Principles

How does your system of training incorporate the underlying principles behind your martial science?

Victor Smith
bushi no te isshinryu

Great Question.................
I think this is so important, yet I find so few people who teach it. The way I first learned about Principles was by accident. I knew of the 4 basic Aikido Principles, and asked my Sensei if Karate had them as well. My Sensei taught me an Ippon Kumite, and explained two principles, "push/pull", and "Theory of opposing forces". Nothing really complicated but Principles none the less. I really liked studying by Principle and asked Sensei for more. This is where it all started. Soke would teach a technique, and if I would ask he would share some principles involved. Next time he would add more Principles to the same techniques, then offer me new ones. I started 'collecting' Principles from everyone I worked with, took it back and Soke explained it, by showing me a Bunkai, or technique, then applying Principle. After a bit, we had over 100 Principles from many arts and very many Sensei.One Sensei in particular(who I now train with)shared Principles of Movement and these became a guiding force in learning Principle

I teach Principle and Concept as well, and basically do it the same way as my Sensei did with a little different twist. I will take a technique and break down the technique or Bunkai by movement. For each movement I teach Principles involved. So I break down each movement, apply principles to each movement, then put the movements back together for a technique. In Bunkai, if there are 4 movements, I break each movement down, apply principles to each one, show how each "can" be a techniqe, but them all together again, and practice the Bunkai as a whole. Then we add direction to the equation. What Ed Parker called "4 winds" we place a person inside a square to do technique or Bunkai. So we use the technique or the Bunkai as a vehicle to learn Principle. Many times I will do it in opposite order. I will take a principle, and show a technique and how to use the Principle. Lastly I will put together a technique and incorporate the Principles I want to teach, and then add on pieces to the technique, and add on principles each time a I do. So many times I may show a "mini kata" when I do a technique that could have 7-10 movenmets, what we call stringing or combination locking and teach the principles here in.Some who watch think its too much and too long, and would never work in self defense. But its purpose is not self-defense but to learn how to apply Principle, and once learned can be applied to self-defense techniques. I have actually created a Principle manual and have techniques listed on each Principle on how to teach each Principle. This is an ongoing process and new principles are added all the time.

I have found that most students do not like Principle oriented technique, that they just want the technique for the sake of technique, however, once the student starts to learn "About" the technique, they usually don't go back to the old way.

I study Matsubayashi Ryu, which is a classical style of okinawan karate. The basis of the style is kata in performance, training, and application. I believe the secret to kata training is the application of its techniques in real environments. To help the student bridge this gap my style has 7 widely taught Yakusoku Kumite sets which are designed to help teach a student bridge the gap between kata and true application. They are actually not necessary, because their principles apply to all kata, but they do serve as a guide to aid a student in developing their karate. When the actual movements are applied to the principles stated they teach the basis of this style. They are as follows and are also stated in Nagamine's book The Essence of Okinawan Karate.

1. To develop techniques to enable us to defend and attack simultaneously.

2. To develop techniques to enable us to defend and attack simultaneously using both hands.

3. To develop techniques to enable us to defend and attack simultaneously using both hands and feet.

4. To develop techniques to enable us to shift the body to the attacking position reflexively and naturally in order to always keep beside the opponent and avoid facing him.

5. To develop technqiues to enable us to defend and attack by means of shifting the body and approaching the opponent from the side or front, with definite determination to find some way of beating the opponent, in critical situations.

6. To develop swift, reflexive nerves or senses which enable us to kick the opponent when he catches us or when we catch him.

7. To develop techniques to enable us to attack the opponent by kick or blow, reflexively, after we have suppressed his movement without losing our grasp on him.