One Karate Misconception I Discovered In China
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Bunkai is the practical application of kata. It’s the essence of traditional Okinawan Karate (唐手) but widely misunderstood.
In this video, Jesse Enkamp (The Karate Nerd) explains his Chinese Kung Fu discovery from exploring the roots of Tode in Fujian, China together with @MonkeyStealsPeach
The key to bunkai is language, and modern Japanese terminology might be our greatest obstacle.
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☯️ BIO: Jesse Enkamp a.k.a The Karate Nerd™ is a #1 Amazon Best-Selling Author, National Team Athlete, Keynote Speaker, Entrepreneur, Carrot Cake Lover & Founder of Seishin International - The World’s Leading Karate Lifestyle Brand.
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WARNING: The advice and movements shown in this video are for informational and educational purposes only. Consult a health professional before engaging in any exercise or martial arts program.
Special thanks to Will Wain-Williams from Monkey Steals Peach.
Music credit: Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0 - www.scottbucjkley.com.au
Thanks for your awesome questions! 🙏 If you haven’t seen my Chinese adventure yet, watch here: th-cam.com/video/UCvimTuwkZY/w-d-xo.html
Could you do a video on How incorporating Stuff from Kung fu into your karate improved your Karate?
In order to be properly relaxed you're supposed to only use the minimal effort required within your core muscles ONLY to hold your posture. This includes relaxing the muscles around your pelvic bone. This relaxation results in the bone simpl hanging down from above. It is the fact that there's greater bone mass in the back rather than the front that causes it to tilt forward. This relaxation of the muscles is how the seating of the hips is meant to be done.
jiokl7g9t6 Exactly! Previously I used to actively squeeze my glutes to achieve the pelvic tilt, this is a relaxed version that aligns your posture and helps tremendously. At least for me! 😄
@@KARATEbyJesse yo jesse, whats ur phone nr? i want to visit u
Ty for sharing your insight Sensei 🙏 . I once heard that the secret to internal power was squeezing your butthole and as strange as it sounds I can feel the truth that statement
I'm a Chinese and a kungfu teacher, what you share here is absolute right, language is one of the main issue when passing down the marital art. This is also happen for some of the Chinese Kungfu that has been pass down through generations.
Good communications skills are important in any marriage.
As a PhD in Linguistics and a practitioner of Wing Chun and Xing Yi for more than 10 years, I really find your videos interesting!!! Especially the part about language and martial art.
Hsing i and wing chun really seem to go together well
For me it seems wing chun helps me understand the alignments
Hello, I'm a Fine Arts máster student and next year I'll begin my PhD thesis joining martial arts and arts. Would you happen to have any publication relating language and martial arts in a same manner as in this video? I would love to read it!
Practicing Xing Yi for 4 years, started Wing Chun paralelly half a year ago. I really feel that this two styles complement each other very well for me.
Linguistics? What field?
Grande , José!@@Dubbios
Literally nobody at all:
Jesse:WOW
I’m easily impressed 🤪
Jesse strikes me as one of those people that gets hyped just because the sun is shining. Always super positive 🌞😁
@@MrCageCatthe kind of friends I deserve
That explanation of the kung fu mindset needing some understanding of the chinese language was so informative.
Hey Jesse Sensei~ I'm the FuZhou guy that dropped by last time
and "So Pak Ling Beik" actually.... is "108" the number itself, nothing more AHAHAAHAHAH
mind=blown!!!!
Grateful to have you travel all the distance to bring us these valuable info
must be 一百零八手
really interesting
And remember to restomp the groin
Always 😎
I laughed hard!
That sitting down / using the ass is usually termed 'seating the hips' in Chinese martial arts. Its about proper spinal alignment.
I was about to say more or less the same thing...
If you want to achieve the correct posture for Chinese boxing, it's a great aid. Aligns and connects you perfectly.
Its almost in all Chinese martial arts "small" stance, especially prominent in wing chun
when you realize that the graceful karate stance is actually...
a punch in da nut
*laughs in Krav Maga*
"Connect the dots and not just collect the dots..." True words of wisdom!
Sounds like something from Sensei Ando from Happy Life Martial Arts
To me that can also be said against scientism. Collecting "data" without any real knowledge.
This idea of a single application being represented by similar movements across multiple kata... when I first watched this video I really liked it. Now, having applied this idea into into my training for a while, I believe it much more strongly.
