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At Mick's behest, I'm copying over parts of a thread I've written on another forum. I hope some of you find it useful....

I’ve just come across Matb’s analysis of Saifa on his unofficial website

http://www.gkrkarate.org/pages/Kata/essays/saifaf.html

and thought it would be a worthy topic of in-depth discussion. I shall make some quite critical remarks but I hope Matt won’t take it personally; its only by critically analysing ideas for bunkai that they can be refined. I actually applaud his efforts to make more sense of the kata. My criticism is hopefully constructive – its not so much to do with the quality of his suggested bunkai compared to other people’s, its just that he’s been brave to put his views in print on the web so it’s a good starting point. Hopefully I can help shed a little light on not just this kata but analysis of kata generally.

Saifa’s not a kata I practice personally but, having looked at a GKR and a Goju rendition, I can certainly see some familiar themes. Quite sensibly Matt has compared the GKR version with others, in particular examining bunkai suggested by Sensei Morio Higaonna. The first thing that Higaonna’s bunkai tells me is that, just because someone is Okinawan or supposedly ‘close to the source’ doesn’t mean they’re teaching good bunkai. Some of Higaonna’s suggestions seem comedic, whether that’s because he doesn’t know any better or whether he’s been deliberately obtuse with us gaijin (foreigners) I couldn’t say. So on to the first sequence....

1. Wrist grab and counter

The applications shown here have some glaring problems with them. In the first picture (“Step up to avoid a straight punch”) I’m immediately struck by the fact that the attacker has been allowed to retain his balance. Matt states that “The Goju version moves both the head and body out of the way, provided you assume that the attacker is delivering a straight punch”. I disagree. At most, all the attacker has to do to deliver a straight punch is to first adjust his stance slightly by moving his left foot a few inches to the left. He can then easily throw a straight punch to the face.

Matt goes on to say “In the GKR version you appear to just move the body, however, if you assume a hook punch or haymaker, then neither version moves you away from the arc of the punch”. Quite. But the problem is, how do you know when responding to the grab that the punch is going to be straight, so this particular response is safe to do. Well you simply can’t know that. Of course, we’ve already seen that it doesn’t really work against a straight punch anyway, so the bunkai is flawed on both counts.

“If performed as tae sabaki, the first step should probably be executed quickly, however, you could argue that rather than quickly moving out of the way of a punch, you’re slowly moving towards an attacker, and the slowness of your movement is designed to lull them into a false sense of security so that the subsequent escape is even more explosive and surprising to them.”

I think this is simply an effort to find some sort of rationale to explain away something that clearly doesn’t work. The only person being “lulled into a false sense of security” is the person who thinks this application has a chance of working.

Matt then goes on to talk about keeping your hand ‘close to your core’ to give it strength. This bit I wholeheartedly agree with.

The fourth picture (“This is an alternative wrist escape…”) is much better. This is starting to hint at valid application to this movement. Note how the attacker’s posture is being broken, one result of which is that his other hand is being turned away from the defender making it momentarily more difficult for him to attack with it. With a little tweaking this has the essence of good bunkai.

Matt states “However, if their grip is very powerful, you may not be able to roll your fist in this manner”. I disagree. And the clue is in the next section, in which you move both hips to the opposite hip.

My suggestion is this. Moves 1 and 2 should blend into one. Separating them out I’m convinced is a modern corruption of the original kata. It doesn’t matter which wrist the attacker grabs for this sequence, as long as he grabs with his left hand. The defender rolls the attackers wrist over, grabbing it in the process and guiding it past her right hip towards her left hip. At the same time the defender completes the footwork. Correct technique and correct coordination of what the hands and feet are doing will make the technique work – the work of the hands will by augmented by the weight and movement of the whole body. The defender’s right elbow can now be used to apply pressure to the attacker’s arm. Done correctly this apply an arm-bar (ikkyo in Aikido parlance). It the arm slips in the process you can easily change to a nikyo wrist lock (s-lock). Either way the attacker’s knees will buckle, sending them towards the floor.

You can see video clips of these techniques at

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mikeflanagan/saifa/saifa2.html

At this point the kata has done its work so we can depart from the script – personally I would drive them face first into the floor and apply an arm-bar to pin them to the ground (this is some people would call oyo). I could also choose to break the arm (with the arm-bar) if that seemed necessary.

What are the principles involved here? Well the chief principle particular to this movement seems to be to use the turning of the body (to one side) to generate the power necessary for the hands to seize something at one hip and move it to the other hip, turning it over in the process. This principle appears in several other kata that I’m familiar with, most obviously I think in Pinan Godan and similarly in some versions of Pinan Sandan.

It doesn’t have to be the attacker’s wrist that your seizing. Other parts of their anatomy (eg. the elbow) can be manipulated in the same way. This application also scores high on all 5 of my main indicators (ie. principles) of good bunkai:
1. ‘Muchimi’ – the defender sticks to the attacker, ensuring that she can maintain control
2. ‘Kuzushi’ – the defender retains her own balance but the attacker’s is completely destroyed – making it almost impossible for him to attack with any power
3. ‘Tai-sabaki’ – body movement, the defender has moved herself to a position of advantage (ie. she has moved to the attacker’s side but at the same time the technique has turned him even further away), where she can strike the attacker but he cannot strike her
4. ‘Ki’ – the defender has used her bodyweight to her advantage, using it to power the technique without having to rely on superior muscular strength (I know, there is more to ki than this, but this is a very good start)
5. Use gross motor movements – the technique is not complicated and does not require the use of fine motor movements. It should therefore be reproducible under the pressure of a real assault, as long as you actually practice it.

I know I ‘changed’ the kata slightly to achieve this result, but that ‘change’ was screaming out at me. It just shows the problems with trying to understand the meaning of modern kata, the GKR version for example is clearly a modern corruption of a modern-ish corruption.

Mike

ADDENDUM - Since writing the above a few weeks ago I've seen footage of a version of Saifa that actually does blend these techniques together - the hands move to the left hip AT THE SAME TIME as the left foot is drawn up. I still can't prove it but I think this lends further weight to my hypothesis that the kata has been inappropriately modified in the recent past.

