Practical Kata Bunkai: Shotokan’s Wankan 

Two of my favorite youtube channels at one place, sensei Andy, sensei Ian OSS!!

@@goodbuy7556 Without Iain's influence, I would never have started the Applied Shotokan channel. :)

@@AppliedShotokan I don't know if that's true, but it is a very kind thing to say!

@@practicalkatabunkai we need more of that influence than ;D

@@practicalkatabunkai your always moaning were credits due just be quiet mate

Thanks Alexander! It was a fun weekend!

That’s a good question! Kokutsu-dachi (as done in Shotokan) is essentially an elongated cat stance i.e. bent lead leg and weight on the back foot, so the same bunkai would apply. It is difficult say which is the “original” as the origins of the kata are unclear, and the kata going by the name of “Wankan” in other systems (AKA “Matsukaze”) is entirely different. According to Nagamine, that version of that kata is very old and comes from the Tomari area … but what links that has to the Shotokan kata of the same name, if any, is unclear. Nakayama did not include Wankan in his Best Karate series, so it’s not clear to me how the JKA originally did it and whether the kokutsu-dachi or neko-ashi-dachi is the variation … it’s even possible that both were around when the kata was adopted into Shotokan. Bottomline, both work and are modest variations on each other. Not sure that helps, but “we don’t know” is often the right answer when it comes to karate history and I think it’s better that unfounded conjecture.

@practicalkatabunkai thank you! Great point about the kata being omitted from the best Karate series. I have all of the books and thought I was missing one lol.

Lots of ways; which I like people to play with so they can apply the kata from a variety of positions. Hard to describe clearly in text, but you could shift a grip from the back of the neck, take the grip from a knee, from the inside of a crashed hook, etc. The best advice is to play with it :-)

@@practicalkatabunkai Thank you, I understood everything except "take the grip from a knee", what is that?

@@goodbuy7556 From this postion if he pulls back: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RCQnW1zSlL4.html I hope that helps.

@@practicalkatabunkai Thanks

Because it would be amazing to see your interpretation

I’d agree that if you want to acquire high level throwing skills then judo is an ideal choice (which I is why I trained in it on the advice of one of my karate teachers). However, if the karateka wishes to understand their totality of their art - which includes the integrated use of wide range of methods - then a study of the kata is what is needed.

@@practicalkatabunkai but performing the kata doesnt teach you how to do throws. If you take a sequence and modify it to a judo-like version, then you learn how to do throws. and that exact same thing is true for every technique in a kata. When I do a kata, I feel like studying "applicable-like" techniques which could all be practiced in an adapted form much better. This, for me, leads to the assumption, that kata is great for practicing techniques when Im home alone, without a partner, but a waste of time when I could train some real kicks, punches and throws with a partner. So the question that remains is if anyone gets good at fighting by doing kata. I have never experienced such thing in my ~10 years of karate or ~15 years of judo. But maybe you have, since you probably have been doing karate for a much longer time

@@music-wd2yq I think you are misunderstanding the nature of kata (or at least my take on it). It is not an alternative to partner work and live practise, but something that informs and supports partner work and live practise. I’ve never said that solo kata alone will make you good at throwing. I’m obviously doing everything with a partner in this video; albeit a summary video for those who had just been working on the methods in various ways. It’s therefore not a total guide. However, in over 20 years of sharing material, I have never said solo kata alone will make one combatively competent. It won't. I needs to be part of the wdier preocess. These videos may help as they give a little more background. 1) The kata process: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y02d-QU_aoE.html 2) The role of solo kata in that process: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aK_YWpjg4Gg.html I know tons of people who have combatively benefited from kata. I’d not use the word “fighting” in this context as I use that term for consensual violence between martial artists, as opposed to the non-consensual violence of self-protection (as Itosu, Motobu, et all where clear that is what kata is for). Slightly off topic, but his video explains the difference between consensual and non-consensual violence: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wox8fB1Mdh8.html I hope this help clarify my position for yourself and other readers. All the best, Iain

Assuming you get the difference between a demonstration and sparring … what do you feel won’t work live? The knee? The trips? Punching while controlling an arm? The overhand punch? Is it you that can’t make those work against live or do you believe no one can? If you feel no one can make a trip work, for example, how do you explain that other martial artists find this stuff basic and seem to be able to make it work? I am interested to know the issues you are alluding to?

????

My guess here is you don’t know Shotokan’s Wankan? You only know the Matsubayashi-Ryu kata of the same name that is very different (and goes by the name Matsukaze in other styles)? You therefore ignored the title of the video (“Shotokan’s Wankan”) and wrongly said that, “There are no such movements in Kata” when these are exactly the movements of Shotokan’s Wankan?