Class Notes – Henka

The next on the list – ka no kata. This lesson, we looked at ka no kata from a few aspects.

If we move out too far at the first tsuki, it’s too risky to head in with the ura shuto. So we’ve got two options:

A) do a switch-step as the opponent comes in with the second punch and catch him in the throat with the shuto;

B) rock forward to the front leg while bringing up the hand as a guard that keeps the opponent off us. The ura shuto starts to look like a hoko no kamae.

After this has clouted the other fellow in throat, we can continue with a musha dori on his first arm, or capture the other arm and do an uchi mata kind of throw. Both these moves require us to move quite a bit, but clouting someone in the throat with an ura shuto usually buys us enough time. 🙂

Principle: use the ura shuto or other strikes to set up the various torite techniques.

We also looked at adding in kicks. In some editions of the Tenchijin Ryaku no Maki, the chi ryaku has a set of kicks called the happo geri. You can practice them by themselves (holding on to your uke’s shoulders) but some people cannot go from there to recognizing opportunities to use them.

So we used the ura shuto as a set-up for some of the happo geri. The shuto hides the kick, but on your part you need to make sure you shift your weight correctly to your front leg so that you have less unneccesary movements to telegraph the kick.

You can see why I call the ura shuto the Bujinkan equivalent of the boxing jab. Like the jab, it links well with other techniques, such as musha dori, ganseki nage and uchi mata, as well as kicks. It also switches easily to a grab, such as in Shinden Fudo Ryu’s Gekkan. There are a few ways you can do this, my preference is to use ura shuto as kuzushi first to buy even more time for the kick and the O gyaku that follows. You can also add that into Hibari. (no, we didn’t try that in this lesson).

Conclusion: Again, the ten level students didn’t turn up, so we worked on more advanced stuff instead. I’ve got no problem with that, even though my original intention was to focus only on the basics. For now I mentally plan two sets of material for every lesson, ten level and chi level, so I am prepared regardless of whatever the student make-up is that particular lesson.

If you attended this particular lesson, use these notes as an outline for your practice. it will take quite a while before all these henka become second nature. Keep practicing until they do!