#uechi-ryu

[mikeoliveri]

A short and simple Sanchin foot placement analysis. 

I’ve been digging into Sanchin stance a lot lately, including talking to practitioners I know from other styles, reading recommendations on the web, experimenting with different concepts/methods, and reading The Way of Sanchin Kata by Kris Wilder.

I tend to agree with Mr. Gambrell in this video: I find it much better to keep the back foot straight. In testing both methods, as well as the degree of turn of the front foot (I prefer 45 degrees, but have been told both no more than and no less than), I find myself able to be much more stable with the back foot straight.

That said, I haven’t trained with it that way from the beginning, so your mileage may vary. 

[mikeoliveri]

We’re putting an added stress on Sanchin in our dojo after some difficulties and confusion from our last shodan promotion. Sanchin looks easy on the surface, but there are a lot of details that make it a tough kata to perform properly. I’ve started looking more closely at other styles’ Sanchin to find the roots of our own and compare methods and details.

The Uechi-ryu version, with its roots in Chinese Pangai-noon, appears to be, to my eyes, the original standard. However, ours (Shuri-ryu) is the least like the Uechi-ryu/Pangai-noon version as our breathing and speed is quite a bit different. We also do not make the 90-degree turns to the sides.

[mikebrendan]

That Dojo Life: Working it out...

KSo... I decided to jot down a workout at my dojo and slap together a blog post about it. I just need to throw up some disclaimers here:

On a typical day I get about 85-90% of this down, due to time constraints, and what else I might be doing that night (e.g. teaching, sparring, etc)

This is not The Way to train in Uechi-Ryu. It’s one way. It’s how I train. Nothing more.

This is a workout for karate and fitness, not competition. 

I am not an expert or master at Karate. I’m only a Nidan (2nd degree black belt), with a long way to go.

With that, this is how I do:

Paired exercises (ie. with a partner)

Yaku soku kumite dai ichi

Kenyukai kumite

Seisan bunkai 

Yaku soku kumite dai ni

Sanseiryu bunkai

Kotekitae (conditioning)

Makawari work (i.e. Hitting boards/hard stuff)

25 seiken punches (reverse punch, 20 into the pad, 5 to the board)

10 shomen geri (front kicks)

10 shuto uchi (knife hand strike -- judo chop!)

10 tetsui (Hammer fist strike)

Bag work

50 low round kicks (each leg)

50 mid-line round kicks (same)

25 side kicks (each leg, both front leg and back leg)

25 front kicks

Wa uke blocks with weights (circle block.-- 30x @5​ kg, 15x @7 kg, 5x @12 kg).

20 hiraken strikes

20 ridge hand strikes

20 shoken (one knuckle strike)

20 bushkin strikes (palm strikes)

20 nukite strikes (spear hand strikes)

10 higi tsuki (elbow strikes)

10 ura uchi (back fist strikes)

20 “gut punches” (don’t know the term, but it’s a reverse punch for the guts without turning the fist)

Kata (all of them)

Sanchin (twice with nigri game aka gripping jars, once by itself)

Konshiwa

Konshu

Seichin

Seisan

Seiryu

Ryuko

Kanchin

Sanseiryu

Sushi no Kon sho (Staff kata)

Shinkyu Sai (sai kata)

Hama higa no Tonfa (Tonfa kata)

This takes about an hour and a half to two hours. It’s a hell of a sweaty workout, but at the end I feel more alive than anything else.

It’s part on parcel of training after reaching black belt -- if you want to move past that milestone, you need to step up and keep working. Not an easy path, but rewarding each and every time you set foot in the dojo.