Kata(s) of the Month
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Gankaku 岩鶴 and Suishu 水手Gankaku Meaning: Gankaku translates as "Crane on a Rock," referring to the one-legged stances and dynamic balancing movements. Originally, and in other styles, is known as "Chintō."
Suishu Meaning : "Water Hands" or "Hands of Water", implying flowing relaxed movements. |
Gankaku
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Bunkai (Application)
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Gankaku Notes
This kata works balance and posterior/core control to maintain balance, centeredness, and control during the spinning techniques and kicks.
Core exercises, hip stability exercises, and proprioceptive training of the lower body will help to improve the physical execution of this kata.
Some good resources and background on the Gankaku kata:
• Sochin Shotokan Karate-do
• The Shotokan Way
Core exercises, hip stability exercises, and proprioceptive training of the lower body will help to improve the physical execution of this kata.
Some good resources and background on the Gankaku kata:
• Sochin Shotokan Karate-do
• The Shotokan Way
Suishu
Suishu was created by Tetsuhiko Asai Sensei and is not part of the primary JKA Kata syllabus, but we find that this kata teaches some unique concepts and therefore we choose to practice it. Hanshi Cruz first became interested in this kata in 2009 and instructed the Senior ISKA Sensei to learn it and study it.
This kata teaches relaxed, flowing, continuous, circular movements that are very different from most of the techniques in the JKA syllabus kata. While Asai Sensei was very flexible and had a physique that allowed him to easily achieve these flowing movements. We believe that regardless of the student's physique, this kata can be utilized to teach centered turning, relaxed technique contributing to more power, and the ability to use small hip movements to deflect and immediately counterstrike, or, in some cases, use an offensive technique as a block in and of itself.
This kata teaches relaxed, flowing, continuous, circular movements that are very different from most of the techniques in the JKA syllabus kata. While Asai Sensei was very flexible and had a physique that allowed him to easily achieve these flowing movements. We believe that regardless of the student's physique, this kata can be utilized to teach centered turning, relaxed technique contributing to more power, and the ability to use small hip movements to deflect and immediately counterstrike, or, in some cases, use an offensive technique as a block in and of itself.
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Suishu Notes
Suishu was created ay Tetsuhiko Asai Sensei as demonstrated in the above video. One of Asai Sensei's longtime and loyal students, Sensei Andre Bertel, describes some context of this kata is the following blog posts:
www.theshotokanway.com/theasaikaratekata.html
and
http://andrebertel.blogspot.com/2008/12/natural-element-kata.html
Sensei Bertel now trains with the JKA in Oita Japan, but his technique most closely emulates that of his teacher. You can follow his blog here.
www.theshotokanway.com/theasaikaratekata.html
and
http://andrebertel.blogspot.com/2008/12/natural-element-kata.html
Sensei Bertel now trains with the JKA in Oita Japan, but his technique most closely emulates that of his teacher. You can follow his blog here.
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