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2. Palm heel followed by backfist

I find this quite an interesting move. There isn’t any move quite the same in any of the Shorin Katas that I practice. The palm-heel seems to actually come round in an arc (like a bear paw?) prior to the other arm raising then falling into the backfist strike.

I think Matt is right to be critical of Higaonna’s suggested bunkai (if indeed it is correctly described). To use the palm-heel to push down a straight punch is silly, its just too difficult to do. Karate training is meant to make it as difficult as possible for us to screw techniques up – not to make it as difficult as possible to get them right.

But its naff bunkai for another reason. We’ve assumed that the attacker has made one attack followed by another. First he grabbed, we disengaged then he threw a straight mid level punch (not a round punch or uppercut or kick or whatever). We really shouldn’t have allowed him to continue after the grab, as in the bunkai I suggested for that move. If he did grab and we effected a release but no more than that, then realistically he could attack with anything now, so there would be no need to expect a particular attack and therefore no reason tie the sequences together in the kata.

So what is it really for? Thinking about bunkai I can certainly see some useful things in this that are analogous to kata techniques from Shorin Ryu. However, lets see if we can tie it in with the previous technique in the kata. Lets say you been grabbed by the wrist and done one of the variations of the first technique. But this time you have screwed up, for whatever reason, its partially worked - the attacker is bending forwards but is managing to resist being dropped to the floor. So the defender changes tack. Still keeping hold with her right hand she takes her left hand off and uses it to attack a different part of the body – the head. She brings her hand round and down onto the back of the head, grabbing the hair if at possible, then pulls back it towards herself – this matches the movement of the kata perfectly. This should be easy to do as the attacker’s attention is on resisting what’s happening to his arm, not his head. Having started to draw him off balance the defender drops into straddle stance, causing the attacker to be even more unbalanced and bringing him closer so she can hit him. As she drops into stance the defender raises her right arm so that she can drop her elbow (not her backfist) into the muscles of his upper back. This will drop most people and they can be easily controlled from this point. DO NOT strike anyone in the spine with this technique.

The (or at least one) principle embodied in the technique then could be considered ‘pull/press down with one hand and strike with the other’. How does this particular application stand up to the usual scrutiny:
1. Muchimi – well the defender certainly manages to stick to the attacker during the technique, but care may need to be taken to maintain control once the attacker is downed.
2. Kuzushi – at worst the attacker is merely drawn further off-balance, leaning over forwards. At best he will end up face down on the floor. The defender maintains their balance throughout.
3. Tai sabaki – the body shifting doesn’t take the defender much further away from the danger, but it certainly does help put the attacker in a very vulnerable, prone position from which they cannot strike. So the defender is certainly in a position where her options for striking are far far better than the attacker’s.
4. Ki - again the defender has used her weight rather than her strength to give power to the technique.
5. – Gross motor skills? Definitely, there’s no finesse needed for this technique.

Sequence 2 again – palm heel followed by backfist

Lets look at sequence 2 on its own, rather than as an add on to sequence 1

It reminds me a little of a technique I usually think of as an application for shuto. The attacker has grabbed my right forearm with his right hand (ie. a cross-arm grab). My response, angle away from the other hand (it’s a fair bet he’s going to smack me with it), then strike down on the brachioradialis muscle of the forearm with me free hand. At the same time I begin chambering my right arm for the ‘backfist’. The combined movement of the arms will place the attacker in a nikyo wrist lock, but it will only be transitory. This will break the attacker’s balance, making his knees buckle. From here I can strike unimpeded (the attacker is busy recovering his posture) to the head/neck. I’ve chose to strike down, as in this particular kata, to a point high on the shoulder. Done well, this will drop the attacker where he stands.

How well does it accord to my principles?

1. Muchimi – not so great, once you’ve struck him you’re no longer in contact, but as we’ll see in the next technique that can be improved upon.
2. Kuzushi – great, you are balanced but the nikyo should easily break the attacker’s balance.
3. Tai sabaki – Fine, you move a little round to the side and away from the other hand, but the effect of the nikyo will turn the attacker’s free hand even further away
4. Ki – Fine, in particular correct footwork will help you to drop your weight into the strike, after the nikyo has brought the target down to a height where you can efficiently strike down into it.
5. Gross motor skills – some accuracy is required for the strike to the arm, the lock is reasonably sophisticated but easy enough to perform with practice; the follow-up strike doesn’t require a lot of accuracy and you’ll note that I strike with my forearm – can’t miss really.

As before, the video clips for these techniques can be found at

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mikeflanagan/saifa/saifa2.html

Mike

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OK, sequences 1 & 2 are repeated a couple of times. I’m not going to worry about that, so straight onto sequence 3.

Sequence 3 – simultaneous high outward block, downward block and kick


I appreciate that the usual mode of performance is that the hand techniques are in more of a vertical plane (ie. a rising palm-heel ‘block’ going straight up), but I feel this is simply a shift in emphasis. In essence its still an outward block and a downward block, whether the hands are open or not is neither here nor there in my opinion. This theme of the two simultaneous blocks is seen throughout various Okinawan kata in various guises. Sometimes the hands end up in front of the body, sometimes to each side. Sometimes the fists are clenched, sometimes open. Sometimes the outward block is replaced with a rising block. This theme appears in its various guises in many kata: Pinan Sandan, Yondan & Godan, Naihanchi, Passai Dai, Chinto, Rohai, Kusanku, just off the top of my head. In Chinto and Rohai its also accompanied by kicks, so fairly similar to Saifa.

So what does it mean? Well many things. I would agree with Matb when he criticises the idea of dealing with simultaneous attacks from different assailants. I’d also go one further, I don’t believe there are many (if any) examples in kata of dealing with one attack, and then dealing with the following attack. The sequence here (block a kick then a punch) doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Likewise dealing with two simultaneous strikes from the same person doesn’t make sense to me either.

Look at the picture in Mat’s analysis labelled ‘A side-step coupled with a deflecting block is a far more intelligent response to a mae geri, than a gedan barai, which is not nearly strong enough’. The attacker looks unbalanced, but then the defender also looks like they’d fall over in a stiff breeze too. In reality people don’t attack with 2 simultaneous strikes as the picture suggests. I believe the kata teaches how to deal with the first attack so that the second attack doesn’t even come. If you’re initial response fails partially then you do what is appropriate to deal with whatever happens next, which may or may not be the next move of the kata.

