Mister Man

I can back up aefibird - he s awesome. I trained at seminar with him also, the warm up alone was like fighting on the mat. He is a very pleasant chap - on the mat his face looks like a 'cheetah about to pounce'. MM

ShotokanKid Remebr if you are learning this from scratch, the jump can be modified slightly as a start. The initial cresent kick into your hand doesn't have to be whilst in the air, you can make this a 180 jump initially by turning and kicking at 180 degrees then jump and spin to fface the front again. The key to this jump is confidence, if you are confident you can land safely then you can gradually test yourself until you are jumping at 360 degrees. A tip to ensure a good landing, with all jumps try and curl up in the air but with this one, only shoot your rear foot out behind you just before you land, almost as if if you didn't you would lnad on your knees. This shooting outof the leg acts as a brake that stops any rotational momentum. Good luck! MM

Back to the topic - AngelaG's explanatin is a valid and very popular one amoung those taking a pragmatic view on the application. I teach a similar application where you as karateka have taken the opponents back and have a strangle/choke on and are almost shuffling backwards to 'put in on'. Another one is where the arms represent a full nelson (arms under their armpits and hands behind their neck. However, I once remember Sensei Kanazawa muttering that the application was never there as the person who made the kata didn;t finish where he started so kind of added in a couple of hops at angle to get 'back', we wern't sure whether he was joking! Jumping over a swung weapon/chain is very text book - but that's okay. MM

Red tirangle student Hi - okay Jiin springs to mind as this has moving from one kiba dachi to another by turning both ways. I teach my students to keep their hips level throughout the whole movement. The key is to get the knees to touch as soon as possible during the movement (and putting your arms in whatever preparatory movement is required for execution), making yourself as 'thin' yet low as possible, then exploding your feet apart again as you land into the stance rather than 'blending' into it. Plenty of kime is needed to ensure no shuffling of the feet after landing. Good luck!

Davedarave As your front leg is slightly bent, make use of this when making your initial step back but straightening it to get you going, then use your stomach/centre to keep the momentum going (this helps to keep your torso upright throughout the entire move and your hips level) then your old back leg pushes as you kime and focus into the next stance. Good luck! MM

My advice would be, if you are aiming for elegance i.e. for competetion then remember, all jumps in Shotokan are started from one foot, like a basket ball dunk, long/high/triple jump etc...so the key is to get your first knee as high as possible by exploding it up and let the momentum bring the trailing leg up and be sure to tuck it under (depending on kata) so you peak with both knees as high as possible. Don't worry about gaining lateral distance with your jumps, emphasis should be on the height and if done with enough umphhh the distance will be gained through natural momentum as you jump and land. Good luck! MM

Ialwaysgethit You a long list of comp kata there! - I would focus on half of those at most. Each kata especially for comp has a characteristic that you exploit to the max e.g. don't choose kanku sho if you don't like to jump or gankaku if you don't favour yoko geri keage. I take my best attributes and choose the kata based on that. jitte, jiin and jion do not offer elements that can be exploited in comp in my opinion, hence you will not see this much at world class level or even national. Dan grade kata tend to be the unsu, gojushiho dia/sho etc... Last point, a book can be great at telling where your body is suppsed to be, but it cannot fully realise what the rythmn, timing and feel of the kata. This is best extracted from someone who knows and shows. Filming is okay, but you do need to know what to look for in order to correct. Good luck! MM

Here is my two pence worth. Heian Shodan is our second kata we learn and has three main differences from Taikyoku Shodan so it's important that you still maintain the correct form on those differences. i.e. the age uke are all with hips 45 deg, just like the gedan barai, the tettsui uchi is in the correct time with the pre and post movements, and of course that the kata is still strong for the last four shuto uke in kokutsu dachi. Often I see the kata almost drop in intensity after the 2nd kiai because the last four moves are weak. MM