Video
Fri, 2012-04-13 09:33
This video shows a combination drill that draws from Pinan / Heian Shodan, Yodan & Godan. It was filmed at a seminar in Pinneberg, Germany in January 2012. Once the individual bunkai sequences have been learnt and practised to a sufficient degree, it is important to practise combining the motions together and putting them into a combative context. In this drill we use a motion from Godan to
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Thu, 2012-04-12 07:53
This clip was filmed when I was teaching in Kansas, USA in October 2011. It covers the bunkai for the opening sequence of Naihanchi / Tekki Shodan. This is a potentially dangerous sequence and great care must be taken in practise. It should only be practised by competent martial artists while under the direct supervision of a suitably qualified and experienced instructor. This bunkai is
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Mon, 2011-10-31 22:51
This video was taken at a seminar I taught in Essex in October 2011. We were looking at techniques and drills from Kushanku / Kanku-Dai kata. This is one drill that can be used to practise the applications for Shuto-Uke (“knife hand block”) and Nukite (spear hand). The idea is to get the key variations drilled in a small amount of training time. I hope you enjoy working the drill
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Wed, 2011-10-26 19:54
This video was filmed when I was teaching in Lund, Sweden in October 2011. Over the weekend we had been exploring the progression found in the Pinan Heian series. We began with the core techniques found in Pinan Shodan (Heian Nidan) and progressed through the whole series to the more advanced techniques found in Yodan and Godan (See my DVDs “The Pinan / Heian Series: The Complete Fighting
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Tue, 2011-10-18 16:09
This video was filmed when I was teaching in Kansas, USA in October 2011. It covers a bunkai drill from Kushanku / Kanku-Dai for the sequence commonly labelled as “Shuto, front kick, back fist, ‘outer-block’, double punch”.
The sequence controls both of the enemy’s arms and opens them up for a shuto to the base of the skull (or a palm-heel to the kidneys). The
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Tue, 2011-10-18 16:04
In this video we cover how the gedan juji-uke (lower cross “block”) from Pinan / Heian Yodan can be used as a front strangle. In the kata this strangle comes after strikes to the arteries of the neck; we therefore see the kata exploring the theme of how this area can be attacked by both striking and then squeezing. I teach this method as following on from a grip much used by kata.
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Tue, 2011-08-23 09:12
In this video we look at an application for the Manji-Uke (simultaneous “lower-block” & “outer block”) found at the end of Pinan / Heian Godan.
This method of intercepting a kick and throwing the enemy is widely taught in karate dojo that have a practical bias. However, it would be fair to say that in the majority of modern dojo this motion is viewed as blocking a
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Sat, 2011-08-20 11:57
This video shows a bunkai drill for moves 3 to 6 of Pinan Nidan / Heian Shodan. It was filmed at a private training session in August 2011 and we had just been looking at applications for the previous turn. This clip joins that session as we look at the “lower-block” posture and onwards.
I see the Pinan / Heian kata as showing a combative progression from Pinan Shodan to Pinan
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Sat, 2011-08-20 11:49
At this class we did some three-person conditioning drills. The way these work is that one person holds the pads, one person hits those pads, and the third person makes it as difficult as possible for the striker by pulling them at various angles with a belt; or pushing them backward for a given time.
The first drill shown uses the belt. It is very important not to simply pull in one
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Wed, 2011-08-10 11:01
This video was filmed at one of my regular karate classes last week. We started by working on a number of ways of moving an opponent who is on all fours (drawn from my Judo training with Mike Liptrot). I class these methods as “fighting” or “game play” techniques as they would not be appropriate for self-protection. The reason being that deliberately keeping a fight on
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