ARTICLES & COMMENTS
SANCHIN, Who started what?
by Harry G. Smith
DYNAMIC TENSION: A man called Angelo Siciliano, also known as Charles Atlas, used comic books to advertise the fact that if you bought his plan you would never have sand kicked in your face again. When you got the plan all you received was a chart of exercises to do alone in front of your mirror. Being a child I immediately discarded his ideas.
What I missed was his idea called dynamic tension. Dynamic meaning an energy, force or motion, in relation to force. Tension is mental, emotional strain and is also the process of stretching or elongating something. Possibly this man studied Goju, part of Isshinryu, for that is exactly what Sanchin is, to a point.
The best example of this is to go to a zoo and observe a tiger or lion in his cage, he will be continuously stretching, walking very rigid, and most important, look very close, you will see the animal dig his paws into the concrete. The difference between the tigers doing their exercise and monkeys is that monkeys use isometric exercises; we have no need for that. We do not want to depend on anything but our own bodies. For you see we will only function in our minds and that mindfulness will be transferred to our body.
WHEN DOING SANCHIN KATA YOU MUST, AS A SOLDIER, A RONIN, AS I WAS CALLED BY MY MASTER, NOT ONLY LOOK INTO HELL, BUT ALSO WALK INTO IT.
Sanchin can be used in a positive or negative manner. The positive is what we are interested in. The days of the Ronin are gone for there is nothing left to fight about. I would be telling untruths if were to say that there were not ulterior motives to clone a human being to such sharpness, and the sharpness never dulls, but with the sharpness also comes confidence. The ego drive disappears.
I'm preaching as I am because in
doing Sanchin the Sensei must be
able to function in such a manner as Tatsuo Shimabukuro did.
There were no fireside chats, for my Master could not speak English,
as witnessed by his bringing a translator in his last visit. But he
could paint a picture in your mind, and that is what is necessary to
reach the training plateau you desire. I won't go into picture
making, but they exist, in my mind, forever.
The quote above is to show that beauty and the beast exist together in our minds, only the strong can control.
~HGS