So what might really be happening?

For a start, it’s the first hint in Saifa at the use of mawashi-uke. Look at what the hands are doing. The right hand starts high. As it comes down it comes inwards slightly, at the same time the left hand comes up from underneath the right hand to complete the ‘outward block’. This can represent a classic mawashi-uke ‘block’. The right hand intercepts the strike and passes it to the left hand, which takes control of the attacking limb. This is video clip 6 ( http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mikeflanagan/saifa/saifa2.html ). But you want more than that don’t you, you want something which includes the kick, the head turn and even links in with the preceding movement. OK, here goes....

You’ve done the previous response to a cross arm forearm grab from sequence 2. You’ve struck with the ‘backfist’ movement but its not put them all the way down. Without pause you slide straight into the next sequence. Step in close to the attacker’s right leg with your left foot. Snake the left arm underneath and round the attacker’s right arm. At the same time snake the right hand over the back of the attacker’s neck and roll it over. This will require muchimi to stick to the attacker throughout. Scoop up with your left arm to control the attacker’s arm and press down with the right hand on the attacker’s head. Doing both at the same time will make it easier to push the head down. As the head is going down (don’t wait for it get there) look to the right so you can keep an eye on where his head is and bring your right knee up to meet it. This is video clip 7.

So to test it against the principles:

1. Muchimi – Definitely, in fact practice of muchimi is a must for this technique to work.
2. Kuzushi – no problem there, the attacker starts from a compromised position having been struck in sequence 2. Don’t lift your leg until you have established control of their head. Once the head is controlled their balance is wholly compromised, you can lift your leg safely without concern for your own balance.
3. Tai sabaki – Fine, the step with left foot moves you further to attacker’s side and the hand movement turns their free arm away from you
4. Ki – Fine, you’re not having to struggle to bring the head down to your knee as in some applications I’ve seen people do. Note how in the end position of the technique the downward sweeping arm and the knee have passed each other, ie. the head has been sandwiched between the two with little muscular effort on your part. Obviously I have been unable to do this on the video clip as it would have injured my training partner – an example of how sometimes kata allows you to practice movements that are impossible to carry out to completion on a human being.
5. Gross motor skills – fine, no tremendous accuracy is required for the second stage of the technique. However, some skill in muchimi is required, so that will have to be made a regular part of training if this technique is to be successful.

Mike

Sequence 3 again – block high, low & kick simultaneously

This sequence appears twice, so it definitely needs to be considered not just as a follow-up to sequence 2. For me, the main principle that its teaching is to ‘generate power by moving the arms in opposite directions’. Not opposite directions as in a punch where we have a push/pull motion, but opposite in the sense that one hand goes up while the other goes down. With these two particular blocks you also have the feeling of ‘separating’ the hands – one to the left, one to the right. So in the previous application we had one arm pressing the arm up (and controlling it) while the other hand pressed the head down, so that we could knee it effectively.

Lets look at another application where there is still the feeling of pushing/pulling up and down but also the feeling of separating.

This is video 8 on the same webpage as before.

This is not quite an entry technique as such, rather its something to do once you’ve got to a certain position, an intermediate technique if you like. The starting position is this: you’re in standing grappling situation and you manage to clamp your right hand high onto the assailant’s left lapel – assuming of course they’re wearing something that a) you can grab and B) isn’t just going to tear in your grip. From here you need to get to the assailant’s right side. In the video I’ve achieved this by giving them a swift knee to distract them, then pushing their right arm over as I duck under and round to their right. Keeping close and pulling on the lapel to keep them unbalanced, bring your left hand round and onto their face. Now you’re in position to perform the real kata movement – sweeping the left hand down with gedan-barai and the right hand up (OK its already up) with outward block. As you start to do this you’ll probably meet some resistance, so now’s the time for the kick from the kata. Give them a quick knee to the right thigh and carry on with the technique. What will happen is this: the assailant will fall as a result of the kick and you’re pressing down across his face, but your hand is pulling up so he will hang off his lapel which will apply at least a partial choke. This is a semi-naked choke, ie. you’re applying it with clothing in one hand but not in the other. You can choose now whether to just let go and let them drop to the ground, or focus on applying the choke. What you should actually do in practice, for safety’s sake, is let the attacker down to the ground gently. Which is what I’ve done in the video. However, from this position you could replace the left hand on his head with your knee and use your left hand to control his right arm. You’ll note on the video that I’ve let go with my right hand – this is simply to show what the right arm is trying to do, but it can’t because its holding the lapel.

So how does this measure up against the important principles:
1. Muchimi – fine, you’re maintaining good contact throughout. If you chose to drop the assailant and control their right arm instead you can easily pick this up as they fall. Alternatively you can stay with and complete the choke.
2. Kuzushi – fine, you need to break their balance at the start of the movement, once you’ve done that its simple enough to keep them unbalanced.
3. Tai sabaki – again fine, you start by finding a way to get to the side then maintain that position. Even when they’re on the ground you’re side on to them, standing over them. Can’t get much better really.
4. Ki – This may sound confusing, as in reality ki describes a number of different phenomena. The two hands moving in opposite directions is certainly synergistic use of your upper body muscles (ie. they’re working together rather than against each other). The kick draws their ki down, weakening their resistance to the technique. This sounds fancy and esoteric, but all it really means is that by kneeing them in the thigh you’ve unbalanced them but also taken their attention away from what’s happening up top. So they will be less able to resist it. Also look at the penetration afforded by this technique. If you look at the other application for this movement the final position of the kata has your hand and knee passing each other. If there really was someone’s head in the way you couldn’t possibly reach this end position, but you’d really mash their head in the attempt. Similarly with this technique. If your hands are in the right place you cannot possibly separate them as in the kata, but in attempting to do so you will apply a strong takedown and a strong choke.
5. Gross motor skills – fine, there’s nothing fancy or sophisticated here. The only tricky bit is making sure you get the correct grip high enough up on the lapel. I regard this as opportunistic myself. I don’t particularly go looking for it, but if I find myself there then this technique is a good follow-on. Bottom line, if you don’t get the grip in the first place, don’t do this technique – do something else instead.

