Sanchin is sometimes misinterpreted as a "hard" kata but in reality the three battles are fought through self-evaluation by the ebb and flow of both hard and soft. I feel it was a mistake of the newer practitioners through an ego driven prideful need to build a stronger body by using Sanchin as a totally hard, dynamic tensioning on continuous basis through out the kata, form to practice. It is good to attempt this occasionally as shugyo but I feel it was not meant to be done constantly and consistently but rather a mode of hard-dynamic tension and soft-positively relaxed. It is this journey from one extreme to the other that polishes and opens the kata to the self. The goal is balance not physical hardness.
Remember one must become hard at specific moments and for specific reasons and then just as suddenly return to positive relaxation for free flowing movement for to remain at a hard kamae for more than that one moment to apply the power is detrimental to speed and movement to gain advantage for the next, etc.
This is worth contemplating as the next step or phase in training I think.
A demonstration of several karate masters from different styles, as well as a kung fu master, doing their versions of Sanchin:
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