Notes

A few notes on some things that I personally found interesting. During any one training session the master is going to teach a lot of different things -- I've just listed below a few notes that were in some way new to me, or which I felt needed emphasizing, and which I could grasp or almost grasp (eg I've omitted any bunkai of kata I haven't learnt properly).

Sensei Sakumoto -- ?1997

I should have taken better notes at the time; I'm struggling to remember anything right now; can't even recall which year he came. Sensei Sakumoto is in the Guinness Book of Records -- he's won the world championship in kata 7 or 9 times. And kata competition is a lot more difficult than kumite -- everything has to be perfect -- timing, coordination, power, ease of movement, form... A toe out of place, and you're in trouble. He's currently a professor of karate -- he was appointed by an Okinawan university, because there's now renewed interest in karate as heritage.

Anyway... I remember he taught two kata from his style, Ryuei Ryu. And he taught Fukyugata Ich.

In terms of technique, he emphasised koshi, waist movement. Your waist should be free moving -- he danced around a bit to illustrate, wriggling his waist. His strikes and footwork were strong, but also fluid. He had everyone practise simultaneous (not one after the other) ude uke + chudan tsuki. And he made a memorable remark about cat stance that if you open your legs (if you have a T junction, instead of feet parallel), you "go to heaven", because you're exposed for a groin kick.

He was a very nice, approachable person. Not what you'd expect from a world champion. But when he performed the kata on that gym floor, you could hear the loud sound of his toes gripping.

Kaicho Ikemiyagi -- 7 April 2004 to 10 April 2004

• Following through. With a makiwara, or conditioning equipment in general, you don't just punch through then pull back. You punch through and wait a second -- it's tougher on your knuckles. Similarly, when you practise ude tandran, don't just hit the other person's arm -- it's not about speed; hit them solidly and push through. When you practise an elbow or a mae geri on a punching bag, push through (I don't think you can really practise keage -- you can only practise kekomi). When you're practising a jodan-chudan two punch combination, the second punch follows through, and you lean a little forward in your stance.
• Keeping elbow close to body. When you practice ude tandran or kakie, keep the elbow close to the body. You'll find the block is stronger, and certain muscles in your upper body are tightened.
• Ude tandran. There is an extra right step after you step across, so you have more distance.
• Kakie. Push downwards on kakie, not just horizontally. A bunkai of this movement: after you use an open hand block on their strike, you follow through, pushing their arm against their body, and locking the joint. A further bunkai of the joint lock involved a takedown.
• Sinking. When you're practising taikyoko ren shu, sink low in the kiba dachi stance. You learn to drop your body weight into your block.
• Chudan blocks. Old Meibukan style was to push downwards on top of the punch. Kaicho prefers to push downwards and then out. The movement is especially useful if they have any sideways momentum on their strike.
• When you practise blocking mae geri keage and mae washi, don't kick on every step -- just walk naturally and kick on every few steps, and mix it up which leg kicks.
• Yoko geri: strike with the knife edge of the foot, so that the force travels along the top of the leg.
• Ushiro geri: strike with the heel.
• Response to front snap kick: use your front foot to kick the thigh of the leg they're balancing on.
• Taikyoku ren shu: (1) Robert showed a way of doing this continuously (instead of I have a turn, then you have a turn) -- you simply add an extra set of punch-block-punch to the end of the exercise, then you're in position to change; (2) Kaicho noted that the gedan punch/block in this sequence should be executed with your stance in line with the other person, not at 45 degrees.
• Kaicho also demonstrated a ren shu for ko chu ge (executed without foot movement), and chu geri ge.
• Sanchin: (1) knees only bend till they are in line with the toes; the stance should be quite natural; (2) don't look upwards or raise the neck when you breathe.
• Geki sai ich: note that the foot movement before the reverse shuto is a sharp sweep.
• Saifa: in the opening combination, it's a backfist, not an uppercut.
• Shisochin: (1) after you elbow and turn around, the bottom hand sweeps circularly down across the body, ready for either a chudan or a gedan. The upper hand then strikes hard; (2) in the final movement, don't step straight -- step your right foot across the body.
• Sanseiryu: (1) the cross block is face height, not higher; (2) when you do the "grab ribs" movement, both hands (the blocking hand and the striking hand) come out fast at the same time, balancing each other; the double punch following is slow and medium tension.
• Seienchin: the final move in cat stance blocks a horizontal double punch either up or down.
• Seisan: the second last combination should involve distinct moves: uppercut, backfist, pull in, gedan barai with two hands, punch across the body using the waist.
• Seipai: some changes made to Meibukan version to conform with competition standard + bunkai demonstrated. Not sure about this -- I don't know the kata properly.
• Stuff I'm thinking about re my exam kata are: I went to fast (which is what you always do when you're nervous), my kenzetsu geri didn't have the correct circular motion, my body wasn't always turned fully when I changed to a new direction, sanchin stance and hand position need some work, hands weren't flat enough on the double push and on open hand blocks, seisan uppercut backfist combination needs more practice, some of the transitions didn't flow enough, I need to practise a certain sliding step, I didn't focus properly, I didn't look properly before I changed directions, and the proportionate speed of different parts of the kata weren't correct.
• Demonstration of saifa sai and shisochin sai kata. Also demonstration of suparumpei and seienchin, which definitely had a number of differences from what I know of the kata, but I guess I'll learn more about these next time.
• Thank you Chito and Michelle G for translating!