Sanchin Kata

Sanchin literally translates to the three conflicts (traditional Chinese medicine): mind, body, and spirit (breath/Chi). Sanchin Kata teaches us how to unite the three conflicts into one indestructible karateka. We learn to reduce the conflicts and harmonize the mind, spirit and body.

Sanchin is an isokenetic exercise, it uses dynamic tension and ibuki breath as in Seiuchin Kata. The training reminds me of my Jujitsu practice of hitting my rock and pounding the body after cultivating the Qi. There is a lot of stuff going on in the kata that requires the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and guidance of a knowledgeable sensei.
(Remind me to get back to the Bubishi.)

Prof. Jenkin's Martial Arts Dictionary tells us that the Japanese word sansen, three conflicts, is pronounced "sanchin" in Okinawa and that sansen dachi is the hourglass stance (pronounced "sanchin dachi" in Okinawa.) Does the hourglass (saam chien) stance get its name from the old Chinese quan or is Saam Chien (Sanchin) named after the stance?

The following links are not recommendations, just things I found that are at least somewhat informative. The information about Traditional Chinese Medicine in some of these links is not at all accurate (writers are not TCM practitioners.)

• Sanchin - the three conflicts. Blog post by someone who actually practices the kata and studied with a teacher who understood the kata. Good information about how to train using Sanchin Kata.


• Sanchin from a western medical perspective (can not vouch for this article at this time).


• Sanchin kata, three conflicts and three Jewel (part 1)
• Sanchin kata, three conflicts and three Jewel (part 2)


• Shihan John Lehner's email on Sanchin Kata.


• Sanchin Kata history from a Goju Ryu perspective.


• The Five Principles of Sanchin (Author IMHO has a western view point, doesn't get it.)

Tomari Okinawa

The village of Tomari Okinawa is the home of Wansu Kata and Banssai Kata.

Grand Master Shimabuku, founder of Isshinryu Karate, learned this kata from his teacher Master Chotoku Kyan.

Chinese Hidden Foot

Kioshi Dave Joslin talked about the use of Chinese Hidden Foot as a defensive technique in tonight's class. In particular, Wansu Kata uses Chinese Hidden Foot to move off the line of attack quickly.

It is quick and turns the body so that a center line attach becomes a glancing blow if it connects at all.

In my Jujitsu training we would traverse the length of the dojo using Chinese Hidden Foot both passing the leg behind and in front. Facing the Shomen through out, moving down to the right and back to the left. Keep the knees bent and the head below the imaginary ceiling fans five feet off the mat. Another cool drill is to move down the line switching from hidden foot to horse stance (by turn 180° on the balls of the feet.)

Indomitable Spirit

Tamashii—Indomitable Spirit

Merriam-Webster definition; incapable of being subdued : unconquerable.

Im my dojo indomitable spirit is much more than a "can do" attidude. More then "Never surrender, never say die." or "Never give up, never surrender! ". It is a commitment to personal excellence and fortitude in everything we do.

Old Japanese saying, Nana-korobi, ya-oki. This means fall down seven times, get up eight.

The concept of One Encounter, One Chance, is part of the Japanese milieu that includes Tamashii. Do it the first time, there is no second place in a duel.

Karate in YOUNG JUNIUS

What follows is an insightful description of the mind of a beginning Karate/Kung Fu student, excerpt from Chapter 30 of YOUNG JUNIUS by Seth Harwood.

He stepped to that side of the roof and launched into his first form, the punch combination that started off the Monkey Sequence. The Monkey was familiar to him but to get to the next level he had to learn the Tiger perfectly so he could test for his purple belt. Purple marked the turning point between know-nothing beginner and respectable mid-level student. He’d been going for close to three months now and was eager to make the jump.

Purple was a dark color, so different from yellow, white, or orange. Just the fact that you had a dark color around your midsection made you look like you were on your way. Dark belts were real.

