Slowly going crazy in karate

[eveglass]

Sometimes, muscle memory is wonderful. Other times, it drives me absolutely up the wall.

Take, for example, the Shotokan kata we started learning yesterday, Heian Nidan ("The second heian kata"). This is extremely similar to Pinan Sono Ni ("The second pinan kata") I learned while I was doing Kyokushin karate. Extremely similar. I bet that to the untrained eye, this video of Pinan Sono Ni (repeats at 0:45) will be virtually indistinguishable from this video of Heian Nidan (repeats, slower, at 1:05). But while they're super-close, they're not the same.

Take, for example, the very first move. In my old style (Kyokushin), the first move of Pinan Sono Ni looked like the picture on the left. (Clicking will take you to a larger version.) Note the hands. They're far apart, with the right hand just next to the face and palm pointed toward the floor, and the left hand at shoulder height, about a body's width away from the shoulder, with the palm facing back towards the practitioner.


Now take a look at the picture on the right, which is the first move of Shotokan's Heian Pinan kata. Again, look at the hands. The first thing you'll note is that they're much higher up and much closer together. Instead of forming a big space, it almost looks like your arms are forming a rectangle. The right hand is slightly forward of the face, with the palm facing outwards, and the left hand is up at the same level, with the palm facing the same direction as the right hand.

It's not a big difference. It's very subtle. But it's the sort of thing that drives my muscle memory crazy, as it continually wants to do what's in the first picture, and I try to tell it to do what's in the second. The entire kata is full of these sorts of little differences. (In the old style, for example, one move had the front leg coming back to meet the back leg; in the new style, the back leg moves forward to meet the front one.) There are five katas we're doing that have the same sort of subtle-but-important differences. It's going to drive me crazy, precious. Yes, it is.

Comments

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

I found the footwork to be a much greater change than the arm positions, but you're right, they do similar things very differently.

So, what's the reasoning behind the changes? Do the two styles teach different approaches to address attacks? Or, to use your example here, is the first move supposed to be able to lead to different kinds of options? Or, is it simply a question of addressing philosophical concerns?

My question put another way: if someone were a black belt in both forms, what would be her reason for choosing one of those stances over the other?

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. When I trained in Kyokushin, the sensei would occasionally give us rationale behind certain moves, but I don't remember ever doing bunkai (applications). At my shotokan dojo, I've heard that there are bunkai, but you don't get to them until the mid-level belts or higher.

(Yes, I find it particularly silly that we're doing kata with no real knowledge of any applications, but such is life at these dojos.)

[absurd.livejournal.com]

When I was doing karate, I was always surprised by the relative efficiency of movement of the style I was doing (Shito-Ryu) versus the relatively sweeping, nearly exaggerated movements of Shoto-Kan. I'm still mystified by it and have never had that nuance of style explained to me either.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, Shotokan is far LESS elaborate and sweeping than Kyokushin, my first style. (If you watch the videos, notice the difference between the knife-hand strikes, and you'll understand.)

I really liked the aikido-type moves that we used in Shito-Ryu. I found it was far more appropriate to my build and size than the force-on-force of other styles like Kyokushin or Shotokan.