Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
First, let me say that I really appreciate the diversity of the Isshinryu community because it provides so much feedback as to how the style or system is practiced and hints philosophically as to how Tatsuo-san tried to convey to his students how they should practice it as well. For instance, this old saying had a ton of concepts and philosophical messages for students:
Tatsuo asked the students "Which is the best bottle?" Those who were drinking beer stated the beer bottles, others picked the largest bottles, and some chose the smaller bottles. Shimabuku said “all the bottles were good. All of them served a purpose: to hold what they were intended to. There is no best bottle, he said.”
This quote was later condensed into, “All bottles are good, they all serve a purpose!” The more I mokuso on this philosophical statement, the full one and the condensed, it provides so many hints to a practitioner it is its own Isshinryu philosophy along side the goku-i and the dojo-kun to name two others provided by Tatsuo-san.
Another Isshinryu luminary created a list of twelve unique symbolic concepts that make Isshinryu, Isshinryu. They titled them, “The Twelve Isshinryu Features” that go as follows:
- Elimination of “fancy” techniques;
- Combination of Shorin and Goju to form a realistic basic system of self-defense;
- Kicks applied below waist for balance and power;
- Short natural stances for mobility;
- Balanced applicable techniques of hand and feet in kata;
- Close-in tactics more applicable to street defense;
- Use of snap punches and kicks without over extending joints;
- Hard and soft blocking (tactics and techniques);
- Arm blocks using muscular part of arm supported by both bones of forearm;
- FIST WITH THUMB ON TOP AS OPPOSED TO THUMB OVER TWO FINGERS TO LOCK THE WRITES AND TIGHTEN THE FIST!
- A VERTICAL FIST INCREASING SPEED AND POWER;
- Multi-purpose techniques allowing a block to be a blow to be a block.
As a practitioner of Isshinryu, you already know, that ten and eleven are the one feature that, at the time with the twist punch being dominant in Okinawan karate, makes Isshinryu stand out from all the others. This while even the styles with the twist punch all seemed to NATURALLY use a vertical fist when sparring (so I was told by my sensei).
Now, on to the core of this article, in a recant attempt to finally get a drawing of the vertical thumb on top Isshinryu-esque fist I actually attempted to draw it myself (since I had no takers for some unknown reason). When done, I of course posted my rendition at an Isshinryu Facebook page eliciting many responses.
Andy Sloane Sensei, an Isshinryu Historian who had surpassed time on Okinawa of almost any Isshinryu-ist I know responded to other comments as well as my rendition in pencil art of the vertical fist. Most of the bone in contention seemed to regard the placement of the thumb.
Andy’s photo as follows shows what he was led to believe as the form of the fist by Tatsuo-san. The fist on the left side of this photo.
What can be seen above is on the left, Andy Sensei, the thumb seems uncomfortable because the first knuckle is over the first finger (second joint) while the thumb is canted to push with its side down and against the first knuckle of the index finger.
Albert Mady, a senior luminary of the Isshinryu system, who was taught by the first-gen sensei Don Nagle makes the fist with the thumb and fingers seemingly in other positions. Other senior Isshinryu-ists who responded displayed the fist with that thumb in slightly different positions.
In my analysis I found most of the thumb positions to be in an uncomfortable position. Some others made reference that it put the thumb in a position easily injured or strained. I found forming these fists to be uncomfortable and seemed, to me, to leave the fist and its stability in question.
Here is the rub, in time and with practice and with conditioning I suspect that these positions worked well for these folks… after strengthening that thumb in those positions. I also wonder as many of the first-gen luminary students of Tatsuo-san would always tell us that Tatsuo-san’s objective in creating the Isshinryu system was to make the application of his karate more “natural” such as dictated by the structure of the human body, i.e., the skeletal systems with their joints, etc., along with the muscular system. I was taught that he did this because, all most all of his students along with his personal experiences, when put under the stresses of actual sparring or use in the reality of violence the body, mind and spirit tended to put things in a more “natural state” when applied such as where they used a vertical vs. twist punch and the placement of that thumb in a more stable support position rather than a slightly unnatural and uncomfortable on.
In the end, my conclusion in regard to the Isshinryu vertical fist, I decided that his philosophical lesson of the bottles held sway as to what, which, why and how it would be used. After all, “All fists are good, they all server there purpose and the do what the practitioner intended.”
What is critical for me and my teachings is that, “if it works, it’s good and it is as it should be,” and that the true concept or feature that was unique for its time and made Isshinryu a leader to its evolutionary path is the use of “the Vertical Fist” and that makes all of these variations like the various bottles in his lesson to those early first-gen students, they all have a purpose and if they work, use them!
After all, in all of his more cerebral teachings be they concepts, principles or philosophies he seemed to change things in every lesson and practice he provided almost on a daily basis so say all those who have come before me or us as practitioners of Isshinryu Okinawan Karate-jutsu-do.
Last, my comfort is shown in my artistic renditions of where the thumb sits as, for me, it does what the features meant… it strengthens, stabilizes and locks the wrist reducing drastically the natural tendency of strain and damage that comes with using the fist. In addition, my way made for a very, very strong strike or punch using the makiwara and heavy bag. Never once, in sparring or a fight, did I ever cause strains or injuries to the thumb or fist or wrist in about forty-five plus years of study, training and practice of karate, fighting and “fense!”
For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)
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