Naihanchi/Tekki Shodan and Bunkai

[Wastelander]

Hello everyone,

At the request of a friend of mine, I spent a little time last weekend recording my Naihanchi kata. Since it is a common kata that most of us likely share, and one that I feel is of great importance, I figured I would share the video here.

I'm certainly no expert, and there are plenty of mistakes for me to work on--it's amazing how many problems you find when you watch yourself on video . Still, I think this is a fairly accurate representation of where I am with my karate.

I had a couple minutes after class this Saturday before I had to head home to help my wife around the house, so I recorded a quick-and-dirty demo of a broken-down bunkai drill I like for the beginning of Naihanchi Shodan. I would have preferred better angles, close-ups of some parts, more detailed demonstrations, better lighting, etc., but I did what I could with the time I had. I really appreciate Brent, one of our intermediate teen students, for letting me beat up on him . As always, there are many applications that could work for any given movement, so these are not the only applications we use for Naihanchi and they certainly aren't the only ones out there!

The scenario starts with someone grabbing you and threatening you. The first movements of the kata are used a pre-emptive strike in this drill, where you grab your attacker's head and strike it--in the demonstration, I simply punch the face, but you could backfist the nose or use small-surface strikes like ippon-ken on kyusho targets. From there, I lever the head down into a knee strike, and shovel kick the attacker's knee.

The second part of the drill is when you have failed to pre-empt your attacker and they let go of you with one hand to start punching. You deflect and trap the punch beneath your arm and use that hand to slap the back of their head while elbowing them in the face. Just like the first technique, the strike (elbow, in this case) can be thrown as many times as necessary, although I only did it once in the demo.

The third part of the drill is when you have done one of the first two (I only demonstrate this off of the second part of the drill in the video, though) and your attacker blocks and clinches with you to prevent you from hitting them more. From there, you grapple with your opponent (normally I like doing this randori-style, but didn't for the video) until they try to make space to start hitting you again, at which point you drag their pushing arm across your body into hiji osae gatame (elbow press lock). That lock can be used to control the attacker, dislocate the joint, or simply bring their head level down, and then you can follow up with hammerfists or punches to the head/neck.

This drill can be worked into just about any self defense drill, because often when people start getting hit and don't like it, but also don't want to quit fighting, they will grab onto you and start wrestling with you. From that same situation, I have other drills from Naihanchi, but this was the only one I had time to record. I hope it is clear enough for you guys to see where I'm going with it, though! Eventually, I would like to record other applications that can be used for a variety of other scenarios.

[CredoTe]

Great OP Wastelander! I believe you shared the first video somewhere else, as well... And, your bunkai/oyo are pretty good...

IMHO, the Naihanchi kata are of vital importance to Shorin-Ryu based karatekas. Not only for its many real-world fighting sense bunkai/oyo, but because it develops gamaku (power generation).

First, the Naihanchi dachi roots the karateka to the earth to help develop the idea of drawing from the earth through the legs. From there, the legs direct energy to and through the hips. Not to mention that it's good strength training for your legs...

Second, the hips direct what was drawn through it to the rest of the body to whatever arm or leg the karateka is striking with. It's not just hips; the hips turn the body. Your body has a "gamaku zone": think of it as extending from the bottom of your thighs just above your knees up to about your diaphragm; almost like a batter's strike zone in baseball. Your hips initiate movement of this gamaku zone, but is not the only thing that moves. The entire gamaku zone moves as a unit, like a centrifuge, and directs power to your target via your arms or legs or whatever.

Third, gamaku cannot be properly developed without a solid tanden (posture / control of center). Naihanchi further develops tanden concepts first learned in Fukyugata and / or Pinan, etc. The strange positioning in Naihanchi lend to developing gamaku and tanden in that, if you can obtain good power in those strange positions, think of your power development in a regular fighting stance like shizentai or slanting shiko...

Choki Motobu Osensei practiced the Naihanchi kata almost exclusively and thought they contained everything one needed to know about fighting.

[mal103]

Very good - I like your distance during Bunkai - it's CLOSE!

Very similar to Shotokan which uses a lower and wider stance with a few of the moves flowing, one of the biggest problems in training it is to get the snappy moves where needed, some just blur the lot together and rush it.

Don't worry about not looking perfect, i've just had a load of pics taken of my Kata and I could spend all evening picking out bad points. It's only when it's seen and felt that you can witness it properly.

[Wastelander]

Thanks, guys!

I ended up having some time after class last night to upload the video of the full renzoku bunkai drill. As I mentioned, I'm still tweaking it, so it's a bit rough and there are a couple things I would like to change. It does cover an application for every movement in the kata, and any individual application can be taken out and drilled separately. The drill is really just intended to be a flow drill that covers the entire kata, but it is also semi-live in that there are several sections where the uke can attack with either side or from odd angles, and they can resist or block as they see fit. It isn't a fully live drill, of course, since tori and uke are working specific techniques, but I think it's a decent introduction to the idea. Ideally, I see this drill as being an "entry level" partner drill that can become more and more live as you get more comfortable with the techniques. When I've done it with people who don't know the drill, they sometimes respond in unusual ways and I can just about always find an application from another section of the drill.

