Kissaki-Kai - Seminar Reports

The DC Shotokan club has added the study of bunkai to their syllabus for quite a few years now. A number of students regularly embark on the 3 hour journey to the Kissaki honbu dojo in New Jersey for the Friday / Saturday Mini Seminars to immerse themselves in Kissaki. They in turn regularly practice what they have learned in their own club on Tuesday nights under the tuition of Maziar Kakhi, 4th dan Shotokan, 2nd Dan Kissaki Kai.

As on most seminars, Sensei Morris showed a number of applications from kata. Above and below: Empi

After several years Sensei Morris came back to Arizona for a seminar this January. The attending martial artists came from a wide variety of backgrounds, but shared the wish to make their art more effective. Sensei Morris presented an overview of Kissaki techniques and how, together with the Rules of Combat', these can be used in self-defense situations.

Other aspects of the training dealt with kata bunkai and how the moves in kata are often misinterpreted due to historical loss of meaning, obfuscation or simple ignorance of what works and what doesn't. Below a few comments of participants:

"Thanks so much for trekking to Phoenix this past weekend. I enjoyed meeting the both of you very much, and the seminar was just fantastic. I felt very privileged to be there."

"It was a very great honor and pleasure to meet you and Eva at the seminar last Saturday. It was a real eye-opener for me. I learned a lot, and I realize now that I certainly need to learn a great deal more!"

"It was well worth the trip from California for this training. Sensei Morris was unbelievably down-to-earth, and truly enjoyed sharing his knowledge with the rest of us. Safety of everyone was high on his list, our thirst for knowledge was e...xpanded by his openness, willingness, and friendly demeanor of not only him but also of his wife. I truly enjoyed myself obtaining more knowledge in the martial arts and being able to meet such a nice down-to-earth, no-nonsense, martial arts instructor."

"Great seminar. I also believe it was worth the trip from California. Finally many of my question were answered. Looking forward to another seminar. OSU"

Pictures courtesy of OJ Guerra (bottom row 1st left), who must be menioned for his exceptional photography.

A big "Thank You" must also go to the organizer, Sensei Rod Elliott, who made everyone feel extremely welcome and who even threw a little party in the evening. And "Thank you for your friendship" also to Sensei Chuck Merriman and for his support of the event.

On Jan 31st and Feb 1st 2011, participants came from the South (Georgia) the North East (New York) the UK , Michigan and local New Jersey to take part in the first Basic Firearm Skills course in Marlton, NJ, USA. Some attendees already had familiarity with firearms, others came with no experience at all. The purpose of the two-day training was to introduce them to a number of different types of weapons (revolver, semi-automatic) in different calibers, in a safe environment under the control of an expe-rienced NRA certified instructor, Jose Morales. However, the first part of the course (day one) was devoted to developing defensive skills in two areas: Weapon retention and weapon disarming. Beginning with plastic guns, the participants practiced disarming an attacker from various posi-tions and scenarios, leading to training with special replica firearms that actually fired plastic ammunition. This later enabled the defenders to gain confidence in their abilities to disarm an assailant without getting shot, and being initially struck by the plastic ammo added an urgency and realty to the training! (Obviously, proper protection was worn for this exercise).


Top left: Firearms retention. Top right: Group with NRA instructor Jose Morales (kneeling)

Above: Firing hand guns at the range.

The second day was spent learning familiarity with a variety of guns, then at the range with each person having to achieve a passing live-fire score and answer a series of questions to gain the NRA basic certificate in firearm competence. All the participants gained this award!

Ok, so here I am tired and carrying the usual bruises after a typically effective seminar by Sensei Don Came; this time on the subject of weapons defence. He held it at his own dojo (www.karateacademy.org.uk) in Eastbourne, UK and it was filled to the brim with eager students with loads of different experience levels.
The three hour course focused on knife defence, it being the most likely weapon that you could be attacked with here in Britain. Don outlined angles of attack in both slashes and stabs before systematically approaching methods of attacking the weapon-wielding limb.

