Wastelander

Congratulations and thank you for all you do, @bushido_man96 !

No. There are a bunch of different Shorin-Ryu organizations I could have tried to join, but they either didn't have instructors accessible to me to help me adjust to the system, or the instructors/organizations would require me to change my curriculum to conform to their standards, and I had already decided to move forward with the approach my late Sensei and I decided on. I suppose I could have done a deeper dive to see if there were any organizations that let instructors have free reign on what/how they teach, but I am already part of the World Combat Association, which is style-agnostic and best-practices based, and that's how we approached creating the International Neoclassical Karate Kobudo Society, as well. I am also unofficially connected to the Bugeikan, as that is the headquarters for KishimotoDi, but they don't really make it official until you train with them on Okinawa, and I haven't had a chance to do that, yet.

When I was still in the Shorinkan, we had to attend at least one official training camp per year, as a dojo, and any time we went to Okinawa, we were only allowed to train at the Shorinkan honbu dojo, and only during the designated "foreigner classes," of which there were two per week. We usually had a Kyoshi within the organization come and teach twice per year, although that wasn't strictly necessary to maintain membership. Personally, I was going to maintain my membership in the Shorinkan, personally, while establishing my own unaffiliated dojo starting in 2020, but politics and ultimatums changed my mind, so I went independent, instead.

It's hard for me to pick just one. Of the kata that I've learned, and can still remember, I would say the Taikyouku kata, and Nakazato Shugoro's Fukyu no Kata and Gorin no Kata. The Taikyouku are really just blank templates of the general Pinan enbusen with arbitrarily chosen basics, and you'll get far more value out of just doing the Pinan series. Fukyu no Kata is an even simpler enbusen (straight line forward, turn around, straight line back) with arbitrarily chosen basics, and again, you'll get more value out of other kata. Gorin no Kata was designed purely to demonstrate karate in front of the International Olympic Committee at the '96 Olympics, so while you can get practical applications from it, since it is a hodgepodge of other kata, it wasn't designed with application in mind, and is really just for show. You'll get more out of just doing the kata it's made from. Interestingly, Pinan Sandan is the only one of the set that I cared to keep the direct material for in my adult curriculum (I only teach the Pinan series to kids). It's my favorite of the series, and has some great applications!

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

I look forward to seeing how folks approach their profiles and information about them. I think it will help people connect with each other.

Congratulations on the milestone, Bob, and thank you for all you do!

From a purely historical perspective, I would want to train with "Todi" Sakugawa Kanga, as he is essentially the origination point for Shuri-Te styles, depending on which oral histories you believe. He taught "Bushi" Tachimura, and may have also taught "Bushi" Matsumura (although the oldest documentation we have about his teacher is about Yabiku Peichin, not Sakugawa). He might have created Naihanchi and Kusanku. He was supposedly so connected to Chinese arts that he was nicknamed after them (although there is little documentation to support the theory that he actually transplanted Chinese arts). Just all-around a cool experience.

Always fun to see the stats after a long stretch of time!

My preferred sparing format is kakedameshi, which is a form of sticky hands sparring. It forces you to stay close and in contact with the opponent at all times, which enables you to apply the techniques from your kata under pressure. We allow strikes, joint locks, takedowns, and strangleholds, as well as groundwork, to varying degrees, depending on the focus of the class. As far as feinting or setting up techniques, it's pretty easy when you get the hang of it--do something that causes them to resist, and use that resistance against them.

To strengthen koshi, what you actually need to do is strengthen your legs--squats, deadlifts, and lunges. The hips, themselves, only move because the legs make them move. To strengthen gamaku, you can focus on stability/bracing through isometrics, like Sanchin, or through movements, like cat/camel "stretches," crunches, back extensions, etc.

Gamaku: This is the musculature between the bottom of your ribcage and the hip joints. In context, for karate, this is referring to engaging this musculature to support your structure and facilitate the generation and delivery of power into your techniques. Hara: The belly. This can be used to highlight that specific area of gamaku, as it ignores the musculature along the sides and back, as well as around the hips. Often discussed in relation to the tandan, as well. Tanden: The lower belly/center of gravity. Usually used to highlight specific feelings and positions of the hips that you accomplish through gamaku engagement, although it is also discussed in terms of balance and breaking balance. Koshi: The hips. In context, for karate, this is generally talking about "koshi wo hineru" (twisting the hips) as a method of power generation, but can also be used to discuss other hip motions. Chinkuchi: Muscle, sinew, and bone. This is a structural concept, essentially. In context, for karate, it is used to discuss the idea of bone and joint alignment, as well as efficiency in muscular engagement--specifically, only engaging the muscles you actually need to perform a technique, and nothing extra. As far as how these all fit together, I don't personally use "hara" in my teaching, at all. I have found that I don't really have any need to specify the belly when discussing gamaku unless I am specifically talking about the tanden, and hara is more vague than that, so it just isn't necessary. Tanden and koshi are both part of gamaku, since the tanden more-or-less sits in your pelvis and the koshi are the lowest connection point for the gamaku muscles, and while your legs drive the movement of koshi, gamaku is used to orient the tanden and connect the koshi to the upper body. The alignment of all of these structures is part of chinkuchi, and chinkuchi is also when you are able to only use the minimum necessary muscles to accomplish a movement, allowing you to generate power while also being relaxed, fluid, and fast.

I often run the three Naihanchi kata back-to-back-to-back, as it saves time removing the extra yoi and bowing, although that isn't quite the same as what you're trying to do with it. As aurik mentioned, Shuri-Ryu does have a version of Naihanchi which is basically the distilled combination of material from Naihanchi Shodan, Nidan, and Sandan, which they call "O-Naihanchi," although they generally claim that this is how Naihanchi was originally done, which is not the case. There is zero evidence to support the theory that those three kata were ever one long kata, and a good deal of evidence to support that some form of Naihanchi Shodan was the original Naihanchi kata, and Nidan and Sandan were created later--Nidan by Matsumura Sokon or Itosu Anko, and Sandan by Itosu Anko, depending on who you believe.

Happy birthday to KF, and thank you to Patrick, the rest of the staff, and all of our members!