The Okinawan term “Chinquchi” deals with the concept of proper body management. In the world of karate, that means coordinating the use of the body’s various muscle groups through the proper order and timing of muscle contraction and relaxation (dynamic tension) during the execution of any given technique. And, on top of all this, you also have to coordinate the proper timing of your breathing during the technique as well.
Or, as Sensei Harrill would simply say, execute your techniques with proper focus.
This is one of the key focuses in Isshin-ryu Karate’s version of Sanchin Kata. In Isshin-ryu Karate, Sanchin Kata is performed slowly for a long time. The karateka first focuses on proper posture and structure. Then second, on which muscles are doing what and in what order while executing the techniques during the performance of Sanchin Kata (or, any technique). And finally, how the breathing times to that technique. This is why Sanchin Kata is such a foundational kata, and why the lessons learned from Sanchin Kata should permeate the rest of your kata and techniques, and it is also why I teach Sanchin Kata first.
Essentially, the understanding of chinquchi helps the karate practitioner ensure that, for any given technique, he or she is utilizing the correct muscles, in the correct order, and with properly timed breathing, to generate the most dynamic force possible in the execution of that technique; sometimes resulting in what might be considered superhuman feats of strength.
On Okinawa, Master Tatsuo Shimabuku was highly-regarded by his peers for his understanding, development, and use of chinquchi.
I often use the analogy of a sneeze when trying to explain the concept of chinquchi to students. A sneeze typically begins with a slight irritating itch in the nose, that itch grows in intensity until finally, the sneeze erupts in a body-wrenching explosion of released energy (I once threw my back out with a particularly magnificent sneeze).
In karate, we say real power in a technique comes from a solid stance, proper structure, correct body mechanics, and properly timed breath. But how does that power build and transfer from the stance through the body and into the technique? That path is chinquchi. And there is a definite order of progression.
Starting with the assumption that, as you begin your technique, you have shifted into a solid stance that “compliments” the technique you are executing, the building and transfer of power into that technique should follow this path.
The groin area
The inside of the upper thighs
The lower abdominal muscles
The back (latissimus dorsi muscles)
The upper shoulders (trapezius muscles)
The front of the throat
The rest of the neck area
Take a reverse punch for example. You have just settled into your Seisan Stance and begin to launch your reverse punch. In what order should your nervous system begin to fire in to generate the most force possible in that reverse punch?
Assuming a solid Seisan Stance, the nerves controlling the muscles delivering that punch would want to begin firing in your groin region and travel through your inner upper thighs and into your lower abdominal region. Then it would move up through your lats, and into your trapezius muscles. This “sneeze” would “launch” the punch. The arm is essentially the delivery mechanism for your weapon … the two large knuckles of your fist.
This process is a bit more complicated than simply hitting someone with your arm muscles. It is ingraining the correct nerve firing sequences, the proper muscle contraction/relaxation memory, and timing your breathing to all this, that makes Sanchin Kata so foundational to Isshin-ryu Karate.
Five things to look for when exploring kata bunkai …
When exploring kata bunkai, I have several thoughts/steps/criteria that I take each kata technique through when exploring bunkai for that technique. For me to consider something a good technique, at least in my mind, the application in question must meet certain criteria.
And certainly, as with any rule, there can sometimes be exceptions. For instance, while Isshin-ryu Karate is essentially aggressive counter-striking, there may be a situation where you must strike first. If so, strike hard and strike fast.
But generally speaking, in karate we are defending ourselves from an attacker … meaning the attack is already underway. In the street, I am not really concerned about winning. I am much more concerned with not losing.
No first strike in karate (Karate ni sente nashi)
People like to argue about the meaning of this phrase, but I do take it quite literally, with the caveat mentioned above. The fact is, you cannot initiate an attack without creating an opening. The question is, does your training allow you to effectively take advantage of the opening your attacker has presented you? Even in the sport karate arena, and with all other things being equal, the toughest fighter to beat is typically the counter-fighter.
#1 – Begin your exploration of bunkai with the attacker moving first.
Remember, Daniel-san, best defense, no be there
Let your stance make you safe. In karate, you don’t fight from a stance. You transition into a stance as you execute a technique. This stance transition can do many things, including generating power or controlling the maai (distance of engagement). It can also break the line of attack, moving you to a stable position where you are safe from the attack and yet remain close enough to execute powerful striking techniques to vulnerable targets. And, if your stance makes you safe, your blocks and parries can be doing other things, such as repositioning your attacker.
#2 – The technique must break the line of attack.
A person’s unbalance is the same as weight
Often, this begins with the stance transition and involves whatever techniques (block, parry, strike, seize, etc.) that accompany the stance shift. At the completion of the initial exchange, the attacker should be either unbalanced or in a position of weakness and unable to protect themselves, or both. I often refer to this as “breaking Sanchin,” and there are many ways in which this can unfold. On the other hand, you should be in a position of strength and balance, with your weapons and their delivery mechanism ready to fire.
#3 – Break your attacker’s Sanchin.
