Uechi-Ryu Zankai – My Anamnesis – Part 3

October 20th, 2007 at 10:44 · Filed Under Essay, Karate, Philosophy, Training Journal 

Let’s put the 1% aside.

My visit to Okinawa improves not only my knowledge and skill in karate-do. It has been an eye opener and it lets me discover the real karate-do, its culture, philosophy and spirit; as an ancient budo art of Okinawa.

The Okinawan system is not as rigid and militarized as the Japanese system. The Okinawan system is more flexible in many ways. The Malaysian karate-do has been following Japanese styles which are very much a militarized training. The influence was from Shotokan, one of the few introduced to Malaysia in the earliest karate era of Malaysia.

Many times people have been asking me, “Is style really matter?” These people are thinking, if any karate that can teach you to fight well, what is so important what style it is. To me, the real essence of karate lies deep in its root of the style which has been forgotten by the new generation of practitioners. Many who know the real budo path of karate-do are not too interested in changing people’s thinking and often choose to be self-contained for self-improvement and self-preservation.

If you Google for “karate”, you will find many funny styles and names across the world. Many new styles are created outside of Okinawa/Japan. Really, can we call these karate? It is very difficult to have a stand on this argument. Call it whatever if you find nothing wrong about it.

My visit to Uechi-Ryu Zankai on Okinawa was absolutely an ultimate experience. Toyama Sensei is one of the very few grand master who really doesn’t care about the outside world. He is very disappointed how polluted karate is today. Of course, he feels very sad if he sees some videos of poor performance. He is entirely into preserving and passing on his knowledge to his high ranking students. My teacher, G. Seizan Breyette Sensei, a hatchi-dan (8th dan) kyoshi to-dan, is one of the very few high ranking students of Toyama Sensei.

The Zankai’s Training Philosophy

Uechi-Ryu Zankai is one of the remaining few old-style traditional karate-do on Okinawa devoting to continue to teach and to preserve the pre-World-War-2 karate-do which Kanbun Uechi Sensei brought back from China. And Toyama Sensei is the only legendary left on the earth who is actively passing on his knowledge which he learned from Kanbun Uechi Sensei.

The training at Zankai is very organic. Unlike most modern styles of karate-do, the Zankai uses training methods derived from organic living mechanisms which largely resembling a living organism in organization or development and profoundly affecting our bodily organs and functions. Many modern karate-do as well as other martial arts introduce free form sparring element to their training for competitive sports purposes with influences from Hong Kong and Hollywood movies. The introduction of free form sparring is also to transform monotonous old-style training to a more dynamic and exciting activity. It is rather hard to have modern people especially the youngsters to involve in a monotonic daily devotion. Martial arts training in the old days (100 years and more ago) was a daily devotion and monotonous with repetitive training. Modern youngsters prefer exciting new stuff such as sparring to display their male machoism.

The organic training of Zankai enhances functions of heart and lung especially. Take Sanchin for instance. Beginners (new students) learn Sanchin as first lesson in Zankai. To perform proper Sanchin, the shoulder must be down and pulled back, tummy tucked in and pulled up so the chest will rise and expand. This increases the capacity of the lung and reduces pressures onto organs such as the heart, the lung and digestive organs. The heart can pump more freely with bigger room. Bad body posture has long-term effect on our internal organs such as our heart. When our body postures collapse, our organs are squashed against each other. This is the reason for an enlarged heart appears in X-ray. Because of restricted space, the heart has to work harder to push against the pressure from the lung and other organs. Gradually, the heart enlarges due to the stress.

The kata system of old-style Uechi-ryu has staggering effect onto one another and they are closely inter-related and enhancing each other in one way or another. There is no basic or advanced kata in old-style Uechi-Ryu. In fact, all the kata complement each other at various stages of the training, enhancing and strengthening the body (skeleton, muscle tissues, organs and vital body functions), motor skills, balance (stability), breathing, mental concentration and ultimately all the senses.

Human is actually animal but with slightly higher intelligence and having civilization after going through many evolution. The human evolution contributes to the lost of animal characteristics both physically and mentally. Invention and innovation reduce our physical activities while we become more dependent on tools and machineries. Comfortable lifestyle has made us a lazy animal and lose all the primitive animal characteristics and instinct. Essentially, the training retrain us (human) to become an animal again. The training is based on 7 animal forms: Dragon, Tiger, Crane, Snake, Cobra, Leopard and Mantis. Dragon, Tiger and Crane are the major animal forms in the training. These animal forms teach us to move like them. After some period of training, you can notice improvement in physical strength, bodily structure and vital functions.

The old-style Uechi-Ryu training, like many old martial arts in the olden days of China, does not include jiyu kumite or free form sparring. Kumite (for short), cause destructive effects and harms more than constructive growth to our body. The ancient Chinese had learned a great deal about injuries many thousand years ago without sophisticated medical equipment. Many Chinese martial artists were practicing for their health and to protect family and country. They rarely flashing their skills. Until today, this culture remains in modern Chinese martial artists. But no doubt, there are some going around (the world) displaying and promoting their strongest arts. Like many other modern martial arts, the wushu introduces San-shou or free form sparring into some of their training for competitive and other reasons mentioned above.

I have written articles about injuries and their potential long-term effects. You can read my articles about injuries here.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

13 Responses to “Uechi-Ryu Zankai – My Anamnesis – Part 3”

  • Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 2 on October 20th, 2007 10:47 1

    [...] What about the other 1%? Read on here. [...]

