Hey, I started this thread so that goju karate ka could ask questions about anything goju related and have them answered by anyone who knows anything about Goju... Can someone answer this for me..... there is a small debate in my dojo questioning kata Sanchin, some say the ibuki breathing is 20% of your breath exhaling for 80% of the punch or block and 80% of your breath exhaling on the last 20% of the punch, others say 90%-10% rather than the 80%-20%. I know that the main idea is the tightening of your muscles in the "box" to create that sort of pressurized breath, but I'm just learning this kata and I thought someone could suggest something or give an opinion.
I do not study Goju but I do love mathematics. I dare you to execute a punch and ask someone "was that 90/10 or was that 80/20". Don't get hung up on such specifics, the principle is important... how do you measure that anyway
I would suggest contacting Glenard Grabow at ; www.okinawanadventures.com Mr Grabow begain his training in Goju Ryu and Ryukyu Kobujutsu in 1961 as a marine stationed in Okinawa.Mr Grabow trained for six years in Okinawa and his teachers were Masanbu Shinjo and Kanei Katsuyoshi and all of Mr Grabow's ranks up to 4th Dan were conducted on Okinawa. Also Mr Grabow studied for one year, from Seikichi Toguchi while stationed in Japan. ken allgeier
KenpoDavid - Sanchin is a slow and very prowerful meditation kata, the punch is slow. Thats how you measure it, if thats what you mean. The true form of sanchin is exhaling throughout the punch, not 80% of it or whatever. I consider it the true way because thats how it's taught in the original Goju, before "That Cat" reinvented it as Goju Kai. If you need some more info, pm me.
hey i do Uechi Karate sort of brother sister style here. For our Sanchin the difference is open hand spear thrusting like a punch. The emphasis of the breath is supposed to be exhaled with the thrust/punch for like a jolt to shoot it out; you aren't supposed to take the thrust slowly by the way, sanchin is a strength kata not as much emphasis on meditation, though some but not much.
what your talkin about sounds like goju kata chichoshin (typo) with the spear hands. And i dont bleieve the true emphasis is on strength I feel its more on pure focus, not ki mei exactly because you arent focus power to a point , I mean more like focusing on stance, eyes, pace, and stuff like that throughout the whole kata while doing the proper ibuki breathing, it's hard to focus when ur just learing that kata!
im not saying you arent supposed to focus on your stance and all that but the kata is meant to condition you through out it and it is practically the same and all exept you guys punch we thrust our hands.
I find Sanchin a tough Kata to perform, so If you're just learning it, just concentrate on the breathing and the movements first (proper stance, hand position, timing). Worry about the more technical aspects later on once you've nailed the basics.
thnx again guys (and girls) i started a little debate over the term guys being unhisex,, i always thought it was ,,, some disagree ,, o well. What are some of your views on goju? some say its weight training, dynamic tension movements (sanchin), and intense workouts etc, lead to an early death or a muscle difficiency. Sensei say that is due to lack of carbs and loss of minerals from the body during long workouts... I eat some salt and drink a carbo-blast after workouts, I heard thats good for you and also, it tastes like kool-aid, sweet, sweet, kool-aid. What do u guys think?? :woo: --------->:Angel:
IF we had a Goju teacher here in Omaha, I would be studying with him. I looked, and the closest we had was a Shaolin Kenpo taught by a guy who studied some with Lou Angel, and has incorporated some Goju movements and katas (don't ask me which they come in at higher belt levels than I have right now)
The reason some people say Goju can lead to an early death is that you can do some of the moemevst incorrectly and focus your tension in the wrong places, this causes many problems. Some people in japan, recently, they performign sanchin, with their tension on their head and uppper body, one of them had an anurism and died later. Hence the story.
Sanchin kata can be performed according to how you feel at the time. Its performance can range from very strong to firm but relaxed, depends on what emphasis of development is being sought. Many teachers tend to emphasis just one way in the dojo. IMHO the 'eye popping sanchin' tended to emerge after WWII with the emphasis on physical conditioning coupled with inexperienced teachers spreading the art. The performance of Sanchin by Goju practitioners has been criticized by masters of other styles as being too tense and leading to ill health. One yard stick of an individuals true level of martial arts in China, Okinawa etc is how long they live for. Accusations of heart attacks, inability to lift hands higher than their shoulders and hemorrhoids have been in circulation for years aimed at primarily at practitioners of karate employing ‘unnatural (forced) breathing I have never met anyone who directly knows of an individual who died whilst performing or as a result of Sanchin kata. True Chojun Miyagi did change/develop the Sanchin of his teacher Kanryo Higashionna, to as to emphasis the physical. This included the breathing method. The breathing in Higashionnas Sanchin is more explosive at the end, whilst the Miyagi Sanchin drives the breath out forcefully through out. Gogen Yamaguchi (Goju Kai) went to emphasis the force of the breathing even more, which has rubbed off on countless practitioners who now constrict the glottis causing a growl from the throat. Yamaguchi had studied yoga where constriction of the glottis is sometimes used to control the breathing, but not with such force as used by Goju Kai. So there is no one true way, if there was then everyone would follow that method. For myself I train looking to develop what is natural. Regards
Is it alright if I continued in Shotokan even if I was a Goju student for more than two years? How would it affect my sparring and kata? Why is it that during tournaments, shotokan and goju students are allowed to fight each other? Is this done in other parts of the worls?
Foreign KAta In ur goju-ryu training do you guys do any foreign katas? (katas using weapons or empty hands from other styles)
Hi I study Goju-Ryu Karate-Do. We do weapons training, at the moment we are learning the Bo, but are considering doing other weapons aswell, such as the Sai, paddle, sword ect. This is not a traditional part of the Goju system, just an extension to ones skills. (P.s Sanchin kata is probably one of the oldest kata's around dating back to Bodhidharma, who taught this kata to the Chinese Buddhist monks at the Shaolin Temple. Sanchin is designed to gain a unity between mind, body and spirit, hence the name 3 battles. The main aim is to provide the practioner control over both the respiratory functions and overall body muscle control, it also allows the development of body hardening (More resistance to impact) through tension and helps develop power, physique, stamina.) Regards Djbell
Are you sure bohdirma taught sanchin kata. There are many styles of sanchin throughout karate and all of them were created by the founder of each style. Im pretty sure all goju school do one of these weapons, tanbo, tonfa, bo, sai, or the jo.
Re: Foreign KAta I study USA GOJU which was developed by the American, Peter Urban. One of his first students, Joe Kelljchian, has further developed the USA GOJU FEDERATION to which I belong down here in Florida. We practice several standard Goju kata, but the masters in our ryu have developed many other katas that might be considered to be foreign if you are a traditional Goju student. These are empty hand katas as well as weapons forms. Our 4 basic weapons are the bo, escrima, sai and nunchacku. Each weapon has 2 katas except for the nunchaku which has 3. All of these katas are required before black belt testing and then after black belt rank there are at least 2 more nunchaku kata, a tonfa kata, oar, naginata, and one has the oportunity to study aidio after ni dan to learn katana katas. So, to answer you queery. It is not that we have katas from other styles, but evolution has taken us into forms that a purest would consider to be "foreign".
