Your own kata bunkai

[Beer-monster]

Why is no one replyinhg to this thread. It was an interesting one that hadn't dissolved into pettiness.

 

C'mon I want to hear more of your bunkai and opinions of kata?

[Shorin Ryuu]

Pinan Sandan

 

The three elbow blocks in shiko-datchi with the hands on the hips followed by punches:

 

At first glanse, these moves seem absolutely worthless. If you were fighting someone in a ring and you had perfect health, you would never perform a block like this. So are they worthless?

 

Hardly. Like much of karate they are meant for less than ideal conditions.

 

For instance, you are walking down the street with your hands in your coat pockets, and someone runs up to you and throws a punch to your torso. You use this blocking technique, pull your fist out and punch the attacker.

 

Or you are carrying groceries to your car. Same thing, you use your elbow or arm to block because your hands are essentially tied down.

 

You break your hand, wrist or lower arm in a fight. You can still use this blocking technique.

 

And the great thing about these blocks is you don't have to use the elbow sticking out like in the kata. When performing the techniques correctly, the hips should be turning, not just the arms. So if your arm is rendered entirely useless for whatever reason, you could still use this technique to reduce the impact of a body punch by blocking with the torso. Instead of driving itself into you, the punch rolls off slightly by your turning motion (provided you time it right). This would work best if you were facing your opponent head on, then turned sideways as the punch was landing.

 

Another bunkai that I have used for this movement is that since you have a hand "prepped" at your left side, that indicates that you are grabbing and pulling, since there really is no such thing as a "prepped" movement in kata (at least the way I interpret it). Thus if someone grabs you with their left arm or you grab their left arm and then you step out to their left side into the stance you see in the kata, you are perfectly set up. Then, if you hold someone's wrist at your hip and pull while you are in that stance, their left arm is completely vulnerable and if you perform this "elbow block" (which is an actuality a stike), it will fall precisely within cleft that is opened up by the pull with your other hand. You can then either break his arm or throw him. I usually go for the arm break because it is followed up by a strike to the head or the back of the neck, which is made vulnerable by the above sequence.

 

I think one reason why people do not reply so much on this post is that because it takes a lot of effort to write all this down!