Mike

Sequence 4 - Draw both hands back then double punch

Updated videos at

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mikeflanagan/saifa/saifa.html

In some versions as the hands come back they cross over. Mat relates this as possibly a strangle - I'm not sure if this GKR or Goju bunkai, or both - but he is critical of this. I would agree with him up to a point. It takes a little time to get your hands in the right place and affords no obvious way of stopping the assailant hitting you. However, once on, it's a devastatingly effective technique. To prevent yourself from being rapidly choked out with this you need to a) prevent your instinctive impulse to clutch at your throat and B) immediately deliver a decisive blow in order to take the pressure off your throat. There are several variations on this theme in Judo - ask a decent judoka to show you one and you'll very quickly see how effective it can be. Judoka will also be skilled at preventing you from hitting them while you're applying it, although this generally involves both people being on the ground. I can do this technique but it takes time and there are other chokes I could apply more easily, so its not really for me I'm afraid.

Mat then goes on to cite Patrick McCarthy's suggested bunkai - pulling down on the neck. That's all well and good but I doubt very much that Patrick McCarthy does it in the way shown in the picture on Mat's site. In this picture the attacker isn't sufficiently unbalanced and there's too much of a gap between the two people. If, at this stage, you take your hands off so that you can do the double punch then you've just allowed the attacker to regain his balance. I doubt very much the likelihood of hitting the intended targets or even of hitting with any power at all - given that the attacker will be moving. Bunkai like this only works against compliant karate attackers who obligingly stand still waiting for you to finish 'working your fancy mojo' on them. If you're going to pull on the neck like this then I'd suggest it needs to look something more like Clip 9 on the page I've put up. Of course, the double punch doesn't appear very relevant in this situation, but we can worry about separately.

So coming to the double punch Mat gives 3 possible options:
1. fingertip strikes to 'Lung 2', the infraclavicular fossas. As Matt said, this might require finger conditioning. We do know that in the past some martial artists went in for such conditioning. But even with the conditioning, I don't buy it, at least not in the context of a double strike. Firstly there are easier targets nearby that can be struck with other weapons that don't require such conditioning. Secondly, given that in the situation described you are not sticking to the attacker, you cannot control his movement or position, so you would need very impressive accuracy to get these points.
2. The supraclavicular nerves, ie. just above the collarbone. Well this area can be an extremely useful area to attack. But again, the situation described leaves the assailant free to move around at this point. You'd be relying on them staying leaning forwards at a very specific angle to enable your strike to work, and you'd have to be quite accurate. Far too fiddly for my liking.
3. The collarbones - I'm not happy about this, partly for the same reasons as above. It would require a lot of accuracy to get these on a moving target. I'm not convinced that they would break even if you punched them accurately. It seems quite odd to me to try to strike a thin wide target with the small weapon of my punching knuckles. Imagine you missed just slightly and hit them with your fingers instead of your knuckes - it might be you ending up with broken bones (ie. your fingers)!

So having consigned those ideas to the dustbin what are we going to do instead? The first thing that leaps out at me is the crossed hand position. I almost always see this when I see the forearms forming a cross - its mawashi-uke again. It was hinted at in the previous sequence and to my mind its being hinted at here again. I believe that some Goju people do regard this movement in the kata as a block. Another thing to bear in mind - in the kata the hands do the same thing at the same time, first they pull then they push. I'm not convinced that this always means you have to do both together - maybe the kata is just telling us that you could do this movement with either hand?

I'm going to break things down and consider the pulling (hikite) and the pushing (tsuki) separately.

Pulling (video 10 in the sequence)

Firstly the pulling. I was interested to read Mat's comment about 'the lion pulling down its prey' - that's one I've not heard before. But it did make me think of one possible application:

I usually teach this a variation of this as an application of the second move of Pinan Shodan but I think it fits here quite well too. The attacker grabs my lapel with one hand. I bring both hands up towards the attacker (could slap the face here as a distraction) then smash them down and back towards me. Both of my forearms hit the attacker's forearm as they retract. At least one of my forearms needs to cut through his brachioradialis muscle. Coordinate this with the movement downwards and backwards (not entirely dis-similar to the kata) and the attacker will fall - onto their back if you do it really well or onto their knees. At the very least their knees will buckle and their face will turn away. As you will see in the video clip their other arm will reflexively move away from me too. From here there are a number of options. I could simply strike or apply one of a number of locks to their arm.

The Principles
1. Muchimi - you can stick to the assailant all the way through and then lock the arm for control. However this does take a little practice, you have to use the right degree of force for the job, not too much and not too little. If the attacker only grabs weakly and you strike strongly you will merely make them lose their grip but their balance won't be particularly disturbed.
2. Kuzushi - excellent, done correctly this technique is highly effective and reliable in breaking the attacker's balance and bringing them to the ground.
3. Tai sabaki - not as good in the initial stage of the response, essentially as you're moving more or less backwards, although you can move off at a bit of an angle. But this response is fast and does at least place the assailant in a very vulnerable position. However, at least in the basic variation, you have to make sure you react before the attacker throws a strike with their other hand.
4. Ki - fine, synergistic use of the muscles combined with the body lowering and moving back give this technique plenty of power.
5. Gross motor skills - initially this technique is difficult to do. Some degree of accuracy is required in striking the brachioradialis muscle correctly. However, once the necessary skills have been gained it become quite easy to do, even under considerable stress. But you do need to become intimately acquainted with the brachioradialis as a vital point, it needs to become an 'old friend', which can take several years.

Pushing (video clip 11)

Sometimes a punch is just a punch, that seems fair enough. But rather than hammer away against a potentially stronger attacker I'm going to use my brain and find somewhere to hit that produces a better effect. I note that some Goju versions of the kata use a slightly rounded punch and that's what I'm going to do. The attacker is attempting a two handed frontal choke. However, I'm not perceiving the situation as life-threatening, more of a nuisance. So I'll use a relatively low level response - punch with single knuckles to both sides of the rib cage, just below the armpit. As you can see from the video, even done lightly it produces quite an interesting response.