Two hands meet in the air, suddenly enter
Once your stance shift has made you safe, and you’ve engaged your attacker, placing him in a position of weakness, what next? Sensei had two primary concepts here that have always stuck with me.
Light Socket Principle (Hard): With this approach, your attacker should suddenly experience systemic shock. Sensei would explain it this way – If an attacker throws a punch at you, and then immediately feels like he was dragged across the floor and had his tongue inserted into a power outlet, he is not likely to throw that second punch.
“No Red Flag” Principle (Soft): Using this principle, if your attacker throws a punch and his brain is expecting a fight, and your technique sends no “fight” signals to back to his brain, but instead sends no signal, this will confuse his brain. His brain will have to analyze that unexpected turn of events. And by the time his brain figures out what is happening, it is already too late.
#4 – Include either the Light Socket Principle or the “No Red Flag” Principle in your technique.
The body must be able to change direction at all times
No “uncooperative” attacker will initiate one attack and then just stand there while you run through your favorite version of the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique! Attackers can and will throw more than one technique. Any solid application of your technique must be able to handle that by either taking the opportunity for a second attack away, or by providing a means to block, parry, or otherwise shut down the next attack.
#5 – In applying your technique, you must be able to handle more than one attack. Look ahead to two or even three.
While this is certainly not a complete, exhaustive, or definitive exploration of what to look at when analyzing bunkai, it provides a pretty good place to start thinking about the application of kata technique and what you should be trying to achieve. It is simply what has worked for me and is a short list of some key elements I look at in bunkai. As with anything in the martial arts, you can always dig a little deeper.
A common issue I see with intermediate and advanced karate students is speed simply for speed’s sake. Watching a kata performance is like watching a sprinter on a 50-yard dash. The starting gun goes bang, and they’re off, blasting through their kata at the speed of light (or, as close as they can get to it). And that is truly unfortunate. Speed is very often misunderstood … and misunderstood to the karate practitioner’s detriment.
Power defined …
P = W / ∆T where P = power, W = work, and ∆T = elapsed time.
Yes! Speed is a factor in power. In physics, power is the ability to do work quickly. However, anyone who has done work knows that working faster than your natural speed leads to mistakes. And, in a life or death situation, mistakes can have drastic consequences.
Force defined …
F = M x A where F = force, M = mass, and A = acceleration
How much force can you generate in your technique? Speed is not a factor in force. Force equals mass times acceleration. Your technique needs to accelerate through its execution! Where is your room for acceleration if you are already blasting along at full speed?
Consider a few related ideas I have accumulated over the last few decades …
You should never run a kata any faster than you can run it correctly ~ Sherman Harrill
True speed comes from understanding body mechanics ~ Charlie Taylor
The fastest block in the world does you no good if it is there and gone before the punch arrives. ~Unknown
Once you understand body mechanics and technique, you only have to be half as fast as your attacker. ~Unknown
Also, consider that excessive speed can hide many mistakes, demonstrates clearly that the performer is not ‘living’ the kata, and shows a lack of understanding of timing across techniques and good body mechanics. How are they practicing and understanding the principles of Sanchin or Naihanchi at Mach 1 or 2?
Developing solid technique in kata …
What does kata training do for us? They take a system’s basic techniques (Kihon), which have been honed over time in one-step, two-step, three-step drills, Kumite drills, etc., and teach us how to deploy them in different scenarios, at different angles, from various stances and distances, etc. Kata teaches advanced usage of our chosen system’s basic techniques. We learn to develop power in those techniques through Sanchin (Tanden) or Naihanchi (Koshi).
Sanchin
If you’re practicing a Sanchin-based Okinawan style of karate, are you incorporating the lessons from Sanchin into the techniques of your kata? Are you including the use of the Tanden to help you develop real power in the kata techniques? If someone is blasting through their Seisan Kata at ninety miles an hour, I suspect the timing of the “Tanden tuck,” and cross-body power development is not playing much of a role.
Naihanchi
Some Okinawan styles of karate did not include or practice Sanchin Kata. Instead, those systems typically practice some form of Naihanchi kata, often with a different name, such as Tekki (Tekki Shodan, Tekki Nidan, Tekki Sandan). Naihanchi Kata teaches the practitioner to develop power and deliver it through Koshi ( rotation through the hips).
Isshin-ryu Karate’s Father and Mother
Some styles, such as Isshin-ryu, incorporate both (Sanchin and Naihanchi). In fact, according to the founder of Isshin-ryu, Tatsuo Shimabuku, Sanchin is the Father of Isshin-ryu and Naihanchi is the mother. This means Isshin-ryu Karate develops power in a technique through either the Tanden (Sanchin) or Koshi (Naihanchi), or both … meaning you better slow your kata down!
Way back in 1983, when I first started training in Isshin-ryu, I was told that it is a blend of hard and soft, with Goju-ryu typically portrayed as the hard influence and Shorin-ryu portrayed as the soft influence. But what exactly does that mean?
