Hi George,
I would like to comment on this subject regarding the position of where we start a kata and when we finish. I am one of the practitioners who firmly believe in the symmetric of forms, handsets or kata. If your Uechi-Ryu stances are precise and consistent, you should start and stop on the very same spot which you began.
Other than the san-chin kata, I start and stop on the same spot while performing every kata. Also realize there are movements within our Uechi-Ryu techniques which many do not incorporate. If we post like statues, not only will we not end on the same spot, we are not performing and practicing our fighting technique as it is intended to be used. I would think that Grandmaster Kunbun Uechi understood this and pasted it down. Through our Okinawan evolution, a lot of our ancient Chinese philosophies, nuances and understandings have been relinquished. We did not post in our katas until the early 70s.
This is one of the strongest reasons I believe Pong Gai-Noon (Uechi-Ryu) is really from China. Original, authentic Chinese handsets all start and finish on the same spot. If you’ve ever watched or participated in a tournament in China, you would start and finish in a 3’ square box and warned about losing points for not complying with this rule. A Tai-Chi tournament is even more critical with this rule. They use a 2’ square box as a starting and finishing point. Many Tai-Chi circles still impose this rule.
In most countries, practitioners work on their upper half and concentrate on how powerful they can punch or kick. In China, the knowledgeable teachers watch the legs, posture, balance and stances to determine one’s ability. All of my students are taught to work on the consistency of their stances. If you would like to witness this firsthand, please ask me to perform any kata other than san-chin for you while you are here at my dojo or when you see me at summer fest or winter fest. I would be happy to perform any kata for you.
Darin Yee
Hachidan IUKF
and Al wrote:
Hello Darin,
Correct...I believe Seisan (long form) will not finish on the same spot as well.
Regards,
Al
To which I responded:
and Al responded:Interesting discussion Al and Darin. . .
Without being concerned about this issue, I find myself ending up in the same spot I started in many of my kata performance. With a bit of effort and modification of movements I could easily make this a part of my kata.
However, my newsletter response was only to answer the question “in Uechi-ryu, is there such a physical restriction to one’s kata performance” and I stated what Okinawa’s position was back in the 1950s and as far as I know, currently as well.
There are a number of reasons why I like the existing flexible position concerning this issue. It allows individuals to express their different techniques that evolve from the “core” kata movements, without the restrictions that would be imposed on their personal kata that any start-end ritual would impose.
There are lots of other personal reasons I would not like to impose such restrictions on the performance of a kata, simply because of start-end considerations, but these things are personal and should not affect the way I teach or interpret the purpose of the kata.
With this being said, I certainly would not criticize anyone who did feel this interpretation of the kata is important and taught kata so that every kata would start and end in the same spot. (I’ve experimented with this back in the 60s when I wrote “The Way of Karate” and if you check the book’s diagrams for sanchin and seisan, you will see they both started and stopped in the same spot.
Best,
George
Any other comments?Hello Sensei,
I agree and follow your perspective and reasoning.
The only real benefit for starting and stopping in the same spot is uniformity of stepping, consistency of size of stances, and these work well if one is competing in tournaments and or demonstrations.
If one is using the form purely as a training mechanism for development of the kata as it relates to the state of mind and it's relationship to stress in the real world, then it surely does not matter.
My humble opinion....what do you think?
Best!
Al