First, sorry for the lengthy absence. Much has changed in my personal life in the past 2 years but mostly for the better. That said, back to karate.
We've talked before about the "Hidden Secrets in Karate-Do" before and how they really aren’t all that hidden. Karate is NOT solely a physical art. In their development and progression, the student reaches a fork in that development. Unfortunately, that developmental fork is usually a subconscious decision and missed by many.
The fork itself is whether to pursue karate as a physical skill or to pursue karate as an art composed of both physical and meditative development with a goal of self-improvement both physically, spiritually and cognitively.
To that end I want to look more deeply at "chudan-soto shuto-uke".
Every Sensei I have worked with (at least up to Shihan Zapata and Renshi Sanchez) have insisted the perpendicular positioning of the extended hand as being the actual block. Before then I was corrected time and time again to bend my hand up perpendicularly and not let it drop.
It has never felt right to me physically or internally.
Over the years I have researched the anatomy and physiology of the hand wrist and the hand-wrist joint and, to that end, I have discussed it with a couple of physiologists and kinesiologists. (Teaching at a school with a Sports Medicine program helped). The consensus of opinion is that the position of the hand in traditional chudan-soto shuto-uke is extremely weak and would injure the executioner of the move against a much stronger force. The muscles and tendons in those areas simply cannot be strengthened past a certain point without decreasing general range-of-motion in those areas.
No doubt there are those out there who would argue with me however, physiology is physiology. So, to appease them the nay-sayers: I'm sure there are rare exceptions.
When I have watched Sensei's, other yudansha, and kyu ranks (you can learn a lot from "beginners") I noticed, in practice, the hand invariably falls naturally into a palm down, 45-degree position before being corrected by the instructor. The exception is when a yudansha is "sparing" with a lower kyu rank and there is a clear chasm between experience levels
So I began practicing with a large diameter wooden dowel.
Executing traditional chudan-soto shuto-uke is unstable and then required a repositioning before a same hand follow up move could be performed.
"Poorly" executing the chudan-soto shuto-uke utilizing the distal forearm in combination with the side of hand (aided by the change of the angle of execution), was a much stronger block and, without repositioning, left me ready to immediately grab the attacker's arm/shirt/gi and then execute a follow-up move.
I was amazed at the immediate release of tension in my arm and shoulder when executed in this manner.
Try it. assume a traditional neko-ashi dachi, chudan-soto shuto-uke stance. Become aware of the tensions in your upper body. Then simply turn your hand palm down and drop the position to a 45-degree angle. Decide for yourself.
So the obvious question then is, If I am correct should we suddenly change the position of chudan-soto shuto-uke in all the katas as a reflection of my BFO (Blinding Flash of the Oblivious)?
Simple answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Kata is kata and real-world is real-world. Kata DOES however, apply to real-world.
As I said before, I have watched many, many, shutos executed during kumite. All drop the shuto. In kumite few perform flawless kata techniques. They utilize real-world strikes and blocks based on kata, call them "naturally lazy blocks" not because they are really "lazy" but because the body naturally drops the hand.
Too often we refer to "bunkai" as "application". That is not it's meaning. Bunkai best translates to mean "analysis" or perhaps more appropriately, "disassembly". By disassembling a technique we can better understand how the execution of the technique best delivers the best ROI (Return on Investment) by the practitioner.
To paraphrase Gennosuke Higaki, "Studying/practicing kata is not the same as understanding the art of Karate-do."
Again, my belief and only my belief: Only by training to the high standards imposed by kata do we begin to grow and understand true bunkai but only if we dissect both thoroughly. Contrary to a popular belief, kata does not represent the practitioner fighting off eight different opponents at once. That would be absurd. Kata represents a standardized, easily replicable manner of teaching, training and perfecting both basic and advanced techniques. However, the most advanced meanings of kata take place when one begins the disassembly of the movements and begins to analyze each one of them at a deeper level.
Bunkai is as much a mental discipline as it is a physical application. The individual technique; chudan-soto shuto-uke, illustrates those concepts superbly.
TFYQA!
Cox Hakase
Bindal, V. D. (2018). Textbook of kinesiology, Jaypee Brothers Medical Pub
Higaki, G. (2005). Hidden karate: The true bunkai for the Heian katas and Naihanchi, CHAMP Co., Ltd.
McGinnis. (2021). Biomechanics of sport and exercise (4th ed.), Human Kinetics Publishers
Weinberg, R. & Gould, D. (2018). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology (7th ed.). Human Kinetics.
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