All six Ido Kihon from Wadoryu: (excluding kette gyakuzuki, there is a seperate video of that here)
Sonobazuki from Naihanchidachi
purpose of kihon 意思 の 基本
Kihon is the basic of our methods. According to the Dutch dictionary “Van Dale”, a method is a fixed manner of actions for reaching a goal. Fixed is not really something that sounds Wado, perhaps structured manner suits better for us.
Kihon is a traditional method to practice Karate technique. Many people see kihon as the originator of kumite, like kihon > kata > kumite, but this is wrong. From kihon you should improve to kata, partner exercises called yakusoku gumite or kumite gata and eventually to sparring or jiyu gumite. So actually it is vice versa, kumite > kata > kihon. Karate was born from the idea of self defense and military affairs, that originates from combat. Learning to control your body is better learned if it is repeated training. This is probably one of the reasons why Kata was created. Kata contains principles of how to act in combat. Technical and strategical. In Kata, the techniques are practiced in a continuous matter. Kata is to isolate principles of movement, but the techniques were not separate, but continuous. Kihon training allowed practice of the techniques of the Kata separately. Probably much later, many teachers started experimenting with yakusoku gumite and jiyu gumite. Hironori Ohtsuka sensei of Wado Ryu was actually the one responsible for the basic rules of our present-day competition.
Ishikawa sensei seminar Bulgaria 2007
Kihon is an extraction from kata. Like kata, kihon is a training tool to learn the process of movement and (for example) how to use speed, power, timing, balance and have a correct posture. In kihon it is therefore important to focus on these points. You can compare it to fitness. A basic idea of fitness is to isolate a certain muscle group that you like to train by body posture and correct body movement. A device that claims to make you the next Arnold Schwarzenegger within a few weeks with only one workout that covers the whole body is thus nonsense. In Karate it is the same. You need to isolate movement in order to learn it properly. Kata already isolates many aspects, but extracting movement and practicing it separately (in fact creating small kata) can focus on typical points of that movement. If students have problems with typical aspects of movement or technique, it would be better to make them repeat a method that focuses purely on that problem.
Traditional kihon training focuses on the process of movement and correct execution of the techniques. Since the purpose of a punch is to knock somebody out, one of the most important points of karate is the point of impact. The point of impact is the moment of energy transfer. This moment is called Kime.To learn how to transfer your energy and thus have the correct timing of relaxation and contraction, using weight in the punch and the forward movement all at the same time, there should be an “end” after every execution. Make sure to cut off the power at the last point of the technique, when the technique is finishing, this is called nuki. It is like relaxing “in” the impact, so to speak. To feel this energy and controlling it at the moment of impact the best is to have a “stop” in your movement, in kihon, as a method. This “stop” enables you to isolate this moment. Later on, you can experiment stopping for a smaller amount of time, every time. Practically there is no stop, because that means ‘room’ for the opponent to attack.
The first movement of pinan nidan is, for example, to learn how to use gravity en a dropping manner (therefore mahanmi neko ashi dachi). In reality it is more logic to twist the body too and move in any appropriate direction at that time. However, because the use of gravity is one of the points here, rotating or changing the position of your center – other than dropping – is not incorporated in this movement. The rotation is isolated in pinan sandan and pinan godan in the first movement. Therefore shomen neko ashi dachi is used. Junzuki dachi would be turning too, but with much use of changing your weight. These are just some examples of the reason why to use a particular stance for a movement.
There is a difference between the study of principles through isolated practice and actual fighting.
KIHON 基本
Ishikawa sensei seminar Bulgaria 2007