Practical Kata Bunkai: Pinan Nidan / Heian Shodan Moves 3 to 6

This video shows a bunkai drill for moves 3 to 6 of Pinan Nidan / Heian Shodan. It was filmed at a private training session in August 2011 and we had just been looking at applications for the previous turn. This clip joins that session as we look at the “lower-block“ posture and onwards. I see the Pinan / Heian kata as showing a combative progression from Pinan Shodan to Pinan Godan. It is therefore the bunkai that explains why Pinan Shodan is “Number 1“ despite the fact that the solo form is harder that Pinan Nidan (which has seen the names swapped in Shotokan and the order changed in almost all dojo) i.e. the original order is for the progression of the bunkai; not the difficultly of solo forms. The bunkai drills we teach for Pinan Shodan (Heian Nidan) cover the basic ways of manipulating a singe arm (among other things). In Pinan Nidan (Heian Shodan) we see both arms being controlled simultaneously and the methods used to exploit the opening building on things introduced previously. For more details on how the progression works visit the website or see both volumes of “The Pinan / Heian Series: The Complete Fighting System“. I hope you enjoy the clip and I’ll be back with more soon! All the best, Iain