The Monkey started with a series of punches and then slide-steps with blocks that led to kicks. As Rough started into these, he gradually left his thoughts behind. As he went on, he started to punch harder, kick with more force. His body loosened up.

In ten minutes, he had his jacket off and was practicing the opening of Tiger. It felt good to sweat in the cold wind, to move faster than when he started, to go through the Monkey as fast as he could.

Now just the start of Tiger was his challenge: to go through it clean and as fast as he could. It was just seven punches, four blocks, and three kicks, with steps and changes of direction in between, but it made for enough of a challenge. He ran through the sequence in his head: punches, blocks, kicks.

I am reading this book on my Kindle and thoroughly enjoying it. (I think the published book is significantly better than the original podcast draft, much tighter story and cleaner descriptions of the world these people live in.) Recommend the book if you like action fiction and enjoyed The Wire series. This book is not for your minivan, so put on your headphones or read the printed word.

The podcast of the story, printed book and/or eBook versions available at all the usual places and at SethHarwood.com.

Naihanchi Kata - Details

The Japanese Martial Arts Character Dictionary by Prof. Thomas R. Jenkins says that "naihanchin" is the Okinawan word for the Japanese word "naihansen", fighting on a levee.

Other Japanese words that seem applicable based on their kanji are:

• Naihan—on a levee
• Nai—inside (first kanji in naihansen)
  

Nose Bleeds and Hanaji Tome

A recent podcast by the House Call Doctor's, When Should You Worry About A Nosebleed, prompted me to post this response. I want to add the new (to me) information gleaned from Dr. Rob's podcast.

Hanaji Tome—nose bleed stop resuscitation—is from the Kappo list of Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. The following is my take on Hanaji Tome and mine alone, all errors, misinterpretations and/or bogusness is mine and should in no way reflect upon of my teachers.

First of all let me say that all the wonderful Jujitsu recession technique do work and do fail to work, I've see it myself. Stopping a bleed is particularly difficult when the patient is taking blood thinners (anti-coagulants) like baby aspirin.Many health conscious martial artists over 40 years of age self medicate with aspirin but then again they don't seem to get punched in the nose very often.

Although a nose bleed is not life threatening to the patient the risk of blood born pathogens must be considered with helping someone. Any time you may come in contact with someone else's blood the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is strongly encouraged.

Anterior nose bleed is what we see on the playground and in the dojo, from the Kesselbach's plexus. Posterior nose bleeds, the other type, are very serious that generally require hospitalization/surgery.

Dr. Rob's 5 tips for Dealing with a Nosebleed.

1. Don't Panic
2. Blow your nose
3. Use a decongestant nasal spray
4. Hold the nose
5. Insert cotton and apply ice to the bridge of the nose

Camp Kodenkan South, 2010

Aloha Sensei, black belts and alumni campers!

We are yet again at the point of announcing Camp South with pleasure 2010! This year we will be at Camp Fox in the San Diego mountains. We will have exams on Friday and our usual class schedule and events over the full weekend.

I wish this year to extend a welcome to those who have not yet attended camp before or to those with whom it has been some time. We all have so many demands on our time and money these days, we within the AJJF, tend to pick our favorites and miss other wonderful events available to us. I remember the times when a few events a year was all there was! But those days are gone and I for one am very happy with all the possibilities open to us within the AJJF DZR experience.

Nevertheless, we hope for those who have not come might consider this year attend camp. For those who come yearly we thank you and look forward to seeing you this year as well!
Camp offers 6 meals, sleeping quarters and all the classes at one location. This year the fee will be the same as last year, that being: $180.00! This is 6 meals, room and all classes. We also will transport those who come in by plane at the San Diego airport to and fro.

There will be an email coming soon giving all the details about camp and who is teaching, classes, etc. But for now, let me announce the weekend it falls on each year is the first weekend of December. This year that will be Friday the 3rd, Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th.

