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Kevin's Shotokan kata notes: tekki shodan

Last modified: Fri Aug 3 08:57:03 2007

There are three tekki kata, but most practitioners will only ever practice shodan extensively. All three make extensive use of horse stance (kiba dachi), and all are considered more `advanced' than the heian. Superficially tekki shodan does not look more advanced than, say, heian nidan. It requires fewer moves, there are no kicks, no balancing moves, no changes of stance, and all the moves are either directly east of directly west.
      What makes Tekki shodan difficult is the precision required to do it properly. First, the whole kata can be performed, and probably should be performed, with your head at exactly the same height above the ground. This is difficult to accomplish as you step, punch, and stamp around. Second, your head movements have to be distinct and carefully co-ordinated. A number of moves call for a distinct turn of the head before anything any other part of your body moves. You'll be expected to show that your can turn your head and your torso independently. Third, it's quite difficult to keep in horse stance for the time it takes to do the kata -- it is very demanding of the knee joints and muscles of the upper legs. Fourth, it is very easy to get your right and left mixed up, and jump from one end of the kata to the other missing out the middle. It therefore requires a certain amount of concentration.
      Tekki shodan has the unusual feature that it contains two distinct sets of moves which are repeated with east and west reversed. It isn't that you move steadily from east to west and then from west to east, but rather that you move erratically in the east-west line in the first half of the kata, then erratically but in the opposite directions in the second. This accounts, at least in part, for the ease of confusion.
      This kata is required, along with bassai dai for higher kyu grades in most Shotokan schools. Because the moves themselves are not that difficult, a grading examiner will be looking for precision and power in the moves, and a solid horse stance.
      In what follows, I describe the directions of movement as if you start facing to the north. East is to your right, west to your left. When I say `step to the left', I mean `step to your left', not `step to the left of the room'. All the steps in this kata are either east or west; it's one-dimensional.

0. Preparation. The kata proper starts with your feet together, open hands held in front of you with your right palm on the back of your left hand. There is disagreement among pedants on exactly how the hands should be held -- whether the fingers should point straight down so that your wrists must be slightly bent, or whether your wrists are straight so that the fingers do not completely cover each other.

1. Step east. Look sharply to the east, while stepping your left foot over your right. Ideally, your left little toe should be the only part of you left foot that touches the ground at this point.

2. Stamp and back-hand block east. Lift your right knee to at least waist height, and stamp down and east into horse stance. At the same time, deliver a back-hand block, open hand, at shoulder height to the east. Opinions differ on whether you should cock your arms for this move. If you do, you should bring your right arm right under your left arm, while extending your left arm out to the east. This needs to be done while raising your leg for the stamp. In JKA clubs there has been a move recently away from cocking the arms for this move, and the practice now is just to block directly from the starting position.
      However you do the block, your left hand should be pulled up onto your left hip.

3. Elbow strike east. Rotate your left shoulder towards the east, to drive your left elbow around in a strike at neck height. Raise your right arm so that the striking elbow slaps into your right open palm. Ideally, your shoulders should be square to the east after this move.

4. Prepare for downward block. Look decisively west, while pulling both fists back to your right hip and turning your shoulders back square to the north. Note that in most schools this preparation is considered a distinct move.

5. Downward block west. Raise your left fist to your right shoulder, and downward block to your left (west). Opinions differ on whether you should rotate your shoulder to prepare for the block and give it additional strength.

6. Hook punch west. Still looking west, hook punch with your right arm, so that your right fist ends up about a foot away from, and directly in front of, your left shoulder. Purists maintain that the fist should, in fact, be slightly lower than the elbow, so your right forearm will slope downwards to your left. As you punch, draw you left fist back to your left hip.

7. Step west. Still looking west, step your right foot over your left. Hold your arms in the same position; your head remains the same height above the ground.

8a. Inside block north. Raise your left knee to waste height, and stamp down and west with your left foot, back into horse stance. As your foot rises, draw your right fist back to your left hip; as it lands, look north and inside block strongly to the north with the right arm.

8b. Downward block north. This move is a downward block with the right arm, against a `scissoring' action from the left. Move your right fist close to your left shoulder, and extend your left arm slightly. Your forearms should be almost touching. Then block sharply downward with your right fist, while pulling your left fist back to your head. The overall effect should be as if to break an arm caught between your left and right arms. At the end of this part of the move, your left fist should be pointed at your left ear. There is some debate about whether your knuckles should point up or forward.

9. Backfist strike north. Strike at chin height with the back of left fist. Your fist should travel from near your ear, to a point about a foot in front of your chest and at chin height. At the same time your right fist comes back from its block to press with the knuckles against your right elbow.

