Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Another Heian Shodan Exercise

Here's another Heian Shodan exercise, but this time perhaps more of a thought exercise rather than a physical one.

How many different jodan (upper level) defences are there in Heian Shodan?

If you ask a kyu grade they may give the answer "one: age-uke". This isn't wrong, but I hope a more advanced student would give a different answer - for instance, I count five.
  1. The very first move, the preparation for gedan-barai, can be used as a nagashi-uke before striking with the same arm, gedan tetsui-uchi.
  2. The high arc of the tetsui-uchi (the fourth move) can be a deflection against a jodan attack, leading to a strike or an arm lock.
  3. The open-handed preparation for age-uke, with the actual age-uke being a follow-up strike.
  4. Good old, basic age-uke.
  5. The preparation for the shuto-uke, using the palm of the hand to deflect an attack.
There can be more than this, especially if you play around a bit with the level of other techniques, for instance raising the oi-zuki to jodan and imagining it as a single technique block-punch, or using the shuto-uke as a jodan defence.

Even as black belts we shouldn't think of a 'beginners' kata as only for beginners. Every kata can be viewed in a simple what-you-see-is-what-you-get form, but with more practice and knowledge, even the first forms you learnt can become 'advanced kata'.

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