2025-07-28

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

There was a lot of kata last night, but we spent quite a bit of time talking about the turn into the horizontal bottom-fist strike in Heian Sandan (move #9). Students have all kinds of trouble with this turn, and it blows their mind when you explain that they’ve been doing it since their first day of class.

• In Taikyoku Shodan, at moves 9 and 17, you do a 270° turn before stepping forward into front stance.
• In Heian Shodan, at moves 10 and 18, you do exactly the same thing.
• In Heian Nidan, at move 23, you do a 270° turn before stepping forward into a straight-line front stance.

So far, so good, and all pretty much the same.

But then, when students get to move #9 in Heian Sandan, they think it’s completely different. In their minds, it’s “harder” because they’re turning all the way arouind instead of only 3/4 of the way around, but that’s not true. Furthermore, they find themselves going “off course” to the right of embusen.

When you think about it, your hips are only turning 270°, just like in all three of the previous katas. The only difference is that you step sideways into kiba-dachi instead of forward into zenkutsu-dachi. It’s the same turn - you just step in a different direction afterwards.

The other thing that makes the turn in Heian Sandan seem “harder” is that you have to be able to turn 270° with your feet together. To be sure, that’s what you’re supposed to do in the other katas too, but many people start to lose their balance and throw their left leg forward to catch themselves.

In the other katas, since you step forward at this point, it’s easy to hide the fact that you’ve lost your balance while turning (even from yourself). But in Heian Sandan, because you have to step to the side, you have to be able to complete the entire spin while maintaining your balance. If you can’t do that, you’ll either lean or separate your legs to maintain your balance, which moves mass away from your axis of rotation and causes you to be pulled to the right of embusen.