After, all, isn’t Goju literally Japanese for hard-soft? So Goju-ryu, too, is a blend of hard and soft? What happened to the soft?
Are there no “hard” techniques in Shorin-ryu? I have seen some Shorin-ryu kata performed and I certainly spotted what looked like “hard” techniques to me.
Uechi-ryu is also a blend of hard and soft. According to Sensei Noel, Darin Yee, the president of the Internation Uechi-ryu Karate Federation, once asked how you can claim to be a master of Uechi-ryu without understanding the soft, as well as the hard side of Uechi-ryu? I think that is a really good question.
So if you ask, what makes Isshin-ryu a hard-soft style, you will often get an answer that is something like … Isshin-ryu is a blend of Goju-ryu (hard) and Shorin-ryu (soft), which in my opinion is not an answer at all.
Exploring the idea of hard and soft.
Back in the 90s, I spent a great deal of time exploring this question and looking for the “soft” side of Isshin-ryu. I began to research Chinese martial arts, Yin and Yang, and even learned and practiced a Yang-stye Tai Chi long form. Sensei Kathryn Eldridge used to come by my dojo regularly and worked on Tai Chi with me and some of my students. We also did push hand drills as well. I thought … maybe I was beginning to get some idea, at least.
Enter Sensei Sherman Harrill
Let me just say, there is nothing “soft” about being on the receiving end of a soft technique. I remember on several occasions Sensei being asked about hard and soft techniques. He would typically answer that he does not think about doing “hard” or “soft” techniques. He just executed his technique, and whether it was hard or soft was most often determined by the intent of the attacker or opponent.
Now that was a very interesting concept to me, and it stuck in my head. I began to work on that idea and what it meant to my Isshin-ryu Karate. I had already been working hard on body mechanics and natural body movements. We often say that Isshin-ryu is a “natural” style, meaning we use natural body movements and proper body alignment to generate power in our techniques, rather than extreme conditioning or exercise. However, that does not mean conditioning and exercise should not be a part of your Isshin-ryu training!
For a while, I had been experimenting with what I called “neutral positions” or being “dynamically relaxed” from which you exploded into the techniques and then returned to. It is kind of a “remaining mind” idea. So you stayed in this dynamically relaxed state from which you could instantly shift into a soft or hard technique as the situation demanded. While not exactly what Sensei Harrill was describing, it think I may have been working my way in that direction.
The Hard/Soft Continuum
Over the years, and based on what I have learned from Sensei Harrill, Sensei Kerker, and my own research, I have come to a conclusion for myself and how I understand and teach the ideas of hard and soft in Isshin-ryu Karate.
I now look at the idea of hard and soft as a continuum. If you think of “Soft” as being one end of the continuum and “Hard” being at the other, Isshin-ryu, as I teach it and practice it, floats around in the middle. It is neither hard, nor soft, but a state of being in between. It is not one or the other, it is both. By staying in the middle range, you can instantly shift a bit toward either hard or soft as needed, and then immediately return to the middle (or neutral state).
If, as Sensei Harrill said, you consistently execute your techniques the same way, meaning in a relaxed, natural, and mechanically sound manner, hard or soft almost becomes, as I heard Sensei Kerker state once, a simple weapons choice, doesn’t it?
If I hit my opponent with my fist, essentially it’s a hard technique. If I use an open hand technique, it is a soft technique. However, the mechanics of my technique stay the same.
The in-line stance drill is a great little drill that teaches the practitioner to break the line of attack and remain safe while staying close enough to deliver an effective counter. This is not kata. It is just a drill designed to develop an understanding of a few key concepts in Okinawan Karate.
In my dojo, this drill was typically taught after the Basic Kata and before learning the Tachi Kata, which was developed by Sensei Harrill as an intermediary step before starting into black belt level kata. The Basic Chart Kata and Tachi Kata will be examined in future posts.
In the two videos below you will see both a front and side view of the drill performed as a single-person exercise, much like kata. And while, not a kata per se, this drill is made up of techniques taken from kata to illustrate the concepts.
In-Line Stance Drill from the front.
In-line stance drill from the side.
However, this drill is a two-person drill and is worked back and forth repeatedly. Beginners will start out slowly and perhaps give themselves a bit more “working room.” As you become comfortable with the drill, your speed and power can increase, and the distance may decrease a bit. You will learn to control your distance and remain safe while being close enough to deliver effective counters. But, not so close that you cannot execute a good technique.
Here is an how the drill will look with two people.
Right-handed initial attack.
The nice thing about truly understanding techniques is that you begin to realize that it does not matter what your opponent does, so much as how well you can utilize your technique. In this drill, the attacker started with a right-handed punch. What if he hadn’t? Suppose he had attacked with his left-hand first? Do I change what I am doing?
Nope, the nice thing about good technique, is that it works (as we say, “Right, Left, Up, or Down). Yes, of course, there are specific techniques for certain types of attacks. But for most techniques, if you truly understand them, it does not matter. In this next video, the attacker will initiate his attack from the other side, and I will not change anything I am doing. It still works.
