Videos
The Methods of Choki Motobu: Part 2
By Practical Kata Bunkai on
https://iainabernethy.com/ This series of fifteen videos covers my take on the methods of Choki Motobu (1870–1944). We will cover his thinking, a little of his history, his twelve two-person drills, some of his anti-gripping methods, and the kata I created for my personal practise of his methodology (Seinipo). A new episode will go live each week until the series is completed.
This video series first appeared in the iain abernethy app (available from Google Play and the Apple App Store). If you are serious about pragmatic karate, then the hundreds of hours of instructional information in the app provides an in-depth and ever-growing resource (the app is updated with new material each week):
https://iainabernethy.com/iain-abernethys-applied-karate-kata-bunkai-app
Motobu’s methods provide an interesting contrast to some of the questionable practises of modern karate (i.e. things like three-step and five-step “sparring”). He is also one of karate’s more “colourful” characters and his methods are entirely congruent with the methodology of the traditional kata
It is my view that all pragmatically minded karateka should have some familiarity with his thinking and methodology. Whist Motobu is a key part of my own personal karate lineage, I have found his methods resonate with karateka of all styles. I have shared these drills with practitioners of Shotokan, Shito-Ryu, Goju-Ryu, Wado-Ryu, etc and even non-karateka. All of them have found recognisable commonalities with their existing practise.
In is my opinion that Motobu’s methods are often negatively influenced by the practices of 3K modern karate; including a lack of flow, overly-formal attacks and an exaggerated distance. This has been avoided in what is shared here.
NOTE: In some cases, I have tweaked the methods to be more inline with the wider practises of myself and students. These instances are made clear within the video series.
I hope that you enjoy this series. As mentioned above, if you do like it, and want to see more, then please check out the iain abernethy app for well over one-thousand hours of in-depth instruction on a whole load of practical karate topics.
All the best,
Iain
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