Heian Sandan

With the end of the year drawing close I wanted to give my students something new to work on.  So we spent a month on Heian Sandan.  Up until now, the Kyu grades have focused on the Taikyoko Kata as well as Heian Shodan and Nidan.

Heian Sandan is a big step up from the first two Heian Kata. Not only is it more challenging because of Kiba-Dachi, it’s a much more technical Kata. It’s also got a richness in Bunkai that the earlier Kata lack.

We worked our way through the Kata, practising key moves in Kihon, as well as examining the Bunkai.  By the close of the year, we’d made decent progress and uncovered a few interesting applications. The Dan grades looked at the Bunkai for the returning three moves in Kiba-Dachi.  A principal that kept recurring was that of dealing with a situation where the first defence move failed. Looking at Heian Sandan through this perspective gave us some interesting applications.

By the end of the month we’d decided on a few of the more effective applications and drilled them hard to make sure they worked. At the last session of the year, we went for it. With black belts flying all over the Dojo, the Kyu grades agreed that our Bunkai was pretty effective.  It certainly made us appreciate the name of the Heian Kata; “Peaceful mind” (There’s nothing peaceful about Pinan/Heian)

A great way to end the year

To close the year out in style we headed to the Oaks for a beer.  But hunger took over and we were ‘forced’ to stop at Stir Crazy for a feed.  And that’s as far as we got.  Once the food and wine started flowing we settled in  and never made it to the Oaks.

The Dojo is officially closed for the Xmas break and will re-open on Tuesday 6th January for the 6pm class.

I say officially closed, because all students are encouraged to train throughout the break, if only to compensate for the overindulgence that happens at this time of year.

Merry Christmas and see you all in 2015!