Left-handed initial attack.
I would like to thank Lucas Davis for helping me with the two-man aspect of this drill. Lucas trained with me in Isshin-ryu for several years before I moved to Raleigh, NC for about three years. After I moved back to Tennesse, Lucas now trains both in Isshin-ryu with me and in Uechi-ryu with Sensei Bob Noel who is also an excellent instructor.
Today would have been Sensei Sherman Harrill’s 76th birthday. I sometimes wonder how many folks truly realize just how unique a gift he left to those of us who continue to practice his brand of Isshin-ryu karate after he finally lost his battle with cancer in 2002.
On May 6th, Eddie Satterfield hosted Sensei John Kerker for the annual Isshin-ryu Karate Seminar in Maynardville, Tennessee. This seminar continues a Tennessee tradition that started in the 1990s. Sensei Satterfield brought Sherman Harrill in for a seminar sometime in the earlier 90s. I later brought Sensei Harrill to Clinton, Tennessee, in 1996, and we continued to hold that seminar the 3rd weekend in March each year up until Sensei died.
Those seminars (and others I traveled to held in places like Champaign, Illinois … Carson, Iowa … Chicago, Illinois … Pontiac, Michigan) had a profound influence on me. When Sensei passed away in 2002, I think we went perhaps a year without a seminar. Then we started bringing in his senior student, John Kerker, to continue the seminar tradition.
Isshin-ryu Karate – Passing on the Tradition
Sensei Harrill left his Isshin-ryu Karate Dojo and everything that entailed to John Kerker. As is often the case, several “instructors” tried to move in and usurp that role … claiming that, since they had higher rank, or their own organizations, or special friendships with Sensei Harrill, etc., John should join their “group” under them. But, what they did not have was the actual skill, knowledge, or character to fill those shoes. They did not have the many years John spent in that dojo. Many of them just liked to hang around and take their photos with Sensei. John stepped up and assumed the task left to him by Sensei Harrill, and while those were massive shoes to fill, fill them he did.
Sensei Kerker has done a great job. When John took over doing the seminars for us, maybe in 2004, he might not have been quite at the same skill level as Sensei Sherman Harrill, but I think he was actually a better instructor. Sensei Harrill just did not seem to have the knack for explaining things that John has. Sensei Harrill showed you … it hurts… you tried it. And you kept trying it until you figured it out. And, that was not bad! It worked. But, John added an additional element. He shows you … it hurts just as much … you try it … John analyzes and explains what you were doing wrong … you try it again. For me, at least, that adds a lot.
Sensei Kerker has definitely come into his own over the years and I would now hate to try and say which of them now has, or had, more skill.
It is Never a Straight Path
Sometimes life gets in the way and, unfortunately, I had to stop hosting the seminars, and I moved to North Carolina. Sensei Eddie Satterfield has picked the Tennessee seminar back up and has hosted it for several years now. I am very glad he did … as are several other people. I had hoped at some time in the future, to bring Sensei Kerker to North Carolina for seminars as well; but I am now back in Tennessee.
On May 6th, Sensei John Kerker gave a great seminar covering several techniques from kata … focusing on not getting hit, controlling the distance, disrupting your attacker’s balance, and proper timing in executing your technique. It was excellent and, as always, I learned something new or was reminded of some important information I had forgotten. There is so much you can learn from Kata if you study them correctly and have the right instructor. I have been in many Isshin-ryu dojos over the years, and what we do is pretty unique.
So, what is unique about the karate we do?
We do not spar in the common sense of the word. I once did. I originally came up in an Isshin-ryu dojo where we learned the kata to earn belt rank. Then we put pads on and sparred in the ring for points. Self-defense was something we made up as we went along and most of it was pretty bad. Nobody knew what kata was really for. We knew kata taught us balance, coordination, timing, etc. And, while all that is certainly true … kata is so much more than that. They are essentially a physical encyclopedia of the principles and techniques of karate.
I was actually ready to quit once I get my 2nd Dan. The problem was that I read a lot … and had read about the history of karate and what the Okinawan karate masters were capable of. Of course, I had seen none of that. Either the histories I had read were all a bunch of hooey or none of the karate instructors I had yet met and trained with actually knew any karate!
Enter the Sherminator!
Enter Sherman Harrill. The first time I saw him give a real seminar my jaw nearly hit the floor. He was demonstrating what I had, until that day, only read about. So, I started over. I traveled to many seminars and eventually became one of his students. For me, that was a real honor … the honor of a lifetime. I worked hard to change and improve my karate.
A critical moment came for me when I tested for my 3rd Dan. I passed with flying colors, but there was one caveat. The testing board told me I had to undo all the changes I had made in my karate from working with Sensei Harrill. I thought about that and decided I simply could not do that. That forced me to make the difficult decision of changing instructors. Telling Sensei Allen Wheeler I was leaving was also one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I always liked and respected Sensei Wheeler very much. He was a good man and had been very good to me and helped me in so many ways. I just needed my karate to take a different path. It was also one of the proudest days of my life when Sensei Harrill said “Welcome aboard!”
