Brian S

A number of the Japanese/Okinawan folks we trained always seemed to kinda "shorten" the words--"sko dach" rather than the "shiko-dachi" so that sounds pretty normal to me.

I know of schools that don't do the gekishi or the tensho forms at all.

I think its just a matter of personal preference.

As go the stories Miyagi taught kata based upon a given students body type and personality.

(a really big strong guy might be taught a kata to play to his strengths or perhaps one that could help him work on getting faster and more agile)