P.A.L

I am a fourth dan in Shorin-ryu Shorinkan and a fourth dan in Goju-ryu under Hokama Sensei. Sensei Hokama says, "Goju-ryu is a bottle of water. Sanchin is the bottle, Tensho is the cap, and the water represents all Goju-ryu methods, all mixed." I like this analogy. My Sanchin dachi and Naihanchi dachi are essentially the same ,both shoulder-width, with heels slightly out. In both of them, I am sitting heavy and compressed. I am absolutely comfortable staying or stepping. My weight is right in the middle. If I am pulled, I am not going to use my toes to stop it; I try to go lower. The length of my Sanchin stance is toe to heel plus 2-3 inches.my back hip is pushed forward and engaged . in my opinion, Sanchin is a fundamental kata as it is all about structure. Tensho and Naihanchi are not fundamental kata unless you do them and treat them as such; otherwise, both are fighting kata. For me, Sanchin is about muscles and bones, and Tensho is about tendons. Naihanchi is my self defense kata along side Seisan.

the difference is very minor. on Okinawa some schools do the sanchin with couple of turns also some schools incorporate kobudo. as for the bunkai, I would say the Okinawan goju has more close fight and clinch bunkai but again bunkai is very personal. Sensei Hokama sees a neck break where others see a strike to a rib but again bunkai has no limit.

I do karate and I love to learn some Chinese martial arts mostly wing chun and anything crane related trying to figure out my options.

search " understanding koshi" in youtube. some years ago sensei Otta invited two Okinawan karate masters for a seminar on koshi. sensei Ikehara and Tajima i think. one of them I guess Tajima showed the Naihanchi shodan. that is one of the best original naihanchi you can find out there. you can see how relax the upper body turns and resets.

thank you very much !

it is effective if you work on it. My shorin ryu sensei could break boards with his fingers and I got toe kicked by Sensei Ron Lindsey and Sensei Hokama. Sensei Hokama constantly practices the toe kick formation while standing by putting his index toe over the big toe.

I always thought you could go high in that organization I didn't know you left. I tested for shodan around 2006 in the same organization and stopped testing at Shodan. I received an honorary rank of 4th Dan in 2015 from my own sensei not from the organization. I think rank is only important if you wanna teach in the same organization. I remember I asked one of my teachers about testing for 6th he said he doesn't wanna pay $600. So stop testing is not uncommon but I mostly see it after 3rd dan.

first of all, I need to say that I love the relaxed execution of Matsubayashi Ryu kata(s). Sensei Nagamine was a great teacher and his letter to JKA is legendary. since you are tired of block/punch karate I would recommend that you focus on not more than 3 katas for self-defense. for example Naihanchi Sandan for the clinch and Tomari Passai for close range. I have seen Matsubayashi-Ryu simple bunkai and never been impressed with them but you can look at them like a karate-jutsu practitioner, look at people like Oyata, Kise,Masaji or Hokama and use the same principle in your bunkai and you would see the Krav maga techniques in there. I do 14 shorin-kan kata plus 12 Goju-ryu kata. I only work on Goju-Seisan to the point of using it in a real conflict that I hope never comes.

very excited about it.

for years I've been looking for a uechi-ryu school and a Yamanni-ryu teacher around Houston. I still can't find a Uechi-ryu practitioner in Houston but I finally found a Yamanni ryu teacher. He is part of Nishime Sensei organization and we gonna meet twice each month. He also got a none- tapered BO from sensei Nishime for me. I really like the BO handling of Yamanni ryu in comparison to other Bojutsu styles like Matayoshi or Matsumura.

Naihanchi Shodan, Tensho and Happoren

Kanzen ryu is a hybrid system mostly based on shotokan and shorinji kemp also influenced by Japaneses Goju ryu. I remember Sensei Varasteh was a famous karate master in Iran before revolution. as you can see in this clip he is doing a variation of Chatan Yara Kusanku but at the end it changes to something else. He did this demonstration in 1974 for Asian games in Tehran. you can see his Sanchin kata is his own creation. his karate was hard. if you are a kumite oriented practitioner then Kanzen ryu the way sensei Varasteh was teaching is great with lots of attacking and sweeps. you need to keep in mind that Kanzen ryu doesn't have a strong root like Shotokan. after Iran's revolution when sensei Varasteh left the country and moved to Canada, he lost all the contacts with his organization in Iran and pretty much had to start over. if you are into basics and kata(s) then Shotokan is well documented. with shotokan you have nothing to lose. with Kanzen ryu you won't have that chain of history if it is important to you.

welcome to the forum, there is an introduction category that you can tell us about yourself ( if you like to, of course ). about your question. I learned it from Sensei Ron Lindsey while practicing white crane with him later I added it to my shorin-ryu . in Goju-ryu( Naha-te in general) it is part of the strategy to begin with.

i don't have anything less than 14 oz but please tell us how you like it . did you get any embroidery ?

wash cold and air dry gives you minimum shrinkage. hot wash and hot dry give you maximum shrinkage.