Monday, November 13, 2017

Oshiro Sensei and Multiple Striking

Back in 1980 when I first began training with Tristan Sutrisno and his family study of Shotokan and other arts, among the first differences I discovered was a series of drills using multiple striking techniques.
 
They are brilliant, and I incorporated them into my instruction, abet with Isshinryu techniques, with no effort, and I have been teaching them ever since.
 
The concept is quite simple, every strike can change into another strike, flowing from one movement to the next. They were practiced as a 5 count striking drill, and over the years I worked out a number of different versions for my own use.
 
Their use is also simple to understand, although karate striking wants to conclude an attack with a single response, at times that is not going to happen. These techniques shift the countering strike into a 2nd strike to finish the job, while their focus and concentration are fixed on that first strike which perhaps they countered, or perhaps you were less than perfect (something I have mastered, being less than perfect.
 
I trained many placed and many styles, but I had not seen this sort of training being done. This was a time before Video availability, long before the internet or YouTube. And while I followed the karate magazines rigorously, I had never seen this there either.
 
Then one day Panther video and then Tsunami video came on the scene. Many things were now available to be seen.  For example I had heard of the Goju kata Suparempi, but had never seen it. So one of my first purchases was just that kata. Not to attempt to learn it, but just to see it for myself.
 
So one day I saw a series of videos by Oshiro Sensei on Unichandi. I was intrigued. I got the tapes, not so much for the kata, but to see what it was about.
And the first technique being shown was a multiple strike, in a different system from what I had seen before.
 
There are no secrets, just practices your system might do, yet. Everything old is new again. (Maybe I should write a song about that.)
 
This is what Oshiro Sensei showed:


















 
Prior Post from my blog on Multiple Striking:
 

 

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