Let me preface this older discussion. I have trained with many instructors, within Isshinryu and outside Isshinryu is systems in the NE Usa. Some were great, some were good and yes some were bad, but I learned something from each one of them.
During my journey I learned and studied hundreds of kata, forms etc. from many systems. Always working to remember everything individuals politely shared.
From Ernest Rothrock I learned a way to keep atop all of them, for decades. (Ernest had likely learned over 500 Chinese forms in his own studies). When demands of my work did not allow me to keep up that level of personal training, it was Ernest Rothrock wo explained that did not matter. For I would remember that I had learned them. never forget those lessong and retain what I needed.
I never did so with the intention to share all of them with anyone. My desire was simply to learn more.
And besides those forms there were the drills, ideas, weapons studies. etc.
But in time after work I wanted to better prepare my students to do better Isshinryu (MY definition not commenting on other programs). My goal was to better prepare them to perform Isshinryu.And to give them a small taste of (Shorin, Goju, Shotokan and even some Pai Lum) to give them some knowlege of those systems to better appreciate what was in the wider world.
Where I’ve tried to describe the genesis of my Isshinryu kata, I thought I might take a few minutes to describe some of the other studies I use in the Bushi No Te Isshinryu program.
They were incorporated into the program after years of work first understanding the kata and/or drills, and then working with students to understand their role in a student’s development.
This arose from my personal studies, not because I found the Isshinryu system lacking. I really haven’t associated with much Isshinryu over the years, none really close by my programs. Instead I find myself surrounded by other serious systems and instructors, first as a competitor then with friends.
My choices were based on several principles, among which are:
A desire to improve my students Isshinryu. My students are mostly youth and finding supplementary and complementary training to strengthen their training was and is important. For example Seisan Kata is a fine place to start training, but once I trained with a wide variety of instructors I felt that a slightly different approach from traditional Isshinryu could work, and it does, too.
As the communities I’ve lived in had on ‘immediate’ need to turn out street warriors, I was interested in extending their training time, but also keep them interested with additional training.
I’ve always felt information is valuable. Knowing my students were in areas with other traditional MA’s, I wanted them to feel they had some understanding of those systems. That would give them confidence their own training didn’t miss out on the big picture, and it would give them some understand as to what those individuals might do, too. So they could use the training to work to prepare counter defenses.
I wanted to push the students abilities so nobody could realize where they could be coming from. Not that Isshinryu doesn’t have enough depth, but when I began working on this, nobody was working kata applications in any of the schools I trained in, so these drills gave another dimension to their training.
I wanted to honor those instructors who shared so much with me, too. Allowing my students to touch a bit of their teachings allowed me to keep those sharing alive.
Fyukyu Sho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jud6cd3vdkg
The first place I began was to investigate the best way to prepare the student for kata study. IMO, I believe Seisan too complex for the new student. I’ve trained in many different starting forms. Ones ‘made-up’ for a system, the Pinan/Heian kata, the Taikyoku kata and others.
The strongest form I’ve found is Nagamine Shoshin’s Fyukyu sho kata. I made some slight modifications to utilize Isshinryu technique and stances and found it a fine way to introduce the beginner into the art of kata.
Several additional benefits, as a group drill the newest students can participate with the most advanced students in kata drill. This allows the beginners to ‘borrow’ power and timing from the advanced. This creates a group cohesiveness that is very valuable, especially as they’re all doing great karate.
Also, I simply refer to this kata as ‘Kata Sho’. This keeps the students from corrupting the name.
There is a secondary value to Fyukyu Sho, at the advanced levels of training it is a good platform to explore advanced principles and concepts. By this I’m speaking of the advanced black belt. It’s easier to isolate, say breathing theory, with this simpler form, work it as a group training tool, and then allow the student to move that training into their other kata.
The day came a few years ago when I got to work with a group of Kishiba Juku styslists (derivative from Nagamine’s Matsubayshi Ryu). I enjoyed showing them my version of their beginning kata, with the addition of multiple striking incorporated into the form.
Annanku
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C_hRkiw_NU
Next, I added Annanku Kata from training with Carl Long, a Shorin stylist in the lineage of Shimabuku Ezio. This is a longer form than Kyukyu Sho, but incorporates more of the Seisan principles. It prepares the student for Seisan study, and still remains a great group exercise.
The Annanku that Carl taught used both vertical and twisting striking. Again I made some slight modifications to stance and technique, becoming 100% Isshinryu basics behind the form.
I find this form more important in the first several years of my students training. It reinforces work on the side block – double strike – front kick – strike sequence by using it four times and its use of the jumping front kick is a good strengthening tool too.
Thus by moving from Fyukyu to Annanku then to Seisan Kata, the student has progressively moved to more complex technique and the two earlier kata lend themselves to easier group training with their seniors.
Saifa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSnrLqIsFxM
It seems wherever I’ve lived I’m surrounded by Goju practitioners. When I had the chance to study with Ed Savage in Ithica NY and learn a bit about the Goju Kata, I found Saifa Kata an interesting exercise. In contemporary Goju training I’ve seen the order of kata progression seem to go from Geseki 1 and 2, to Sanchin to Saifa and then Seiunchin.
