Goju Ryu and Sanchin Kata Training Tips

Best Goju Ryu Form is Sanchin Kata!

Goju Ryu is famous for Sanchin Kata, though, to be fair, many other Karate systems train in Sanchin Stance based forms.The reason  this karate form is so crucial to the martial arts student is not because of movements found in the goju ryu techniques. This form is crucial because of such things as Sanchin breathing.

goju ryu

Gogen Yamaguchi in Sanchin Dachi!


There are three specific things that happen because of training in Sanchin Dachi. These three things hinge upon proper breathing, which is the first phase of the karate kata. Proper breathing, down the tan tien (the one point located below the navel), causes the body to generate energy.

This energy can be used to literally ‘coat’ the body with an impenetrable shield. The muscles, the bones, the entire frame of the body, become able to resist the hardest strike. Strike somebody who has practiced sanchin dachi for any length of time, and you are liable to hurt yourself!

Once proper breathing has established an iron body (called golden bell in Chinese), the third thing can be pursued in Goju Ryu. This third thing is the lightening hard strikes, the bone breaking blocks, inherent within all good Goju ryu techniques. It is a rueful lesson to an attacker to strike a trained goju trained stylist and feel their arm shatter on a block, and then receive a strike that causes their ribs to break, their kidneys to fail, and their will to live wane.

It is easy to think that these three things can be had by a simple training regimen consisting of Goju Ryu Kata, but that is not the truth. As with anything, sincere desire must be manifest in order for these three things to work. This is where we must touch upon the intense martial arts discipline and the martial arts meditation that takes place in Goju.

The physical effects of Goju training are large. The body tends to find correct alignment, and workable mechanics tend to manifest. This, of course, is dependent upon finding and practicing a workable and evolved method of karate.

The mind is the repository of existence, and it holds countless random thoughts during the course of a day. It is the purpose of the student to throw himself into his karate kata so intensely that the mind is cleared of random thoughts. A mind empty of distractions can then focus on pure martial discipline.

This method of emptying the mind results in a mind free from surface thoughts. There is no internal verbalizing of thoughts to the goju practitioner, or to any karateka practicing a good karate system. Thus, strong body, strong mind, the Goju Ryu Karateka reaps the benefits of Sanchin Kata in large ways.

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