Sensei states, “Tatsuo Shimabuku taught to lock the joints instantaneously upon impact to generate tremendous power, this locking is called Chinkuchi. Shimabuku Sensei also taught to use natural movements with speed & fluidity, as seen here in the video of him doing the first 3 kata. When we combine these things we have Isshin-ryu. This is a never-ending process of refining body mechanics, along with improving muscle memory through decades of training that makes the movements graceful, and with power.” In response, I tend to think that chinkuchi or what he teaches as locking the joints is only one “small” part of the whole. The whole being all those principles applied that take you up to and including the locking of joints. If you look to the locking of joints instantaneously there has to be something else to help describe and understand this process more fully. As I have mentioned in previous postings chinkuchi, to my perceptions, etc., is about applying all the fundamental principles but with an additional emphasis on the sequential locking and sequential relaxation. These are the two sub-principles of the principle “physiokinetics.” In order to make chinkuchi work you still have to apply all the other principles of which without you would simply be locking the joints instantaneously. The locking of joints instantaneously does not create the power that is written but is rather a instance of an accumulation of applied principles that create the power whereby the sequential locking brings it to that one point or instance of contact of a target. If you are not rooted, if your breathing is off, if you posture sucks, if your spinal alignment as well as the proper alignment of the entire body toward that one instance is off, if your structure sucks, if you fail to produce wave energy, if you are not centered, if your mind-body is off balance, if you are not applying either or centripetal or centrifugal forces, etc. then you can tighten the joints instantaneously all you want and you won’t have the power to make it work. In my view it is a bit misleading to simply state that to lock the joints instantaneously upon impact is how you generate power. Yes, you get a certain amount of power simply by the physics of moving your hand and arm forward then applying the chinkuchi as described but not the kind of power that is alluded to as in stopping power for self-defense, fighting or combat.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:07:33 +0000