Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Studying Hyung (Stage 3 and 4) - - Chief Instructor's Blog October 2018


In last month’s blog, I discussed four stages on practicing hyung as defined by Iain Abernethy, 7th Dan with the British Combat Association and British Combat Karate Association (Reference 1).  The four stages are listed below as a reminder:

1. Solo practice
2. Study the functional application of the movements of the kata (bunkai).
3.  Begin to include variations of those techniques in your training.
4. Practice applying the techniques, variations and principles of the kata in live practice

In the September blog, I focused on stage 2 – study the functional application of the movements. In this month’s blog, I will discuss ways to move into and practice stages 3 and 4.

Stage 3: Begin to include variations of those techniques in your training

In stage 2, you established various applications for a single technique. So, to begin to include then in your training, take a variation one at a time and incorporate it into your basics and hyung during solo practice (i.e., against air, bags, etc.). 

For example, you may have discovered that low block can actually be used as a strike from a cross hand grab to damage the grab.  So, for the next several weeks while you practice low blocks (during basics, hyung against bags, etc.), you imagine that exact scenario.  You should continue to practice this variation until it becomes second nature to imagine that scenario.  Once that occurs, move onto another variation that you discovered in Stage 2 related to low block, and continue the process stated above until you have exhausted all the variations.

If you were to do this for every technique/transition in basics and hyung, you can imagine why Gichin Funakoshi, Founder or Shotokan Karate said, “In the past, it was expected that about three years were required to learn a single kata, and usually even an expert of considerable skill would only know three, or at most five, kata.”

Stage 4: Practice applying the techniques, variations and principles of the kata in live practice

In our club, live practice takes the form of self-defense and sparring.  I would start with self-defense to incorporate a variation of each technique at a time into your repertoire until it becomes automatic.  As in Stage 3, incorporating each variation in your self-defense practice can take months.

Once you have practiced a variation in self-defense and it becomes a natural reaction, you will want to incorporate that variation in sparring.  To do this, you may first want to start with a partner and pre-stage a situation or two where that particular technique would be used.  Practice that situation over and over again until it becomes a natural response. Afterwards, go into free form sparring.  Notice when that situation comes up and consciously incorporate the variation.  If you do not, just let that moment go and stay focused on the match.  After the match take notice if you executed that variation or not.  If you did not because the scenario did not present itself, then wait until the next partner or practice and focus again on that variation.  If you realize you had several opportunities and you chose another technique or variation, then more time is probably needed in self-defense or the sparring “pre-stage” step. 

Gichin Funakoshi has been quoted as saying “It must be emphasized that sparring does not exist apart from kata, but for the practice of kata.”  The meaning of this is sparring is a means to understand what the techniques within the hyung are for and in what situation they can be effective.

Over time, if you follow these four stages, you should find not only does your hyung improve but because you now have a larger repertoire of techniques, your self-defense/ sparring is more effective.

 
Regards,
Kelly

“Generations of experience have shown that it usually requires 3 years to learn the basics and 7 years to acquire a fundamental proficiency of kata.” ~ Shoshin Nagamine (1907-1997), Founder of Okinawan Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate

References: