The Foundation of the Goju Karate Way

by Merv Oakley

The first thing you must learn in karate is the stances. Sanchin kata is where you learn to hold your stance in the dojo, where the instructor is trying to pushing and poke you off balance while you try to remain in the Sanchin stance.

In Tensho kata, you learn basic stance, muscle control and breathing. After hard training, you start to feel the ki flow. As a teacher watching my students training in Tensho kata, I can see whether they are breathing properly and if they are in the stance correctly.

In most traditional martial arts, the foundations are similar: discipline, dedication, a good attitude and respect for the senior martial artist and above all, the dedication to perfect kata.

In Goju, there are two important kata, Sanchin and Tensho. Although these kata number number ten and eleven in a list of twenty kata taught to me by the late Gogen Yamaguchi way back in 1963, Sanchin and Tensho hold the basic fundamentals of the Goju way. Sanchin is the hard 'Go' in Goju and Tensho is the soft 'Ju'. Over the years it has become apparent that without mastering these two kata, you have no chance of mastering the Goju way.The first thing you must learn in karate is the stances. Sanchin kata is where you learn to hold your stance in the dojo, where the instructor is trying to pushing and poke you off balance while you try to remain in the Sanchin stance. In Tensho kata, you learn basic stance, muscle control and breathing. After hard training, you start to feel the ki flow. As a teacher watching my students training in Tensho kata, I can see whether they are breathing properly and if they are in the stance correctly.

The hard thing is to get the student to understand. Some students believe when they wander through the pattern of the kata they are good, but they are really missing the point. Yamaguchi-sensei always said that if you do not have the correct focus and the opponent in your mind, you are not doing a kata, only doing a dance. To check that the students are in the right stance, I do a one-inch punch to their stomachs. If the student falls over, his stance is wrong. If the stance is wrong, everything is wrong. When a big, strong man falls over and then he sees a little kid take the punch and not move, he should start to understand the right from wrong. A one inch punch is not very strong. It's done by putting the second knuckles to the student's stomach and then a forward movement closing the hand. It is a very soft movement but enough to show who can and who can't hold their stance. When I put a group through the waterfall, I can see the ones who have the true spirit and the potential to develop ki - and those who don't.

When the instructor thinks that the student is ready, the real test is the 'the waterfall'. In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, there is a very strong waterfall where I take my students to do Tensho kata under the falls. I have been doing this since 1964, when after a long search I found the perfect place at the base of a sheer cliff. When you climb down the steps to get to the bottom, you're in a different world. In no other place could you feel closer to nature.

To successfully complete Tencho kata under the waterfall, it takes more than just the correct stance and muscle control. Breathing is just as important. The Goju way of breathing is from the base of the stomach, but with every muscle tight all the time. This way of breathing is called Ibuki and can take years to learn. Some people take longer than others.

While the things I mentioned above are important, they can be learned in a short time with hard work. The most difficult thing to teach is the spirit, the fighting spirit which is essential. One must combine all these elements together at the same time. You must not let anything to break your concentration if you wish to master the Goju way.

The old Japanese martial artists drew their inspiration from nature. From nature, we learn. From the animals, we get our stances. From the forest, we learn to move with the blows, like in the story of the big, strong oak tree and the little bamboo in a typhoon. The oak tree tried to stand up against the wind but was blown over, whereas the bamboo bent with the wind and when the typhoon had passed, straightened up again. Nature is inspiring to some people. To me, a waterfall is a god-like spirit from which knowledge and wisdom can be gained.

My first encounter with this was back in 1963, when my first karate teacher, Gogen Yamaguchi, who was a shinto priest as well as a karate teacher, took a group of high school students and me to a waterfall up in the mountains north of Tokyo. At the time I found it hard to understand what was going on. Yamaguchi-sensei would visit the waterfall once a month, winter and summer. In winter, there were icicles on that waterfall which had to be chopped out; I'm very glad that we don't have that trouble here, but it gets cold in our mountains too.

After a student has mastered the Tensho kata under the waterfall, he has taken his or her first step, and the most important one in their martial arts training. Please note - I said mastered Tensho kata, and not just done. Some students hit the waterfall like a bull at a gate, go through the movements at a hundred miles an hour and rush out, thinking they have done a great job. Some, when hit by the water, forget everything, and we have to pull them out. In contrast to these, the students who have been paying attention in the dojo and put in the hard work will approach the waterfall slowly, blend into it and with nothing on their mind complete the kata and emerge from the waterfall feeling ten feet tall. There ways to do things the right way and the wrong way. It's the teacher's job to make the student understand which is which.

Waterfall training starts at 5:30 am. We get out of bed and into the car for the long drive to the mountains. We all meet at the top of the cliffs for the run down into the bottom of the valley. The first half is easy, but the second half is a sheer cliff which seems more like a ladder than steps. It is very good training for the legs.

On the way we pause, to take in the beauty and tranquillity of the surroundings. It is the perfect place to mediate. The wide, deep valley in front of us; the high cliffs behind, and in the distance, the roar of the waterfall getting louder all the time as we approach. In a wet season like we sometimes have, the water thunders down. It makes the training a real test for body and mind.

In front of the waterfall, we meditate before we approach the falls. If you ask ten people to explain the experience of doing Tensho kata under the waterfall, each of them would give a different story. This experience affects different people in different ways, but we all feel better for having participated. After training at the waterfall, it is time to climb up the cliff. It's much harder going up the cliff than going down. About half-way up, we stop at a flat place for Kumite and other training, and then we continue to the top and our cars.