Can Karate Kata be turned into Flow Drills?

The possibility of looking at kata differently.

Chiefly about Naihanchi, but can apply to other scenarios.

Introduction.

It could be argued that any kata sequence can be turned into a useful paired drill, but it depends on how contrived and prolonged it is.

Back in the 1990’s I had an itch I felt compelled to scratch. It was all about Naihanchi kata. I just found it perplexing and frustrating; I honestly didn’t get it.

Clearly, in Wado karate it held a very important position. It wasn’t just an add-on, an oddity, but instead had a central position in the wider curriculum. However, anything beyond ‘just do it, then do it again’ was just not delivering for me.

Otsuka Hironori and his Naihanchi.

I pushed into every available corner to try and figure it out. I consulted experts from other systems (I still have a box file of letters, printed out email replies and photocopies sent to me by the then leading scholars). But, the pieces still didn’t sit together easily.

It very quickly became apparent that any explorations in the direction of how the techniques from Naihanchi actually functioned at a practical level, just led me into a quagmire of reverse engineering.

Reverse Engineering.

Definition: ‘Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accomplishes a task with very little (if any) insight into exactly how it does so’.

I had a very interesting and honest email exchange with an expert in the field of kata interpretation (I won’t name him here). I asked him about his published applications of Naihanchi (Tekki Shodan)? He was very open with me; he admitted that he used the process of reverse engineering and said he had applied a ‘bunch of stuff he learned from Aikido and Judo’ to come up with some of his conclusions.

The problem seems to be that, apart from the above-mentioned researcher, nobody wants to admit to reverse engineering, because in doing so they lose any claim to a timeline that goes all the way back to 19^th century Okinawa, or maybe beyond. With reverse engineered kata ‘authenticity’ starts and ends with the instructor who created it.

Oldest version?

In the process of my research, I came to the conclusion that the nearest I was ever going to get to an oldest original version of Naihanchi was from Okinawan Shorin Ryu. But even there, nobody seemed to be prepared to put forward an explanation of what was really going on with kata. (Motobu was an interesting case, but my feelings about his interpretations was that they were idiosyncratic to him).

Here is a link to a creditable version of Naihanchi linked to the Motobu Choki variant:

To continue the story. Curiosity got the better of me when I stumbled across an explanation of Naihanchi that was just too intriguing to ignore…

Nathan Johnson and his book, ‘Barefoot Zen’. Naihanchi as a flow drill.

I read the book first, before I visited Nathan Johnson’s Dojo in Southampton. The actual trip down was the first weekend in June 2001.

(His organisation is ‘Ko-do Ryu’ or ‘Zen Shorin-Do’, a synthesis of different stylistic approaches).

I had previously spoken to Nathan on the phone before I decided to drive down from Essex to Hampshire and experience this for myself.

Southampton University.

The venue was at the university of Southampton campus and, after a bit of getting lost, being super-early and wandering round the university’s leafy pathways and open spaces, with students, doing what students do – lounging around on the lawns, I found the Dojo.

To my disappointment, Nathan Johnson was not actually there, but one of his senior Dan grades was taking the class. He was very welcoming and fully prepared to address my enquiries. He was joined by another senior, who was equally friendly, with the same level of enthusiasm. There weren’t many training that evening, so this gave me time to really interrogate their Naihanchi (they preferred to call it ‘Naifuanchin’).¹

The method.

Basically, it was a continually engaged partnered flow-drill, that involved using the kata moves, almost exactly as they are, to twist round, lock-up and destabilise an opponent. It didn’t have any clear finishing strikes, but others have commented that it is more like a series of restraints you might find useful in law-enforcement scenarios.

The instructors were very patient with my questioning; but there were one or two holes in what they were saying that I still can’t figure out. Chief among those was the ‘returning wave’ kick. It wasn’t really used; they told me it was just for momentum. I was puzzled, as it is actually one of the most accessible parts of the kata if you wanted to construct a bunch of ‘applications’.

We worked through it and then they invited me to engage in applying it freeform. This looked fun, and it was. We seemed to really get some flow going. Afterwards, one of them turned to me and said, “You’ve done this before”. I hadn’t, maybe he was just being nice. But later, thinking about it, what did I do?

Well really, my go-to default way of moving with the pressure was the Kihon Gumite and Kumite Gata of Wado. That realisation, in itself, was one of the things that made the whole adventure seem worthwhile.²

I came across it again!

Not so long after, I was on one of the major Wado courses and an English instructor (from the South West of the UK) decided he was going to show us a novel approach to Naihanchi. And there it was again; it appears that somebody had read the book.

But, by this time my enthusiasm for this method had dropped away. I had had some time to think about it and found no compulsion to adopt this method. It had clearly been reverse engineered, although the book went to great pains to try and link it to the original ideas of the Okinawans. But, supposition and guesswork only take you so far. (Even on page 194 of ‘Barefoot Zen’ Nathan Johnson says he provides a ‘little bit of evidence’, but I found it didn’t stack up).³

However, I don’t want to be hard on the creative thinking behind the project, and have full respect for people who won’t allow themselves to have their hands bound by orthodoxy and dogmatic thinking.

I am grateful to Nathan Johnson, because his project has given me a useful hook to hang my ideas on. Because it’s more than just the Naihanchi example. The bottom line for me is that when instructors or innovators create elongated paired forms that go beyond a certain length, that must be stuck to at all costs, then they are at risk of replacing one dogma with another.

The exception would be where the paired drill is deliberately seeded with ‘what if’ moments and can turn on a dime, THEN you have something really interesting and useful. This is a closer match to the chaos of combat.

Here is the full Nathan Johnson flow drill for Naihanchi/Naifuanchin, make your own mind up:

1. I believe the origin of Nathan’s thesis was an in-depth academic study, which then grew into a larger personal quest and the publication of two books; one through Tuttle in 1994 called, ‘Zen Shaolin Karate’, and then another, via Weiser, ‘Barefoot Zen’ in 2000.

2. A bit of Googling and I found that one of the main protagonists of ‘Applied’ karate relating to kata meaning, was not keen on Nathan Johnson’s conclusions. He seemed to think that it lacked the killer techniques and relied too much on compliancy. All opinions are valid.

3. Lengthy footnote here for anyone who is interested: So, what is Naihanchi in Wado all about? Phew, where to start. The cleverness in Naihanchi is in the dynamics. If you plunge into the kata looking for direct, unchangeable ‘applications’ then, although it might be an interesting sideline; it’s like the finger pointing at the moon, go chasing the finger and you miss ‘all the heavenly glory’. I am lucky in that my Sensei has provided me with so many hints and direct explanations as to how this kata can affect EVERYTHING you do in your Wado training; it’s the gift that keeps on giving. My frustration with Naihanchi remains, but its nature has changed completely. Naihanchi to me is now like a bottomless brunch, a never-ending laboratory. Too much to work on, with not enough time on the clock to do it justice.