Sochin Notes: Movements 1 – 4…

I’ve been asked to clean up my Sochin notes into a consumable format, so I thought no better place to communicate them than here. Over the next few nights, I will be transcribing my thoughts on segments of Sochin kata. I would like to reiterate, these are just my thoughts. I am no expert, but I have been through this kata quite a bit this year.

Without further adieu…

Sochin is characterized by strong rooted movements. This should not be news to anyone that is looking to perform this kata, you need look no further than Osaka-Sensei’s JKA series video to see this. Every movement in this kata is distinct and powerful, and these concepts are important to demonstrate with the first technique.

I have seen many variations of the first technique of this kata. Both Sensei Osaka and Sensei Quinn demonstrate this motion similarly, however there are several other interpretations that I have been a party to. This high low block is somewhat circular in motion… while the left hand rises and ends similar to a rising block, the right hand performs an exagerrated circular motion, ending similar to downward block only more rounded at the elbow. The palm of the closed fist should be pushing downward and outward at the finish of the movement. The start of the movement is where the difference appears to lie. It appears that the JKA interpretation of this kata has the right hand come back behind the right hip, swinging back and over the head before coming down into the circular finish of the motion.

When I was first working on this kata, Sensei Brewer instructed me to have the feeling of squeezing together with both the knees and the elbows, which really helped in drawing everything closer to the center but I found would leave me with a subconscious pause at the top of the motion. This was very clearly a mistake in my understanding of the movement at that early stage. Sensei Hassell went further along this line and describes the motion slightly differently, stating that the hand should not drop back behind the hip, but should come up from ready position above the head in a gradual flowing motion downward. He said that the extra movement backward would provide an opening that he would rather not give a would be attacker. I can see the wisdom in that.

As I researched further and really watched Sensei Brewer and studied other videos, the intent of a continuous flowing motion with gradually increasing tension to the end of the technique was very clear. There should be no pause, no stopping as the body settles down into sochin-dachi and gradual squeezing of tension as the blocks lock together. I found that with repetition my shoulder muscles and tendons would get sore from holding the weight and the tension throughout the movement, I recently realized that tensing the pectoral muscles can prevent a lot of that trauma and really locks your technique into the center.

There is not much to be said about the second technique, the vertical knifehand holds the same characteristics as the first movement. Many people want to leave tension off the start of the technique and pick it up at the end, but in reality the tension should grow continuously throughout the motion. I found that punctuating the end of the technique by squeezing *slightly* helps to get the relaxation that leads into the following two punches. Also, the arm should be level with the shoulder, and the palm should be as flat as possible when pushing outward at the end of the motion.

Sensei Brewer described the first four movements of this kata as a growing storm… the first two movements are slow and strong like a storm rolling in and building power. The two punches should be light lightning, fast and explosive. Much of the difficulty in Sochin kata is purely this notion… being rooted in sochin-dachi and still relaxed enough to have explosive power.

Sochin-dachi itself is a bit of a challenge as well. Starting off the kata, it is very important to keep the hips, shoulders and back all in line in order to enable the knees to press outward and your hips to drop down. When transitioning to the second movement, I have the trouble of my back knee dropping inward because my butt sticks out as I move. Tension in the stomach and across the shoulder blades help alleviate this problem, but it is one of the areas that still gives me difficulty. Also, when doing the two punches it is important to be aware of hip action. It should really be vibration, if you trend more toward rotation naturally you will find that you will likely throw your knees out of stance and it will take some effort to keep the stance strong while the punches stay powerful.

That’s all for installment one, thanks for reading.