The Challenge: 41.50 - 43.50

30 minutes makiwara, 1 hr Sanchin and 30 minutes Tenshin.  Ni-Sei-Shi is important training for resistance, sensitivity and uke-waza.  The most important aspects are 1) whole body movement - using your stance and hips to strengthen your motion, 2) kakiwake-uke as a transition to soto-uke, kosa-uke, uchi-uke, and 3) controlling centerline and transitioning from defense to offense.  Morote-tsuki and kakiwake-uke are two-sides of the same coin.  The bunkai for Ni-Sei-Shi should be against the lapel grab of morote.  You must develop the sensitivity and ryote ability to the approaching fist.  Keep your elbows in for both morote and kakiwake.  The two techniques should feel the same.  Kakiwake should enter into ma before the elbows return.  Morote should rotate at the last moment.  Practice each like it can turn into the other.

The Challenge: 39.50 - 41.50

30 minutes of sanchin, 30 minutes of sabaki, 1 hour of tenshin

The rotation in tenshin from sanchin or seisan dachi can be broken down into two motions: as the hips turn it becomes neko ashi dachi then you swing the leg behind to a kosa dachi before completing the rotation.  In sanchin dachi it is important not to raise your tanden.  In seisan dachi it is helpful to think of the kosa motion as a rotating trip to the opponent's leg.  That feeling of attacking will give the motion the urgency necessary to complete the turn.

Did I ever notice that sabaki 5 is the same motion as the shuto-haishu kamae in ni-sei-shi?  Sabaki 5 needn't attack only to the side or from a rotation.  There is so much to learn even from the things that I think that I understand.  Truly, Budo is depthless.

The Challenge: 38.00 - 39.50

30 minutes sabaki, 30 minutes makiwara and 30 minutes ude gitae.  It occurs to me that just as fin-di in the shuri-te hooks and pulls (and twists) and in the naha-te it pushes and traps (and twists), uke-waza must boil down to sensitivity.  We need a lot of drills to build the feeling of when to push and when to pull - when to stand and when to move.  When the strike is intercepted close to the wrist on the blocking forearm the hand should come into play, controlling the strike at the attacker's wrist through small circles of the your own wrist.  But when a strike is deflected by the forearm in the vicinity of the elbow, it is more natural to control the action with a small circle of the shoulder and elbow, to lay atop the striking weapon and move to control the opponent's elbow.  However either elbow or wrist interceptions can change to either pulling or pushing fin-di.

This is partly why it is so important to see a block not as a lateral movement but as a forward interception with internal rotations.  Both your arm and the opponent's arm must enter into ma-ai - one is directed at kyusho along a straight trajectory and the other intercepts that vector by entering ma and creating a small arc to which the attack will be tangent.  But these arcs must be as small and subtle as possible to allow muchimi (stickiness to your opponent) and to prevent reversals by the opponent.

In this way although ikken hissatsu differentiates karate from gung fu and kempo, muchimi is the dimension of  tanshu tantai in karate (searching for the hands and feet).

Remember to incorporate nage-no-kata 1 into practice for Sabaki 2.