Wow. Now that you mention it when our sensei (Shotokan/Jiujitsu) brought over these 80-90 year old Masters from Japan (and this was mid 1980’s so some of these men could have been featured in your history video excerpts) When these men visited our dojo the first thing they did was show us some kata. If a kumite exhibition was provided that always happened after class. I remember a few occasions when unscheduled “guests” would show up at our dojo. Boxers. Other martial arts styles. They’d walk in right off the street. Never aggressively as I recall. We never allowed them beyond the foyer/office area unless they did a demonstration first. This now makes perfect sense given what you are explaining. And back in the mid-80’s there was no internet. We had Black Belt Magazine and later Kung Fu Magazine. Usually a few friends studying elsewhere. Not too different than the way knowledge was passed in 1925 Japan. It always bugged me that during my active years Black Belt was so Chinese and Korean centric in their articles. Issue after issue I would read cover to cover and think “Jeez our style has been around a thousand years. Can Japanese KARATE get some love too?” Oh well. Everyone was ninja crazy in 1983 🥷🏻Asian World of Martial Arts was all we talked about before and after classes.
This video is near dear to my heart. One of my biggest issues was as a kid, memorizing a kata but having no clue why outside of it being a requirement to earn the next belt. As an adult, with wisdom and understanding I see how important and useful katas are. Jesse’s hard work and terrific videos have me energized to learn more about karate and martial arts.
Just came back from karate training and was so happy to see ur video in my notifications
Glad to hear! 😄
I agree. By finding Karate's roots to China, you filled in the blanks for those of us Karateka that used to practice the Korean arts. I really enjoyed this series. Arigato gozaimashita.
This is one of my favourite episodes! It speaks so well about the understanding of what a kata even is and applies to many other Japanese budo/bujutsu. Thank you so much for your hard work in producing these great episodes.
The movement you mention with the hips is named "Gamaku". It goes along with another 2 principles: "Chinkuchi" and "Muchimi". Gamaku uses the internal muscles in the core to "lock" the hips in certain stances to offer a more stable posture, but if can be detrimental for other postures like the nekoashi-dachi. Chinkuchi shows the use of maximum damage potential with little effort that goes from the posture to the tip of the fingers, like a chain. The latter is mentioned by hanshi Higaonna Morio in his books and is the principle of "stickiness" of the technique for a proper use in self-defense. There is a lot of information in the net, just have to look for it cross-reffering and practicing to uncover the most useful and real part of it since as you point out the meaning is lost in translation.
and I found that muchimi is also greatly emphasised in Chinese Kung fu which means bringing force from the ground. Glad to know that karate keeps the essence of martial arts while developing seperately from Kungfu in this century.
It seems like Chinese descriptions are more like mnemonics that help you remember better what all the moves are better than trying to remember a series of terms. Black tiger steals heart seems to imply the importance of the pull back hand more than just saying reverse punch.
Exactly!! 😄👍
Black tiger is a way for the chinese to say somebody is brave, corageous. A black tiger is so fearsome that it goes full on, with nothing holding back. So black tiger steals heart is to go straight on with a punch in the heart.
The names encapsulated many layers, in much the same way that at each stage of learning, a new meaning was brought to bear on the movements or totality of a kata, hyung or tao lu. The name carried the attitude that laid behind the technique, and that invoked a strategy. It is also likely that the name also had implications of relationships to other techniques that were thought to imply sequences of various levels of damage/ harm to the opponent.
Marco Seschi yes, and “the heart houses the mind” so it also tells you to have the strength of presence to overwhelm their state of mind
@@MarcoRodrigues82 so it's (Savage heart ripper), I don't speak Chinese but I think the main issue is not language as much it is the differences between generations, you'll have some language barrier with your old folks, and have even greater barrier when you read documents written centuries ago, just compare Shakespeare to a modern American pop song for example...
if you like my translation please give me other names and their explanations :)
I really enjoyed this serie about finding the roots of karate in China. I hope you will continue this in future
Jesse Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, the Kung Fu/Karate connection is something that always interested me, I grew up learning Traditional Wing Chun, and it is my main style, but out of total interest and fun, I have been learning Shito Ryu Karate for the past year and will stay to earn my black belt and so far the amount of similarities to a suttle level even, that I have found is astounding. From the outside you would have never known how similar they are..
The best Kung fu than all from China is only one "Wing Chun".
Hi Jesse, your viewers have really excellent questions and it really demonstrates how mature and broadminded your audiences are. Your answers and replies also shows your profound discipline and humility. I have seen other sites where people have lots of ego and opinions whereas you are very grounded and definitely very cultivated and wise.