Injured or Just Hurt?
Not many will like or appreciate the way we train. It hurts. I have learned over the years that pain is actually a very good teacher. Notice … I said pain … not injury! Karate is, after all, a striking art. So, you must be willing to be struck by and to strike your training partners hard enough to understand the mechanics of the techniques … why and how they work.
You have to understand what the techniques do to you and you have to understand the real results of the technique on your attacker. And your targets are very often the areas that are “off-limits” in sport karate. So, it is a rather small group … those who train like we do. I am sure there are other groups like ours training here and there in many other traditional arts. It does slowly seem to be growing as folks lose interest in the “Hollywood fluff” offered by way too many McDojos today.
Folks, it is very much a buyer beware situation out there in the world of martial arts.
Just Another Flavor of Karate
And e understand, I am not knocking sport karate. There are some good sport karate schools out there. If that is what you want to do, that is fine. It is certainly your interests and your choices that matter. I know some folks who are very good at it and they are tough competitors. But the keyword here is “competitor!” It is a sport … and there are rules (which sometimes do vary). Certain target areas are off-limits. For instance, no kicking below the belt, no attacking small joints, no head contact, sweeps only allowed on the front leg, etc. There are absolutely no rules in a dark alleyway mugging, an attempted rape, during a vicious home invasion, a terrorist attack, or on a battlefield.
For us, it is just a different flavor of karate. We train more the way the Okinawan’s trained … you might say a more self-defense-orientated approach. We study how to apply the basics and techniques from kata in real-life combat situations … focusing on body mechanics, timing, and developing our weapons with the makiwara. The Okinawans did not spar … they studied kata. They trained with the makiwara. And, they were pretty deadly fighters.
A Teacher and a Friend
I considered Sensei Harrill my teacher and my friend. He was a marine and tough as nails, but he was also a kind man. I learned that lesson very clearly one day. My students and I had worked very hard to convert an old used-auto parts shop into an Isshin-ryu Karate dojo. The building belonged to one of my students, Eddy Weaver. Weaver’s Used Auto Parts had been an institution in Anderson County, Tennessee for decades.
We finished everything except getting the mats down. So, we trained on the freshly painted concrete floor. I just got the gas heater in the day before the seminar and it ran all night, but that old concrete floor was still very cold that morning. There had been no heat in the building for some time. During the seminar breaks, we all took turns sticking our feet under the gas heater to thaw them out!
Shit Happens!
A few months later some kids playing with fire behind the building, let the fire get away from them and our dojo burned to the ground. Sensei Harrill happened to call that next day just to chat. He would do that fairly often. I told him what happened. Sensei Harrill expressed real concern. He knew how much work we had put into that dojo. A few days later I started to get checks in the mail, boxes of training gear, etc. He had put the word out to his Isshin-ryu Karate friends! He was not even my instructor yet! That part came just a bit later.
I will end this post by saying … Thank you, Sensei Harrill … for your gift to those of us who had the honor to be your students. Happy Birthday and Kanpai!
And, … Thank you, Sensei Kerker … for continuing to carry the torch. I am looking forward to that next seminar!
So, what does a rusty Ford tractor have to do with karate?
Well, nothing really. But then again, everything. Hey, that’s kind of like a Zen riddle isn’t it?
Several years ago, say the late 90s, at one of our post-seminar workouts, Sensei Harrill was working with me and a couple of my senior students on Sanchin Kata.
Now first let me say there are several versions of this kata and while they have commonalities, they are not the same. A version of Sanchin can be found in several Chinese and Okinawan styles including Fujian White Crane, Five Ancestors, Uechi-Ryu, Goju-Ryu, and Isshin-ryu. There are certainly others as well. Tam Hon taught a martial arts style that was called “Saam Jin” which is Cantonese for “Sanchin.”
At its essence, Sanchin is taught to help the practitioner understand body mechanics and condition their body while learning to deliver properly focused techniques from a stable platform.
It is also, unfortunately, a kata about which a prodigious amount of “bullshit” has been propagated. But that is not the subject of this post.
Isshin-ryu Karate’s Sanchin
The Isshin-ryu version of this kata is really quite difficult in its simplicity. It consists of only five steps (three forward and two backward) and there is a great deal of repetition. But, like an onion, there are many layers to this kata and as your understanding grows, and the more layers you peel away, the more you realize there is to learn. It gives a new level of understanding to the idea, the more I learn the more I realize how little I know.
I had been working with Sensei Harrill for some time now and had made a lot of changes in how I trained, and this included Sanchin. I now practiced Sanchin most often with the vertical fist (which I liked because it fit our basics). I still, on occasion, will practice with the corkscrew punch as I had originally been taught, and sometimes I will mix it up. At that time, I was trying to get a handle on what the kata taught as far as body mechanics, as well as the many different breathing patterns found in the kata (none of which, by the way, resembled a gasping pressure cooker about to blow its top).
