Kata Channan

What we did on Friday 20 July 2012

More work on Kata Channan.

Some members like to be hard and strong, they perceive their art as requiring them to be tense, rigid, powerful and immoveable.  They think that being so and working up a sweat is what it is all about.  It seems to be a young man’s thing that can follow him throughout life.  Hard and strong are important qualities, working up a sweat is important, but these things represent only one aspect of their respective continuums.  The way I have taught for many years is if I see a ‘hard’ practitioner I want to make him or her soft, not so that he looses his hardness but so that he can switch from hard to soft or place himself anywhere on that continuum in a moment.  If I see a ‘soft’ practitioner I want to make her (or him) hard.  The game is about balance and being able to shift one’s position depending upon the needs of the moment.  Being tense, hard and rigid most of the time is a bad and unhealthy way to be.  So most of this session was oriented to working Kata Channan in a soft, fluid mode with smooth uninterrupted transitions from one move to the next; what I often describe as a one move kata.

Kata Channan is particularly difficult initially because it requires smoothness and fluidity with the one hand and arm while at the same time delivering powerful impulse thrusts and strikes with the other arm.  It also demands an awareness of how we make use only of those muscles we need in any one moment, while those not needed should be relaxed.  Unless the practitioner can recognise and achieve a completely relaxed approach to the kata he will not be able to perform it correctly.  So it isn’t unusual for a group to be asked to work Channan in a completely relaxed, fluid way.