Eight Brocades (baduanjin)

Some time ago, a facebook friend suggested that I research the  Quijong form Eight Brocades, as it might be of help to me with my breathing and relaxation.  Given that I currently have some time on my hands, and I have been looking for a regular workout that sorts these needs, I thought I would do just that.

The form goes by a number of different names: Eight Brocades, Eight Section Brocade, Eight Pieces of Brocade, for example.  There appear to be many different ways of doing it, and in different sequences, but the eight elements are all obviously of similar origins.  It is historically a very old form, maybe 1000 year or more.

One  historical account has it  that Marshal Yue Fei molded it from a longer form in the mid 1100s from concern for his warriors.  The Song Dynasty (960-1279) was a tough tie in Chinese History with many wars. Yue Fei was a poor boy with a childhood filled with turmoil and poverty.  He entered the army at nine and rapidly rose within the ranks and by twenty-six he was a general.

There are so many different versions of the form, especially when looking at videos, it was hard to find one that was easy to understand, so I decided to pick one that was text based and used older illustrations, so that I would need to work it out from first principles. I went for:

Eight Section Brocade- baduanjin

There is an accompanying video that the author said included most of the elements, but even then that varied from the text in terms of sequence and some of the interpretation. What I want to do here is document what I am doing for each of the sequences, under their given names and then show the final version of the form at the end.

After reading the text description and working outr my own version, I then modified what I was doing to remove any major errors (I hope).  I am not going to give the actual descriptions and associated "good for" descriptions, as these are all included in the above link.  However I will say that I do believe given time, this will be of benefit to me not just for breathing and relaxation, but potentially in other ways too.  If you get this for,. hope you enjoyed reading and stay on to take a look at the videos.

Two Hands Hold up the Heavens

Drawing the bow to shoot the hawk

Separating Heaven And Earth

Wise Owl Gazes Backwards

Punching with an angry Gaze

Big Bear Turns from Side to Side

Touching Toes then Bending Backwards

Bouncing on the Toes

Eight Brocades (all eight elements)

Hope you found this interesting, if you got this far, thank you for looking ☺☺☺

Dojo kata time - My Kata and why I do them

Today's lesson was mostly about kata. After a 15 minute warm up, Mokosu and the formal opening of the lesson, it was mostly kata. We went through the whole range of our family's repertoire up to Passai Sho. All of the Naihanchi kata were done step by step then performance if you know the kata. The rest were follow the instructor as best you can then perform your highest kata. That led to quite a lot of performances of Naihanchi Nidan.

All in all, an absolutely necessary lesson and what a beautiful day to practice kata, but not much to blog on, so I decided to go through the kata I do and why I do them

Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan are the two I can do a performance of in my style. I know the bones of Sandan but they are pretty bare just now. As well as finding Naihanchi Shodan a most compelling kata, and one which is acknowledged to be one of, if not the, best fighting systems in karate, all the Naihanchis are needed for grading. My Sensei says my Shodan has improved sufficiently to formally start working on Nidan, so these are the two kata I formally practice in the dojo and as a part of our online sessions.

Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan

Tensho is another kata I practice. I have been taught this as a kata for breathing exercise by Noah Legel. The Goju Ryu styles of kata employ controlled rather than natural breathing in their execution, for example breathe in on the draw back, exhale fully on the punch, or on the slower parts of the kata, breathe in slowly on the outward part of the movement and breathe out slowly but fully on the return part of the movement. I like to be able to do it just before and after each session, or whenever I need to take a deep breath, which can be quite a lot at the moment being in a 90 day lockdown. On top of this it has also been a challenge to be able to learn an advanced kata from another style, so for me this one works on two levels.

Tensho

Naihanchi Shodan slow, Naihanchi Shodan hontai and Naihanchi Sandan. Are the other three kata or variations I perform. Naihanchi Shodan slow was the first variation of a kata I learned, working with Robey Jenkins and based on tai chi. This was for gentle cardio exercise, but I also found to be good for relaxation and actually has helped in performing my actual kata.

