Dynamic Tension in Sanchin

[NEB]

Greetings folks!

I was wondering if anyone here has heard of, taught or learned Sanchin kata being practiced with dynamic tension/muchimi. Not at a slow pace, I mean going through the form at a normal (fast) pace but maintaining dynamic tension in the shoulders and arms while doing all the movements.

[NEB]

Tough crowd ... or no crowd.

[paulg]

NEB, Sure, why not try it for a while and see if there is a gain. I wouldn't teach a beginner that way, but assuming you are a dan-ranked guy, you should feel free to experiment. That's how science and art advance.

[NEB]

Well, I ask because we've always done it this way. Mind you, its not done with full tension, but we do maintain some during the practice with good results. The kata is still performed at normal speed.

[gmattson]

A difficult subject to explain and therefore was a major problem transmitting the information from teacher to student.

I teach what Tomoyose drilled into me. Pull the shoulders down, using your lats. Hence the tapping of lats during sanchin "check". It is much easier to simply tighten everything, especially when a teacher is pounding the $#%& out of various parts of your body, before the student understands what should be a gradual strengthening of the body with proper performance of sanchin. Think more about the concept of "compressing" arm muscles (developing muscles and bones) by pulling down with the lats, tightening the hands/fist while strengthening the lower body pulling inward with your rear end and gripping the floor by lifting arches. As you develop your sanchin you will begin to understand how your body functions in a natural manner. Excessively brutal "testing" only hurts your body. . . and teaches you to hold breath, lock up. . . but it feels so good when it stops and provides great entertainment to an audience.

[Glenn]

Thanks George, that is a very useful summary of both process and problem!

[NEB]

Thanks, George, for the reply. It seems that what we're doing is similar to what you describe with the addition of keeping the "sticky" feeling throughout during practice. It creates a kind of restraint. Normally the strikes done in kata are fully expressed, fully released, 'lashing' out. In Sanchin, we temper the lash with the setup as you describe along with a degree of muchimi (sp?). This seems to add a degree of difficulty to the form and, we believe, makes it more effective as a strength and durability-building exercise. Think of it as a hybrid of Uechi Sanchin and that of Goju, with the dial set to 85% Uechi and 15% Goju.