However, there was one movement in the kata that always gave me a fit. I practiced and practiced, trying different ways of executing the movement, and nothing seemed to work for me. I had once seen Sensei easily demonstrate the use of that movement at a seminar on a pretty big guy. The guy moved! But I felt like I was not even getting close. And of course, as I demonstrated my Sanchin Kata while Sensei watched, that was readily apparent to him.
You’re not doing that properly …
I probably felt like that was the “understatement” of the year. I was painfully aware of that fact. especially seeing what he had done with that very same movement.
I am sure that I replied with something to the effect of, “I know, Sensei. I just can’t seem to get it right.”
And I remember him saying something like, “You don’t have the right focus.”
The hook …
So, how did I change my focus? By listening to what my Sensei told me!
He said to imagine a rusty old red Ford tractor that’s been sitting in the field for a while. Now you’ve got to crank it up and plow that field. You finally get the tractor started, climb up into that seat. and reach for that big old shift lever with your right hand. Then you squeeze and give the lever a strong tug. And what happens? It doesn’t budge. It’s pretty much rusted into place. What do you do?
I thought about it a second … stand up and give it a real yank, I was thinking.
Then he added … but, imagine you have to keep your butt in the seat.
Now that’s an altogether different proposition.
Which muscles would come into play and when? In what order would you use them? How would that feel internally? Think about it.
I did.
And over time, that earlier “movement” that had previously been using the muscles of my arm changed. It began to originate at my core. It employed the rotation of my hips, my abdominal muscles. the lats, the shoulders, and finally … the arm. The pull became a properly-focused, mechanically sound whole-body movement. And after working on it awhile, when I tried it in the dojo, people began to move.
And that is what an old rusty red Ford tractor has to do with my Isshin-ryu Karate.
I first met Sensei Roy Loveday in 1983 at Wheeler’s School of Karate in Powell, TN. It was at the same time I first met Sensei Sherman Harrill. I remember Roy being present at a few amazing classes Sensei Harrill taught, and then both were gone. It wasn’t until much later that I learned the backstory to that, but it really doesn’t matter for this post. This post is about Roy Loveday, a former Navy SEAL, a Vietnam veteran, a solid karateka, and a friend.
I got reintroduced to Roy when I started bringing Sensei Sherman Harrill in for seminars in the mid-90s. Sensei asked if he could invite Roy as his guest, and I said, “No problem, Sensei. Please do.” After that first seminar, Sensei and I would often visit Roy whenever he came into Clinton, TN, for future seminars. Sometimes we would train, and sometimes they would reminisce, and I would just listen. Sensei Harrill and Roy Loveday were great friends, and it was fascinating to sit there and listen as they talked back and forth about Isshin-ryu Karate and their shared history. After we finished training at one of these sessions, Sensei surprised both Roy and me with new rank certificates.
Roy Loveday, Sherman Harrill, Darren Gilbert
After Sensei Harrill passed away on November 4, 2002, I started bringing in his senior student, Sensei John Kerker, for seminars. John had inherited Sensei’s dojo in Carson, IA. Although health issues were beginning to make it hard for him to train, Roy Loveday would still come and support us. I remember one comment Roy made to me as he watched me struggle to understand how to to make one of the techniques we were working on flow properly. He came over and stood there for a minute and watched. Then he commented.
“Darren, don’t forget your elbow principles.” “Elbow principles?” I asked. “What the heck are those?” I hadn’t heard that phrase before. “When a technique gives you a problem, give it to your elbow to solve,” Roy replied. Then he grinned and walked off.
It turned out that was a great pearl of wisdom, and applying the “Elbow Principle” has helped me understand and solve a lot of difficulties in technique since.
Mark Radunz, John Kerker, Darren Gilbert, Mel Sims, and Roy Loveday
Roy passed away on February 11, 2021, at age 76. He was born on October 25, 1944, graduated from Central High School, and enlisted in the US Navy, where he became a SEAL. Roy served in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam during the war. After Vietnam, he retired from the Norfolk Railroad and served as a Free Mason. Sensei Loveday studied and taught Isshin-Ryu Karate for over 40 years and held a 7th Degree Blackbelt.
In addition to Isshin-ryu Karate, Roy also studied Shito-Ryu and Tai Chi. He wrote and published an Isshin-Ryu training manual. I was honored to help by being in some of the photographs demonstrating weapons techniques with Sensei Harrill. It was a real honor. The dojo patch (shown in the post banner) adopted by Sensei Sherman Harrill and proudly worn by his students was based on Roy’s design. The name would just change depending on the school.
For hobbies, Roy enjoyed rebuilding old ’55 Chevys, and I still remember one old Chevy truck he was in the process of painting on one of my visits over to his house. Roy was a master diver and loved SCUBA diving.
For anyone who knew Roy and would like to pay their respects, the Family will receive friends from 6:00 – 7:00 PM Saturday, February 20, 2021, at Mynatt Funeral Home Halls Chapel, with a service to follow at 7:00 PM. Rev. Mark Large, Rev. Danny Scates, and Daniel Beason will be officiating. Family and friends will meet at 12:15 PM for a 12:30 PM interment on Monday, February 22, 2021, at East Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery on John Sevier Highway. Online condolences may be left by clicking here.
