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Marc
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Bunkai/Applications for Gankaku / Chinto

Hi everybody,

recently after a training session we tried to find some practical applications for the kata Gankaku aka Chinto. This is what we came up with.

The purpose of the video is that we can remember what we did. It is not ment for instruction. Anyway I thought, I'd share our ideas, in case somebody might find them useful. :)

All the best,

Marc

Mark B
Mark B's picture

Hi Marc.

Some nice ideas in there

Regards

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

I like it! Good material, well displayed. Thanks for sharing!

All the best,

Iain

Wastelander
Wastelander's picture

Looks like a solid and fun breakdown session! It looks like your version of Chinto is very similar to the one we practice, but with (surprisingly) higher stances--normally, I'm used to the versions of kata I practice being higher than most others, and this one is an exception :P. For reference, this is my Sensei running Chinto as part of his Godan test at the Shorinkan honbu dojo in Naha:

Personally, I find that the opening movements of Chinto, like the nearly identical sequence in Pinan Godan, can get confusing for people because there is a lot going on in a small space, and there are a number of different ways to look at it.

I don't have a ton of videos of Chinto applications out there right now, for comparison, but here is one from almost 6 years ago, in which my form and mechanics are kind of embarassing :P:

For another way to look at the opening, my friend Jan Dam Sensei (who is a police officer in Denmark) put a series of videos on the Genten Kai Facebook Page--this is the 3rd of 5, and I do recommend going through more of their videos--that look at the juji-uke from the perspective of a flinch response posture that the kata then gives options to react from, rather than the rotating hand movements being all part of a single application:

With regard to the opening, we did a Waza Wednesday that looks at the nearly identical sequence found in the middle of Pinan Godan, which can be used as a starting point for looking at Chinto:

We also have a couple Waza Wednesday videos looking at some of the other movements:

 

And one guest Waza Wednesday from Michael and Aaron of Karate Culture:

Les Bubka
Les Bubka's picture

Hi Marc

Very nice clip, personally I don't practice Chinto, but as other noticed this part looks like Pinan Godan.

I like your wrist lock as it's very similar to what I do.

For comparison here is my take.

Thanks for posting, always good to have other view on similar techniques,

Kind regards

Les

Marc
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Thank you for your comments, guys.  

Marc
Marc's picture

Les Bubka wrote:
personally I don't practice Chinto, but as other noticed this part looks like Pinan Godan. I like your wrist lock as it's very similar to what I do.

That's a very good and clear presentation of how the lock works in your video. Thanks for posting that.

Yes, the techniques are definitely very similar. Hence the analogous application. :) Notice, that Pinan/Heian Godan also follows up with a similar sequence after the lock: Extend left arm, hit with the right (with a stepping punch), turn around into kiba-dachi with gedan-barai.

When we analysed the first part of Gankaku (from start to the double kick and lower juji-uke), I liked the idea that it gives us replies to any kind of wrist grab using the same principle: Lock the wrist to unbalance, hit or kick to weaken, finish with takedown.

The first sequence (from start to turn with gedan-barai) we can use against all four possible lower wrist grabs (right on left, right on right, left on left, and left on right). The second sequence (from upper juji-uke to turn with lower juji-uke) we can use against upper wrist grabs.

Marc
Marc's picture

Wastelander wrote:

Looks like a solid and fun breakdown session!

It sure was. Especially with all those nasty neck wrenches. :) They don't look as impressive in the video as they feel when you're the uke.

Wastelander wrote:

It looks like your version of Chinto is very similar to the one we practice, but with (surprisingly) higher stances--normally, I'm used to the versions of kata I practice being higher than most others, and this one is an exception :P.

My version is supposed to be standard Shotokan. The high stances is just me. Whether it's me being nice to my partner or me being lazy is still open for discussion. ;-)

Also thanks for posting your videos of other gankaku/chinto applications. As a fan of Waza Wednesday, of course I was familiar with most of them already. :)

Paul_L
Paul_L's picture

All this is realy helpful and the timing is perfect; I just committed the moves of Chinto to memory yesterday and was looking for more info on bunkai when this thread came up. laugh

Marc
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Paul_L wrote:

All this is realy helpful and the timing is perfect; I just committed the moves of Chinto to memory yesterday and was looking for more info on bunkai when this thread came up. laugh

Hi Paul, then you might also want to have a look at my collection of Chinto bunkai videos on my website kata-karate.de or as a convenient youtube playlist.

Paul_L
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Wey hey!  Thanks.