Sanseru kata

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February is the month for me to concentrate on sanseru and tensho kata.  So, here is me performing sanseru, shot early last month.


For those who know this kata, you probably notice several differences in performance.  The most notable (apart from my general poor form) are:

  • two punches per step at the start.  This is the variant we commonly practice, but we also have the more traditional option of the single punch as well
  • "steeple" blocks before all the kicks
  • the separation of the two mae-geris in the first section into a kansetsu-geri, finishing of one application sequence, and then a mae-geri, starting off the next application sequence
  • shifting the stance up to maintain distance and balance between the feet when doing the elbow/punch
  • arms out (I did them more up than they are meant to be.  It's ok though, when practising the technique with a partner, I hold them properly - I'd get punched in the face otherwise) when doing the two cross-arms, drop into shikodachi
  • use of fudo-dachi instead of shikodachi
  • slightly different hand position in the closing segment - again, application related (and we keep the more common version in suparimpei, and can practise it here as a variant)
I do like this kata.  Its applications are direct and robust, and I feel a direct connection between the solo form and the 2-person applications when doing this kata (something I don't always get from, for instance, tensho). I'll film and post tensho at a later date.

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