It saddens me because I just moved back to Knoxville, Tennessee, and was looking forward to reconnecting with Roy. He was a good man who served his country and had a lot to share. He will be missed.
The popular interpretation of this guiding principle of karate is that karate is for self-defense only. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with this interpretation, especially if you are just getting started on your martial arts journey. Teaching this maxim to your students helps instill the rule that karate techniques should not be misused. But is that truly all there is to it?
There is no first strike in karate.
Hmmm. Okay. This phrase does not say, “Karate is for self-defense only.’ It clearly says, “There is no first strike in karate.” Why is that? If they meant to say, “karate is for self-defense only,” why didn’t they just say that. Part of the problem is that these maxims were not coined in English. Most were probably originally written in Chinese, then translated into native Okinawan languages such as Uchināguchi, then possibly Japanese, and finally into English.
Another consideration is the translation itself. Chinese and Japanese languages are rather different from their western counterparts. One-to-one translations of characters into letters can be problematic at best. Thus, the age, knowledge, and life experiences of the translator become a translation factor.
To provide an example of what I am talking about, I will use the Isshin-ryu Code, which is basically a streamlined adaptation of “The Eight Poems of the Fist” found in the Bubishi.
The Isshin-ryu Code
Version 1
Version 2
A person’s heart is the same as Heaven and Earth
The Blood circulating is similar to the Moon and the Sun
A manner of drinking or spitting is either hard or soft
A person’s unbalance is the same as weight
The body should be able to change direction at any time
The time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself
The eyes must see all sides
The ears must listen in all directions
Man’s spirit, heart, mind : is like (same as) : Heaven : Earth
Blood, hope, range, pulse : is like : Moon (day – date) : Sun (month)
Stiff – hard, strong. stubborn, inflexible : Soft-gentle, mild-tender, mellow : Take in (soak in) : Throw out
Fear, horror : March : Past (pass) : Leave : Meet
Directions : Any : Time : React (respond) : Flexibility (change)
Hand : Meets : In the air : Suddenly : Enter
Eyes : Should : Watch : Four : Directions
Ears : Laterally placed : To listen to (to comply with) : Eight : Directions
Clearly, the two versions of the Isshin-ryu Code are pretty similar. Version 1 would certainly be easier to “read” for most English-speaking Americans. Version 2 is definitely much more cryptic and makes you want to scratch your head. But beyond that, there are some notable differences. I like to highlight #6 and #8 as the first differences for my students to explore.
Version 1 is found in most books on Isshin-ryu Karate. I have no idea where it comes from. Version 2 is a direct translation of the code’s Kanji by an elderly Chinese gentleman who was known to my instructor. It is the translation his students use and has shaped our training a little differently.
So, where is all this going?
First, if differences in translation can occur in one text, they can occur in another. Second, phrases that mean one thing to a beginner often mean something else to an intermediate, advanced, or long-time student. As an example of this, take The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. If you have read this book more than once, say at different times over your training years, you will understand exactly what I mean. While the words themselves have not changed, your understanding of them will have.
So, here is an alternative “understanding” of the phrase, there is no first strike in karate.
The words could say, there is no first strike in karate because, quite literally, there is no first strike in karate. By way of explanation, here are two examples.
A traditional story
There is an old story of two early karate masters in nearby villages in Okinawa. Each village was very proud of its resident Sensei, and therefore talk soon began around the topic of which was better. Over time, this argument grew to such a fevered pitch that a match became inevitable. Finally, the two masters met on neutral ground and squared off. The residents of both villages gathered to watch. The villagers waited in breathless anticipation for the action to begin. The two masters calmly faced each other, each waiting for an opportunity. It never came. After what seemed like an eternity, the match was called a draw, and the disappointed villagers went home, grumbling to themselves.
A student of one of the Senseis, following his teacher back to their village, finally worked up the nerve to ask, “Sensei, why did you not fight? What was settled by this?”
The Sensei smiled, “We settled the fact that we are both excellent karate-ka. Each of us understood that the first one to strike would surely lose. Therefore, neither of us was willing to strike first.”
From the sport side of things
While over the years, I left sport karate behind, there were many years I did participate. I was never a “Hall of Famer,” but I was a solid competitor. I won some and lost some. Eventually, I refereed matches and judged the kata competitions. I also hosted the Tennessee Valley Karate Championship on the Tennessee Karate Circuit for about seven years. I am not sure that the circuit even exists anymore.
In my experience, there are basically three types of tournament karate fighters: 1) the charger, 2) the runner, and 3) the counter-fighter. Which fighter is harder to beat?
The charger comes right at you, straight on, fast and hard. However, if you get fairly adept at working angles, you can do well against the charger.
The runner runs, and you have to chase him all over the ring and try to pin him in a corner. Typically, they get a lot of warnings for running out of the ring. However, if you can learn to control the ring and cut the runner off, you can do well against the runner as well.
