2022-05-03

2022-05-03, Tuesday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

The regular instructor had a last-minute work committment pop up, so I got the opportunity to sub for the first class of the month. That means new katas! For May, this class is working on Heain Godan, Hangetsu, and Nijushiho. Two black belts and a green belt showed up to class and, while the latter two kata are way beyond what I’d expect of a green belt, the class was small enough that I could afford to have him follow along.

In Heain Godan, we spent extra time on the last few moves. Different schools do these differently, some do these in a straight-line stance and some change from full-width front stance to back stance. Some pivot on the left heel after the manji-gamae and some switch to kosa-dachi and “unwind” the feet. We talked through them all, but ultimately practiced it in a straight-line stance with the switch to kosa-dachi.

For Hangetsu, we got through the kata a couple of times, and then worked on the stances. For Hangetsu-dachi, we make a regular front stance, shorten it up just a smidge, pivot the front foot inward about 45°, and then let the knees bend together naturally. Far too many people are told to create inside tension by forcing the knees inward. Don’t do that! Once the feet are pointing in the right direction, simply bendng the knees naturally will cause them to come together and create the tension you want. For neko-ashi dachi, we start with back stance, shorten it up by one foot length, pivot the back foot forward 45°, and “sit.” A common error here is to have the front leg too close to the back leg, causing the angle of the front shin to be either vertical or even bent back towards the back leg.

We didn’t have much time left for Nijushiho, but we got through it twice. With the time we had left, we went through the final move a couple of times, stressing that it is not the same as the admittedly similar-looking technique at the end of Unsu. Yes, they’re both a combination of tekubi makiotoshi-uke and tesho awase-zuki, but the “Unsu version” has both hands winding all the way around, crossing your center line, while the “Nijushiho version” has both hands remaining on their respective sides of the body, barely (if at all) crossing your center line.