The Principles
1. Muchimi - not good, as soon as I strike I lose contact.
2. Kuzushi - not bad, the attacker is fairly upright but at least for a moment his balance is not his primary concern
3. Tai sabaki - not good, he's still directly in front of me and I'm directly in front of him
4. Ki - fine, you can see from the video that I've easily been able to transfer sufficient energy into the target
5. Gross motor skills - fine, despite what some people would have you believe about having to get such-and-such an intercostal space this technique really doesn't require much accuracy.

So this is not a technique I would necessarily seek to use in a life and death situation but it has its uses nonetheless.

Mike

Sequence 5 ‘Head grab and face smash’ – bring both arms round in a circle, bringing one fist into the palm of the other hand

For me the main principle here is that of generating power by moving both arms in an arc to meet each other. If you are holding onto (or guiding) some part of the assailant it will be easier to move them along a curved path rather than in a straight line. This is primarily because the direction of movement is continually changing, hence making it harder to resist. Bringing the hands together like this makes a couple of possible tactics spring to mind: a) to pass whatever you’re holding (ie. the other person) from one hand to the other, or B) to hold the target with one hand feeding it into a strike with the other hand. You can see essentially the same theme at the opening of Kusanku (Kanku Dai) and a very similar move in Passai (Bassai) Dai (the double age-uke and supposed double inward strike to the ribs). It also seems to resemble a theme that I believe in Chinese arts is known as ‘emperor stamps the seal’ or something like that.

The example Mat gives, holding the head with one hand and striking the face with the other, is a good example of bunkai that contains the seed of something useful but doesn’t in itself take into account the realities of violence. Apparently, the standard GKR bunkai involves carrying on from the previous sequence in which you’ve managed to disable the assailants arms, to grab the head and draw it down, then strike to the face with a hammerfist. The way its shown in the picture on Mat’s site, well I think I could resist quite a number of blows like that from most people. It would be uncomfortable, I might get a bloodied nose, but I don’t think it wouldn’t stop me if I was really determined. And if I can resist it then the bad guys probably can too. Its not a good position from which to develop power and given a moment or two the assailant will regain their balance. An alternative Goju explanation apparently is to do basically the same technique against someone who is kneeling down to grab your leg. While this attack may seem unlikely it is essentially the same attack that MMA fighters call ‘the shoot’ – a technique they put to use in a highly effective way. Whilst in reality its unlikely that you’ll be on the receiving end of this, it is possible – especially if for whatever reason the attacker is already down at kneeling height to start with (eg. he’s fallen mid-grapple). However I don’t think this particular defence deals at all well with that situation. I think you’d be on your back before you could say “hammerfist”. I’m guessing that the way GKR do the kata here (bringing the hands down almost to knee level) is a modern addition to the kata. Certainly the Goju version I have on video doesn’t bring the hands quite so low.

So lets ignore the previous sequence and concentrate solely on this technique. I’m going to start from a close in grappling situation. Anytime you see a good opportunity to do so, reach up and grab the assailant’s hair with one hand. Use that to pull their head round and down to one side. Do this well and this alone can often make the attacker fall over. Bring the other fist round and (more or less) into your other hand, ie. striking the head. A good target is the angle of the jaw underneath the ear or close by on the flat of the jaw.

This is video clip 12.

Obviously from here you can easily carry on with strikes or other follow-up techniques.

The principles:
1. Muchimi – fine, once you catch you don’t lose contact until such a time as you choose to.
2. Kuzushi – fine, the attacker is quite unbalanced, sometimes to the point of falling over before you’ve finished your technique.
3. Tai sabaki – not perfect but not bad either, you’re still more or less facing of the assailant but their posture should be quite disrupted (leaning over to one side being pulled around by the head) so they cannot hit you with power. You’re certainly in a more advantageous position than you started in.
4. Ki – fine, synergestic use of the muscles (in particular in the upper body by circling the arms towards each other) and dropping your bodyweight into the strike.
5. Gross motor skills – fine, no great accuracy is required. If you can hit specific vital points accurately then that can help but its not really necessary.

Mike

Sequence 5 continued

Looking again at the last movement – circle both arms round and down- in the previous example we used the tactic of using one hand to guide and hold the target so it could be struck with the other hand. Now lets look at the alternative tactic – guiding the target from one hand to the other. A straightforward example is simply to block a strike from the inside with one hand and guide the incoming limb into the other hand.

This is video clip 13.

In this clip you can see that, having capture the incoming limb, I’ve then moved my body to a more advantageous position.

The Principles:
1. Muchimi – fine, you move from a ‘free movement’ phase of combat to a ‘clinch’ phase where you have grabbed the assailant and maintain control.
2. Kuzushi – fine, by circling the assailant’s arm round then pulling it with the other hand their balance is momentarily compromised. You should be balanced throughout the whole move.
3. Tai sabaki – fine, having guided and capture the incoming limb you move off to one side: you end up facing the attacker but they’re not facing you
4. Ki – fine, you don’t try to completely stop the incoming limb but merely redirect it (a core principle of Aiki arts). This makes it easy to feed the limb to your other hand.
5. Gross motor skills – fine, no great accuracy needed, as long as you maintain contact (muchimi) its easy to know where the limb is in order to grab it (look up ‘proprioception’ to fully understand this).

But what about the turn?

Often turns in kata are indicative of throws/takedowns of one sort or another. This one had me a bit stumped initially. How about this though? You’ve done essentially the same thing as in the previous technique: your right hand blocks a left round punch and guides it towards the left hand. Grab with the at the wrist. Use both hands to roll the arm over so that the palm faces out. If you can, use your left thumb to roll across the radial bone. As you do this turn around to face the opposite direction - step across to your left with the right foot (in front of you) towards the attacker and pivot round. This means that you can crash your body into theirs as you turn, unbalancing them. The foot movement will also give power to the hand technique.


This is video clip 14.

Here I’m doing it against a grab punch combination. You’ll notice that my left hand also comes up in response to the punch. Normally I might palm-heel to the face at the same time as blocking, but here I’ve just held my hand out of the way to avoid obscuring the more important blocking and guiding that the right hand is doing.