You flatter me! ☺️
Wow my mind is blown! I am gonna bring this up with my Sifu. I've been having difficulty thinking of moves as one full set like Will demonstrated and I think it might be because I was raised learning the Western Alphabetic language. When I train I'm having to break down the forms piece by piece, letter by letter, movement by movement and then piecing them back together.
Karate Nerd: "Why did this happen? Well, there are many reasons."
Karate Dog: "[barks of martial arts wisdom]"
As always, thank you for the excellent content, Sensei Jesse. I practice Shotokan (JKA) and I also study philosophy, and I appreciate how deep you get into the philosophical aspects of Karate. Thanks again and Cheers from Costa Rica.
Well Sh*t. Now I have to rethink absolutely everything I know about my martial arts. Excellent video. Thank you SO MUCH Jesse! Arigato Gozaimasu!!!
What is the difference between "blocking" and "receiving" attacks in terms of technique?
The martial art style I have the most experience with taught you stop blows with brute force and muscle power. We were also taught to evade attacks and redirect the force of a blow, but the focus was on blocking attacks.
I'm finding your videos very interesting and refreshingly positive. I stopped doing martial arts in the pre-internet age, partly because I believed I didn't have physical or mental capability to advance in ranks and partly because I didn't find a style or instructor I felt at home with.
But I'm considering taking them up again at 46, because yourself and other TH-camrs have reminded me what martial arts are meant to be about: challenging and improving yourself, not earning belts and hurting people. So thanks.
Great work Jesse Sensei. Well done on pulling back the curtain on the martial arts in a honest and respectful manor.
I look forward to you next adventure.
Mr Enkamp, I am not into martial arts, but since I’ve founded your channel, I ve been really interested to watch your videos. Wish you the best from one of your many fans
This is so good, I love the historical aspect of this video.
Jesse, I love your channel so much!! Let me expand this execellent explanation in minute 6:20 about kung fu terminology. I would also add that this poetic names that chinese give to their forms are not indicating only movement, but also attitude. For example, "monkey steals peach" does not only describes a movement (legs in position A, waist in B, left arm in C, etc etc) but an attitude. You have to be a monkey, act as a monkey, that is stealing a peach. Literally. The attitude will change the way you execute the movement and your intention. The same with "black tiger steals heart". It is not only a description of the movement, but the attitude in how you execute it. You are a tiger, and you are stealing a heart... like a tiger, not like a monkey. It is a way to encapsulate a lot of information with metaphors. This is used also to describe simple punches or kicks. "Jet Kiu" (this is how I pronounce it as an spanish speaker) means "to slice with the forearm". It is also a methaphor that not only describes a movement, but an intention.
I just got back from a full day karate seminar where I picked up useful material for my training.
It was great seeing your video come into my feed as I was relaxing after a hard but fun day.
I got to add on to what I gained today :)
Excellent! Keep training and learning 👍
Another scholarly and worthy study of our ancient fighting arts. Fighting styles are constantly evolving and it is fascinating to break down the barriers of misinterpretation and ancient thinking so that we can truly understand the arts we practice. So many thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Love the thorough, calm and focused answers Jesse. All the best
Great video Jesse, keep it up. Absolutely fantastic to have all this in video. My deepest respects.
Your discoveries about the roots of Karate enriches us all !!!!
Thank you sir !!!!
Great Job Jesse, not only this one but all the recent videos you made!! Thanks and congratulations!!;
You're so up to the point and comprehensive. Nice job well done!
"Sitting" into the stance - another reason why the word used is 'sit', is that the stance is the 'horse', in which a warrior rides into battle. So, the metaphor of 'sitting' on your 'horse' is used. So if your 'horse' is strong, you would be stable, and you could deliver your weapons. Your videos are like a 4D thesis. :)
Connect the dots, not collect the dots (apologies for the paraphrasing), absolutely beautiful statement and so powerful.
I feel empty after finishing the series man .. Thank you for this amazing content and for being my nerd sensei
🙏
Jesse sensei, if you can bare with me...I started tae kwan do in 1974 at 20 years old after numerous street fights as a boy. My Korean teacher allowed me to spar as a white belt after I learned the basics. I never went above white belt because it wasn't important to me. I found from an early age that street fights were much different than the dojo. The teacher was quite amused at a white belt beating brown and black belts. After that I trained in shorin kai and this sensei developed his own system called v- cat, that incorporated muy thai, and wing chun as well as shorin. This was meant for the street with many hours of sparring. The thing is, in all of this, no one ever explained the purpose of kata, but you and hanshi Mccarthy explained this act/ concept to where it now makes sense. I'm 66 years old now, and still train 5 days a week. I also trained in boxing for the last 4 years and have incorporated this as well. Thanks for opening my eyes to the truth of martial arts. I am grateful. Train hard, have fun and good luck.
