Wado Kata: Nai Han Chi

Last Monday we had a relatively small class of all adults. Garry decided to do something completely different and teach us a traditional Wado-Ryu kata that is not part of the Higashi syllabus.

The kata is called Nai Han Chi after the stance in which most of the kata is based: Naihanchi stance. This is quite an awkward stance in which the feet are about two shoulders widths apart and the outside of your feet are facing forward parallel. The toes come inwards ever so slightly depending upon the shape of your foot. This is awkward because that position makes the knees want to bend inwards and this is not natural for the knees.

Excess training in this position can in fact be bad for the knees which is why the kata was dropped from the Higashi syllabus. However, it's always good to learn knew things and Garry made us aware of the way in which the knees were affected before we started and showed us how to ensure that they pointed outwards instead of inwards.

Aside from the weird stance, there were two other odd things with this kata. Firstly, it is performed on one horizontal line. Apparently it was designed to be practised on a small boat! In actual fact its small enough to be practised in the loo of the new building my company has moved too! I did try practising it the other day but then I heard somebody at the coffee machine outside the toilet which put me off :-)

The other weird thing about the kata is that all of the twisting movements are done with the upper body. Usually we twist at the hips shifting our weight from one stance into another. For example, a front punch followed by a reverse punch are performed in two distinct stances. In this kata there are movements which feel like they should be performed in Gyakusuki but they remain in Naihanchi. For example there is an elbow strike performed to the side which is very similar to the one in Pinan Yondan but in Yondan you shift into a Gyakusuki stance but here we stay in Naihanchi. So your feet are facing forwards but your upper body needs to be turned to the side for the elbow strike. This requires a lot of flexibility around the waist and feels just plain weird!

Anyway it was really interesting to learn something new even if it's not something I'll be whipping out for my next competition.