Brilliant Bunkai for Shotokan on you tube

All of Sensei Lupo's stuff is good on you tube but his treatment of Sochin is particularly detailed: with bunkai, self defence and practice drills as well as a fine demonstration of the kata. Who is doing this kind of stuff with Shotokan in England? Any ideas for me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDrOze7F4nE

Hi Kravate101,

I've seen Sensei Lupo's videos on youtube before and to be honest. I don't think it is that brilliant.

I'll try to explain why.

First of all, why is he making the distinction between bunkai and reality. IMO Kata was made for recording methods to deal with reality. The bunkai part is solely against Karate techniques and not against HAOPV actions (or whatever you may call it). Karate was and is for civilian self protection.

I'm really impressed by how much time he must have invested to come up with all this. But why should I spend 95% of my training time to prepare myself for self defense scenarios that are highly unlikely.

In the last part (where they wear civilian clothes) it is much better but I am still not convinced, that this will work that way in reality. He is allway (surprisingly) attacked from a great distance or from the side. Is that the case in most situations? I don't think so. He is way to passive for my taste. You should be the one who dictates the action right from the beginning. If you wait for the other guy to come up with something you are done because you don't know what is coming. Therefore dealing with a left, right boxing combination is pretty tough and not as easy as it is shown in Sensei Lupo's video.

Hope I made myself clear :o).

Regards Holger

first thing Bunkai -is about analysis of the kata.

Therefore it will certainly need adjustments for it to be realistic in temrs of application in a live enviroment -hence actual application falls more into principle based technique delivery - not Bunkai as it's done in fixed kata sets.

I think Lupo Sensei work is great for the most part - great solid shotokan, great bunkai (alot of the time), and well presented to the word.

I dont think for one minute it would work like it's shown, alot of the time of course - for that you need semi fixed and free drills to develop, this is all wonderfully staged.

Major issue I have is where an obvious Bunkai is shown the defence is really poor and nothing happened to the attacker until the next movement - result defender gets hit........................in reality.

Uke often should unbalance as well as protect.

I hear what your saying and it's all gratefully recieved. The point I'm making is that compared to the Shotokan that I've seen in  various dojos I've trained, this is ground-breaking stuff. I'm used to only seeing the odd move explained and rarely getting the chance to do partner work on the kata moves to explore them myself. Sensei Lupo shows how much potential there is in the Shotokan katas and he has, in my view, a very refreshing interpretation of some of the moves and is not afraid to go beyond the "letter" of the moves to explore their use in reality. He also introduces throws and, to an extent holds, something that I rarely saw in the Dojo.

I realise I have much to learn on the real potential of Bunkai -that's why I've logged in to this site.  I hope it will help me to stay with Traditional Karate- as I also train Krav Maga where everything is "realistic". Karate offers that solid technique and so much more: but I need to know that what I am sweating over is a.) achieving something practical and b.) that I am progressing week after week. Sensei Lupo offers that hope, I'm going to watch some of Sensei Iain's videos on Bunkai: just got his "Grappling methods vol 1" today!  Is there anything else bunkai related that people can recommend to help me work with my Shotokan kata training?

Kravate101, Mark Carroll's DVDs are well worth looking up - www.dominoproductions.co.uk.

Hi Kravate101,

I know exactly what you mean. I am also a Shotokan dude and all I ever saw on bunkai was what I call JKA bunkai for suckers. Therefore I can see what kind of eyeopener sensei Lupos stuff may be for you.

What I can highly recommend is Chris Denwoods Double-DVD Acorns to Oak Trees: Essential Guidelines fo Pragmatic Kata Bunkai, besides all the material from Iain.

http://www.eskk-shop.co.uk/

You can take a look at their youtube channel too. There are a view videos regarding bunkai,
http://www.youtube.com/user/eskkchannel

Have fun.

Regards Holger

Hi Kravate,

I've wacthed Sensei Lupo's videos for a couple of years now. I think he's working hard to find explanations but is, for the most part, still too stuck in fitting function to form whereas he should be looking at it the other way round. Plus, as has been mentioned above, he seems to split between gi on and gi off explanations, which is most odd. Unless he's showing apps for tournament and apps for street. I don't know but for me it's not a path I want to take. Aftr all, we have limited training time and, in any stressful situation, we perform how we train - so I like to spend my training time doing things that I know will be useful should the need arise.

It's the more sensible approach, I think, that people like Iain and Chris Denwood have taken. They look at the principles of what the posture or linked postures teach and put them to use in realistic situations. AND pressure test them through non-compliant training to ensure they work.

The group I belong to, Kissaki Kai, does the same thing. We look at kata as being shorthand for movements and analyse the principles behind them to get to the essence of what they teach. We're a multi-style group but founded by Vince Morris, a very experienced and prominent shotokan exponent, so there's a lot of shotokan experience in the group and the training we do. TVince is now based in the US but the UK head is Don Came and can be reached here - http://www.karateacademy.org.uk/. Both he and Vince regularly teach seminars around the UK. In fact, Don's teaching a seminar at the end of Feb on Tekki and Bassai.

We have also recently filmed a DVD for training drills that are derived from a range of kata. I think that Iain is mentioning it in an upcoming newsletter. Probably be on sale in two or three months at the latest.

Hope that helps

Jon

ky0han wrote:

I'm really impressed by how much time he must have invested to come up with all this. But why should I spend 95% of my training time to prepare myself for self defense scenarios that are highly unlikely.

I'm with Holger on this one. I see these kind of demonstrations as being like exhibition trick shots in snooker. While I can appreciate the skill involved and the time and effort taken to create and practice them I can't see a practical use for them. Just as the balls (and sometimes the triangle) are incredibly unlikely to be in the exact position on the table to make the shot work, so are we never likely to find ourselves threatened by anyone (using karate-like techniques no less) attacking from such a distance and in just such a manner.

Impressive to watch, but not (for me at least) worth practicing outside of just for the fun of it.