By Gavin King, 2nd Dan Go So Kempo

This weekend I had the misfortune of being struck down by severe bout of food poisoning.  It’s a fantastic way to loose weight, but not really needing to drop any weight I can say that it has been a rather unpleasant experience.  The only solace I had while confined to my sofa was my new Sopranos DVD box set.  To add insult to injury my Soprano marathon was over in a mere 13 hours, damn!  Ok, the backup options were either normal TV or my PS2.  I didn’t feel well enough to get off the sofa let alone switch the PS2 on the other side of the room on.  I took the TV option, the remote was within grabbing range!

Resigned to my fate of weekend TV, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Martial Arts documentary on one of the Discovery channels, bonus! 

The program was great; it was following a former World Champion on his quest to regain his World Title.  He had a whole team of specialists watching him with computers, analysing his every movement with slow motion cameras and motion capture devices.  It was very gymnastic and quite sports orientated, which I’m not a particular fan of, but this guy was fantastically talented.  Strong, fast, and bloody quick!  It then got to a bit when they started showing some traditional Okinawian Kata, things were really looking up!  He was performing a really sharp Seienchin, and then he explained some Bunkai (applications). This is the bit that got me screaming at the TV!

In the opening of Seienchin you drop into a Horse stance, draw your hands up into your chest, and then drop them down and out to either side of body just above the thighs.  His explanation was that after defending an attack from the front, you then (without looking) strike two attackers from behind into the groin!  Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!  This is a video of the Kata, watch it and see if you think that would work.  If your answer is yes, then please do not ever teach the Bunkai to this or any other Kata ever ever again!  No wonder the world sees Kata as useless when Karateka attending the World Championship are explaining Bunkai like this!

I went on a Seienchin seminar once which had another piece of classic Bunkai. It was the bit just after the three opening sets of movements where you turn out to the right, with your right hand being grasped with the left.  This movement was explained as a block to a roundhouse kick, with the left hand reinforcing the right arm!  Arrrrrrrrrhgh, arrrrrgh and double arrrrrrrgh!  To clear up any misconceptions this is WRONG!  This is so wrong in fact, that if you are ever taught this, take your Gi off, ask for your money back and walk out of said dojo door never to return. Some basic anatomy; the human arm is not as strong as the human leg!  End of story! If there are any poor souls who still don’t believe me on this one I’ll give you a quick way of testing it.  Go to a local Thai Boxing camp, and ask them to kick you as hard as they can and try the application.  Let me know how you get on! 

In this day and age, it irritates the living hell out of me that this rubbish is still being taught.  We have the internet, books, DVD’s, magazines and lastly common sense that should at the very least point you in the right direction!  Go to any search engine and type in “Kata” followed by any one of the following names Patrick McCarthy, George Dillman, Rick Moneymaker, Mike Patrick, Tom Muncy or Russell Stutely to name but a few.  Follow the results! These guys have dedicated their entire lives to discovering and sharing the true meaning of the Kata’s.  You have no excuses not to understand the true Bunkai for your Kata, apart from your own laziness! 

As I start to get further and further into my teaching, I’m constantly being shocked by what some Martial Artists are being taught.  As instructors, our students come to us to learn a fighting art.  They put their trust and money into us to teach them how to defend themselves.  It is our responsibility to make sure that what we teach works.  To make sure that our students are in a better position after their dedicated training, than before they started it.  If you are an instructor and you do teach the sort of applications mentioned in this article, you are seriously putting the safety of you students at risk.  If they try to apply this tripe on the street they are going to get hurt.  If this happens, it is you, and you solely, who the blame will rest upon.  The information is out there, most of it isn’t rocket science, and most won’t require you to change your technique, merely the application of it.  Read our stuff, read the sites off of our links page, the knowledge is there for you on a plate! 

A closing thought, if there is anyone who wants to still learn this sort of Bunkai drop me a mail!  I promise to come up with more fantastic and completely unrealistic applications for Kata's and Forms regardless of style at very competitive rates!