This Guest Post is by my good friend, Sensei Angel Lemus, of the Zentokukai Okinawa Shorinryu Toude Association. Angel is the creator of One Minute Bunkai. The URL is oneminutebunkai.com. He and I are members of the Hawaii Karate Kenkyukai.
- - - - - - - - - -
No stances, strategy, and the relationship of the players/pieces
involved
I love the pleasure of NOT worrying about stances, the liberation of that
part of your consciousness that has to think of stance delivery as you travel
through your kata.
Now I just step out there and not think of what my feet are doing, why? Because I can. Because I'm not a beginner and I know that my feet, legs, and my lower body
know what to do instinctively according to what my upper body is doing.
Its like my upper half and lower half are communicating with themselves
checking with each other to ensure that everything is running in optimal
condition assuring maximum power and results. Thus it leaves my higher functions to do their part, my eyes to see/gather
input about situation surrounding me to allow my "instinct" adapt to the ever
changing and chaotic nature of combat. My brain is put on shelf on standby mode
so it can have a coffee break and look at the spectacle like someone watching a
movie (but it does not butt-in).
Think of it like a tank crew, the tank commander is on the turret gathering
intel, making command decisions and barking out orders putting the tank in a
good offensive position while at the same time putting it in the best defensive
position as possible. The tank driver only drives taking commands from the
commander, the ordinance/fire chief aims and fires, the unit of 3 depend on each
other, and one cannot possibly do it all at the same time. The commander is
your self/instinct, your feet/legs are the driver, your hands/arms are the fire
control.
I have found that by abandoning the focus on stances it is a liberating
feeling that brings your awareness to a higher level that allows you to focus on
the fighting while working kata. Your kata practice should feel like when you are attacked aggressively by
your partner and you just move and do your thing. In partner work you don't stop
to think for one second about stances. And if you do, that split second will cost you. In partner work your entire
focus is (should be) on the attack aimed at your opponent, you just move in
whatever "stance" you land in, and it will be correct and it does not need a
name.
Going forward I will rely less and less on stance labeling when teaching my
new students, at the beginning I will just say step here and there and bend your
knees. I will say to them look at me and do what I do, "Mitori Geiko" learning
by watching. I will just make minor corrections but not spend so much time (as I
have done in the past) on making their cat stance look picture perfect. Because
ultimately what matters is can they hit hard, not does the stance look pretty.
And if the student is with you for many years he/she will figure it out over
time. Of course this method will not work in sports karate because sport kata
needs long pauses and the dramatic stances for judges to see the perfect balance
and beauty of the presentation it is what it is.
In arriving at this juncture I now understand when I see videos of the old
masters doing their kata and they always look like they move with a sort of
abandonment of what stance they are in at any given time in their kata, the more
experienced and older the less predominant stances are. When I wore my early
karate diapers I used to see the old films and think, look at those old guys
they can't do stances right anymore. Well now I'm wearing my advanced Karate
Depends and loving it.
