magazine or book. I can’t say but they did enter the picture of my training.

 

I vividly recall when I was a new student the instructors were working with a brown belt in the dojo alcove by placing two bo’s on the floor on an angle, and that student was doing a kata between them.  I didn’t know what he was doing, always had enough of my own training to work on not to know what the seniors were doing. Several years later Murray Sensei took two bo and placed them on the floor of his church basement and I discovered what they were for, running Chinto between them.

 

I think Murray Sensei mentioned to me in his Church basement that Chinto Kata represented a fight on a bridge, with attackers coming from two sides. But as we didn’t do kata applications it didn’t register as much.  BTW, the kata was being done between the bo’s to test that you were staying between the sides of the bridge. 

 

Very private aside, Charles did offer one Chinto application, where when a Ninja was diving at your out of a tree you would reach up and drill them into the ground.  Interesting concept but in 30 years I’ve not had a ninja attack me that way so it may just remain such, and I realize I don’t think I’ve mentioned it to my students either. O’ well perhaps they’ll try jumping me from a tree and learn that lesson the right way.

 

But time passes quickly.  In the early years I had begun my program at the Scranton Boys Club and in the summers we held class at McDade Park which had a small bridge over a culvert.  So for those students doing Chinto, the story became a reality, doing the kata on a bridge.

 

Now in Okinawa te there are roughly three Chinto directions, with the almost same structural techniques. The Itosu Chinto’s go straight forward and back (12 to 6 o’clock) for the most part. The Tomari Chinto goes from side to side (3 to 9 o’clock). The Kyan Chinto goes from 10:30 to 4:30. Dan Smith of the Seibukan relates Kyan chose the 45 degree angle from his police work, finding that the best angle of entry to apprehend a suspect.

 

It is the Kyan no Chinto pattern which most closely represents Isshinryu’s own.

 

Running the kata on the bridge made me realize that they you work to stay in the center. There is a tactical reason for this, the stronger you’re on the center the easier to force your opponent off the bridge. Conversely the less you’re on the center, the easier for your opponent to force you off the bridge.

 

So Chinto on a bridge was teaching me a lesson of tactics. But if you do Chinto and even if you turn exactly correct you quickly discover you can’t stay over the centerline, the shape the kata is such that at times your line parallels the centerline

 

This became an advanced practice for my dan students on occasion.  Moving from Scranton in my yard I have a narrow path between a series of bushes (as well as rows between my field of blueberry bushes, and I exchanged the bridge with the narrow path but kept the same mission.  Working Chinto to stay on the centerline.

 

What I discovered is you have to make subtle stance adjustments to do so. This was not alien to what my instructors taught us.  The manner in which several kata were taught required tuning up the stance as your body awareness grew.

 

Now you may be seeing this as a quaint practice, trying to make sense of a  story, but there was a more tactical answer. At the same time my studies into technique application advanced. I grew more and more fascinated at the power in turning, and Chinto exploration became one of my tools with its continual turning techniques.  When working the applications how you have to sometimes shift a technique came into play, working with what you are presented. It seemed pure kata wasn’t necessarily the answer. But couple that with my Chinto movement studies and I began to realize how the same subtle shifts coupled with the kata movement application potential allowed you to keep the centerline of the attack you were working against, without shifting away to ‘sell’ the technique.

 

So the center line of the  bridge becomes the centerline of the attack or of the opponents body, the line to work, to  stay on the center to dominate and control.

 

A method of kata practice mirroring the reality of application.

 

Or just a small story of one strange practice of somebody who listens to old tales too hard.

 

For the record, the new Chinto student does not enter into this practice. Only after about 3 or so years into Chinto do they begin to study this concept, and that’s just an opening movement in a larger, lifetime study, IMVHO.

 

So Chinto being a fight on a bridge…. A fight to control the centerline…. A method of training to supplement reality of application…. Take your pick.