So insightful! Never thought about it this way before and I understand what your saying! Just proves that no matter what belt you are, what style you come from, there is always so much more to learn. Great video sensei Jesse !
It was great watching you visiting China and learning kung fu and learning karate roots.
Excellent series, your study is really valuable, one of my teachers Hanshi Masayuki Shimabukuro (rip) had a saying: speaking its easy to do its difficult, doing its easy, true understanding its difficult, what I like most about the approach that presents us about karate is to seek true understanding, without fanaticism and with a wide and open vision, without fear of discovering reality, my respects, I would like at one time in my life to attend one of your seminars or visit your dojo, a great hug from Venezuela
Thank you very much for this Jesse! This is very informative! More power to you!
I found myself rewatching this!!!
I have chosen Karate! Love it. No apologies. We love our art.
You speak the truth and as a practitioner and teacher of Shaolin I respected your work greatly!
Fantastic breakdowns Jesse! Thank you for sharing your insight. Fascinating stuff.
It's very cool you mention the cross-stepping from Naihanchi and the similarities with white crane. I actually just attended a KishimotoDi seminar where we worked Tachimura no Naihanchi, and the kosa dachi and "higher" cross-stepping bunkai was for entry and catching the legs, as the application was demonstrated. 😁
You did a great job with this. Very interesting series and this follow up was also great because we got to see more in-depth what you learned. I went to India once to check out Kallaripayatu which many say is the forefather to all Asian martial arts. But I found very little in common with the martial arts that I know. It was, of course, interesting especially the weapons they had. I also learned a lot from this so thank you so much for your hard work Jesse.
I lead to believe Indian martial arts probably didn't influence other Asian martial arts. Too different.
Also the whole Buddhidharma myth is not supported be historians. It can be trace to a 17th cent fictional manuscript full of outrageous errors. It was later spread by wuxia kung fu fiction novels.
The weopons in Indian martial arts are very different as well. Although very interesting.
@@SI-ln6tc interesting. Where can I read more about this?
In the Okinawan Kodokan which is GoJu Ryu Karate-Do and Matayoshi Ko-Budo, our Sensei, Kimo Wall visited the Fukien Province, I believe it was, and met Master Goo Liu of the Whooping Crane Gung Fu lineage. When Kimo Sensei returned to America, he brought Master Liu with him. Master Liu had a super human strength and he'd make the crane sound (a sort of intense snorting sound to imitate the bird. The floor would rumble during his kata. He helped us distinguishing that there is the Flying Crane, The Feeding Crane, The Sleeping Crane and the Whooping Crane branches of the White Crane southern style. Master Liu produced 2 videos through Tsunami Times/Dragon Times. Thanks for another super cool video. -Steve, S.F., CALIF, USA.
Was just about to comment about the "use your ass" part and you covered it already(Excellent stuff). All part of sports performance training-everything you said.
Glutes are so important in squatting, running, climbing, etc. Yet, it is often underutilized by people today. An easy tell is the direction of the knees when squatting(Someone that doesn't activate their glutes will have the knees going inward/medial rotation). One way to address it is to tell the person to push their knees outward(lateral rotation) during a squat and that'll activate the glutes.
I've just finished watching the five episodes and I enjoyed every one of them.
Will's explanation is absolutely fascinating.
Hi Jesse San! You know, this connection you look for between white crane kung fu and karate reminds me of a great Shotokan master who did the same and the result of the combination was amazing. His name is Sensei Tetsuhiko Asai who was also the direct instructor of Sensei Andre Bertel and not only of course. Now I know Shotokan is not exactly your cup of tea but I've seen you speaking with so many karate experts that I thought something like real ice cream lovers do not need to love all ice cream flavours but I'm sure they try all of them, at least once. Keep going, big boy!
This is a FANTASTIC video on learning language and culture in general
Karate also has Thai(Siamese) influence. It would be great to see you explore that part of karate's history.
