{"id":140,"date":"2012-02-19T21:05:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T02:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karate.gregoryzone.org\/?p=140"},"modified":"2012-02-19T21:05:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T02:05:13","slug":"three-battles-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backinthegi.com\/?p=140","title":{"rendered":"Three battles."},"content":{"rendered":"

The foundational kata in Okinawan Goju-ryu is Sanchin<\/a><\/strong>, or “Three Battles”. The simplest interpretation is that the kata is meant to simultaneously focus the mind, body, and spirit. The kata contains only one stance (the eponymous sanchin dachi<\/em>, also called “hourglass stance”) and for the most part consists of straightforward middle blocks and punches, with a few additional techniques near the latter part of the sequence. And yet, Sanchin<\/strong> is one of the most challenging kata to perform correctly — precisely because it involves much more than the movements of the body. It is not something that one perfects, it is something to work on throughout one’s training.<\/p>\n

In addition to the sequence of steps, turns, blocks, and punches, performing Sanchin<\/strong> requires strong mental focus, the use of proper breathing, and a balance between the hard (go<\/em>) and soft (ju<\/em>) of Goju-ryu. I freely admit that this kata is the one I am finding the most challenging as I am returning to some manner of decent form. In part, my performance of the kata is rather poor because I am consciously thinking of the sequence, the breathing, the timing, the turns, the target for the punches, the position of the hands, and so on. In the past, I could do this kata without thinking about any of this, which was neceessary in order to have the proper mental focus when being tested.<\/p>\n

Tested in this case does not mean graded, it refers to the practice of having one’s technique and focus physically checked by an instructor. This is known as shime<\/em>, and it varies in severity from lightly pushing on the student to check the strength of the stance or providing resistance as the student performs a punch, to much harder methods of testing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Goju-ryu founder Chojun Miyagi performing shime on a student. As the story goes, Miyagi's students were easily distinguishable by the bruises they often sported from such testing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here is an example of Sensei Kazuo Terauchi (8th Dan) being tested by Sensei Morio Higaonna (10th Dan):
\n


\n