Welcome to the third section of Pinan Shodan Kata as we mentioned previously we
want to put up a little bit of context a little bit of history and some more information rather
than just be an educational video on the Kata The Pinan Kata were created by Okinawa
master Anko Itosu, and Itosu was trying to get into the Okinawan School curriculum
karate the same way that Jigoro Kano got Judo into the Japanese school system
and he created these five Pinan Kata as a means of training within the educational system
some people believe that they were purely written for children but there's evidence he actually
taught the Pinan Kata to his adult students as well so they're not Kata specifically for
children they contain lots and lots of very good information that you can take away and practice
for years at whatever level you're at, whether it's the first time seeing them or you're way
into your Advanced Dan grades so I don't dismiss them as something you do along the way to going
somewhere better if you revisit them and some of the seminars we've done with Sensei Roger in 2022
he explained how his journey has been going back to the very Basics and re-examining them again
and pulling more information and more knowledge from them so the same can be done
with the the Pinan series. There seems to be reference to a lost Kata Channan
and this seems to be peculiar to Itosu another great Okinawan karate master
Choki Motobu was a student of Itosu and The Story Goes Motobu went to visit him
Itosu asked his students to demonstrate a kata for Choki Motobu and they performed
the pinan series and Motobu allegedly said that that looks like this lost kata Channan
but slightly different, and Itosu is meant to have said
"Well yes it is Channan I've just sort of broken it up and altered it slightly"
so there seems to be some History of a previous Kata that
Itosu has sort of broken up some people think it's Kushanku or a combination of Kushanku and Channan
but either way there is an older history to these there have been compartmentalised
into the the pinan series. So lots of good useful stuff and history that can be gleaned from these like I
said don't dismiss them don't just sort of think they're well I need some yellow belt, Green belt, orange belt.
You can go a long way with these and start picking out the parts that are really useful
I think Funakoshi said that if you master all five of the Pinan Kata you can very much defend
yourself in any situation. So for Funakoshi saw them as very very valuable karate self-defense systems
rather than just beginner style Kata. So have a good look and hopefully we can give
you some food for thought in this video series and you can apply that into your own training
so as part of the series what we're trying to look at is key points to take away and to emphasise
with each Kata so for Pinan Shodan Sensei referenced this during his talk on the Kata
is the concept of Shuto Uke, a lot of styles do it it's quite a hard striking type action Sensei's
sort of interpretation of it is this more rolling of the body almost developing this nagasu type
movement so if you're practicing the Kata and certainly through the Shuto sections try and work
on this try and get this sort of soft rolling action dip in the head dipping the shoulder
for the Shuto rather than a big mechanical striking action just using the upper body
this method is very Wado, so if you're a Wado student this is the thing for you if you're
from another Style just another way of looking at things that you might find useful in your own training
the second sort of takeaway is the use of Mahamni Neko Ashi Dachi or Kokutsu dachi I think it's
called in other styles. The Kata got swapped originally This was meant to be the first one
but they do the second one first because this stance only appears once in pinan nidan, and it's quite
a difficult stance to get your head round to get the balance and the the posture so it made
sense to swap it round because it occurs a lot in in this Kata so again this is a big part of
what you need to be working on and trying to master and perfect when you're doing Pinan Shodan
and that very much ties in with the Shuto movements moving through
within the stance rather than it being a step and a mechanical block there's a lot of discussion
with the various movements is this an introduction to limb control
that these actions can be interpreted as ways of moving limbs out the way to deliver strikes
moving a limb at the way to deliver a strike so rather than, I remember years ago, I was taught that
it was a Jodan punch and a Jodan punch from two different directions
well if you find two people trying to punch you in the head at the same time you might want to find a new pub!
it's highly unlikely that somebody's going to punch you this way so you can do Jodan Uke
and somebody's punching you that way, No. but quite clearly it's conceivable you could deflect a
technique this way and deliver a strike with the opposite hand so it stops being an Uke
and becomes a strike
so I'll have a little look but using it for limb control. Moving people's arms out the way
so you can move around to deliver your strikes stop sort of thinking them as passive
blocks they can actually be a proactive movement to clear a path to deliver your own strike
Kenwa Mabuni who was a student of Anko Itosu in his writings about karate
he mentions that the directions in the Kata are not the direction as the opponent is to you
but you too the opponent and that suddenly changes a lot
so the section in the Kata where you turn behind perform the Mae Geri you could
interpret that is what it's telling you is after this section you want to be behind the attacker
so we said about being a Mae Geri to their front it's actually a Mae Geri into the knee
and this is no longer a block it's a takedown because you are now behind them
so when you're practicing with your partner try and think differently about the angles
Rather than we are here and the attacker is straight in front of us
it may be that the attacker is at a different angle and we're at the 45 to them so try and think
about the angles differently don't make everything linear straight lines
and at the final Point
As Sensei sort of went through some of the bunkai applications and doing the research for
this I had a look at various different styles and Sensei touched on this Wado Mahamni and move away
Kyokushin and ShitoRyu
Neko Ashi dachi
move in probably the oldest form of this would be Shorin Ryu
and they use Neko Ashi and they don't move at all
so when I was doing the research I thought well it's like the Goldilocks and the Three Bears
you know with a a bit further away
or we're a bit closer or the Shorin Ryu seem to have got it just right
so he's playing around with this distancing because if you're training with different partners taller shorter
they're going to be wherever they're going to be and it may not be where you would like them to be
so sometimes you may need to go away sometimes you may need to come forwards and sometimes you
might just have it right so play around with distancing timing different people
and then the Kata will really come alive because you can adjust your distance to suit
and there's obviously reasons why all the different styles do slight interpretations
so it's useful to know the other ones I think it's a term in Jiu Jitsu
don't try and force a bad position you know if you're on the floor and you're grappling don't try and
force somebody where you want them and it's the same with this if they're too far away you might need to go in
So those are the key points to have a look at from this this Kata, hopefully you'll find them useful
conclusion what have you learned from doing Pinan Shodan?
to me as I said before it's Shuto Uke, being able to move, make it flow use your internal muscles
to actually attack or defend Sensei Kerry went into great detail on the history behind the Kata
and I'm sure you'll find that in all Pinan Kata that you'll get this history
behind it so think about the history where it came from because if you know where it came from
then you know where it's going to go you need to learn on what's happened before
not keep rigid to it but let it flow let it go and you'll find it mostly take another different route
I'm sure of I think every instructor I've had and I'm sure you're the same they have their own
opinion of any sort of Kata; there'll be a little small idiosyncrasies that they look for
because that's what they've learned from doing these Kata so to make sure that their students
try and understand and can try and move in that way so again you know if your instructor doesn't
like these demonstrations or tutorials then that's fine it's just another way to look at these things
I won't be offended if you if you don't like it
but if you can do please subscribe
to the channel and put a like because that really focuses on us carrying on with these videos
we enjoy them because you know we find out things so you looking at them it might be I
don't really want to do it that way but at least you've discovered something so just enjoy them
subscribe please put a like if you want to talk to us you know a little comment then I'm sure we'll
get back to you if it's not maybe Simon or Kerry So thank you, thank you for watching