Ryan Dartez i really want Jesse to make videos on different martial arts and their histories, and the similarities and differences between them
Hey Jesse,. Great series. As a former Kung Fu practitioner I would say the next series you could consider is the transition of kung if from China or Hong Kong to NYC. My grandmaster Take Wah Eng has a great history of his style. (Which many kung fu practitioners could say 🤓) the way his firms are structured are very different from what I've seen. Plus the understanding that Cantonese and Mandarin have a 'confrontationally' history. That's a while other series altogether.
i love your channel, thanks for your enthusiasm and all the great videos!
Just doing what I love! 🙏 Thanks for watching! 👍
Thanks Jesse, these videos have been so interesting and educational.
I do love the analogy between the thinking about language and the techniques
"He used to slap me on the ass and... I started to think more about that"
hahahaha I can't stop laughing ~
Thanks Sensei Jesse from Kenya.
Amazing! You made a very successful video series of the China voyage. I expect you to make more new series.
I like to exclusively use the groin-punch ground and pound technique in self defence situations.
Amazing video.
Love this video mostly because it talks about one of the topics that drew me into martial arts. I love studying the history of moves and the philosophy behind them. I remember when I was studying American Kenpo a karate that was developed by an American boxer that had learned Chinese Kenpo.
Sounds like you’re a Karate Nerd too! 🥋
Jesse Enkamp
What can I say... it’s interesting. And I’ve noted that there might be a link between Philippines martial arts, and Karate. I bring this up because one karate student Ed mentioned some staff techniques in the Philippines martial art I’m studying seemed to relate to one bow staff technique. I should also note that the same martial art also use sickles as well just of a different design.
I like to approach martial arts (karate in particular) is being predominantly misunderstood to be understood. Agree with a lot of what you said here. Your interpretation to a technique and its function is what you make of it. If it works, it works. If not, explored more and train more.
Every style in martial arts has their own uniqueness to them but since there are so many I would just start with what I would need for my situations that would make things more practical, I found that karate schools shows emphasis on life skills as well as self defense but the life skills is universally useful for any style or situation I'm in, I believe it has helped me become a perfectionist since Im constantly working on personal development no matter how basic or advanced the challenge is .
Another thing is the movie Fearless starring Jetli explains that every style works but every practitioner trains at a different level of their style so the main point of competition is to discover your flaws so you can perfect them for better victories.
I definitely agree with you we lose meaning and translation from everything from martial arts to religion to even basic language from the old days of what they would say and what they would mean so yeah it does make sense
Continues this serial path project it's Soo deep n' same time practical.
When You mentioned about naihanchi, movements from legs and elbows are easier to find in shuai jiao, the chinese wrestling style, the oldest kungfu system.
When i practiced karate and learnef this Kata, i never found dense on it, but after practiced Wushu and sanda, in a seminar of traditional schools i saw shuai jiao players doing the aame movements as in this Kata, after of it, I really appreciated karate plenty.
Thank you for the great explanation in this video. I come from Pencak Silat as basic of my martial arts. But I find your explanation about the Misconception is also related to mostly Kata or we say "Jurus" in Pencak Silat.
the ultimate Chinese whisper of karate
It’s like a game of whisper down the lane, but across languages, very interesting!
Hey buddy you can touch on "fear" where by you find some one is good in karate but ones he /she is in a real world fight can not use the skills because of luck of confidence to win the attacker.
Great questions and answers!
One of the most interesting things about the martial arts journey is exploring how it is all connected. The mastery of the one is the mastery of all, and the mastery of all is the mastery of one. When we look at MMA we can see people like Machida or Thompson apply Karate with enormous success, they have sharpened the sword of their karate through learning from all styles whilst staying true to their root style.
Great video. Many thanks for sharing!
Hey jessie, so fun to hear about the posture position with your glutes and abs. I have trained shotokan now for 8 years and have been told about this posture since Day one. This comes from taiji kase and then passed down from Malmö. If you want to know more about where its passed down im happy to tell you.
Keep up the good work, best regards /Björn
I really enjoy your experience in Martial arts. Great videos.
3:58 Your videos are a howling success (no pun intended). 13:59 We learn other martial arts to complement our own- to deepen or even gain another perspective- not only in fighting but to learn a culture. Its like being a chef- you learn other cuisine to create your own fusion or repertoire of techniques in your cuisine.
Talking about the glutes, you might be interested in the teachings on Chong Xie. He teaches about strengthening fascia (the inter-connective tissue), his inspiration for doing so (Tai Chi), and also teaches how to strike from the glutes for more power. He's been teaching and training UFC fighter Zhang Weili in this since about 2018. Her strike power was increased in 2019 to that of a heavy weight (given ideal conditions, of course). Considering she's only 5' 3", that's quite a powerful lady!
