The name “Sanchin” means “three challenges”. These are of the spirit, mind,
and body, representing yawarakasa (softness -- relaxation), binkansa
(timing -- awareness and spontaneous motion), and chikarazuyosa (hardness –
natural power) coming last.
Very basically, the spirit represents the
softest motion possible.
Later, the mind represents awareness, coordinating
spontaneous body motion with pinpoint accuracy.
Then the body is
representative of power or sudden and momentary hardness, learning where to
place the power in a movement without exhausting the body’s reserves.
Hardness comes last, and is only applied for the briefest instant -- the old
saying is “Power first kills power last”, meaning that the practitioner must
learn to be soft until the very instant of impact, never “tensing up” before
or after.
When his Sanchin has developed in all three stages, the
practitioner is on the road to mastery of the system.
It normally takes
years to master these concepts in actual practice.
All movements in
UechiRyu spring from Sanchin, and so Sanchin is considered the “Seed Kata”
or Master Kata, teaching the basics for the entire system.