8 posts / 0 new
Last post
dhogsette
dhogsette's picture
Flinch Response Drill for Opening Moves of Pinan Shodan (Heian Nidan)

Hello,

This semester I'm taking physical education students through Pinan Shodan and Nidan (Heian Nidan and Shodan). I'm experimenting with teaching portions of the kata along with application drills. Instead of teaching the whole kata and then drills, I'm breaking the kata into combative chunks. I teach the kata portion first, and then we review a variety of drills for that portion. Then, we move to the next portion, learn the kata bit, then some drills. Once we work through the whole kata this way, I plan to do some live drills in which they can start mixing up the applications.

Since I only have the students for 15 weeks, I'm more interested in their learning combative principles and be able to work the drills. I'm less concerned about their ability perform the kata perfectly. (I realize this may be anathema to some karate instructors and practitioners, but I think this approach is reasonable for the context and these students.) We'll see how it goes.

Best,

David

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

dhogsette wrote:
I'm experimenting with teaching portions of the kata along with application drills. Instead of teaching the whole kata and then drills, I'm breaking the kata into combative chunks. I teach the kata portion first, and then we review a variety of drills for that portion. Then, we move to the next portion, learn the kata bit, then some drills. Once we work through the whole kata this way, I plan to do some live drills in which they can start mixing up the applications.

That’s exactly how we do it in my dojo. They learn the solo portion of the kata and the corresponding drill side by side. When they have that down, we move onto the next section and the next drill. The first kata learnt is Pinan Shodan, and for 8th kyu grading they have to know the first half of the kata and the four corresponding drills (along with loads of other stuff). For 7th kyu, they learn the second half of the kata, and the four drills for the second half. Once again, this is generally done section by section.  It works well for us and I prefer it over learning the entire kata before bunkai, and learning all the bunkai and then the kata. Side by side and section by section is our preference.

All the best,

Iain

Marc
Marc's picture

Very good. Nice application and well explained, including the underlying principles. Thanks for sharing.

Take care,

Marc  

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

Thanks so much, Iain and Marc. We are having a grand time working through these kata and drills! Thanks for the support and encouragement.

Best,

David

Josh Pittman
Josh Pittman's picture

Hi, there. Once again, I really enjoyed this series. Once again, I have a possible variation of this interpretation, using the version of this form that I practice. Pressure testing this application went really well. Here you go:

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

I like that wrapping variation Josh. Thanks for taking the time to film and share that. Good stuff!

All the best,

Iain

Anf
Anf's picture

Josh Pittman wrote:
Hi, there. Once again, I really enjoyed this series. Once again, I have a possible variation of this interpretation, using the version of this form that I practice. Pressure testing this application went really well. Here you go:

When I briefly trained at aikido, they taught us 'entries' that looked very much like this, in that the general format was step inside the attackers safe perimeter, making sure to guard as you did so, then establish some trap, lock, then control or takedown or throw. This is one thing I really like about taking detours into other styles. I find that invariably they complement each other far more than they contradict, and often even a beginner class in another style will give clues and ideas about one's main style that one might have previously missed.

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

That's very interesting, and I like that application a lot. I have not seen that version before. Effective, it seems to me. Thanks for the vid!

Best,

David