The counter-fighter sits and waits patiently for you to attack. When you do, he simply shifts position, parries, or blocks, and then counter-attacks. And, for my money, this is the toughest competitor to beat.
You cannot initiate an attack with out creating an opening
If your opponent simply has the patience and skill to take advantage of the opening you have just provided them with, you will lose. Perhaps, this is another reason there is no first strike in karate. Especially when losing might be a matter of life or death.
Just food for thought …
That is the beauty of art. It is open to interpretation. And karate, after all, is a martial art. I am just sharing one of my interpretations with anyone interested. It is neither right nor wrong. It is simply another avenue to explore. And, for those who want to argue, I leave you with a few additional thoughts from Mr. Miyagi …
“The answer is only important if you ask the right question”
“Only root karate come from Miyagi. Just like bonsai choose own way grow because root strong you choose own way do karate same reason.”
“First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule Daniel-San, not mine.”
Then, of course, if you do understand the point I am making, and when you pair this take on “There is no first strike in karate” with “Hand meets in the air, suddenly enter,” pretty cool things begin to happen. But that’s a subject for another day.
If two hands meet in the air, can you “suddenly enter?”
This post is a continuation of the thread started in my last post, No First Strike. If you are unfamiliar with my thoughts on this idea, you may wish to read that post first. And again, there is no right or wrong here. After many years of training and research into Okinawan Karate, this is just one of my understandings and interpretations of these concepts. And, in no way do I imply that I am the originator of these ideas. Instead, I learned from many other karate practitioners I have met on my journey.
In the Kenpo Gokui (also known as the Isshin-ryu Code), we have line #6, whose kanji can be translated as, Hand : Meets : In the air : Suddenly : Enter
The more common interpretation of this idea found in the U.S. is, the time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself. However, as mentioned in the previous post in this thread, I prefer the more exact translation of the kanji.
First, a quick example of understanding body mechanics.
Try this exercise with someone strong.
Have a training partner get into a solid stance, make a fist, and extend their arm. Then, stand in front of them and ask your partner to resist the pressure you apply to their fist.
First, press down on their fist. Can they resist that?
Second, lift or press up on their fist. Can they resist that?
Push their fist to the left. Can they resist?
Push their fist to the right. Can they resist?
Now holding their fist with your thumb and second finger, move their fist in small circles. Can they resist that? Not so much…
There are muscles in place that allow your body to effectively resist the up, down, left, and right pressure. Of course, to what extent does depend somewhat on how strong you are. However, there are no specific muscles to resist those small circles. That is a simple example of understanding and applying the concept of body mechanics.
So, let’s think about this for a few seconds.
If an arm was extended toward you in an attack, and you intercepted that arm with your own, could you use the concept above to redirect the attack and suddenly enter with your own counter strike? As in …
Hand Meets In The Air, Suddenly Enter
In the above illustration, arm A. is the punching arm. Arm B. has met arm A. in the air. There would be several options open to arm B. at this point, one of which might be the basic Isshin-ryu low-level block.
They’re not blocks! They’re really Ninja Delayed Death Strikes!
First, let me say that I do not accept the theory adopted by some Isshin-ryu Karate practitioners, that there are “no blocks in Isshin-ryu Karate.” And that that the blocks are ” some kind of top-secret pressure point, Ninja delayed death strikes.”
It is much more likely that nobody ever showed them how to properly practice and employ these blocks in technique. Nevertheless, the blocks do, in fact, work exceptionally well for me and several practitioners I know pretty well.
So, the answer to the above question is …
Of course, you can. In fact, this is one of the critical elements of blocking in Isshin-ryu Karate. A second is that Isshin-ryu does not typically employ linear blocks. Instead, they are designed as circular blocks. However, the circles are tiny. So can these blocks be used linearly? Of course, they can. But many of the Isshin-ryu kata techniques are set up by using this “two hands meet in the air” concept combined with circular blocks and then followed up with an aggressive counter-attack.
However, it is essential to remember that combat is fluid and ever-changing, so as soon as you understand a concept, someone tosses in an exception. This, too, is also fine. That is where years of training, experience, and flexibility come into play.
Experience and Flexibility
As an example of this experience and flexibility, the third seminar we held in Clinton, Tennessee, with Sensei Sherman Harrill was on Seisan Kata. The opening technique in that kata is essentially a mid-level block followed by a reverse punch. We probably spent the first two hours of the seminar exploring variations of those two primary techniques. And nobody was bored! Two hands would meet in the air. The entry would vary with each version, and therefore the counter-attack would target different areas of the attacker’s body. But the technique was the same.
Then, of course, there would come the “those are the things I do with these techniques comment. So what Sensei (for him,Master Tatsuo Shimabuku) showed me was this …
It would be a simple block/punch karate technique. But it would also be very effective. Two hands would meet in the air, a sudden entry, and then – the fight is over. Ikken Hissatsu
Gilbert's Isshin-ryu Karate School 