"Attack" being a critical point here, in that you aim to destroy the opponent's arm rather than simply blocking his attack. It's a much less passive response and is infinitely more practical when dealing with a weapon threat.
Sensei Don utilised natural physical responses, such as the flinch reflex, and turned them into powerful weapon stopping blows that avoided messy, complex and dangerous grabs and locks. Opting instead to damage and trap the attacking arm at the same time as delivering strong percussive strikes with whatever 'weapon', head, elbow, fist, knee and so on, was closest to an appropriate target on the aggressor.
He kept the arm stopping techniques to simple variations on kosa uke (seen, for example, in the second move of Heian Sandan) thus jamming and simultaneously attacking a limb. Then easily trapping it whilst your free hand does damage elsewhere on the attacker. Speed, domination and not stopping till it's over were emphasised and reinforced by a line up drill at the end of the day where we were attacked in turn by the rest of the seminar class.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves; we all picked up useful skills and drills; plus the pizza dinner post-seminar was delicious! Looking forward to the next course in February, covering Bassai/Passai and Tekki/Naihanchi.

Here are some comments from a Shotokan practitioner participating in the Eastbourne course, hosted by Sensei Don Came:

I had always been intrigued by Vince Morris' approach to karate and self defence, having seen him feature in a Tekki Shodan video in the early 1990s. Having been back training in 'traditional karate' for 18 months after a lengthy absence, I jumped at the chance to train with Vince when I heard he was making a fleeting visit to the UK.I approached the seminars with some trepidation but I need not have worried. Vince was amazingly supportive and eager to impart his wisdom on effective kata bunkai.

And what an eye-opener it was. The man is a treasure trove of information which he dispenses with good humour. The kata come to life as Vince reveals the depth of technique hidden with them. The man's enthusiasm is contagious. Slacking is not an option and Vince keeps everyone up to the mark when energy levels dip. Trust me, his eyes are everywhere.
Vince, ably assisted by senior instructor Don Came, frequently came to my aid during the intensive, and occasionally painful, four hour workout. Not used to this 'close up and personal' form of karate, I certainly struggled. But there were some exhilarating moments when I thought 'Yes, I could make that work for me."

Newcomers will be astonished by this 'stripped down' karate. There is little ceremony and not a ritual gedan berai downward block in sight in Kissaki-Kai Karate-Do. But the karate is brutally effective and harks back to its origins when it was practised behind closed doors in Okinawa.
A thoroughly satisfying experience, I would recommend Vince Morris's karate to anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge and open the door to another way.





		Left: Sensei Vince (left) and Sensei Steve (right) holding theJapanese Lacquer placques they were presented with. In the center the artist, Ray Bates. Below: Jason Hall taking his nidan grading: Jason, who had passed his shodan test several years ago, had been involved in a near fatal accident. Karate and his indomitable spirit helped him to recover.

A short report on the seminar sensei Vince Morris gave in Wigan, UK (photos above), hosted by Sensei Steve Lowe of the Tai-No-Sen Kissaki-Kai Dojo:

Of course, it was as fun as it was practical but then I expect nothing less from sensei Morris. We covered a range of similar movements from different kata, exploring how they can be applied to a variety of attacks.
The theme of the seminar was looking at kata as boxes containing tools for defence, and how un-necessary it is to collect large numbers of toolboxes, instead of learning how to properly make use of the tools each box contains!
The participants came from a number of different styles, Kissaki of course, but also from Jiu-Jitsu and Shukokai/Shito-Ryu amongst others. So, it was fantastic to have so many different styles and groups there and have the possibility to spread the message of practical karate. The diverse make-up of the attendees led me to reflect on the principles of Kissaki and the Rules of Combat that underpin the method.
I am always thrilled and frustrated, and I use those words deliberately, when the applications for movements I've been making for decades are revealed. Frustrated, because I feel that I've been wasting all that time training without a true sense of what I've been doing or, worse still, having been told that the move is something that it actually is not. Thus leading me to practice applications that would have put me in deep trouble had I needed to use them.
So, frustrated but also thrilled, because I love this art, as we all do, and it's combative purpose of the movements revealed.

Of course, there are many political, social and psychological barriers to changing teaching and practice methods. It's never going to be easy to make wholesale changes, but surely the change is worth it? If you're going to teach people - to take their money - you at least need to be honest with them, and yourself, and make it clear that what you teach is sport karate and that it has only a limited benefit in a non-dojo situation. Of course, if you're still reading this far, it's likely that you've already made that change or you've been lucky enough to start your martial life in a Kissaki dojo. We're lucky, all of us, to be able to train with a group of like-minded individuals.