Hope you will consider camp in your choices this year, we know you will enjoy it to the max! I'll write soon with more info but in the meantime feel free to write or call me At;

480-686-6118
RHudson602@aol.com

Regards,

Professor Robert Hudson
________________________________
November 1, 2010
Aloha Sensei and black belters


As promised here is the second letter regarding camp this year. As mentioned in my previous email, we will be hosting Camp South December 3,4,5,2010. This year will be at Camp Fox.

The fee this year is the same as last year which includes six meals, 2 nights room and all training. The fee is $180.00. Also, if you need a ride from the airport we can arrange for that. This years theme is Ho Omana...This means to develop and recognize your innate capacity to attain whatever you set your mind and body toward. That the way we train determines the extent of our success. We hope then to offer instructors insights as to how they have attained what they have and what personal methods they have used alongside their DZR training to get there.

Please go to ProfHudson.com to get the application form. It will ask you pertinent questions for us to help you get to camp and take care of any special needs you may have. It will give you location, times and where to send your fees to.

Please do everything you can to get your registration in as soon as possible and if you have any concerns please email me to discuss.

My email address is

Rhudson602@aol.com

Or you can call me at

480-686-6118

Looking forward to seeing you there! Also, I offer my full support and best
wishes for those taking their black belt exams at camp. It will be a great place
and way for you to take such an exam. Best of luck!


Sincerely,

Professor Bob Hudson

Catch A Punch

If you can catch a baseball you can catch a punch.

—Hanshi Willie Adams

Centering

This entry on Centering was created because I realized that when Grand Master Willie Adams used the term he meant something completely different from what I think of when I hear the term Center.

When I talk about center I mean the center of the physical body, the wuji point (click on figure for more information) and connection to the ground. When Hanshi speaks of centering he is speaking of remaining on the center line of attack, not tipping or swaying from side to as you move. The following is what I learned from Hanshi Willie Adams at his seminar down at the dojo last month. (Yes, I wrote things down after the seminar and have been working with the concepts on the mat.) This is my understanding of centering. (The seminar was public and very basic. I can only imagine the significance of centering in Hanshi Adams teachings.)

Centering = Step + Set

1. Weight distributed equally between the two feet. Weight on the balls of the feet.
2. Head stays on the center line, the line of attack, during a step.
3. 10% weight shift during a step.
4. Ball of foot skims the ground, toes up.
5. During circle step the leg movement covers the groin (45° angle.)
6. Weight shifts back to 50/50 before the set (stepping foot plants.)

This circle step with centering is not unlike the Archer Step we do in Yiquan.

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After digesting the principal of centering and incorporating it with another of Hanshi's ideas, "throwing" a punch/kick, I realized that Isshinryu Karate is primarily a linear system. It gets its speed and effectiveness from direct shortest–distance movements.

Direct force—swiftly applied.

Effect of Kiai on Perception

Sinnett S, Kingstone A (2010) A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception? PLoS ONE 5(10): e13148. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013148

Tennis Players' Grunts May Slow Opponents' Reactions: Scientific American Podcast. A recent study shows the negative impact that noise can have when one is attempting to predict where a tennis ball will land.

Duh! Kiai effects people and animals.

Tanju Notes

Notes from Professor Lane's class on Tanju No Maki at the 2010 AJJF Black Belt Weekend, Sonora hosted by Mountain Storm Jujitsu.

• Use the one inch punch; fist, elbow and knee. Particularly useful for the Hibara Hazushi above the elbow.
  

• No intent. (Exercise: catch house flies with you hand, they sense your intent.)

• If someone is confronting you in this context they need a lesson, break something.
  

Falling on the sidewalk

Before we teach you a Danzan Ryu (DZR) technique, we teach the counter (so we can practice with you more than once.)

The ground is your friend, land softly.

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This video was made by a couple of my DZR buds, Sensei Atienza and Sensei Sweeny. They have a dojo down in San Diego, Ka Hale Na Ikaika Dojo.

