Both Naihanchi and Sanchin have an arced stepping motion that brings the heel either out then in, or in then out again, and though at different angles Naihanchi Dachi and Sanchin Dachi are basically the same structural stance. The leg movement in Naihanchi is part of a cross step that is often expressed as a knee strike, whilst the description I heard for Sanchin was that arcing motion protects the groin whilst moving forward.
Both schools I have learn from, Shorin Ryu and Bu-Kai, also show this arcing movement can be used for takedowns. The simplest is a heel trip, and guess what, ity's not just a karate technique. In fact, I never even thought of it as such until a recent converstion with my Sensei from both schools.
This is why......
When I went to senior school, I started off being bullied as I was one of the academicly brighter but not so physically strong students. Fortunately I had some good friends at school who sorted out the bullies for me, but it still carried on away from school. One day, a newish bike I had bought for me was taken away by a gang. One of my sisters (older than me), went and sorted them out and returned my bike. She was studying Judo at the time......
She decided to teach me one simple trick, the heel trip. Basically saything that if I could avoid a first punch and stepped forward with a slightly arcing step so that my heel was inside their front leg, they would probably step back and fall over. Little did I know she was teaching me what I now recognise that she was teaching me a bit of Naihanchi and Seisan, along with the concept of taking space! 😊😊😊
I suppose the penny started to drop when I read a book by Simon Keegan that emphasised the similarities between Judo and specifically Naihanchi, but more recently I also remember reading a couple of articles by Andreas Quast, picking up on a simalr theme with the Satsuma involvement with Okinawan martial arts. The penny was just a long time completing its drop.
Strangely enough, once word got round that my big sister was capable of sorting things out, nobody really bothered me again until I was in the 6th form. Then, one of the lower year's would be playground bullies decided to make his mark by taking out a 6th former, namely me. The first time he stepped in front of me to punch me, I swayed back then stepped forward with an arcing step, down he went and scuttled away. Two weeks later the tried the same thing, with the same result, who says bullies learn quickly? Another few week went by then he tried again, I was fed up by this point and took the initiative by stepping forward and landing a straight jab on his nose.
From then on, he resorted to shouting insults at long range. Job done, thanks to what I thought was Judo, but it would seem that good techniques are nothing to do with the marital style, more to do with the effectiveness of their application.......
REY 12/06/2022