Kushin Part X of a Y series...

Friday night rolled on: YS is off Friday and Saturday and Mike Dukas Sensei suggested that Ohtsuka Sensei (0S) cover. This is a busy weekend for Japanese KWF black belts as many of them are up in Nasu for Daigakusei Gassuku. The Friday night session was restricted to one hour because hereafter OS had to get up North.

After basics, we focused on long and low genkai made Oizuki zenshin, gradually stretching it out and extending the length and power until the front leg was extended beyond the key-- yes-- THAT long. Up and down and up and down. 

Kushin Jiyu-kihon Ippon Kumite

The standard kihon into focus on long oi-zuki was just basically a preliminary to the main event, very long distance Jiyu-kihon Ippon. The next step was going into jiyu kamai and launching into oi-zuki, then snap forward into kamae for second attack. The key was steadily lengthening and lengthening but keeping koshi in gyakuhani with iron-rod tsupari on rear leg. 

First two count and then one count....the sweat is really flowing now. 

The next stage was gyaku-zuki from sagari jiyu-blocks- jo/uchi/soto/ge-dan with extreme Kushin on the rear leg and then WHAM (!)  gyaku-zuki. This is great, but so difficult to get right. I remember YS training me to collapse on this before the yakusoki kumite part of my shodan (before free fighting). 

Here the trick is to make absolutely sure where your weight balance is.

Quote OS: Think about maegeri: you can't get a stronger kick over a long distance than this, but a maegeri is nothing unless your weight is thrusting forward from the hips. A proper maegeri  will down your opponent, a weak maegeri is totally useless. The difference is where your hips are and is your weight forward. Then the trick is keeping your butt in. Then the trick is remembering that you've sunk genkai made to get maximum thrust, explosive shinshuku. 

The point here is that unless you have everything correct, your gyaku-zuki is going to be ineffective. Done properly this exercise makes your gyaku-zuki transform from a counter attack to a devastating finishing blow. 

Application in Jiyu Ippon Kumite

KWF likes its JIK to be done at extreme range with extreme extension with perfect kihon. If that's not all, please look great while you do it. When KWF Sohonbu does JIK, the attacker must hit the opponent, and the opponent must block the attacker. If the aite doesn't he or she should go down. If the block is weak, he or she should go down anyway. But today was at a distance.

Extreme distace JIK is jishurenshu with partner training- we are seeking perfection of technique rather than a real test (albeit with warning) of kihon power in yakusoku kumite. Because time was pressing we did sets of oi-zuki/ chudan oi-zuki/ maegeri/yokogeri kekomi and mawashigeri and then a quick partner exchange and then finish without kata today.