The Secret of the Shotokan Karate Kata Bassai Dai | JKA Karate 2020 | Karate Coaching. 

Thank you Hessam - please let me know what other topics you might be interested in so I can consider them. Please subscribe, like, and share the videos since it is a lot of work I want to make sure people like the content and it has value and is of interest to people. Thank you.

absolutely agreed

Thank you so much. If my topics are of interest please subscribe and leave comments so I know what content to produde.

Awesome, thank you!

Thanks for sharing

Much appreciated!

Drop your comments about other topics you might be interested so I can consider what to do next. I will do a follow up video of my Hangetsu video.

So nice of you

thank you I will try to do more videos

Glad to hear it

Hello Henry. Thank you for engaging in the conversation and the exchange of ideas, thoughts, and opinions. At first I would agree with you about a modern sports interpretation but the longer I train Karate the more I question that the old masters only cared about Jutsu and that kicking and punching is all they wanted to leave behind and teach. I believe that some of our Katas (maybe not all) have indeed been created to influence our mind, spirit, and even our soul with enough of practice. I think that Hangetsu for example has an influence over the human torus field and that there is way more about this Kata than we know and understand. I know I am way overdue for another video about Hangetsu but I just haven't had the time yet. But I do have a few things that would maybe back up my claim.

I will try my best to produce more quality content soon

Hello Olaf, indeed I overlocked Shito Ryu - my apologies for this mistake. Anyway I am happy to hear that you like the rest of the video. Please feel free to share the videos so I know that they have value to people and that there is interest. I plan on doing some more videos soon so let me know what you want to learn more about. Thank you

This was mentioned by Werner Lind in his book "Das Lexikon der Kampfkuenste". Unfortunately as far as I know this book is only available in German.

Very good point - indeed this is yet another way of translating the Japanese terms Dai and Sho and it absolutely makes sense. Thank you for adding to this video. Oss

You are probably right that I don't follow the "writing a paper model" and we could argue about if a video must follow the same way - but that was not the purpose of the video in the first place. The thought behind the video is that there are things hidden in our Katas that nobody talks about. It is absolutely ok if you want to criticize my work and anyone like me who puts himself/herself out there by writing an article or creating a video has to accept this. Still as said my points are valid that nobody talks about the hidden things in our katas and the spiritual lessons we can gain from them.

@@karatecoaching maybe you should change the name of the title to conform more with what you are talking about. I am not here to criticize your work, However when you see the title of something, you assume that that will be what you are talking about. I am just saying that you should stay closer to the title. The same thing for Kanku Dai. What are the secrets, you never stated them. since you have not sited any facts, I am to assume that these are just your opinion.

Dear Paul Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the video. Everyone is welcome to share his or her thoughts and opinion and I appreciate any type of feedback, even if this means that you do not agree with the arguments. I want to mention that you do not only disagree with me but with Sensei Nakayama, Sensei Funakoshi, Sensei Morihei Ueshiba (founder of Aikido), and ultimately Budo as well. Why would I say that? It is actually Sensei Nakayama who mentions in his book series "Best Karate" how important the spiritual path is and that only if one walks both paths can become a true Karateka. Similar comments (and writings) were made many times by Sensei Funakoshi and of course Sensei Ueshiba and many many many other masters. The common translation of Budo is "martial way" which falls short of the true translation (and meaning) of "stopping all conflict" = internal and external conflict. There is a reason why all Samurai were required not only to sharpen their warrior skills but also had to learn poetry, music, calligraphy, and such. The teachings always center around balancing dualisms = brutal (war, fighting, killing) on one side must be balanced out by softness, understanding, kindness on the other side. If this is not accomplished then there will never be a balance and with that peace. My last argument that you seem to totally ignore that ZEN is an essential part and influence on all traditional Japanese martial arts and that the CORE MESSAGE of ZEN is to find inner balance. Your argument would take everything out that makes BU-DO. There would be no "DO" if there are no spiritual lessons in these martial arts. Bujitsu, however, is the raw application of just techniques without any inner meaning or purpose other than victory. I do agree that too many try to find this way without the discomfort, pain and suffering that comes with it and that too many do NOT put the time in. I am practicing Karate for over 30 years and I am a JKA Godan who has studied intensively under the 3 Shotokan Masters, Hideo Ochi, Taiji Kase, and Hiroshi Shirai. All three of them have/had a personal relationship with my family and I was a guest in every master's house at one time and point in my life. I used to compete, practice constantly on the Makiwara, and teach 6 days a week. I want to think of me that I have dedicated my life to this art and that I am able to share some deeper insides. Some of those insides might take the viewer/listener more time on their journey until they can understand what I am saying. As for Bunkai - most of what I see as "Bunkai" is the biggest nonsense out there - especially the common JKA bunkai is just embarrassing. Bunkai has totally developed into this pre-arranged dance that you claim to dislike. If you are interested in some more realistic bunkai explanations you might want to check out Sensei Ian Abernethy - even though I don't agree with all his applications/explanations he has probably the most realistic bunkai out there. I do practice bunkai in my dojo and of course for myself but to me bunkai is nothing but pre-arranged and therefore can never replicate a true conflict. Because of that bunkai has at least to me a limited function. I prefer the Makiwara over it to be honest. Anyway, I am curious to hear more opinions and thoughts and want to thank you for your engagement and critique. Oss