The Principles

1. Muchimi – fine, as soon as you stick to the opponent you stay stuck to them. At the end you have excellent control.
2. Kuzushi- fine, twisting the assailant’s arm breaks their posture. This is enhanced by the pushing or pulling forces exerted on their arm.
3. Tai sabaki – fine, you end up behind or beside the assailant whereas they are facing away from you and kneeling/crouching
4. Ki – fine, you can use the strength of both arms together. Again you’re attempting to redirect the punching arm rather than trying to stop it dead. To effect the takedown you’re using the turning and movement of your whole body rather than muscular strength.
5. Gross motoer skills – fine, the only potentially tricky bit is the correct placement of your left hand on the assailant’s wrist. But once you understand the position that you need to get to its relatively straightforward. If you do screw this up then you can simply flow into another response, such as the one demonstrated in the previous video clip (13).

Mike

Sequence 6 – Raise leg, turn, hammerfist & short punch

Another interesting sequence. The first thing that leaps out at me is the impracticality of the leg raise. It reminds me of the kick and turn in Hangetsu. In Hangetsu its fairly certain that this move is a modern affectation. It doesn’t exist in any rendition of Seisan (the original name for the kata that was Shotokanised to become Hangetsu) that I’m aware of. Admittedly the leg raise is there in the 3 or 4 versions of Saifa that I’ve seen of Saifa, but I still can’t help being suspicious. As for the hammerfist, it seems there are two usual ways of doing it – one were you turn right around and one where you turn only side on. I suspect that side on is the earlier version and the full turn is a modern change, made by someone who didn’t understand the purpose of the earlier version. Similarly with the punch, its a short hook punch with the palm either face down or face up. I suspect the palm down is the original, the palm up version again being added by someone who didn’t really understand the earlier movement. Of course I could be wrong, I don’t have a detailed knowledge of the development of Goju kata. But what I believe to be the earlier sequence has direct parallels in some of the Shorin kata. In particular the side on hammerfist followed by a hook punch can be found in Naihanchi Nidan. The Naihanchi kata (the first one at least) are thought to be among the older Okinawan kata and are fundamental to Shorin Ryu in the same way that Sanchin is fundamental to Goju Ryu. Whatever the truth, there is clearly nowadays more than one way of performing this sequence.

Now to look at the standard GKR and modern Goju bunkai, as described by Matb. This has 2 major flaws as far as I can see. First the leg raise. Matb describes this as raising the leg out of the way of an attack. Well that’s fair enough in itself I suppose, but it simply won’t work if the attacker’s pulling your hair. Try it yourself. Get someone to drag you around by the hair (or collar if you prefer). Don’t get them just to stand there holding on like a manakin in a shop window, they have to try pulling you around. Now try lifting your leg. You’ll find that the attacker can easily destroy your balance, your kick or evasion most likely won’t work and will likely only cause you to be further unbalanced. Then we have the hammerfist. Matb describes this as a very powerful technique. I’m forced to disagree. What you’re trying to do is to strike downwards, but above your own head height. Ever seen a carpenter hammering in a nail from underneath, by holding the hammer above his/her head? Ever tried it yourself? If you have, you’ll immediately see what a poor way of generating power it is. The only way I see this generating any significant amount of power is if you’re doing it on someone significantly shorter than yourself. Now add to the equation the fact that the attacker will be attempting to pull you off balance as you turn to deliver your hammerfist, and it becomes apparent that this technique just doesn’t work as it is. If you’re going to strike down with a hammerfist the target needs to be a bit lower and you need to penetrate through it – not stop at the top of the victim’s head.

So what could we do instead? I’m afraid I’m going to ignore the leg raise – it might be pertinent to do some sort of kick but not the way its done in the modern version of this kata. So this brings us to the hammerfist. For me the main principle here is this: generate power by rotating the arm around the shoulder. We can see this theme very clearly in the opening move of Pinan Nidan and also (as stated earlier) in Naihanchi Nidan. Whilst the version in Pinan Nidan focuses more or less exclusively on the rotation at the shoulder, in Naihanchi Nidan there can also be a degree of rotation at the elbow and even the wrist. As for the punch, well whichever punch you’re doing the main principle is essentially pushing with one hand while the other pulls to the hip. You may note that it’s a bit like the very first move in the kata – bringing both hands to the left hip. But this time the left is extended to the side and draws back to the hip, so the hands are moving in opposition rather than the same direction.

I’ll look at several examples of how we can use these principles, which deal with grabs from behind as in the usual GKR scenario, but not with hair-grabs on this occasion:

Example 1 Same side shoulder grab (video clip 15)

The left shoulder is grabbed. You haven’t got time to be faffing about working out which hand you’ve been grabbed with, you have to act. Step forwards with the right foot then turn your body side on to the assailant (ie. as in the kata). As you turn swing your left arm up and round, and strike down into the assailant’s neck. Note how the footwork and arm movement help to bring the attacker’s head down a bit, allowing you to put more power into the descending strike. Slide the left hand down the arm to capture the wrist and cut across the triceps tendon with your right forearm to apply an armbar – this is the hook ‘punch’.

As an aside if there’s anyone out there still of the opinion that Karate is all about kicking and punching and doesn’t include joint-locks, consider this. I have a photograph of Gichin Funakoshi, the ‘father of modern day Karate’ performing exactly the same bar as I’m doing in this video clip – and he’s doing as an application of exactly the same kata movement (the kata he’s thinking of is Naihanchi not Saifa, but the move is exactly the same).

Example 2 Cross arm shoulder grab (video clip 16)

Again, the left shoulder is grabbed. Do the same response as before, you haven’t got time to worry about which hand he’s using. This time though there’s no point striking to the neck, the angle isn’t right and you won’t unbalance the attacker (a recipe for disaster). Instead, this time cut down through the attacker’s elbow and, without pause, wrap his arm up to draw him off-balance – this is the hikite for the punch. There are various ways you can attack with the right hand now, either a hook punch or uppercut or (as I’ve done) step through with a straight ‘punch’.

Example 3 Cross arm shoulder grab & punch (video clip 17)

As above, but this time the attacker throws a punch too. Response is the same as before, but now the hammerfist movement collects the punch on the way past. So this time I end up wrapping both hands up. Life’s very easy now, rather than punch I just reach out and give his testicles a good squeeze.

