Bassai Dai with explanation by Sadashige Kato, 9th dan.

Brief bio of Sadashige Kato here.

Applications within Pyung Ahn Ee Dan

I needed to move.

I'd missed Shorinji Kempo on Monday and despite an energetic session on Tuesday at Tang Soo Do I felt like I'd missed out tonight so I headed for the garden once my chores were done...

After having warmed up with a bit of skipping and burpees I decided to start close to the beginning and examined Pyung Ahn Ee Dan in detail particularly working through the applications therein.

The mirrored blocking and striking sequence has a lot of variety in application here but I'm of the feeling that this is most probably a block, arm lock and throw combination rather than a block and 'uppercut'-way too facile. Interestingly within Tang Soo Do there seems to have been preserved a head wrench one way then the other as we step across and up into a prepared stance for the block and kick.

I also enjoyed working through the soo do or spear hand at one extremity of the form. This is preceded by a parry (not just a flop down from the mah ki - it must be a parry) then strike.

From the strike through to the next block there is a turn involving the spear hand to be opened out and twisted behind the block to facilitate a release.

There's a lot within this form and I still need to work on it...

Four Shades of Black

I'm reading it now and LOVING it! It's beautifully laid out and makes a lot of sense, written by a guy with plenty of experience.

Just check out the typography:

(Cwooooar!)

The photos are wonderful, powerful pieces on black backgrounds which enhance the body movement. I have some design issues with it such as certain photos are laid in the centre of the full spread and as such are lost when the book has been bound. This is probably because the gutter width is too tight (10mm I think) so I have to bend it out uncomfortably to read the text. Having said that, it's generally well designed and a nice book to look at (which is not the case for a lot of books on the martial arts).

Never mind though because Mulholland writes well about the kata applications, history and deeper techniques of Goju ryu. For all Okinawan practitioners it's a must but traditional karateka will certainly get off on this too (I am!).

Interestingly Mulholland puts forward the idea that karate 'lost' some of it's grappling elements at a time when it was carving out a niche in Japan where Ju jitsu and aikido had already taken this ground. In fact Mulholland bemoans the fact that many karateka no longer practice bunkai and he gives this much attention in the book-no wonder then that the foreword is by Iain Abernethy (a leading exponent of karate application). 

Fantastic.

And as a bonus I found it from my local library!