Bunkai Clips?

[cross]

Anyone have links to clips of full out bunkai that you consider to be accurate representations of how bunkai should be taught and applied?

Thanks.

[Mike Flanagan]

Funnily enough I've just been looking for exactly that today myself. I've found a lot of rubbish. I've also found some stuff that had potential but there was still something missing or not quite right.

Here are the best ones I've found.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=52C0C0E21707E95F

Mike

[Elky]

There are some god-awful bunkai clips from WKF competitions on youtube, but very little of any use. Thanks for bringing those together Mike.

[cross]

Thanks Mike.

[bushido_man96]

Thanks for the clips, Mike. I can see how some of those moves fall into place.

[Ajay]

You should try Iain Abernethy. He has some wonderful practical ideas on kata & bunkai. https://www.iainabernethy.com

Ajay

[Zanshin]

You should try Iain Abernethy. He has some wonderful practical ideas on kata & bunkai. https://www.iainabernethy.com

Ajay

Although I don't have a problem in principle with what he is promoting as so called "bunkai-jutsu", I am wrestling with the pedigree of the process.

His core training is apparently in Wado ryu, but I know from 20 + years of experience in Wado ryu that "Bunkai" in this form does not exist in Wado. So it leaves me scratching my head!

I also have a problem with Wado people "defining" kata bunkai as "absolute" or even potential application as it effectively "kills" kata.

I think the process of Kata is more about learning the principles of movement and how to find yourself in the best position against an opponent.

Of course, the practice of specific techniques contained within a kata against an opponent (Kaisetsu) is important so that’s why we have the various "paired kata" or Yakusoku Kumite (pre arranged fighting) and Jiyu Kumite (free fighting).

But that’s the Karate bullet out of the Wado gun. Other guns work differently, but with the same end result.

Each to their own I guess.

[NightOwl]

The problem with bunkai is that a lot of it is subjective. Of course, some parts of kata are easily interpreted, however unlike the Japanese Jujutsu schools, the karate schools did not have nearly the same amount of documentation to transmit information. Thus good portions of kata are understandable in application only if you knew the original technique outside of the kata. You can make guesses as to what they may be, but doing so has led to a lot of bad SD techniques out there.

[dmacdonal9]

The question I struggle with is whether kata had a fixed bunkai when they were originally created. If so, and we don't know it anymore, we're missing something that the originators had in mind for us.

For example, Abernethey believes many of the nukite strikes in kata are not direct strikes to the body, because the fingertips are not the best choice of weapon for a target in the abdominal region (sure, you could make it work after a fashion, but why not use seiken or haito)?

Instead, his bunkai assumes that a previous technique has moved the opponents head down to chudan level, and the target for the nukite is therefor the throat or eyes. For example, you might have pulled them in or down with a hikite, or maybe a low leg kick, or they've doubled over in reaction to a chudan strike, etc. It makes a lot of sense to me...

If this is true, then anyone practicing kata imagining nukite strikes to the solar plexus is a little off base, no?

[bushido_man96]

What I like about Abernethy's approach is that he has taken the time to really break things down, take the forms apart, and look into what the applications could be. If you make it work for you, then it can't be wrong.