Breakfalls II

Ok, so one more I forgot to describe last night. I think of this one as just sweeping my own leg. To start, you bend your knees and squat until you are almost in a crouch while in a natural stance. Take your right leg and swing it towards the left on the ground almost like a kenpo inner sweep; simultaneously, you need to roll towards your left side, tilted to the right hip, and let yourself hit the ground while slapping the ground with your right hand. Repeat on the opposite side by reversing directions.

Some Basic Breakfalls

I had a refresher on several breakfalls tonight. To help me remember them, I'm going to jot down some notes about them.

The easiest one is where you start by sitting on your butt with your knees by your chest. Tuck in your chin and form a diamond with your hands above your head. The hands are slightly cupped rather than flat. Fall onto your back, simultaneously slapping the ground on each side with your hands and allowing your legs to swing freely up.

Another one starts with you sitting up on your knees. Your arms are in front of you as if you are surrenduring but lower, almost in front of your face. Allow yourself to fall forward with your neck tucked upwards, facing the sky, and break your fall with your two arms to the front. Sort of like a drop pushup.

A full breakfall has you starting in a climbing stance. You simply rollover your front leg side shoulder to hip fashion. You should land not solidly on your back but half-way between that and on your side. The back leg from the initial front stance should be almost straight and helping to break the fall using the side of the foot. Your initial front leg should be bent and breaking the fall with the sole. The front side arm is the one that slaps the ground.

A Discussion of the Chayon-Ryu Sidekick

I'm still a bit mixed up about this topic myself. Chayon-Ryu means "Natural Way" so there's an effort to make all the strikes and kicks use movements your body does already. This sounds great in theory. In practice, I find it a bit trying just because I am used to kicking differently from the other karate styles I have studied.

The Chayon-Ryu sidekick is practiced from a horse stance. You do a step-behind movement and lift your front kicking leg as high as you can comfortably while looking at your target. Hands are outstretched to either side of yourself for balance. At this point, you probably (haven't confirmed with an instructor) form your foot and harden it. Fire the kick out, striking with the heel. As you strike your rear hand should be outstretched to the other side in reciprocal movement with the kicking leg and should approximate the same height level as the kicking foot. Rechamber and recover by placing the kicking foot on the ground into another horse stance.

Many karate styles would consider this sloppy because your hands seemingly fly around, but Chayon-Ryu considers this to be optimal because it is natural? Hmm, I dunno. I don't think it's a good idea for quicker recovery for another technique but I can see that it would be an easier way for the absolute rank beginner to kick.

More on this and the roundhouse kick when I get a chance and remember to blog about it.