exploringkarate
I've been a keen karate student for 16 years, Shukokai and Shotokan, but there still seems to be no shortage of things to learn and explore. I'm hoping this blog will allow me to share my experiences and hear other martial artists thoughts.Archive for Didier Lupo
To storm a fortress
After spending more time on Bassai Dai tonight and trying to get a handle on some of the application I took another look at Didier Lupo’s bunkai film while doing the kata was fresh in my mind.
I thought I’d do a quick post so wanted to check to see if the meaning of the kata’s name did mean ‘to storm a fortress’ as I’ve heard it refered to. I found this really interesting set of notes by James James on theshotokanway.com. He states the correct meaning is ‘to extract and block off’ but I agree with him that the idea of a storming motion really suits this kata.
I really enjoy Bassai Dai, to me it’s a kata that when I do it I can enjoy the movement and the focus and feel like I’m connecting with what karate is about.
Up and running
It felt really good to get the first training session of 2012 under the karate belt. Nice to feel the first few chudan zukis zippin out though lateral hip flexibility felt a bit creaky!
I spent some time running through Bassai Dai with a fellow karateka and we had a bit of a chat about the application of some of the moves so hopped on the internet later to take a look at some bunkai videos. It’s great to be able to watch different bunkai videos and see different thoughts on potential applications, one set I’ve found and like looking at are by Didier Lupo, for example this one for Heian Shodan. Let me know if you’ve seen any other good bunkai videos.
exploringkarate 