Isshinryu Breathing

I learned the mechanics of Isshinryu breathing from Hanshi Willie Adams at his seminar down at the dojo today.

Attacks are done with the lungs almost empty.

Always keep at least 10% percent of your breath at all times, don't let the last bit go. You need this remaining air so that your body can continue to function.

Before initiating a move exhale 90% of your air then retain the breath during the move.

A kiai will use 10% of your breath therefore, if the move is going to be preceded by a kiai exhale 80% of the breath, kiai and then execute the move (10% of the vial capacity remains during the move).

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The Japanese word for breath or breathing is ibuki. Soft internal breathing is in ibuki. Hard internal breathing is yō ibuki.

Based what I have learned at the dojo and this article in Black Belt Magazine (1966), The Cat, I believe this philosophy of breathing comes primarily from Grand Master Shimabuku's Gojo Ryu lineage. Quoting the article...

There is another form of kata for which the school is famous and without which no explanation of the Goju style would be complete. That is the school's breathing kata. No one who has ever witnessed a Goju man practicing his breathing kata under a full head of steam will ever forget the experience. It is an awesome and, to those of a more timid turn, sometimes frightening experience. A good Goju man can be heard half a block away and more while engaged in breathing exercises.

There are two types of breathing practiced, the in-ibuki and the yo-ibuki. The in-ibuki is the soft but firm type of breathing which starts from deep within the abdomen. This is similar to the type of breathing which is practiced in Yoga and Zen meditation, and is usually directed towards spiritual and meditative matters when practiced. Goju adherents never tire of repeating that this is the normal way a baby breathes. It is only when we get older that we learn to breathe from our chest.

The yo-ibuki is the hard style of breathing. The sound effects are menacing. The breathing is loud and heavy and comes from deep within, producing something of the sound of a full-throated lion about to strike. The inhaling is done in quick intakes through the nose while the exhaling is a prolonged process of short breaths through the mouth. In exhaling the whole body is tensed, including the throat and esophagus. This tightens the air passage and the air is forced from the abdomen. This whole process is said to be combative or animal-like breathing.

The tensing that is carried out during the breathing exercises is similar to that carried on in dynamic tension and isometric exercises. Tensing is believed to build up physical strength. And that goes internally, too, where the breathing is said to strengthen the heart and other vital organs. The student is taught never to exhale all his breath at once but to ration it out in short breaths. One reason is to always save a little breath so that an opponent cannot strike when one is out of breath and at one's weakest just before inhaling. The idea is always to save a little breath to counter. A good Goju man who is really warmed up will stride across the floor rippling every muscle from head to foot while engaged in powerful animal-like breathing. The effect can be quite spectacular.

But there is another side to the breathing exercises, the side concerned with the mental and spiritual aspects of karate. By its very nature, this is the side most difficult to grasp for many persons, especially Westerners. The most advanced type of breathing exercise is that in which all of one's strength is concentrated on a specific feeling or thought. It is through concentration and meditation that man learns to improve himself.

Isshinryu Methodology

I learned the basic methodology of Isshinryu Karate from Hanshi Willie Adams at his seminar down at the dojo today.

1. Centering
2. Breath Out
3. Stance
4. Throw Attack

Centering—Move in a straight line.

Breath Out—Attack with only 10% of your vital capacity remaining.

Stance—Weight on balls of feet, toes down, knees bent, Seisan stance

Throw Attack—Prepare the weapon, launch and let if fly, relaxed until impact, accelerate the last 12 inches.

Throw Attach Details

• Prepare the weapon before the attack. (Stupid to walk into a battle before you assemble and load your gun.)
• Move straight from chambered position to the target. No twisting, looping, dipping, hooking or hesitation.
• Twelve inches before the target accelerate the weapon through the target.
• One inch before the target integrate the fist with the frame into the ground.
• Connect the frame to the ground at the point of impact, Yang:
1. Rear foot then
2. Lead foot, then
3. Rear fist, then
4. just before contact lead fist.
• Disengaging from the attack and inhale (at any point you are able to reengage by reversing process), Yin:
1. Relax lead fist, then
2. Relax rear fist, then
3. Relax lead foot, then
4. Relax rear foot.