Example 4 Rear overarm bearhug (video clip 18)

This time the kata movement isn’t the entry technique. For my entry technique I’m just going to elbow the attacker as he seizes me. From this point on you can go into the kata technique as before. But now the hammerfist movement doesn’t strike the assailant, it unbalances them and controls the arm so that you can seize the wrist. From here the palm down punch is executed with an open hand in order to strike the occiput with the palm-heel. Done correctly this easily causes unconscious due (IMO) to over-stimulation of the reticular activating system.

The Principles:
1. Muchimi – As usual all these responses emphasise keeping in contact with the attacker. There is a chance however, in example 1, that you’ll lose contact after the first strike. If you do lose contact you should however be able to regain it by moving straight in to get behind the attacker.
2. Kuzushi – Fine, all of these responses involve breaking the attacker’s balance via pressure on their arm.
3. Tai-sabaki – Excellent, you move from a very disadvantageous position to one where its you behind the other person in every example except number 2. Even in this one you improve your position but the attacker is still effectively facing you – so you have to make sure that the kuzushi works here in order to prevent his left hand from doing anything useful.
4. Ki – Fine, as long as you get the footwork right. Its not strength that allows you to turn the attacker’s arm over, it’s the stepping forwards then turning your body that achieves this. Its about using your bodyweight, not your strength.
5. Gross motor movements – Fine, everything’s done using large body movements. There are nuances that take practice and can add to the techniques but the techniques still work if you totally fluff the nuances.

Sequence 7 – step forwards and punch (video clip 19)

Sometimes a punch is just a punch. But hikite is never just pulling your arm back to add power! All I’m going to do here is block an incoming punch with mawashi-uke, as seen earlier in the kata, then I’ll punch the other guy. But notice that I’ve also moved out of the way of the incoming punch and I’ve used the mawashi-uke to capture the attacker’s wrist (and drawn it to my hip with hikite). The main principle in punching is ‘push with one hand and pull with the other to generate power’. It should be bread and butter to karateka to practice blocking and punching like this.

Obviously I wouldn’t just leave things at this point, wouldn’t it be nice if we could guarantee that one punch would finish it. There are lots of things I can do from here, but clearly I have the advantage. One thing that would flow easily from this position is the arm-bar shown in the application of the hook punch from the preceding sequence.

The Principles:

1. Muchimi – fine, you’ve captured wrist at the earliest opportunity and kept hold of it throughout.
2. Kuzushi – fine, although the attacker is still stood by capturing the wrist you’ve been able to draw him into the punch and can easily keep him unbalanced from this point onwards.
3. Tai sabaki – fine, you’re own body movement has moved you to a position of advantage, and capturing the wrist has helped you turn the attacker away in the opposite direction
4. Ki – well any punch should be done in such a way as to take advantage of your own bodyweight. The pushing and pulling movement also makes use of the attacker’s own bodyweight coming into the punch. The fact that you’re holding him means he must absorb the impact – he can’t really move away from it.
5. Gross motor movements – obviously correct punching takes practice, capturing an incoming limb with mawashi-uke likewise. Neither take too much fine control but, even so, these techniques need to be at the heart of regular karate practice in order to make them reliable and effective.

As an aside, the block used here is a good example of a ‘soft’ block. Although you can hear the slap as the palm of my hand contacts on the incoming limb there is no hard bone on bone contact – its simply not necessary in this situation.

But why step forwards before punching? To break the attacker’s balance, as shown in the next clip (video clip 20).

I think this clip really speaks for itself. You have the same mawashi-uke but instead of capturing the incoming limb you extend your arm to drive the attacker off balance - this is the "slow reverse punch" that Mat's referring to.

The Principles:

1. Muchimi – poor, once the technique is finished you have no contact. However it scores so highly on the following points that its got to be a technique worth considering. Not much good if you want to maintain control, but it could be excellent choice of technique if you just want to make an immediate escape, say if you were facing multiple assailants. It might simply clear an escape route for you or it might allow to buy time by getting one attacker out of the way so you can deal with the second one properly, then return to deal with the first one (if necessary) – this is a strategy I’ve used successfully in real life.
2. Kuzushi – excellent, the attacker is clearly extremely unbalanced. It will take him a couple of seconds to rectify the situation.
3. Tai sabaki – excellent, the attacker is facing directly away from you.
4. Ki – again good use of bodyweight rather than muscular strength in order to move and turn the attacker
5. Gross motor movements – nothing too sophisticated here, but as in the previous example it does require regular practice of its component parts

Mike

Sequence 8 Turn into cat stance and stack hands at the hip – or as Matb puts it “Seize pull and neck break”

An interesting sequence that’s certainly caused me to stop and ponder. The arm movements are certainly familiar to me. They are similar of the 3rd movement of Pinan Godan (the way I do it anyway), but also reminiscent of ‘grasp swallow’s tail’ in Tai Chi and a variation of Aikido’s irimi-nage (entering throw).

Of the hand movements Matb writes “…Sensei Higaonna suggests that the pulling motion that we interpret as a head pull, is actually a block with a left hand and a haito with the right. I respectfully disagree. A haito to the ribs is powerful, but its such an un-optimal response to any situation, it bewilders me why anyone would want to practice it. Why wouldn’t you simply perform a chudan or jodan punch once your block has opened the opponent up?”

Why not indeed. Well I’m afraid I have to side with Higaonna on this one. Who said the haito has to be to the ribs? Perhaps Matb should consider that there may be other potential targets for the haito. I’m afraid I’m going to leave the reader to work out such possible targets for themselves. Suffice to say that this can be a highly effective strike, as long as its to an appropriate target. And when you think about it, either hand could be doing a haito, the left hand as you turn or the right hand after you’ve turned.

The dynamic of this movement interests me. The turning of the body certainly lends power to the arm movements as you are turning. This matches well with Aikido’s irimi-nage (the common variation I’m thinking of anyway). But then the dynamic changes. In irimi-nage after turning one way the body then turns the other. But this movement in Saifa doesn’t do that. Having turned one way the body then stops turning before the hand movements are completed. There is one application of that movement that seems apparent to me, but not one that I’m going to discuss on a public forum I’m afraid. Other than that, I must admit that I find this movement fairly challenging in terms of analysing for bunkai, at least when it comes to mimicking the foot movements.

