#shtokan

[traditionalshotokankarate]

[wikyky]

[downblock]

Same style, new school, new bunkai's.

It's my second week at my new shotokan school, well it's not exactly new since I'd trained there last summer, it's more of a seasonal place to train when it's not the regular school year. I really enjoy this place as it follows the same learning-first business-last model. Also the Sensei has ties to my main federation so he gets the gist of my karate background.

It was a small class today, but the great thing about small classes is the finer examination of mistakes by the instructor. It's like having your own personal trainer.

We went over Hein Shodan and I've done this kata a billion times before, but during the billion times I'd always made mistakes here and there. A new application Sensei pointed out was, before the three rising block there were a few intermediary details in between the blocks.

Before throwing the initial rising block, from the down block in front stance you:

open up the down blocking hand

step forward and stiffen that same hand and strike to the eyes while the other arm is protecting the front

and then the protecting arm does the rising block

Another thing he pointed out was a jujitsu based bunkai where the attackers' arm is blocked then grabbed and the other arm that is about to do the rising block applies some break or joint lock....I forget the detail, but it was something I'd never seen before but makes a lot of sense. When breaking down the kata's today, me and my friend Jesse described it as an artist learning how to draw in finer detail. As a kid, I'd loved drawing....and it was neat to go from doodling to drawing to sketching to learning shading, shadows, angles and etc.