Tekki - Part 1

Tekki - Iron Horse. Although there are several components to the kata, I am going to discuss them as one single kata. It is very evident that they have all come from the same kata. Although the moves of the kata are different, the essential focus and spirit of all three are the same. The only stance in every kata is kiba dachi (side stance) and the only direction in the kata is side-to-side.

I find this to be very strange. I cannot find any other kata in any other martial art that is anything like this unless it is also a descendant of the original tekki kata called Naihanchi (a rough translation is internal divide/conflict). The Tekki kata is likely to have come from China and was probably introduced as a karate kata by Matsumura. Matsumura taught Itosu the kata and it is from Itosu that we have the three elements. Did Itosu create another two elements from the initial kata or did he break a single kata down into three elements. It's hard to say and there are arguments on both sides.

Many karate instructors insisted on their students practicing the Naihanchi (Tekki) kata over and over again. Funakoshi himself explains how his instructor, Azato, made him perform the kata over and over again for an entire year. Azato taught Funakoshi nothing during this time but just watched him perform the same kata again and again.

There is something very important about Tekki Shodan in particular and I intend to do some research on the issue and I will post my findings. Check back soon for more.

JKS open 2008

What a great tournament! The JKS open was held in Nottingham and was well attended by the JKS and other associations such as ourselves. The standard was very high and it was difficult to progress through the rounds. I was in the 19 years and over 3rd kyu to dan grade category. It wasn't easy. The guys I were against were organised, disciplined and good. A wobble on Heian Yondan cost me the kata, I think, and a very fast opponent knocked me out of the second round of the kumite. However, I felt far more comfortable then I did in Italy and I was more relaxed during the kumite.

I think being relaxed is the most important thing about competition. If you are, in anyway, tense then your performance will suffer. I feel that competition is the area of karate that will offer me the greatest challenge, particularly after I pass my Shodan. There are times when I am pushed during training but nine times out of ten I am in a comfort zone that I can only escape from with my own will and determination. In competition, so far, I have been totally out classed and this feeling I like. It reminds me of when I first restarted my training and everyone was so much better than me. In that situation, you have to try hard if you want to improve, if you want to progress past the mediocre. And so, for this reason, I will hopefully be doing more competitions in the future.

I'm back!!!

After a long absence, around five months, I've decided to kick start my blog again and try and write more regularly. So keep checking back for updates.

Bassai Dai

Bassai Dai is a major kata for any shotokan student. Mastering this kata signifies that the student has progressed to a level beyond the beginner and is ready to move into the deeper realms of advanced karate. There is an interesting article in the most recent edition of the shotokan way online magazine. The article looks at the meaning of the name and the history of this kata. Worth a read for anyone who is interested in understanding this kata in more detail.

Bassai Dai article

Mikio Yahara - Old style karate

Until I read the article on Yahara on the Shotokan way magazine website, i knew very little about him. The article is excellent and well worth reading, I have included the links below to take you straight to it. Yahara is famous for many things in karate but he particularly well noted for the number of penalties and disqualifications he received in his competition days. He is a fierce fighter who is obsessed with the one killer blow. He is generally critical of competition, or sport, karate as he believes that karate is about generating enough power in your technique to finish the fight within seconds. A competition demands that each competitor moderates the damage he inflicts upon his opponent. The old karate notion that control is proof of good technique is something Yahara excepts as being true but he seems to take the idea of training deliberately not to inflict serious damage is a perversion of what shotokan karate is. Yahara is very clear in his message that every karate technique needs to delivered with maximum power and strength.

He is clearly a very capable and charismatic karate-ka. I hope I have the opportunity to train with him at some point in the near future.

Yahara article part 1

Yahara article part 2

Jion, Jion, Jion.

After grading to 3rd kyu in February, and in preparation for the European championships in Italy, I have started to learn the big four kata (Bassai dai, Enpi, Jion and Kanku dai). Bassai dai is a kata that I feel you can learn quickly. This is probably because you are exposed to the kata from a low grade, you watch and observe the higher grades practicing and you watch carefully because you know that it's the black belt kata. If you want your black belt then that's the kata you are going to have to do. I love Enpi, the kata is so fast and agile, which is where it's power comes from. It requires physical strength on behalf of the performer and good balance to match. Kanku dai is also a kata that I think suits me. Control and fitness are two skills in high demand for a good performance of Kanku dai, along with a solid grounding in basic fundamentals. Jion?

The picture above shows Thomas, Helen and sensei John performing the opening move of this kata. Right from the outset the kata is akward and tricky. You need to land in a solid stance (heel first) and then move fluently into moves two and three. The kata gets even more difficult with excessive hand movements during the age uke gyaka zsuki section. Trying to perform the badly named swastika block in back stance with you momentum moving at a right angle to your forward motion is very challenging. The hammer strike and heel of the palm strikes in kiba dachi are also very unusual attacks in karate and very difficult to generate the necessary power. I also feel the kata doesn't flow in anyway, it jerks and lunges as you try to execute each sequence. Most annoying of all is that most of the people i talk to actually like this kata, there must be something I'm missing.

More practice needed I think.

An old karate video

Me, in 1995, doing a demonstration with Haxby and Wigginton karate club.

I've tried to embed this video but it hasn't worked. So please follow the link below. Thanks.

95 demo video

All in a year...

I started training when i was 10 years old. I trained for a year and a half and attained the level of 5th kyu. Then i stopped! I did not put a gi on again for another 10 years. I started training again in late April 2007. That means that in a few weeks time I will have been back in training for a full year. It's been a fantastic year and I feel as if I have got myself back up to the standard I was when I stopped all those years ago. Two gradings, four weekend courses and about twenty injuries later, I am as excited as I was when I started. Returning to training has been about the best thing I've done in a long time! I'd like to thank Sensei Mike, Senior instructor at Haxby and Wigginton, for all his help and guidance over the past year along with Sensei Ian. Thank you, also, to Sensei Keith, senior instructor at York.



Hopefully, the next year will be even better than the last.

The karate blogger

I have, since I came back to training, resisted the temptation to create yet another karate blog. There are millions out there on the world wide web and nearly all of them are bad, wrong or both. There is something slightly pretentious about a blog, it kinda indicates that you, as a blogger, have something to say that everybody else will want to read. That is why I want to make it clear that I am going to use this blog to document the lessons I learn in karate, the highs and lows, as a way of helping me to remember what I've done. You are all welcome to follow me along the way and if anyone can offer advice then please do, it will be much appreciated.