The hontai version of Naihanchi Shodan isn't at all necessary, but I'm a leftie so I wanted to give it a try, However, since looking into the roots of Naihanchi (See Nerd life: Tne origins of Naihanchi) I think this is actually closer to the original version than the usual version we do, so it's like a living bit of history.☺☺☺

Naihanchi Sandan is there because I have managed to learn the frame of the kata, and I want to keep it in my repetoire until such time as it's needed.

Naihanchi Shodan slow, Naihanchi Shodan hontai, Naihanchi Sandan

Than you to those of you who have taken the time to read ☺

Monday Night dojo life

On a few days leave at the moment, so went to the Dojo for the Monday night session.  Quite a varied lesson, which I find a good thing 😊.  We started off with core drills, including sprints, crawling, forward rolls, and the shrimp followed by some stretches.

This was followed by transition practise, step through in Zenkutzu Dachi and various uke / tsuki combinations with proper mawatte techniques.  This was followed by Kata practice: For me Naihanchi Shodan with a run through of Nidan and Sandan.

After Kata, we went to try Tai Sabaki (body management) - with our Sensei trying to hit with a padded kendo style stick.   The trick was to evade, first of all to a lunge by stepping away, followed by a head swipe followed by ducking.  After that, we had to evade a leg swipe by jumping, followed by a head / leg swipe combination by ducking then jumping.  Finally, we had to evade a lunge by swaying, followed by evading a lunge, head swipe, leg swipe, lunge combination by stepping, ducking, jumping and swaying.

We then worked in pairs to evade forehand and backhand punches by parrying and stepping away to the outside, followed by delivering a return punch from the side.  We followed this by trying to evade random forehand or backhand punches.   The last part of the lesson was padwork for mawashi geris / punches / 4 punches, followed by front foot mai geri and a spinning kick / uke to random head and leg strikes.


Finally, we did Naihanchi Shodan cool down to end the lesson; plenty of variety and new things to remember.  Awesome 😊🙏

Facebook Mentoring

Mentoring - I recently took part in a mentoring scheme in a Facebook group to work on Cardio Vascular exercise for my heart condition, In addition to adding to the stretches and exercises I use, also the developed the use of slow kata as CV exercise. A big thank you to Robey Jenkins, who acted as my mentor 🙏. This is the article on which the kata work is based:

Karate Katas Yoga

The idea of doing tai chi style Kata was supported by my sister, who did Judo when younger and does Tai Chi now when she can; she is 11 years older than me, but still active 😊.  In addition to the kata, we also worked on adding to my stretches, plus punches to try and help me improve on my chicken winged style (emphasising practicing tsuke punches by rotating the hips and sliding my arm by my side when delivering a punch).

My initial tai chi style kata was based on Naihanchi Shodan, but now I try to follow it with Nidan as well. My Sensei says my posture has improved greatly and so have some of the other elements, so not only has this provided a good source of Cardio Vascular exercise it has also actually (in my mind) helped me improve this aspect of my Karate as well 😊

This is the latest video of my exercise kata:

Practicing Naihanchi Shodan

With Shorin-Ryu being one of the earliest styles of Okinawan Karate, the fighting element is still a major part of the syllabus.  Choki Mobotu is quoted as saying  “The only kata that was necessary for one to be a good fighter was Naihanchi” (Naihanchi Shodan, Niedan and Sandan being originally all one Kata), so it is no susprise that the three Naihanchi Katas are the first to be learnt in my style.

Naihanchi Shodan isn't needed until my third grading, for blue belt, but we start practicing it from the very beginning, so that by the time we get to grading we are reasonably proficient.  It also forms the basis for the main drills we are taught, to explain the techniques encapsulated in the Kata.

My Senseis have told me that my performance of this Kata has much improved from my first attempts, with elements such as posture and stepping being big plusses.  This might be because I practice this the most frequently of all elements of Karate, both to improve my technique and as a form of Cardio-Vascular exercise.