The Peace of Warriors

The Peace for Warriors martial arts and yoga workshop was held from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday July 17th at Canyon Spirit Yoga Center in Auburn. Gopal Andre Sims developed and lead the workshop in hopes of training others to spread the concept to those in need.

The Auburn Journal sent a photographer to document the class for an article about Rob Edwards and his discovery that yoga can be part of path of recovery from PTSD. See the Auburn Journal article Class leads warriors in way of peace, By Bridget Jones, Journal Staff Writer, July 19th, 2010.

Needle Through Brick (2008)

Needle Through Brick (2008) is a documentary about the struggle for survival of traditional art and culture in the face of a rapidly changing and modernizing world told from the perspective of time-honored Chinese Kung Fu masters.

What becomes of martial arts when the martial needs become subordinate? Martial Arts are part of our culture like painting, sculpture, music and sport; where is the government funding and corporate sponsorship?

I recommend watching this film if you are a student of martial arts. The discussion of internal vs external is particularly worthwhile.

I wasn't very taken by the soundtrack. Didn't notice it while watching the film (I always notice and appreciate film scores, not noticing is NOT a complement in my case.) The samples in iTunes didn't light my fire either.

"We practice until our hand control our mind." "...he is still learning because there is no end in hunting the skill of the art."—Master Tan Kay Teck

Uraken, the backfist

Uraken is the name of the backfist strike. The illustration shows the impact area of the fist when Uraken is delivered, the proximal side of the first knuckles of the index and middle fingers.

Seiuchin Kata and Naihanchi Kata both include this strike. Here the fist is chambered at the side of tori's head with the elbow pointing toward the target/uki. The wrist is cocked and firm, ready for impact (uki may be moving so you want the weapon to be prepared at all point along its trajectory). The trajectory is straight forward toward the bridge of uki's nose. The return is scraping downward and back to tori, palm remains horizontal throughout.

Memory Tool?

Now that it is time to continue my training (physical body has recovered 80%) I am going to focus Qigong/Yiquan and the study of history next. To that end, I will study after lunch and then take a nap. Scientific evidence follows, experience will tell. :)

To Learn Better, Sleep On It, a Scientific American podcast, notes follow.

Naps help move new info from short-term memory storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the cortex.

...two groups of adults who went through rigorous memory exercises. Then one group took a 90-minute snooze. In follow up tests, the nappers performed even better than their first tries. The nonnappers got worse.

Fighting Tips

The best fighters give a little more then they receive.

• Surprise is speed
• Speed is power
• Thinking is slow
• Slow is weak

Serpent strike is done as an escape from a bear hug, forearm trapped against the attackers chest palm under their chin. Snap the wrist after the strike.

From Mask Market, chapter 15, by Andrew Vachss.

Ikkyu Promotion

I demonstrated Kusanku Kata for Kioshi Dave Joslin tonight. I believe this is the primary requirement for Ikkyu (3 red stripes on the brown belt).

I need to be mindful of the rear foot position after any spinning moves. Kusanku has fast and slow sections; the fast parts need to be faster.

Sharon video taped me doing the six Isshinryu kata. It went well so these will show me at my best to date. Next week is the hip surgery so I get to begin again.

Sensei Shawl reminded me that one should focus on the attackers with intent. Practice this during your kata training.

Mahalo Tom Anderson

One more Karate class to go, testing for Ikkyu. After that I will be off the mat for six months.

I plan to train as Mr. Anderson did when he was off the mat. For about a year he was unable to make Vern's classes at Ternion Academy, Santa Clara.

Every day driving to and from work he ran the kata in his head.

I saw a marked improvement in his technique when he returned a year later.

Mr. Anderson went on to become Sensei of Santa Cruz Jujitsu Academy.