10. Look west. This is generally considered a separate move, so make it definite.

11. Leg block, and close hammer-fist strike to the west. Raise your left foot to your right knee, while remaining in the same stance, as far as possible. Then drop it back to horse stance. If you do it quickly enough, you should be able to do this block without falling over. Some people interpret this move as deflecting an incoming low kick from the north. If you favour this interpretation, the movement should be forceful and the blocking foot should extent past the right knee. Otherwise you'd be deflecting the kick onto your right kneecap, hardly a sound idea. Others interpret the move as simply stepping over a low sweep (ashi barai). In this case, it isn't so important that the moving foot come so far back.
      In any case, as your foot returns to horse stance, turn your whole torso so that your shoulders come square to the west, and your left hand delivers a hammer-first strike at chest height. Your arms should remain in approximately the same position -- don't strike with an arm movement, but turn the whole torso into the strike. You will have to rotate your wrist as you turn, so that the little-finger side of the fist is facing the target.

12. Look east.

13. Leg block, and close hammer-fist strike to the east. Look sharply east. Raise your right foot to your right knee and place it back in horse stance -- this is the mirror image of the previous leg block. Then turn your whole torso through 180 degrees to do a hammer-fist strike to the east. Again, it is the torso rotation that drives the blow, not the arm action. And, as before, you'll need to rotate your wrist to bring the little-finger side of the fist to face the target.

14. Prepare for double-hand strike. Look sharply west while pulling both fists to your right hip.

15. Double hand strike west. Hammer-fist strike at neck height with your left fist, while doing a hook punch with your right. kiai on this move.

16. Back-fist block east. This move is the mirror image of the first move in the kata, except that even those schools that don't favour cocking the arms for the first move favour cocking them here; moreover, this move is generally done slowly, while the first move is fast. You have to cock your arms here, because your left fist is already in the position it has to finish. It's not a block if you don't move your blocking arm. So extend your right arm to the west, while extending your left arm underneath it. Then block with the back of your open left hand.

17. Elbow strike west. Rotate your right shoulder towards the west, to drive your right elbow around in a strike at neck height. Raise your left arm so that the striking elbow slaps into your left open palm. Ideally, your shoulders should be square to the east after this move.

12. Downward block east. Look decisively east, while pulling

18. Prepare for downward block east. Look decisively east, while pulling both fists back to your left hip.

19. Downward block east. Raise your right fist to your left shoulder, and downward block to your right (east).

20. Hook punch east. Still looking east, hook punch with your left arm.

21. Step east. Still looking east, step your left foot over your right. Hold your arms in the same position.

22. Inside block north. Still looking east, step your left foot over your right. Hold your arms in the same position; your head remains the same height above the ground. Raise your right knee to waste height, and stamp down and east with your left foot, back into horse stance. As your foot rises, draw your left fist back to your right hip; as it lands, look north and inside block strongly with the left arm.

23a. Downward block north. Move your left fist close to your right shoulder, and extend your right arm slightly. Your forearms should be almost touching. Then block sharply downward with your left fist, while pulling your right fist back to your head.

23a. Backfist strike north. Strike at chin height with the back of right fist. Your fist should travel from near your ear, to a point about a foot in front of your chest and at chin height. At the same time your left fist comes back from its block to press with the knuckles against your right elbow.

24. Look east.

25. Leg block, and close hammer-fist strike to the east. Look sharply east. Raise your right foot to your left knee, while remaining in the same stance, as far as possible. Then drop it back to horse stance. As your foot returns to horse stance, turn your whole torso so that your shoulders come square to the east, and your left hand delivers a hammer-first strike at chest height. Your arms should remain in approximately the same position, but you will have to rotate your wrist as you turn, so that the little-finger side of the fist is facing the target.

26. Look west.

27. Leg block, and close hammer-fist strike to the west. Raise your left foot to your right knee and place it back in horse stance -- this is the mirror image of the previous leg block. Then turn your whole torso through 180 degrees to do a hammer-fist strike to the west. You'll again need to rotate your wrist to bring the little-finger side of the fist to face the target.

28. Prepare for double hand strike. Look sharply east while pulling both fists to your let hip.

29. Double hand strike east. Hammer-fist strike at neck height with your right fist, while doing a hook punch with your left. kiai on this move.

Things to watch out for...

• The leg-raising blocks (of which there are four in total) require considerable practice to do properly. Ideally, your torso would not move at all. In practice, the laws of physics don't allow this, but if you do the moves with a rapid, snapping action, your torso should not move more than a few inches. It slows the moves considerably if you shift your weight over on to one leg so that you can lift the other without falling.
• It is easy to do the double-handed blocks by windmilling your blocking arms about your elbows (just like in the first moves of heian sandan). However, to get strong blocks you'll need to cock your arms as you do for any other block. The trick is to begin the block by pressing the elbows of both hands towards each, then pulling your hands apart as you block.
• Most schools consider the initial step of this kata as a distinct move (as I have described it here). You would need to show that your recognize this, by pausing briefly in the legs-crossed position before stamping into the first horse stance.

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