NOTES ON GOJU AND SANCHIN:

[emattson]

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By Graham Noble

Re punches to the head, generally - You can, maybe, limit the effect of blows to the head by doing exercises to strengthen your neck, although this is not usually practised in Goju Ryu or Uechi Ryu. And in boxing (in contrast to Sanchin, where the head is held motionless) you move the head constantly and might “go with the punch”. Boxers. of course, do get used to taking punches to the head, to some extent anyway, but they do it by taking hundreds, more likely thousands, of such punches over hundreds of rounds of sparring and competitive fighting. Boxers still get knocked out though, and for obvious health reasons the sport has weight divisions to restrict the damage which would result from blows from a heavier opponent.

The problem of brain damage from repeated punches to the head in boxing (CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is covered in Tris Dixon’s important book “Damage. The untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (2021).

Ref Max Baer etc here.

Terry O’Neill and Morio Higaonna’s Yoyogi dojo – Terry told me that he found it fairly easy to score on the Goju karateka with kicks at longer range, but when he moved into the closer “Goju range”, they came into their own.

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