What are the principles of this kata movement? Similar to drawing the hands to one hip earlier in the kata, I’d say one key principle is ‘generate power by drawing the hands to the side of the body’. But there ways of further increasing the power, as shown in this movement. These are:
1. Generate power by moving the hands in one direction then changing to move in the opposite direction
2. Generate power by turning the body to augment the hand movements

And here’s my suggested bunkai. This is video clip 21.

As you turn, both hands draw to the right side of your body. This resembles the hook punch from a couple of moves ago so, like the hook punch, it could be seen as an armbar. Here the attacker has grabbed with right wrist with his right hand. Grab his wrist with your right hand and control his elbow with your left hand. Stepping forward and turning the body to the right, around the attacker’s arm, will help generate the power to overcome a larger stronger attacker. This could be all you need to do, the armbar should allow you to take the attacker to the ground. However what if you screw up and it doesn’t work properly? Rather than just grinding away at it to try and make it work, switch tactics. Reach up with both hands to seize the attacker’s head from behind. You could just grab the hair or as I’ve done in the video, apply a ‘face crank’ by drawing and rubbing the bones of your forearms across the attacker’s face (actually I’ve used my hands cos I’m a gentle caring soul). Pull the hands back towards your left hip. This will drop the attacker.

Note that I have not attempted to do the famous ‘neck break’. If you practice this technique do not attempt to twist or otherwise manipulate the neck. This is a non-lethal technique where all you’re doing is controlling the attacker then dropping them to the floor. For those readers who are obsessed with this kata movement being a neck break consider this – I could have broken the neck with almost every single movement in the kata so far. This particular movement is no more and no less serious than any other movement in the kata.

The Principles:

Muchimi – good to begin with, but when changing tactics and going for the head there is a break in contact – you must time this right to ensure you regain contact and hence control. Again contact is lost at the end when you drop the attacker. This is alright if you just want to drop them and escape but not so good if the situation is serious. That said the face crank could have been used to draw them in for further control rather than dropping them.
Kuzushi – fine, the arm-bar should be highly effective in this regard but, given that we assume it has failed here, either the hair pull or the face crank will totally destroy the attacker’s balance
Tai sabaki – fine, the body movement not only helps apply the arm-bar but also places you on the attacker’s blind side. Its easy enough to stay in an advantageous position once you’ve captured the attacker’s head, although admittedly the foot movements don’t necessarily match the kata very well.
Ki – fine, turning the body certainly helps put the bodyweight into applying the arm-bar. When holding the head its easy to put power into whatever technique you’re doing simply by walking backwards or turning to the left.
Gross motor movement – as usual this is pretty straightforward. The face crank in particular is so easy its a joy to apply, it requires no accuracy whatsoever but is intensely uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of.

Mike

And finally ‘Sequence’ 9 – the double palm-heel thrust

One part of Matb’s suggested bunkai I think isn’t too bad – that’s pushing at the groin and throat. I think I’d rather seize these points rather than push. Of course this is dangerous as the person’s stood right in front of you, so not my first choice of technique but something to consider I suppose if there’s simply no way you can move to a position of advantage. The other suggestion, pushing at the hip and shoulder is a bit silly I think, for two reasons:
1. If you’ve just broken someone’s neck, as Mat is supposing, then they’re not going to be stood there anyway. Last time I checked people with broken necks tend to fall over very quickly without you having to help them down.
2. If you have just broken their neck with the previous technique (and they have somehow managed not to fall over) then their body couldn’t possibly be oriented so as to be upright in front of you anyway.

I’m going to consider this double palm-heel thrust as having nothing to do with the previous movement. So what is it? Well I’m going to assume that ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’. I’m going to strike with both palm-heels, but that doesn’t mean that I have stand directly in front of the attacker and trade blows with him. As the attacker punches I’m going to move forwards and to the outside of his punch, blocking with (yep, you guessed it) mawashi-uke. Then I’m going to attack with both palm-heels. There are two video-clips for this (22 & 23). In one clip I’ve struck the lower border of the rib-cage at the front of the body and the occipital ridge at the back of the head. Get the angle right on this and you can easily render the assailant unconscious (look up ‘reticular activating stun’). In the other clip I’ve reversed the hands so that the low one strikes to the back, again hitting the floating ribs, while the high hand strikes to side or front of the face.

Generally I’d rather capture the wrist or control the arm when blocking, but sometimes things just don’t go your way. Alternatively, as discussed previously, this technique can be quite useful when facing multiple assailants to give you breathing space to deal with each in turn, or simply to clear an exit route for your escape. However, if you do the palm-heels correctly you shouldn’t feel as though you’re rooted to the spot. Your body should feel that its propelling through the target. Not only will this increase power but it will also enable to keep close to the assailant (even though they will move) and continue attacking them with knees and elbows, and grabbing them if appropriate.

The Principles:
1. Muchimi – not good, but then this is a technique where you’ve either lost contact or deliberately decided not to even try to stick to them in the first place. However, the follow-up techniques give you a good chance to regain muchimi if appropriate.
2. Kuzushi – fine. This is probably the one technique I’ve demonstrated where the technique is shown using a ‘dead kumite’, ie. the attacker obligingly stands there waiting for me to do my technique. However, the only reason for this is that, in this technique, it is the strikes that do the unbalancing. Normally I’m quite happy to give my training partner a rather slow ‘heavy hands’ strike to the body to unbalance. It causes no injury but does produce the appropriate unbalancing. But given that here I’m striking to the head that’s simply not appropriate. So unfortunately we must practice it as a dead kumite. All that said, this technique is very effective at unbalancing the attacker – you can easily drive your whole body through them, starting with the palm-heels and continuing with knees and elbows. But these are just the points of contact, it’s the driving your whole body through that’s important.
3. Tai sabaki – fine, you move off to the attacker’s side as he punches. He’s facing thin air but your facing him from very close up.
4. Ki – fine, the whole bodyweight can be used for this technique
5. Gross motor skills – fine, you can aim at quite specific points to cause unconsciousness or damage the ribs or impede breathing, but you can completely miss these points and the dynamic of the technique still makes it highly effective.

Mike