Alphabet Soup for the Ryukyu Soul

Why are there so many versions of Taika’s kata? 

As this question has come up a lot recently with students, peers, and even complete strangers, I thought I’d spend a little time tackling some of the things I learned from Taika about this.  Taika treated kata as a way for him to become fluid, precise, efficient as well as to teach concepts and ideas to his students.  It was much more as well.  It was a research tool.  We, his regular weekly guinea pigs, were a way he could make a modification and see what path it led him to.  He could see in us a true three dimensional representation of what he only saw of himself in the mirror.  Taika would change things multiple times in a class or from class to class in the same day.  You would sometimes hear him say, “I think maybe this way, try.”  Sometimes that meant to us that he wanted us to think about it, but often he was just thinking about it.  He was looking at how we moved with each experiment.  The flow of it all.

Taika talked about kata being alphabet.

- You learn to spell – Foundation

- You learn words - Foundation Tier 2

- You learn incomplete sentences - Foundation Tier 3

- You learn complete sentences - Foundation Tier 4

- You learn Paragraphs - Foundation Tier 5

- You learn to read a book and make a book report - Foundation Tier 6

As you now can spell, you can also read. You go away to school and teachers ask you to research.  They give you a topic such as WWII boats. In the old days you would spend the day at the library reading, copying different books, magazines, newspapers, et cetera. Nowadays the cheaters don't even have to leave whatever room they are in they can just browse the internet. :)

- You learn to research multiple sources and piece them together - Technical Application

- You take that T.A. version and make it Force Efficient - Tier 1

- You take that T.A. version and make it fluid – Tier 2

- You take that T.A. version and make it apply to a different theoretical target – Tier 3

- You take that T.A. version and vary the timing for different order of attacks – Tier 4

Note: The above tiers are examples and not limited to just the above examples. 

We have different versions and different timings of those versions for several reasons then.  He was growing as he taught, and refining.  He wanted us to grow with him.  People who did not train every week with him, would get a version maybe once a year and think that was the version they were supposed to be doing but it was only a snapshot in time.  People made the mistake of believing that, ‘Oh, this is the new Naihanchi Shodan’ and usually missed the entire point of the version.  What everyone needed to ask was, ‘What is he trying to get us to understand with this tool.’

Naihanchi Crane

As an example, I will tell the tale of the genesis and birth of Naihanchi Crane.

Taika had been experimenting as always on us faithful guinea pigs and went off to a weekend seminar at one of the affiliated schools.  His intent was to teach what we had been working on, something using the tool of Naihanchi but not related exactly to what came forth that weekend.  He adapted to a problem he saw.  He taught a Friday evening and all day Saturday seminar then returned home.  We met up on Tuesday for regular training and he told the whole class how frustrated he was that the students there had no balance.  This had angered him that people that should be farther along in their practice and training could not even balance when they crossed over in Naihanchi.  He ended up teaching them what we later called the Naihanchi Crane and working to perfect their balance.  He then had us work on it for a short while.  (This drill would actually spawn some other crane/balance drills at another couple of weekend seminars where he tried several different ways to get people to practice enough to attain balance.)

The kata version was quite simple conceptually.  People had no balance, so they needed to practice balance.  Taika took a tool, Naihanchi, which required balance on the cross overs.  He then added an exercise to that tool.  Every time you crossed over, the back leg would pull up into a reverse crane.  For those that need further explanation of a reverse crane….the back leg pulls up until the instep of the foot rest in the back of the knee.  Taika would then make you count to 5 out loud, slowly, then drop the leg and continue the kata.  We had to keep our knees bent, and head from bobbing.  He would explain that if the knee pointed one direction there was no balance, but if you pulled it another you were balanced.  This was a familiar tool (Naihanchi) with an added drill (crane). 

We worked on it a short while until most people’s balance improved.  That was it.  The drill was never visited again by us beyond that day at his dojo.  That drill is a tool I use for unbalanced students.  The problem is, most students at that particular weekend seminar never asked Taika or understood that this was a drill.  For months, they spread the rumor that this was the new version and they were bequeathed it.  At the next Summer Conference a bunch of people were practicing it and of course Taika had moved on with other drills. 

Kata was a tool for Taika and the one tool that every single student in his association should know is Naihanchi Shodan.  That is why we have so many versions of this kata, more than any other kata in the system.

In truth, he would refine his Foundational and Technical Application versions over the years but all the other ‘Tiers in Between’ were using the kata as a tool to make the student better. 

Tier: a layer; level; stratum:

If you remove the initial Foundation kata and only practice the other variations, your entire structure will crumble.  Foundation is 1,2,3 for memorization but has to be there, has to be precise.  If you cannot have your feet properly aligned, thereby aligning your chest, your aim will always be off in any tier above the Foundation.  The Biathlon is an Olympic sport where there is cross country high cardio combined with shooting.  The marksman learns a stance in their early foundation training.  They don’t forget that stance when it comes time to shoot during their Olympic games.  They don’t wear roller skates or spiked heels during the game.  They know the stance required and have trained on it for years to allow the rest of their platform to do what it needs to do.

Taika’s actual versions of kata were gradually refined over years of training.  There is a misconception that there are a bazillion versions out there.  In reality, from numerous conversations over the final years of his life, there are only two full versions he believed and accepted.  His Final Foundation and Taika’s Final Technical Application.  Everything in between were tools for various reasons and personal refinements.  ‘Timing’ experiments were another common tool.  Putting Foundation motions together or changing up the timing was common.  These were greater concepts Taika was trying to push down our throats during his final years.  I will address more of this in a later blog on pairings but Taika’s goal was to move us past spoon feeding to the point we start making our own drills, our own timings, and our own pairings.