  • eric phua on October 20th, 2007 14:27 2

    Hi Adrian,

    Hmm, another interesting article(s). It gives me some points to ponder about my children’s martial arts training.

    Very interesting and enlightening.

    Another good job!

    eric

  • Paul Bonham on October 20th, 2007 17:17 3

    Hi Adrian,

    I read with interest about organic training in Uechi-Ryu. I am practicing Shito-Ryu. I quite like the idea you are writing about organic training. Will you write more specifically about the organic training?

    About kumite, how can one refine his/her skills without kumite? How to prove one’s ability in applying what he/she learns in a situation?

  • Adrian Hoe on October 20th, 2007 22:36 4

    Paul,

    Thanks for dropping by. I am glad you enjoyed reading my blog.

    About the organic training, yes, I will write more about it one day. It’s not an easy task to write about organic training in more specific details.

    About the kumite:

    In Uechi-Ryu, we train kata, bunkai and renzoku kumite (pre-arranged sparring). With an in-depth understanding of kata bunkai and its destructive power, you gain confidence. You gain more confidence along your years of repetitive training. As you age together with your training and the understanding of the techniques, you gain more confidence and braver. You will become braver with your age and the responsibilities of your family safety on your shoulder. But only with years of daily devotion to repetitive training and strengthening (include body conditioning).

    No one is able to gauge how brave or how effective you are in a life threatening situation. Only after it happens, we can know. If fail, means not enough of training. Even if one is a kumite champion, does not mean one can survive in a life threatening situation. Only Gods know.

    Practicing martial arts is not only about fighting for your life. We have to prevent/avoid it from happening. If you smell danger, run. Running is better than fighting. We fight only when we are unable to run, for example, while you are with your family and kids. Use your skill when it is necessary.

    Just stay out of troubles.

    I hope my explanation clears your doubts.

  • Traxx on October 21st, 2007 11:55 5

    Hi Adrian,

    I am quite interested to learn the Uechi Ryu Karate.
    Previously i am from Shorin Ryu Seibukan and now i am learining shito ryu… can i know where can i learn Uechi Ryu in KL???

    Many Thanx :-)

  • Adrian Hoe on October 21st, 2007 12:52 6

    Hi Traxx,

    Thank you for dropping by and your interest in Uechi-Ryu Zankai.

    Currently, our dojo is located at Bukit Beruang Melaka. If you are free, you can drop by to take a look at our training and perhaps you have a lot of questions to ask before you really want to get started. Uechi-Ryu is a totally different system comparing to the other karate.

    If you can, please go to my contact page to fill in your particulars so that I can contact you when we start a dojo in KL. Our plan is after our Melaka dojo, we will look for a place to start a class in KL possibly in early 2008.

    I look forward to having more correspondence with you.

    Thanks again for your visit and your interest in Uechi-Ryu. AT the mean time, you can visit uechiryu.org.my for more information.

  • Traxx on October 21st, 2007 13:11 7

    Hi Adrian,

    Can i know the address of your bukit beruang dojo?? my hometown is melaka but currently i am working in penang and transferring to KL in a short time….

    one more thing..i have search some kumite clips of uechi ryu..is it something like this??

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1fsHhOLko

    Thanks

  • Adrian Hoe on October 21st, 2007 13:43 8

    Hi Traxx,

    Yes, that’s kind of like that. But this is modern style Uechi-Ryu. Zankai is an old style. We call this renzoku kumite.

    You can find our dojo address here.

    You said your hometown is Melaka. Do we know each other? Who did you learn from in Melaka?

  • Adrian Hoe on October 21st, 2007 13:47 9

    Hi Traxx,

    After you have been transferred back to KL, perhaps you want to come back to your hometown in the weekend for learning.

    Our training philosophy is totally different. Students come to dojo for corrections, learn new things and work with partner(s). Then they will go home for their own training before the next visit to dojo. Rather old style (or old fashion) kind of training.

  • Traxx on October 21st, 2007 13:55 10

    Hi Adrian,

    Thanks for the info….previously i learnt from master K. Thanabalan( under master lau puan loong) at paya rumput chinese school( 1995 – 1999)…hmm,sorry, i don’t think i have seen you before… can i know the day and time of training??

    thanks

  • Adrian Hoe on October 21st, 2007 14:05 11

    Traxx,

    I left in 1992, so we never met. You can read about my karate passion here.

    The dojo will be fully operational this coming November. The training time Mon, Wed, Fri: 7PM – 9PM for adults. Tue and Thu: 7PM – 9PM kids.

    If you are not working on Saturday, you may come to dojo on Friday night if you can make it. Or, you can make a training appointment for Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

    Come visit us one day so we can discuss. You need to find out more about our training before you make up your mind to start training Uechi-Ryu Zankai.

  • Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 4 on October 22nd, 2007 13:08 12

    [...] Previously, I mentioned about some training philosophy of Uechi-Ryu Zankai, How the organic training enhances our health and strengthening our body. In this episode, I am going to dissect the basic foundation of all techniques which we can find in the kata Sanchin using natural phenomenon, ocean waves. I am not going to write the length and breadth of every techniques, but I am going to particularly focus on Wa-uke or circular block. [...]

  • Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 5 on November 1st, 2007 12:05 13

    [...] In Zankai, correct body posture is not all. The expansion of the chest as I mention earlier in part 3, has substantial benefits in pulmonary and cardiac functions. My training has also increased my [...]

Leave a Reply