Think of that every time you put on your dogi!"
Jon Sloan, 2nd Dan Kissaki-Kai, Nov 2010

Kanku-Dai: An Odyssey of Kata Application

Kanku-Dai is the longest Kata in the Shotokan system and its study is particularly important because it can be considered as a hub for many of the techniques found in other Shotokan Katas. This also means that understanding the principles of the Bunkai behind the major Waza in Kanku-Dai opens numerous doors towards a clearer interpretation of related moves found in other Kata.

Sensei Morris points out that the current double DVD set supersedes its predecessor in order to account more adequately for the ‘Rules of Combat’. These rules are a set of principles that apply to any martial art (whose primary objective is self-defense, not competitive sport) and when adhered to, ensure that any technically plausible interpretation of the Kata moves is rendered combat effective. If it isn’t combat effective, it will only work in the Dojo under simulated (and invariably unrealistic) conditions.

Describing this DVD set as an ‘odyssey of Kata application’ is an apt characterization due to the breadth of ground that is covered. The various applications for just the opening (signature) move of the Kata take up the first twenty minutes of disc 1 and focus on the flinch reflex response which typifies the so-called ‘Kanku-Dai paradigm’. This also highlights how inappropriate it is to dismiss the opening move as merely a “salutation” or “greeting”, as described in certain publications devoted to Bunkai .

Sensei Morris’s approach to teaching Bunkai incorporates a unifying theme by virtue of the Rules of Combat. For example, “once you gain control, you never give it back” constitutes the guiding principle for all of the drills where a joint lock is performed. As Sensei Morris points out in his seminars, the Kata moves are symbolic and their Bunkai should be interpreted as a box of tools that by no means have to be applied sequentially to satisfy the step-by-step choreography of the Kata. In other words, it’s perfectly acceptable to apply two sets of Bunkai in one drill stemming from moves at the start and the end of a Kata, as long as it takes care of business efficiently. Furthermore, it is essential to add Ko-Waza (e.g. head butts, slaps, eye gouges, elbow/knee strikes, etc.), where appropriate, to ensure that the (major) O-Waza can be applied in a real-life situation.

Hip/shoulder/neck throws, take-downs, arm bars, joint locks and thigh kicks (a non-exhaustive list!) occur repeatedly in different applications. By way of example, I will refer to the straight punch, inside block combination near the beginning of the Kata (Choku-zuki, Uchi-uke). One application scenario assumes the assailant grabs your lapel and is preparing to strike you with the other (free) arm. As always, all of Sensei Morris’s applications make use of at least one or more Rules of Combat. In this case, the primary response is to shift to the side (at 45 degrees) from the danger posed by the assailant’s free arm which is ready to strike. At the same time, the Choku-zuki is enhanced by use of Nakadaka-ken-zuki (middle finger knuckle strike) either to the floating ribs or the solar plexus. This straightens the assailant’s grabbing arm and exposes the lung-5 pressure point. The innocuous ‘Uchi-uke’ in the Kata is interpreted, at first, as a strike to the lung-5 pressure point. This naturally forces the assailant’s posture to be compromised and, in turn, exposes the side of his neck. Consequently, the drill instantly follows-up with an immediate strike to the gall bladder 20 or large/small intestine points on the neck. None of the moves in this drill are redundant. Furthermore, they each depend on the successful execution of their predecessor, and if performed correctly lead to a knock-out very quickly and with little effort on the part of the defender. The final strike to the neck is likened to the opening move in Bassai-Dai. This exemplifies Sensei Morris’s understanding of Bunkai as a holistic body of knowledge and reinforces the observation he makes in his Nijushiho DVD, namely, that you don’t need to know a multitude of Katas to perform good effective applications. The same applications are very often seen over and over again.

To go into the detail of all the various Bunkai conveyed in this double DVD set would transform this review into a very long thesis. It makes much more sense to watch the DVDs. I highly recommend it to any serious practitioner of Karate who aspires to understand how his/her ‘martial art’ is worthy of that designation.