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dhogsette
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Review of Four Basic Gedan Uke Applications

Hello,

We are training again in my club after a little summer break. I'm doing something a little different: for the next few months, we will explore 4-5 possible applications of a basic kihon, one kihon per month, and a different application each week. For September, we have been drilling some gedan uke applications. Nothing fancy or necessarily new here; just basic karate applications that my students and I really like. I have some new beginners, and they have said that when we work these drills, they really feel like they are learning something practical that they could use, God forbid, if they find themselves in a situation where they need to use force to protect themselves. That feedback is indeed gratifying.

Also, I'm thrilled that David Zink (my uke in the video), who has attended a couple of Iain's residential seminars, has moved to my area and is now training with us. It's great to have another black belt who loves practical bunkai. We are also enjoying sharing and comparing our styles--I'm Matsubayashi (Shorin Ryu), and he is Shotokan. My students can see how styles may look different in form yet combative principles are the same, and we can also illustrate how some stylistic differences reveal other applications that we may not have noticed in our own style. Fun times!

Best,

David 

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Thanks for sharing David! That’s a good video that will be especially useful to those new to bunkai.

dhogsette wrote:
Also, I'm thrilled that David Zink (my uke in the video), who has attended a couple of Iain's residential seminars, has moved to my area and is now training with us. It's great to have another black belt who loves practical bunkai. We are also enjoying sharing and comparing our styles--I'm Matsubayashi (Shorin Ryu), and he is Shotokan. My students can see how styles may look different in form yet combative principles are the same, and we can also illustrate how some stylistic differences reveal other applications that we may not have noticed in our own style. Fun times!

It's always great to get a better look at the core of “karate” though the various “style lenses”. David is a good guy and I’m really pleased you are getting to train together. It’s a small world! :-)

All the best,

Iain

Marc
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Hi David, thanks for sharing.

It's a good set of possible applications that even beginners can quickly understand and learn to use. They also feature important tactical concepts.

For the arm-lock application your chosen setup is a parry-grab agains an arm that is trying to reach your body. I have found that a fair share of beginners and also suprisingly many long-time 3K-karateka do struggle with the simple parry-grab or parry-pass.

Do your beginners also struggle with the parry-grab or parry-pass, or is it easy for them to do it from the start?

Best regards,

Marc  

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

Marc,

Great questions! My full beginners seem to pick it up fairly quickly, though sometimes they want to just grab with the opposite hand instead of parrying first, and we discuss some of the strategic problems with that. Sometimes, I just have everyone do the parry-grab/pass several times before adding the rest of the moves. I find some folks that come from 3K backgrounds struggle at first, but they catch on. Folks with some kempo training seem to have no trouble. Also, almost everyone struggles at first if the parrying hand is the "back" hand. They have little trouble when the lead hand is doing the parry, but when it's the back hand, they tend to just want to reach with the lead hand and grab instead of using the back hand to pass it over to the lead hand. But, after a few attempts, they seem to catch on. 

Hope that helps a bit. 

Best,

David 

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

dhogsette wrote:
Also, almost everyone struggles at first if the parrying hand is the "back" hand. They have little trouble when the lead hand is doing the parry, but when it's the back hand, they tend to just want to reach with the lead hand and grab instead of using the back hand to pass it over to the lead hand.

Great observation! I occasionally find that too with higher grades at seminars. In that case, I suspect it is down to “windshield wiper blocking” in sparring i.e. the lead hand swats everything away, and the back hand throws the counterpunch.

The first fighting based blocking drill I teach to beginners has their partner move around throwing straight punches to the head. The other person has their hands up (chin height) and parries their partner’s right hand inward with their left, and their partner’s left hand inward with their right. Essentially, each hand has a dedicated hand to deal with (the one directly in front of it); and opposed to the lead hand dealing with everything. I find this to be a much more effective way for beginners to block because it reduces decision making, ensures they are always moving to the outside, and it messes up the alignment for any following punch.  We build on that as we progress so we create more options, but that’s where we start.

One advantage of doing that is that the students never think of “front hand” and “back hand”. It therefore instils the idea that the roles of the hands are interchangeable. That helps away from the fighting side of things too with regards to self-protection, the kata and the bunkai. They don’t have the aforementioned issue of struggling with the parrying hand being the back hand because parrying with both hands is the norm from day one. Morote mawashi uke, in both directions, builds on that quite naturally.

All the best,

Iain

Marc
Marc's picture

David and Iain,

thanks for your replies and your detailed observations.  

dhogsette
dhogsette's picture

Iain,

Thanks so much for that!! I think I'll use that same drill with my beginners. Great idea!

Best,

David 

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

dhogsette wrote:
I think I'll use that same drill with my beginners. Great idea!

Delighted you think so and I’m pleased that was of some use! Thank you!

All the best,

Iain