Teaching bunkai

It’s a strange situation we are in now with regards to sharing the martial arts.  On the one hand I’m all for exchanging ideas and believe that by keeping things ’secret’ or more likely being too careful about what they taught their students, a lot of valuable information has been lost.  I suspect that Miyagi Chojun Sensei was not too big on teaching bunkai to his students, neither was Miyazato Eiichi Sensei, possibly as a result of his style of training under Miyagi.  We can only guess at Miyagi Sensei’s level of understanding of karatedo from the kata which he passed on, and the often grossly exaggeretted stories promoted by well meaning aquatences of his.  Had the war not happened I think we would have seen an even greater shift toward standardization and an even more japanese budo oriented Goju Ryu with a few more gekisai’s.  The shift away from martial art was definately well under way.
Only my opinion by the way…..
On the other hand, with the free exchange of information avalible these days through seminars and the media, there are few ’secrets’ left.  By the way, secret is probably not an appropriate word.  Anyway, the problem we get is students taking on more information than they are capable of dealing with at their level of experience.  The natural progression through the stages of Shu, Ha, Ri are broken and everyone chooses to place themselves in the Ha category without an understanding of what this represents, taking on techniques from here and there with no understanding of the principles that make up such techniques, and as a result, no real hope of ever being able to apply them.
This then reflects poorly on the teacher or seminar instructor because they get the blame for their technique being inadequate, rather than simply the student being poorly prepared.
I hope that somewhere there is a balance between the two?

Thoughts about bunkai

Hokama Sensei was kind enough to share some of his ideas on bunkai, and showed me some interesting variations that were new to me.  Mostly though he would look at what I already had, and then make a few suggestions to make it more effective.  In this way I have come away with a lot to work on over the next few years.
Something I’m finding more and more as I mature into my art is how much everything overlaps, and by correcting one area, you correct a whole other bunch of areas you may have thought were unrelated.
In this way, Hokama sensei helped me more than he probably realised!
Bunkai is something very personal and is an expression of the understanding you yourself have developed.  Sometimes the best applications are ones that you discover for yourself, that are useful for your body type, and have been drilled over and over to make them natural.  This kind of technique is difficult to transmit to someone else.
Hokama Sensei said that he will teach an application to his students which he thinks best transmits the message of the kata.  Of course, no two situations are ever the same, and you must adapt to ever changing circumstances.  In this area though, he urges his students to investigate for themselves and not rely on being spoonfed.  By doing this he is being very kind to his student as it teaches self relience.

Training with Hokama Tetsuhiro Sensei

Here is a short clip of Hokama Tetsuhiro Sensei performing various techniques on me, with very painful results! 

Enjoy!

Back on line!

Just a quick post to apologise for my lack of entries of late.  I have been away in Okinawa conducting research and haven’t had access to a computer for a while.  I just got back last night and now have a small mountain of things to catch up on!

Anyway, once I get my life back in order I will be posting excerpts from my diary and various bits of historical information that may be of interest to some of you.  I hope to have some new posts up for the weekend.  Thank you all for your continual support to this site!

Best regards,

Garry Lever

Making a Tou

I’ve recieved many emails from people asking for information regarding how to build a Tou similar to the one in my dojo.  I’ve spent a fair bit of time replying to these requests individually and think it might be more helpful if I were to post some information straight onto the blog so that people can get ideas for building their own.

My own consists of a tree trunk cut to size and then stripped of the bark.  This was then cemented into a steel base which was made up of a large steel cylinder about 10 inches wide by 12 inches high.  The cylinder was then welded onto a steel base plate about 2 feet square which is then bolted into the ground.

 

This then is your basic Tou which is used in Okinawa for forearm and body conditioning.  The one at the jundokan dojo is a lot thinner than mine (about 6 inches in diameter), but out there practitioners have no shortage of training partners so don’t have quite the same requirement as me in my lonely little dojo!

 

Mine is a modified version in that it has arms and a machiwara pad at face height.  The arms are just two pieces of thick durable hose which can be found in most garden centers.  These are cut to the same length as my arms, and then bolted on at shoulder height.

 

My sensei has modified his further by drilling three holes at jodan, chudan and gedan height into which he can insert rigid wooden arms to practice blocking techniques.

He also has half a tyre attached at knee height for practicing kansetsu geri.

 

The most difficult part will be getting hold of a suitable base to be bolted to the ground.  Alternatively you could just dig a hole and cement the post straight into the ground?

I hope that this may assist some of you with creating your own version.

Good luck!

Solo Sanchin Shime Training

As I have stated in previous posts, the majority of my training is done alone.  Occasionally this presents certain problems to my all round development; one area of which is regarding sanchin shime.

Shime is vitally important as it allows the practitioner to feel the areas of their body which are weaker.  These areas can then be isolated and strengthened through various other exersises and through hojo undo.  Your sanchin may feel very powerful to you when you are performing, but it is not until you add resistance that you can truly feel whether or not you are correctly grounding, and whether you have the correct body alignment.

A good sensei will use shime to allow this realisation to occur in their students, gradually increasing the level of resistance as the student improves.  This is fine for when we have our sensei around to help us, however in our own training we can sometimes find it difficult to advance in this area.

My sensei suggested to me that I build something within the dojo to assist with my training.  Next to my machiwara I have two pulleys mounted onto the wall, through which I have threaded some thick rope with weights attached to one end.  The other end has a small loop made which I can then hold onto.  The general idea is one similar to a lat pull-down machine you find at any modern gym, only the pulley is at chudan height.  The weight should be adjusted to suit your own body weight, strength and ability.  The weight should be just enough so that you can feel the weight slightly pulling against your posture, similar to that of shime. 

The amount of weight you are using must not be too heavy.  If it is too heavy then you will begin to use momentum and your actions will be jerky, breaking your posture and practising something quite different to sanchin.  The idea is that the resistance is gradual and that you begin to get a feel for the path that the resistance is led through the limbs and down into the feet.

An alternate way to practise this idea is to use an inner tube from a bicycle tyre, although the resistance is less constant due to the flexibility of the tube.

Once you have the basic set up you can begin to explore the pushing and pulling movements of sanchin kata and work on connecting the limb to the ground through the correct use of breath and posture.