Progress on Naihanchi

I've been working on #Naihanchi a lot lately, trying to incorporate Sensei's relaxed power principles into my routine.  It's always hard to break old habits and do things a different way, but I usually learn something new in the process.

Here's a video clip from 2006 doing Naihanchi when our Dojo was on Orange Avenue.

Naihanchi Shodan 2006 - Orange Avenue Dojo

When I watch this now, I can see that I was able to generate pretty good power in my techniques, and they were well connected to the movement of my koshi, but I see a lot of lateral movement in my knees and a lack of connection of my elbows to my koshi.

Fast forward a few years and here I am, doing Naihanchi again...this time in our new Dojo on Capital Circle NW.

Naihanchi Shodan Jan 2010 - Capital Circle NW Dojo

This one is a little different, but still lateral knee movement.

Since about Dec. 2010, I've been working to change a number of body dynamics.  Here is a clip from 2014.

Naihanchi Shodan 2014

I think this one demonstrates pretty good connection, speed and power.  It seems to flow well.  It's not very relaxed though. I can see the tension in my shoulders and I was definitely tucking my koshi and squeezing my lats.

Here are a couple I took last night.  The first one is slow, focusing on relaxing everything and extending my technique from the connection between my elbow and my koshi.  The second one is the same idea only faster and throwing my technique off my koshi from the connection.

Naihanchi Shodan - April 2014 - Slow/Relaxed

Naihanchi Shodan - April 2014 - Faster/Relaxed

Needless to say, it's not where I want it to be yet.  There's a little too much hip rotation, instead of making that figure-8 koshi motion more internal.  There's still a little lateral knee movement, too.  I will continue to work, but I think it's a long way from 2006. 

If I can find some video from long ago, I might post that to show how my Naihanchi looked in say, 1983-1997.  That might take a while to dig up...