This video shows a slow motion, and practise speed, demonstration of a limb-control flow drill for Naihanchi / Tekki Shodan kata. The early part of the video was a short demonstration, given by Lee Taylor and myself, so that karateka at a residential course could take a little footage to act as an aid to memory. It is not intended to be an instructional clip, but as an aide-mémoire for those who had just learnt the drill.

The second part of the video shows Charles and Joe – young 1st dans in my home dojo – doing the drill at practise speed. The clip was filmed by me on a low resolution mobile phone, so the quality is not great. You can, however, see what is going on and get an idea for how the drill would be worked in practise.

One thing to be crystal clear on is that this is a drill where a fleeting range (“trapping distance”) is artificially maintained to allow the practise of a specific skill set i.e. how to get limbs out of the way to land strikes. In real situations one would not see extended bouts of limb-control as presented in the drill. The back and forth nature of the drill – while being good for time efficient practise – is also not ideal because it could foster a “back and forth” mind-set, whereas a more dominating mind-set is required for self-protection. All of that said, when used in the right context as part of a wider training methodology (which obviously can’t be communicated is short videos like these) such drills can be useful and do have a role to play

All the best,

Iain

PS The YouTube link can be forund HERE