His fascia training isn't just for fighters, though. He teaches any kind of athlete, and also any non-athlete, to overcome physical burdens and improve their physical abilities. If you search for "Hyperarch Fascia Training" you should find him easily.
6:50 - You can't communicate thought without language, without a doubt. It's fun hearing Sapir-Whorf in its physical expression.
When you make a technique Karate it seems you are refining and simplifying!!!
Great point about essentialism!
It makes sense to pressure test any technique !!!
That was so smart when they talked about Crane power into your kata. This is essentially the preservation/interpretation of the Seko Higa lineage of Goju-Ryu which heavily relies on White Crane power generation. I've been on the receiving end of that power many times and it's damn near inhuman. :)
Very nice video sir. Not sure if it are aware that Uechi Ryu has Seisan Kata. Its movements are noticeably different than the Goju Ryu kata. In the 80’s, I think, some Uechi students learned Suparimpai kata and teach it today. I haven’t tried to learn it, but after your video, maybe I’ll give it a go. Best and thanks again for the video.
Mind blowing insight...It will help all of us to decode the Kata movements. Each self defense template has differently been expressed in different katas making them look so different. Can we then codify all the way self defense template and find out how they are expressed differently in different katas ? Just like Hansi McCarthy codified all types of attacks in his HAPV list ??
Glad to see that you had a safe Jesse. Just want to let you know I'm praying for you!
Montu/martial arts can be found on Temple walls in Kemet/Egypt
Fantastic series. One of my styles is Five Ancestor Fist, so all your visits were very familiar in their training and forms
Watched it all.... absolutely fascinating...
I totally agree with you... Thanks for this gift serie... Hai
I learn a lot from you Jesse.
Nice job, btw. As a Five animal Kung Fu partitioner, I am very interested in Karate, because my Kwoon shares the same building/room with a Goju Ryu karate Dojo. And my high school friends learns that style of Karate. Considered me subscribed, because why not.
27:52 😳
But very good advice nonetheless!
I'm a native Cantonese speaker and the best way I've tried to re-program how students see the forms is that they are not a series of *moves* but *movements* and that ultimately, you are learning how to move and you move however you need to, when you need to.
3:59, It looks like the dog couldn't wait to know the answer 😄.
The analogy of the language is pretty cool. I read once a book about ecology that talked about how the alphabet changed our way of interpreting things (in a bad way). The author compared oral cultures with cultures which have an alphabet and he concluded that writting and reading disintegrates communication and our way of perceiving the world because it separates things that should go together. Pretty similar to what happened with kata when the language changed.
I see Chinese ideograms as a link between oral languages and alphabetic languages. But I don't interpret this as an evolutionary process but as the opposite.
In case someome wonders, the book I talked about was from David Abram but I don't remember the title. I read several books of him.
Anyway, thanks to these videos I have known that the first karate style which I learned and therefore my main style came from incense shop style. That is why when I saw white crane moves I had interest in them because that soft part would complement what I learned. It would fill the gaps.
I have learned a lot with this series of videos. Thank you very much.
Another idea: I actually believe that Nordic skiing has a lot to do with Karate. I got this idea when you talk about the hip and glutes. What if you invite Charlotte Kalla and Hanna Öberg to your dojo? What would they say about Karate and Nordic skiing? You have a lot of resources close to where you live - maybe in your back yard!
So interesting .. wish my dad where still alive :( so I could share it with him he would find it so interesting
Hi Jesse! I recommend that you make the next trip to China to the South of Zhejiang Province, South of Wenzhou, and near the border with Fujian Province are Pingyang and Cangnan Counties (the pronunciation in Zhenan min is Channan, does it sound familiar?), Which, Although not well known, the Zhejiang Province, and specially Wenzhou, had historical ties with the Ryukyu Kingdom .
There, Nanquan forms like Wuzuquan are practiced, and that have Katas like Wuzuquan, Shimen (four gates) , Shipapu(18), Unshou ,or 24, Ehrshishi. It is said that from Zhejiang emigrated to Fujian the form of Hard and Soft Boxing through Xu Yu Zhao. If you look at Li Ping Gang Rou Quanfa’s book, you will see the Go-ju kanji in it.
Maybe not everything that came to Okinawa did it through Fujian ... In my opinion, and I think you'll agree with me after your trip to China, the most important thing a Karateka can learn in China is to understand the Concepts and Principles after the techniques and the Bunkai. That was my own experience.