An Odd Kick, but effective.

[ninjanurse]

And which way would your foot be oriented when you make contact...vertically or horizontally? If vertically then I would say this is just a push kick, if horizontally then...I have no clue !

 

[Jussi Häkkinen]

If the foot is vertically, it's called "tate sokuto geri" (vertical foot edge kick). If horizontally, it's a yoko geri keage (side snap kick).

[Shorinryu Sensei]

The kick lands horizontally..and no, it's not a side kick because you're not kicking to the side, nor are you hips aligned like a side kick.

 

 

 

Since you are in a front stance, the same as if you were doing a front snap kick, the hips do not rotate..only the foot rotates.

 

It's admittedly awkward to learn and master, but after a while, it's rather easy to do and makes an effective hard "push".

[Jussi Häkkinen]

The kick lands horizontally..and no, it's not a side kick because you're not kicking to the side, nor are you hips aligned like a side kick.

 

In side snap kick, you don't rotate your hips as clearly as in side thrust kick. I personally leave my hips about 45 degrees "open" to front, turning the supporting foot sideways (in front kick I keep my supporting foot forwards).

 

Since you are in a front stance, the same as if you were doing a front snap kick, the hips do not rotate..only the foot rotates.

 

Still sounds like a variant of a side snap kick. I just tried to do the kick that you described and I ended up with a version of that very kick.

It's admittedly awkward to learn and master, but after a while, it's rather easy to do and makes an effective hard "push".

 

Yep, hard to master but nice to use as a "stopper" kick. Especially when kicked to knee or upper leg.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

In side snap kick, you don't rotate your hips as clearly as in side thrust kick. I personally leave my hips about 45 degrees "open" to front, turning the supporting foot sideways (in front kick I keep my supporting foot forwards).

 

OK..I think we've got it now! We don't rotate our hips at all, because what we want to end up with is facing the opponent straight on, not turned towards him at all.

 

Jussi Häkkinen..in the style that you're doing, which "should" be the same as me (but there are always differances)..do you fight normally with your shoulders squared straight on to the opponent, or do you turn them? We fight square on..and there are reasons for this. (another thread maybe?)

[Jussi Häkkinen]

Jussi Häkkinen..in the style that you're doing, which "should" be the same as me (but there are always differances)..do you fight normally with your shoulders squared straight on to the opponent, or do you turn them? We fight square on..and there are reasons for this. (another thread maybe?)

 

In Shorin-Ryu there are a lot of substyles. The style I study belongs to Kyan Chotoku's lineage and the way we write "Shorin" can also be pronounced as "Sukunaihayashi". http://www.seibukan.org will tell you more.

 

There are also a lot of other Shorin-Ryu styles. The Anko Itosu lineages generally write their "Shorin" as "Kobayashi" and Shoshin Nagamine's Shorin-Ryu writes their as "Matsubayashi". There are also many other styles - and they may write the "Shorin" in many ways. All, however, point to Shaolin - the way of writing wasn't standardized back in the times, so people used any writing form for "sho" they could think of.

 

So, we can't really say that we have a same style (necessarily). Shorin-Ryu is just an umbrella name for styles born in Shuri and Tomari area, often having kata from the styles of both of these cities. We have Wansu, Passai and Chinto from Tomari-Te. Seisan, Gojushi-ho and Kusanku from Shuri-Te. Then, we have a kata that was invented by Kyan Chotoku to combine those city styles a bit - Ananku. Zenryo Shimabukuro created a kata Wanchin. As a weapon kata, we do Tokumine no Kun. As a first kata, we do Seisan.

 

In fighting, our style varies among the situations. We use our hips square forwards if that is handy - and we open our hips if it is handy. Some kind of definitive factor of our style is a strong hip movement and a way to do a gyaku tsuki (reverse punch) in its basic form by turning from shiko-dachi to zenkutsu dachi to maximize the power output.

 

Sorry about a long babble...you might also want to check out Zenpo Shimabukuro, our current world head, performing Chatan Yara no Kusanku: http://fileserver.uechi-ryu.com/videos/zenpo.wmv

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Ahhh..thanjks for the history lesson! I knew most of that already, but not the specifics in your particular system.

 

Our linage dates from Soken Matsumura, and then to OSensei Hohan Soken and then to OSensei Yuichi Kuda. We're a small group and trying to keep the teaching of OSensei Kuda alive and well.

 

This is our associations website if you'd like to take a look. I'm listed as #6 on the list and there are soem pics of me (the tall, skinney guy) taken with OSensei Kuda back in 1978.

 

http://www.geocities.com/rohai.geo/page.html

[CloudDragon]

sounds like it would be terrible on the knees?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

I've had knee surgury on my left knee, and it hasn't been a problem. It does put torque on the knee..true enough.

[Jussi Häkkinen]

Ahhh..thanjks for the history lesson! I knew most of that already, but not the specifics in your particular system.

 

Heh, I figured so, but I thought that some others who follow the discussion might as well get some stuff...open forum, so we can as well educate them. Besides, it's nasty to have inside discussions, so now they have a grasp about what we're talking about.

Our linage dates from Soken Matsumura, and then to OSensei Hohan Soken and then to OSensei Yuichi Kuda. We're a small group and trying to keep the teaching of OSensei Kuda alive and well.

 

Ahh, Yuichi Kuda's group! I have heard and read about his group before. Small, maybe, but then, so are all groups of traditional karate. And better to have a small group with high quality than a large group with no quality, I think.

This is our associations website if you'd like to take a look. I'm listed as #6 on the list and there are soem pics of me (the tall, skinney guy) taken with OSensei Kuda back in 1978.

 

I certainly enjoy checking out the websites of traditional karate groups. Seems like that you have got the first hand instruction (pun intended).

 

Here's a bit artsy karate pic of me, taken by my girlfriend a few years ago: http://www.fssk.org/galleria/010_action/jussi_shutouke.jpg