Saifa is not a long form, and only incorporates a very interesting range of technique. The version I studied uses the knee strike into front kick that Mr. Lewis had described as the earlier series in the Isshinryu Wansu.
Over the years I maintained regular training in everything I had studied and that training with Ed Savage proved interesting. I remember visiting a very traditional Goju school, and asking to jump into the black belt kata workout when they were doing Shisochin kata. The instructor, bemused at the idea said ‘sure’, thinking I was trying to learn something. When he discovered I was running it alongside his students he became ‘concerned’, asking me “How can you know that”. Of course I replied, “Well its just Goju after-all,” with a grin on my face.
A number of years later, after moving to Derry, I had chance to observe a Goju kata clinic with Chinnen Sensei and was impressed by the dynamic fluidity of his Goju technique.
I had been thinking for some time that Saifa would be a good bridge between Seisan and Seiunchin kata. As a short form it would be a sort of breather for my students between two longer forms. I also liked the idea that my students would gain a first hand understanding of the order of Goju kata progression. Well in my new Derry program students were at that point, finishing Seisan kata, so I began teaching Saifa as their next kata.
I liked the results in the student development and retained it in their practice.
As I progressed into kata application I found Saifa a treasure house of great application potential too.
Then onto the next series of Isshinryu kata, Nihanchi, Wansu and Chinto.
It is in the brown belt level of training the remainder of the additional kata are studied.
Lung Le Kuen (Supple Dragon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ5goAtmkAc
After completion of Chinto (a kata which I believe retains very strong ties to the Chinese arts) I introduce my students to Lung Le Kuen or Supple Dragon, from the Pai Lum system of study.
When Ernest Rothrock was focusing his teachings on Pai Lum (prior to his completion of his training in Northern Eagle Claw) this form was taught at the Green belt equivalent level of training in his system. When one of my early black belts retuened to train with me for a few weeks, I had Ernest teach this to him to give him a flavor of the Chinese Arts. In turn he has worked with my students over the years, in subsequent generations, sharing this small piece of his arts.
The form uses an entirely different energy flow in its technique from anything in the Isshirnryu system. Where as karate tends to focus its energy in the biceps, Supple Dragon tends to focus its energy in the fingertips or the ends of the arm. It uses long arm circular techniques to do this. Or one spirals down to double parry a kick and then reverses the motion to spin up into a jumping turning crescent kick.
The movement flow is dynamic and powerful. As nothing in the students training prepares them for this study, they all find it quite difficult, but everyone has risen to the challenge. It gives one a different perspective of kung fu when one can practice it.
I’m quite sure all of them ‘hate’ me deep down for doing this to them too <GRIN>.
On occasion when other visiting karate-ka have seen them working at this, often the response is ‘Neat’.
Aikido
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymmlm_LqKFw
It is also at this section of training that my students begin a limited study of aikido technique. Specifically they are taught 10 specific techniques against a lunge punch. Not to make them the most prolific aikido-ka in existence, but to give them some basic skills in locking and projections. In future study they will be shown how all of these skills are contained within the Isshinryu kata, but at this stage of training they are just drills.
Unlike just punching, each aikido skill comprises a complete technique and from the entry to the attack is not completed until the opponent is immobilized on the ground.
These techniques use a different flow than karate, and the most important of the skills is how to enter the attack. While the lunge punch may not seem the most serious attacking tool, they are also quite useful against grabs, working the same plane of control.
As training progresses, Kusanku Kata finds its home.
Nijushiho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey93NWlg0YM
The next step after Kusanku is Nijushiho kata, from the Sutrisno Family Shotokan. At the time I had my first Derry students into their Brown Belt training I wanted to share with them some of Sutrisno Sensei’s Shotokan. I thought Bassai Dai would be an interesting exercise for their training, but asking Sutrisno Sensei to teach it to them, he instead chose Nijushiho kata.
Nijushiho translates as the 24 steps, with the thought it may have originally used 24 techniques. It isn’t a long kata, but when correctly done is a total bend of hard and soft technique. Normally this is an advanced kata in the Shotokan training, but this is what he chose for my students.
Back when I originally met Tris, he taught this at a summer karate camp, but consistent with his traditions, a more advanced version of the form. I was captivated at the interplay of technique as he taught it and several years later, for fun, tried it out in competition.
Then when he taught it to my students he taught it by the ‘bunkai’ or applications for their first level of application. A blend of striking, multiple striking, locking and throwing, and as he put it the karate butterfly kick. That is similar to Kusanku kata, where he did a jump inside crescent kick followed by a back kick and a drop to the ground. This is a complement to Kusanku’s use of the technique.
Summation
These skills do give my students a grasp of what others are doing, beyond watching movies or reading magazines. They reinforce the simple fact, they can learn anything if they choose to train appropriately.
None of them is particularly long, Lung Le Kuen, the longest of them. But they offer an additional layer of ability.
And they subtly change the student in the manner where all training changes us.
Pleasantly,
Victor
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