Kihon Kumite 3

[oneya]

Hi Andy,

Given your dojo and tournament experience can see where these aspects of kumite and shiai would resonate with you but what you have 'picked like cherries' is available in any non specific branch of karate and nothing to do with the wado ryu style as such. I thought your original query, which harvested a few specific answers, was predicated on the practice of Kihon Kumite sanbonme.??

oneya.

[andyb28]

Hi Andy,

I thought your original query, which harvested a few specific answers, was predicated on the practice of Kihon Kumite sanbonme.??

oneya.

It was, sorry I got side tracked in my own thoughts and observations.

[oneya]

Well it's not a hanging offence Andy but it does take us away from the meat in this particular sandwich that was looking to get a few more onion skins peeled away in the wado ryu kata area. Your original query was quite revealing because it showed the assumptions that everyone is on the same page (when specifics like Kihon Kumite is the topic) can be quite wrong. In the study of wado ryu kata for instance, it is not only necessary to know that they differ from Okinawan kata but it is even more vital to understand why this is so or the lesson (in the kata) is lost.

oneya

[wadoka]

I will give a couple of examples.

I am quite good at a competition style reverse punch, its long and covers a good distance. I would often catch people with it. However its now quite rare that I will be able to attack with it as people have learnt and adapted. They see it coming, draw up into cat stance and will hit me on the head with a backfist or similar. You could possibly notice this move in a few kata, perhaps this knowledge came to them even without them knowing.

I would often be caught by a spinning back kick from one partner, my mistake was moving away from it. On the drive home I realised that I needed to move forward not backwards. Again, my karate has adapted.

Andy

Even with the previous comments, it highlights the point that there are still dots to be joined up.

You comment that people see you attack coming. You comment that your mistake was to move away.

Hence the principle behind the second movement. It could have been another scenario, it could have been one of your scenarios, but as you yourself pointed out it is about sensing the intent, maybe not necessarily the attack, but then to respond and fill that void, immediately.

You say that you could have done an elbow etc, but the attack specifically had to adjust to attempt to nail the other person with maegeri. The commit to the maegeri means any change to empi is not the same intensity, whilst the imiri is 100% and catching someone with a leg up is certainly advantageous, even if they did X, Y or Z.

[oneya]

Hi Gordon...

You are right of course there are dots that can be joined up, and as Andy also commented:

I would often be caught by a spinning back kick from one partner, my mistake was moving away from it. On the drive home I realised that I needed to move forward not backwards. Again, my karate has adapted.

So whilst I agree there are still dots that can be connected, the whole ethos of Ohtsuka's wado is centred in his budo mind where the practice of wado kata and its intent will ensure these dots are not only joined up postmortem. In tournament land we can make mistake after mistake and walk away learning nothing but if the principles of swordplay have any bearing at all on in a wado ryu dojo then we need to always make sure we understand the relative values of 'sente' as opposed to 'postmortem' from the very beginning.

pass the carafe mate

oneya

[wadoka]

Friday hasn't really started yet so I have a full day to get through before the Shiraz Mouvedre.

[oneya]

Friday hasn't really started yet so I have a full day to get through before the Shiraz Mouvedre.

Ah that Shiraz sounds like a Rhone Valley drop Gordon and I have developed a taste for Rhone Valley produce as you know.. It's still a bit warmish here though and I've got a yearning for something soft, so as it's already at the tippling hour here I can open that soft Merlot from up north in the King Valley.. I've spent an hour also gathering a little harvest from the sea down the road a step so those two should match nicely and take up most of the evening.

Hope the evening turns out well for you.

oneya