Shisochin

It's a kata I'm working to understand. And it's BEAUTIFUL! But don't just take my word for it - see for yourself:

According to an excerpt from fellow blogger Dan Djurdjevic's The Academy for Traditional Fighting Arts page:

The standard kanji of Shisochin mean “four directional battle.”  This is said to be an Okinawan attempt to pronounce the Hokkien/Amoy reading of the characters (pronounced "xi xiang zhan" in Mandarin).  Shi/si means "4", so/xiang means "direction" and chin/zhan means "battle."

That makes sense to me. It is very symmetrical form, as you can see that moves pretty evenly in all directions. Not sure if you can tell, but so much of the action in this form is precipitated and finished with/by the hips. Trust me when I tell you that bones are being broken on that imaginary adversary.

My sensei is currently in Okinawa training with Taira Sensei (whom you just watched in the video above). I just thought that was pretty cool and wanted to share :-)