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Techniques -
Basics: General
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All martial arts share common ground. One important concept in the
martial arts is that of direction flowing out from your body. That is,
when you are standing still you have a decision to make as to what
direction you wish to move. You may move in many directions from your
still position.
What martial artists havedone is to break those many directions down
into four (4) major and four (4) minor directions to total eight (8)
possible directions in which to move. This greatly simplifies both
learning and teaching of movement which is critical for us within the
context of our lessons. In learning both the basic postures and the
advanced movements we will speak of orientation and direction. Both
concepts are similar where orientation generally refers to the
positioning of the body and which direction it is primarily facing.
Direction or movement speaks to the direction in which the body will
move for completion of the next technique. Thus, we have orientation
and movement.
Within the descriptions and explanations that follow,
orientation will be referred to either by the position of the compass
or by the numbers on the dial of a clock. Thus, when standing in
attention stance and looking forward you will be looking North or at 12
o’clock. This position or orientation is often referred to as Shomen
since Shomen (the place of honour) is usually at the front of the
practice area. Directly to your right will be East or 3 o’clock while
immediately behind you will be referred to as South or 6 o’clock. Your
left hand direction will be referred to as West or 9 o’clock. These
four major directions are sometimes referred to as the cardinal
directions.
Thus, from a standing position we would see the four major directions as:
These four major directions are critical in understanding the
orientation of your basic techniques. I often tell my students that
geometry, that is geometry on the floor and where you are facing and
where you are moving, is the most important part of understanding
martial arts. So try not just to move in a general direction but think
about the exact position to where you want to move or face.
The four major directions give way to the four minor
directions. The four minor directions stand on their own and are not
dependent on the major directions so in a sense the name is a misnomer.
Anyone with a background in map reading or compass reading will
recognize these 4 minor directions as: North-East (NE), South-East
(SE), South-West (SW) and North-West (NW). These directions or
orientations are positioned at 45 degrees from the nearest major
direction. That is, North-East is 45 degrees off both true North
(Shomen) and likewise 45 degrees off true East. Therefore, we see that
North and East or any other major direction is separated by 90 degrees
from one the other. And the minor directions are separated by 45
degrees from any major direction. Similarly, any minor direction is
separated by 90 degrees from any other minor direction. This is clearly
shown in the diagram below:
As you may imagine any description of movement in basics or in Kata
that relies on the terminology of left and right can get very confusing
depending on the position of the student and the teacher. Conflicts
arise as to whether the Sensei means his or her left or the student’s
left. Is that left towards the wall or towards the corner? So, as you
can see the system described herein is very useful to ward off
confusion of any sort, such as left and right hand.
Moreover, it is always best to orient your body and your subsequent
move based on where you are and not based on something in your
environment. Often, I have students tell me that after they learned
their Kata (series of movements) in the practice hall, they got
confused when they were in another environment. This is so, because
they were relying on outside cues for orientation.
For instance, a utility locker in the corner of the dojo may become a
focus point for the student and he knows that move number ten always
faces the utility locker. However, when he goes to practice outdoors he
is confused because there is no utility locker to act as a guide. And
so it makes much more sense to always think of your moves and how they
reference back to the positions on the compass or clock as we have
described herein. That way, all you have to do is know where Shomen,
North or 12 o’clock lines up, which is usually the head of the dojo or
wall of honour (Shomen), and everything will be in place and flow from
that point.
Overlaying the two above diagrams we obtain a full picture of the eight possible directions, as shown below:
For all of the basic stances that follow in Section I2 and onwards
the student will be facing North-12 o’clock toward Shomen when
performing the moves. Stances can generally be performed either from
the right or left position, except the attention stance which is the
same for both. The default for the manual is the left stance
orientation as this generally leaves the right hand and right foot in
the striking position and as such is the more desired orientation for
the beginner student, 90% of whom will be right handed. However, if you
are left handed you may wish to use the opposite side as your primary
or favourite side. Experiment with both sides as you will need to be
able to do both in order to fully perform all moves and Kata sequences
later on.
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