2022-03-10

2022-03-10, Thursday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Checking the instructor’s syllabus, I saw that the katas for the month were Heian Sandan, Jion, and Sochin. The students had a passing grasp of the first two, so we spent most of our time getting through Sochin.

As expected, remembering to default to fudo-dachi was a challenge, but that’ll be a long struggle. We also spent a good deal of time on the sequence leading into the first kiai (which is almost harder to count than it is to do), with particular emphasis on the blocks. These are, so far as I’m aware, the only appearance of hineri-uke in the Shotokan syllabus, so I figured it was worth going over how they’re different from … say … the similar (but differently directed) haiwan jodan nagashi-uke in the Tekki kata. The important part being, not the direction the arm is moving, but the twisting action along the way.