@@karatecoaching Respectfully i believe your views are fundamentally wrong. Wrong on budu, wrong on Funakoshi, and Nakayama ... and wrong on Bunkai. All other Martial arts jjj bjj kendo Quan Fa Wujia or Neijia its prowess prowess prowess prowess then spiritual...! karate do is No different. If your fine with teaching karate to kids, only to have them leave for other “more reality based” martial arts when they get to be adults ... keep on doing what you do. Ill do what I do ... we will agree to disagree 😶

@@Blueslicks321 How can I be wrong about Nakayama if I quote him straight from his book? Let's also not forget that ones Karate journey goes through seasons. The season of youth is not the same as a person in mid-age or old age. I understand that you want to disagree to maintain your believes but please be aware that you have not touched on ANY of my arguments. You are referring to Bujitsu and that is totally fine. Anyway I agree that we disagree and let others continue (or judge) this conversation. Thank you Paul and Oss

@@karatecoaching I was told by my sensei years ago that in our system there is only one way to do our kata, but you can do the "Bunkai" a thousand different ways. Therefore, what you see as nonsense could be seen as a good self defense move buy some one else. The main point being is does it work. what would you call the jab, jab, hook combination in boxing. If you practice it, isn't that "pre-arranged" movement. Bunkai is the application of technique. The end results is stopping your attacker using the technique.

I am not sure if fully understand what you are trying to critique but yes Kata Bunkai can go a million ways and as long as you can make it work there is nothing against it. However, what I can say is that there are so many Bunkai Gurus out there that I just raise questions about it. Especially since they all claim their way is the correct way. If there is only one way to execute the Kata...? I am not sure about that. If you want to press a Kata (or yourself) into just one way then that is rather a believe system that you are ok to adapt but this too can be argued to be right or not just by the argument that a Kata and it's execution changes just by the age of the person demonstrating the Kata. Does the Kick now HAVE TO be Jodan or is it ok to be chudan or maybe even gedan. So the argument that there is only one way can be questionable. Within Shotokan there are many slightly different ways of executing certain parts of a kata. The JKA will claim one way, the ITKF will claim another way and yet the ISKF, KWF or JKS will all claim different ways. And of course their way is the correct way. However - I do believe that a student should for at least 10 years FOLLOW only one way to be efficient in this one way but then the student should adopt other ways and play around with other ways of execution just to grow and widen his/her horizon. To me nothing is set in stone when it comes to Martial Arts - once you do that you are predictable to the opponent and with that vulnerable. I do practice Bunkai and I encourage my students to look at different ways to execute Bunkai but to me there is a limit to what Bunkai practice can really do, as it is with all pre-arrange training. It is all important but at the same time, it all goes out the window when you meet the enemy. At that point, all that counts is subconscious competence or mastery.