5 posts / 0 new
Last post
dhogsette
dhogsette's picture
Shuto Uke Application and Pad Drills for Pinan Shodan/Heian Nidan

Hello,

In this video, we examine four possible ways to apply the basic shuto uke technique:

1) Clearing limbs to strike the head

2) Flinch response and counter

3) Defense against high wrist grab and counter

4) Defense against an attempted lapel grab or someone reaching in to grab or clinch up

Toward the end of the video, there is some footage of beginner students in my physical education karate class practicing some of the techniques on kicking shields and target pads. As much as possible, I try to engage various elements of the training matrix, as Iain has so clearly and passionately described elsewhere. This week and next week (the last week of the semester, sadly), we will engage some live practice. I'm creating various scenarios that will allow students to practice several applications from Pinan Shodan/Heian Nidan that we have explored these past 15 weeks. Should be fun!

Best,

David

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Good stuff as always David!

dhogsette wrote:
As much as possible, I try to engage various elements of the training matrix, as Iain has so clearly and passionately described elsewhere.

“Passionately” is a good description! Much better than saying, “as Iain has described while exhibiting deep frustration and a simmering rage” :-) I’ll take it!

dhogsette wrote:
This week and next week (the last week of the semester, sadly), we will engage some live practice. I'm creating various scenarios that will allow students to practice several applications from Pinan Shodan/Heian Nidan that we have explored these past 15 weeks. Should be fun!

Fantastic! Love how you are structuring and presenting all of this David. Thanks for sharing with us!

All the best,

Iain

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

Thank you, Iain! I'm having a blast teaching these PE classes and figuring out ways to teach good principles in a short time (15 weeks). Teaching karate in a college setting like this has helped me study the notion that a kata is like a syllabus--and I'm convinced that is exactly right. If we see kata as a storehouse of karate knowledge and combative principles, illustrated with a few key techniques, then we can more easily develop a pedagogy of motion that is focused, specific, manageable, and effective. These students receive a taste, a little sip, of karate, and hopefully it will encourage some of them to pick it up as they go into the workforce and start their workaday lives.

Also, my experience teaching this way is convincing me that the ordering of kata in most systems is mainly arbitrary. That's not a bad thing necessarily, as the creators of systems have thought about progress of technique and unique challenges of different kata, and so on, and arranged the kata accordingly. The modern kata--like the Pinans--clearly have a progression built into them by design. But, the ancient forms come to us as collections pieced together and arranged differently by different masters. All that to say one need not start at the beginning of a particular system to learn good karate. Sure, to learn that system (Matsubayashi, for example), one must follow the set of kata and drills as designed by the originator of the system. But, if someone wants an introduction to core karate principles, he/she can start with just about any kata, it seems to me, as long as he/she has a good instructor. I started these students with Pinan Shodan, which is the third kata in Matsubayashi (the fourth in some schools who teach the very rare Fukyugata San form). And they are doing very well. So, you don't have to start at "the beginning."

I could be wrong here, but my experience teaching this way is strongly reinforcing the notion that a kata (the ancient ones) was itself a representation of a system.

Best,

David

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

dhogsette wrote:
I could be wrong here, but my experience teaching this way is strongly reinforcing the notion that a kata (the ancient ones) was itself a representation of a system.

That’s how I see it! :-) They are far more than a “bag of tricks”. They are a structured series of lessons and drills, with each building on the last, that illustrate the core concepts and principles of the fighting system that gave rise to them. A structured approach to kata is sure to mesh with the structure on which the kata are based. Thanks once again for sharing all these videos David!

All the best,

Iain

Marc
Marc's picture

The four examples show how the principle of shuto-uke can be applied with different "entries". Well done. Thanks for sharing.

dhogsette wrote:
I could be wrong here, but my experience teaching this way is strongly reinforcing the notion that a kata (the ancient ones) was itself a representation of a system.

Yes, as I understand it, each kata or kata series (like Heian or Tekki) is a collection of methods/principles that exemplify the essence of a fighting style. Style here meaning "that's how XXX used to defend himself". If that style is in line with your own capabilities/preferences/body type and so on, then that kata is the only one you'll need.

Of course if you teach students, who usually have a variety of different capabilities/preferences/body types, it makes sense to teach more than one kata. So there's something in it for everybody.

The order in which katas are taught in a karate system/association is mostly arbitrary. In my association Jion is required for 1st kyu, but I don't think it to be more difficult than Heian-Godan which is required for 4th kyu. It is just that the association decided to teach the Heian series first.

Funakoshi even reordered the Heian katas (Heian-Shodan being Pinan-Nidan) because he thought that it would be easier to learn. So even within a series the order doesn't have to be written in stone. Although I personally think that the orginal order of the Pinans mattered.

Take care,

Marc