I've been thinking a lot about the principles and strategy of Seisan. Use your body weight to power attacks, use both hands, attack on multiple levels, control the head, strike to disrupt and fight the void are some of the general principles of the kata.
It's a little easier to name principles than strategy because the principles of Seisan align with the principles of many karate kata. The strategy of the kata is a little trickier. From what I can tell the strategy is to unbalance the opponent with direct hand and foot patterns and then throw violently to the ground. Basically, disrupt, unbalance, throw violently could be called the overall strategy of the kata as I practice it.
First you must disrupt the opponent's actions, whether that be an attack or just movement to make sure that the opponent cannot cause damage. The next part is to unbalance the attacker in some way to ensure that they cannot continue the attack and to set up the throw. Once the opponent is unbalanced they are thrown violently to the ground.
It's important to understand the strategy of Seisan because we want to practice goal oriented karate. It's not enough or prudent to know a handful of disjointed techniques if we don't know what they are meant to achieve or how they work together than they are just a list, not a tool and definitely not art.
It's a little easier to name principles than strategy because the principles of Seisan align with the principles of many karate kata. The strategy of the kata is a little trickier. From what I can tell the strategy is to unbalance the opponent with direct hand and foot patterns and then throw violently to the ground. Basically, disrupt, unbalance, throw violently could be called the overall strategy of the kata as I practice it.
First you must disrupt the opponent's actions, whether that be an attack or just movement to make sure that the opponent cannot cause damage. The next part is to unbalance the attacker in some way to ensure that they cannot continue the attack and to set up the throw. Once the opponent is unbalanced they are thrown violently to the ground.
It's important to understand the strategy of Seisan because we want to practice goal oriented karate. It's not enough or prudent to know a handful of disjointed techniques if we don't know what they are meant to achieve or how they work together than they are just a list, not a tool and definitely not art.
