By Thomas Elisberg, 3.kyu Yakami Shinsei-ryu, 2.kyu Bujutsu Kodosoku-kai Jikitai Karate-do, 2.Dan Bujutsu Kodosoku-kai Gensei-ryu Karate-do
Over the past few years, we at Shindenkan have had a tradition of immersing ourselves in a number of newly developed skills courses. Especially Ken-Jutsu (3) and Iai-Jutsu are good examples of such courses that are primarily targeted at BB-SB level. Both courses have aimed to ensure a high level of competence, but also to ensure that we work multi-tracked and targeted with progression in mind. With great success, these competence courses have become an integral part of Shindenkan's course concept, so that we at Shindenkan can train and maintain our acquired competences via OBC and NKT.
At the beginning of February this year, we received this year's invitation to the next BB-SB course. The topic this year was within the unarmed part of our multi-track system: Shakuasei China National Treasure Chinese Martial Arts.
Chinese martial arts and martial arts have always been an integral part of Shindenkan's multi-track approach to martial arts and martial arts. Hsingi - who until now has represented Chinese martial arts in the Shindenkan Pizza - has not, for my own part, been offered during the time I have been training. Therefore, it was a great pleasure that this year we were to be introduced to Chinese martial arts and have the opportunity to work concentratedly with this area for 3 to 4 months.
In the best Kimu Sensei style, it is not good enough to take an existing course catalog out of the drawer and blow the dust away and implement this. We develop continuously as people and so does the Shindenkan organization. Not in relation to the essence of what was taught. After all, we are an organization that builds on a 1,000-year-old heritage, but rather in the way the curriculum, content and understanding are conveyed and taught and, not least, connected through the common thread.
The entire process has been developed by Kimu Sensei with usual surgical precision, with the sole aim of conveying the essence of Chinese martial arts, clearing up myths, bringing facts to the table in order to illuminate the principles and forces that form the foundation stone of the Yakami martial arts system Shinsei-ryu karate-do.
Therefore, there was no plan for a repetition of the previous Hsingi course, but a further developed competence package that, in the best Shindenkan spirit, represents what we stand for: A multi-track introduction to Chinese martial arts and martial arts consisting of Hsingi, Tai Chi, Ba Gua and Qi Gong collected under the Japanese name Shakuasei. The essence of Chinese martial arts handed down directly from the great martial art master Sha Guo Zheng, via SST and Kimu Sensei. Fantastic.
Hsingi represents the style that stands for the hard outside, but soft inside. Tai-Chi represents the soft outside and the hard inside. Ba Gua represents the teaching of movement - taisabaki. Qi Gong is the fourth element that acts as a tool for energy creation and ties it all together. The Shakuasei course thus uses these four systemic approaches to work in detail with the essence: One stroke – One kill. Or just "slap" as Kimu Sensei elegantly demonstrated on the first day with the back of the right hand struck extremely effectively into the palm of the left hand.
During Shakuasei, our perception and understanding of the body as a tool is challenged on a completely different level. Shakuasei requires body control at the highest level in both kihon and kumite. Nothing is accidental. To create energy, small muscles must be activated in the right order and energy points connected, the so-called tachi-ai's. Not just roughly, but extremely precisely to create a connection in the energy circuit.
A good example from the Shakuasei course was that we spent hours learning how to tie a hand correctly. Everything from how fingers are folded to how muscles on the hand, arm and shoulder must be tensed to function most effectively. Body control, Tai-seigyo.
On the last day, we were asked to address why the pizza in our multi-lane martial arts system should contain a Chinese pizza slice. In fact, we should turn the question around and ask ourselves: Why not? In the end, the essence is the same, there are just different ways of "attacking" the subject theoretically as well as practically.
With Shakuasei, we get a new perspective on martial arts and martial arts. Instead of the more stylistic straight lines and 45 degrees that we traditionally work with through our skills from Task Fight, we work here with circles and spirals. Both in relation to power generation, such as in the Hsingi-inspired spiral-tsuki, but also in our movements and manipulations of combat distance.
Thus, on the last day of the course, we carried out an exercise with a ball hanging in the center between two practitioners. The ball hung between two kamae and aimed to force us to think beyond the linear attack. With the help of spiral attacks, we could thus generate power and move in – for us – completely new ways. For me, this exercise has given rise to a lot of reflection and given a new view of how a match can be fought and how we can manipulate our opponent.
In the Curriculum Handbook's Appendix B there is an overview of Hassei-ryu Yakami's Powers and Principles. This is of course far beyond our level of knowledge and insight. However, Appendix B has always piqued my curiosity as this is where the system is defined. I by no means have full knowledge and insight into these forces and principles, but it is super interesting that via Shakuasei we have become acquainted with practical exercises where we see fragments of these forces and principles in practical application. In particular, we got to work with contraction and expansion forces as well as the irimi/tenkan principles via the Ba Gua triagram. And terms like "a Spiral-shaped sphere", "Immovable heavy and rooted" were also used several times - probably with reference to the 12 principles.
We must therefore use Shakuasei to reflect and perspective our understanding of Yakami Shinsei-ryu Karate-do which, after all, is our starting point for martial arts. Through Shakuasei, we gain new insight into both kihon and kumite. An insight we need to shed new light on the knowledge we have already acquired via previous competence courses within armed, unarmed and not least the self-development courses. By building on existing knowledge, we can challenge this, find patterns and thereby view the system as a unified whole where every piece fits. We therefore have a duty to use our new tools and knowledge and geek out further in the details!