For the record, I have included my earliest and most recent training videos I've done here for comparison.  These include both the ways I practice. Please feel free to comment

First video (February this year)

Slow style (Tai Chi - Cardio-Vascular workout)

Naihanchi Shodan - recording 1

Naihanchi Shodan - recording 2

There is still plenty of room for improvement, not least in consistency, but I trust my Senseis, and believe I am improving 😊😊😊

Karate for Cardio-Vascular Exercise

Apart from sharing a common interest with my son, the other main reason I had for starting Karate was as a form of Cardio-Vascular exercise, as a response to finding I have a hereditary heart condition.   Both my Senseis have been really helpful and understanding, and my health has definitely improved as a result, than you Ben and Alison.

In addition to this, one of the Karate groups I am a member of on Facebook offers a Mentorship scheme, which I asked for and was accepted.  My mentor is helping me add aspects to the home exercises I do (mostly basic drills, stretches and Kata) at home to tweek these further to gain the most out of them.

I have already tweeked at least one stretch (to avoid a bad back) and added a trunk stretch to my routines, but his other suggestion was to do two versions of my Kata, one for the proper practice of the Kata, and the other version to be for exercise and relaxation.  This form he suggested by done in Tai Chi style, slower and smoother.  I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and have had a couple of videos done to see how its coming along.

Naihanchi Shodan Slow 1

Naihanchi Shodan Slow 2

A lot of work needs doing; not doing it as consistently as I would like, not relaxed enough and perhaps not slow enough.  But I think when I get used to doing it this way, will be really good to help me relax, whilst providing a good work out at the same time.

Have shared this with my mentor, so that I can get some constrsuctve feedback: But I have to practice the correct form as well, perhaps even more so, so that I don't lose anything from that either.  Keeps me busy and out of mischief, so can't complain. 😊😊😊

An Extra Day in the Dojo

Monday evening is a session I normally miss in the dojo due to work commitments, but made it tonight because I took a day's holiday for family commitments.   It was a bit of an eye opener because there are some new students I hadn't even met, and a reminder that lessons are not repeats.

We did Kata, Kata drills and stranglehold breaks, and I realised that I am missing out a lot on not doing the second lesson regularly.  I do practice in between sessions and will progress, but I had brought home to me that students who started after me are overtaking me in development.

However, life is what it is, and it is good to see other people learning and willing to share 😊  If circumstances change, then I will definitely want to be in the dojo more often.

On a positive note, the idea of doing Kata in tai chi style, seems to be very much the slow practice we have been encouraged to do to improve technique.  To learn the accuracy, you need to do it slowly first. 

Today, I was told that elements my Kata (Naihanchi Shodan) have distinctly improved 😊😊😊😊 So a big positive, thank you Senseis 😊 

Trying something new, kata tai chi style

I chatted with my mentor today. He likes the idea of my blog to record where I'm at, and from the videos made some suggestions on how I might improve my exercises.  On my existing stretches, my Zenkutsu dachi stretch needs to be made safer, by being my knee more to reduce the risk of popping my lower back muscles.

An additional stretch has been suggested; a forward fold, to stretch the lower back.  Bend forward at 90 degrees with hands on knees, this augments the Zenkutsu dachi stretch, without going too far and damaging muscles.

Hes also keen on Kata as a form of excersise, but says at the moment my shoulders are too rigid.  He says the movements are natural and to relax into them more.  Exactly the point my Senseis make to me.  For exercise he suggests doing them tai chi style, slow and flowing if possible.  I've spoken to my sister on this one, as she is older than me and actually does tai chi when her health allows.

I've tried this a couple of times already, and when I feel more confident with it, may share of video of Naihanchi Shodan done in that style for exercise purposes.  As a comment on my Kata as it stands, again reinforcing my Senseis points, my strikes are floppy at times, and lack intent.  But hopefully this is something that good practising will correct.

Will let you know how it goes 😊😊😊😊