Continuing from the first video, we have the attacker breaking free of the lock or withstanding the strikes to the head and firing back with a punch from their free hand. This is a section where I'm looking into changing the attack, but it will take some experimentation. Right now, I'm thinking that uke grabbing the punching arm to control it might fit better. Tori responds by blocking, then twisting the arm into hiji dori garami (elbow grip lock--that's what we call it, anyway) and striking kyusho targets in the cervical plexus or side of the neck/head.

From there, should uke break free from the lock we transition into a hammerfist across the jaw, which also serves to jam any punch from uke's free hand (whether it's coming or not). I didn't do a very good job of showing that in the video--we've been beating up on Brent (my uke) a lot lately and I didn't want to keep knocking his head around, so I ended up leaving it out. From there, if there is contact with the uke's punching arm we roll it over into a cross-body armbar (shown in the video). If the uke didn't throw a punch, I do the same motion as a hammerfist to the side of the head/neck in conjunction with a sweep (not shown in the video).

If uke escapes the lock and stands up, tori pulls them off balance and then grabs or strikes the neck/head to throw uke over tori's leg. The pull to disrupt balance is very judo/jujutsu/aikido-ish, and isn't absolutely necessary to making it work, but I wanted to include the concept. The pulling motion can also be used to deflect a punch or grab downward away from the face. The throw, itself, is really hard to match up precisely with the kata when you're being nice to your partner--the arms end up much lower. When I've done this full-speed it matches up perfectly, but the fall is pretty rough. The arm coming across the body the way it does also serves to jam any punch uke might throw.

[CredoTe]

Thanks, guys!

I ended up having some time after class last night to upload the video of the full renzoku bunkai drill. As I mentioned, I'm still tweaking it, so it's a bit rough and there are a couple things I would like to change. It does cover an application for every movement in the kata, and any individual application can be taken out and drilled separately. The drill is really just intended to be a flow drill that covers the entire kata, but it is also semi-live in that there are several sections where the uke can attack with either side or from odd angles, and they can resist or block as they see fit. It isn't a fully live drill, of course, since tori and uke are working specific techniques, but I think it's a decent introduction to the idea. Ideally, I see this drill as being an "entry level" partner drill that can become more and more live as you get more comfortable with the techniques. When I've done it with people who don't know the drill, they sometimes respond in unusual ways and I can just about always find an application from another section of the drill.

Continuing from the first video, we have the attacker breaking free of the lock or withstanding the strikes to the head and firing back with a punch from their free hand. This is a section where I'm looking into changing the attack, but it will take some experimentation. Right now, I'm thinking that uke grabbing the punching arm to control it might fit better. Tori responds by blocking, then twisting the arm into hiji dori garami (elbow grip lock--that's what we call it, anyway) and striking kyusho targets in the cervical plexus or side of the neck/head.

From there, should uke break free from the lock we transition into a hammerfist across the jaw, which also serves to jam any punch from uke's free hand (whether it's coming or not). I didn't do a very good job of showing that in the video--we've been beating up on Brent (my uke) a lot lately and I didn't want to keep knocking his head around, so I ended up leaving it out. From there, if there is contact with the uke's punching arm we roll it over into a cross-body armbar (shown in the video). If the uke didn't throw a punch, I do the same motion as a hammerfist to the side of the head/neck in conjunction with a sweep (not shown in the video).

If uke escapes the lock and stands up, tori pulls them off balance and then grabs or strikes the neck/head to throw uke over tori's leg. The pull to disrupt balance is very judo/jujutsu/aikido-ish, and isn't absolutely necessary to making it work, but I wanted to include the concept. The pulling motion can also be used to deflect a punch or grab downward away from the face. The throw, itself, is really hard to match up precisely with the kata when you're being nice to your partner--the arms end up much lower. When I've done this full-speed it matches up perfectly, but the fall is pretty rough. The arm coming across the body the way it does also serves to jam any punch uke might throw.

Great bunkai/oyo... Your video shows that you're truly understanding the fighting aspects of the Naihanchi kata, particularly the Iri-kumi (in fighting) aspects. Awesome...

[Wastelander]

Thanks, CredoTe! As I mentioned, I'm still tweaking the drill and will probably end up recording another video when I am more satisfied with it, but for now this works well enough.

[sensei8]

It's not as important that your Naihanchi kata is all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips!! NO!! What's more important, imho, is that one is studying it across the board and that they are beginning to understand it more and more each and everyday. In that, that's where the Bunkai/Oyo is paramount!!

Btw, your Naihanchi kata should look AWESOME, however, that'll come with time as your understanding deepens more and more through Bunkai/Oyo.

Rock and roll...you're doing fine!!