Jon already wrote about the Kyu exam. Congratulations everyone! It was a great demonstration of your hard work; it really showed that many of you put a lot of effort to it. We are all happy for you.
Now there are 4 new brown belts! Brown belt, in case you didn't know, is the last color belt before getting a black belt! That's exciting, that some of you are already getting there.
I assigned the following Kata to the new brownies (no, that's not a common karate term; I just made it up):
Bassai Dai: Chris and Jon M
Kanku Dai: Nate and Vonzell
They will be working on these Kata for a long time. They are the signature Katas of our style. As you can easily see the Heian Katas were derived from them. Heian Katas are relatively new and were developed for training/education purposes, but Bassai and Kanku are very historic and no one knows the exact origin. By the way Bassai sometimes are called Passai in other styles, and Kanku are called Kusanku or Kushanku. Since they are very old and passed down through generations of masters, several different styles practice those Kata that are variations of them. They are not extremely hard to learn, but are very rich and deep; worth studying for a while.
Here are the recommended Youtube videos for those who are learning the Kata:
Bassai Dai:
http://youtu.be/6IGC--9E7H8 (Osaka)
http://youtu.be/-WSyQJMZGLw (Kagawa)
http://youtu.be/TNU6-_N2KII (Kurihara)
http://youtu.be/TZsx1coI3ac (Canadian, eh?)
Kanku Dai:
http://youtu.be/BB6j-Q5bUI8 (Osaka)
http://youtu.be/Mud8Y2mdu78 (Ueki)
http://youtu.be/rkbnu8szcRs (Kurihara)
http://youtu.be/pJGZ0lyVH1k (Yamamoto)
Even though the brown belts have been assigned certain kata to learn first I also think it is beneficial for all "brownies" to learn Bassai Dai - "To penetrate a fortress". I always learned that this was "the brown belt kata." So - on the side do your best to learn that one too.
ReplyDeleteNo, stick with your assignment at least for the first 6-10 months. Both Kanku Dai and Bassai Dai are the Shotokan signature Katas and they are both equally important.
ReplyDeleteEventually everyone will learn all 4, but don't make yourself too busy by trying to learn all of them at once. Brown belts (and of course more so for black belts) need to study "deep" and continue perfecting what you can do.