Jion

[AngelaG]

I'm not that fond of Jion. I much prefer the whippier kata, rather than the big, stomping kata.

Quite a few people choose Jion for their black belt in my club, which I find quite weird as personally I think Bassai Dai is a much more superior kata.

I'm quite liking Nijushiho and Kanku Sho at the moment.

[Daimyo]

Funny you mention those two Angela....I've been flip flopping between which one I'm going to do in my Shodan grading. Bassai Dai....Jion....Bassai Dai....Jion....etc...etch... Personally, I love the power of Jion - but my sensei feels I'm stronger in Bassai Dai. Ahh...decisions.

[Yasutsune Makoto]

best solution...get super good at both of them and have someone tell you what to do. No decisions there!

[Shotokan-kez]

My sensei tends to advise anyone going for black belt to chose bassai dai

[AngelaG]

I think if you are a bigger, powerful person then Jion is more likely to suit you. But Bassai is great in that it can suit the smaller built people and the bigger people as it has components of power and flow/whip within it. Plus I think Bassai is more intuitive, it lets you know the rhythm and gives a lot of spaces to catch breath before exploding again.

[cathal]

Funny you mention those two Angela....I've been flip flopping between which one I'm going to do in my Shodan grading. Bassai Dai....Jion....Bassai Dai....Jion....etc...etch... Personally, I love the power of Jion - but my sensei feels I'm stronger in Bassai Dai. Ahh...decisions.

When we go for Shodan it may not matter which kata. If we select Bassai-Dai as our first kata, the examiner selects our second kata. If we've already gone with that one the examiner may invariably select Jion for us.

[Daimyo]

I've seen some gutsy folks do Kanku-dai when grading. I love that kata too, but at 65 moves - doing that for grading is like ritual suicide! I think I'll just practice them all for the love of them all!

When we grade for Shodan (ususally with Okazaki-sensei or Yaguchi-sensei) - the elective kata they choose for us is one of the Heians or Teki-shodan. Last grading, they made everyone do Heian Yondan. Personally, I think it's genious, as it forces everyone have to perfect the BASIC katas, which are such an important foundation for the advanced katas (and good kihon). Remember, the translation for "shodan" is simply "first step".

[Shotokan-kez]

I've seen some gutsy folks do Kanku-dai when grading. I love that kata too, but at 65 moves - doing that for grading is like ritual suicide! I think I'll just practice them all for the love of them all!

When we grade for Shodan (ususally with Okazaki-sensei or Yaguchi-sensei) - the elective kata they choose for us is one of the Heians or Teki-shodan. Last grading, they made everyone do Heian Yondan. Personally, I think it's genious, as it forces everyone have to perfect the BASIC katas, which are such an important foundation for the advanced katas (and good kihon). Remember, the translation for "shodan" is simply "first step".

I agree with you. Our sensei does the same at black belt gradings, makes the students perform a few of the heian kata's and like you i am often practising them all from kihon kata to the more advanced ones.

[alsey]

daimyo i totally agree with that about having to do one of the heians or tekki shodan. we did the same thing.

i did kanku dai for my shodan though. its not that suicidal as long as you practice it a lot, but kata was always my favorite part of karate and i probably practiced it more than most students at my dojo.

[AngelaG]

I chose Bassai Dai for my shodan. However I also ended up doing Jion, Empi and Kanku Dai, as well as several of the lower grade kata.