Ian wrote:
Wauke generally means you're on the outside of the punch, and if its close quarters that's hard to do, near impossible if there's any hook to the attack.
I find it fascinating that you say this, Ian. Why? I find Rich (another of my students) feeling pretty much the same way.
Meanwhile... Over time I'm getting more and more comfortable using circle movements on the inside, and meeting someone on the inside.
George hit on my thinking above. At the end of the day, the only thing we can say about the wauke is that it's a "circle thingie." What you and Rich see is one fixed interpretation of what you can do with that circle, and I will readily admit that it is a "problem" with hoq Kyu and Dan Kumite are often practiced. But it isn't Kyu and Dan Kumite per se. IMO, it's the vanilla, Okinawan interpretation of Kanbun's 3-kata style as represented in the way you see various supplemental exercises done.
What's missing? Grappling and chi sao. Sit back some time and watch two good grapplers move. Squint your eyes. What you'll see is a series of pushes/pulls and circles. And that's what Sanchin is. The big difference is the grappler takes the Sanchin posture out of the box and uses it in very different orientations. Howerver (s)he still is concerned about control of center (of both self and oppoent).
We shouldn't translate
wa*uke as
circle block. A better translation is
circular interception.
On the inside, the circle can be many different things. There's a beautiful, 8 x 10 inch, B&W photograph in Kanei Uechi's kyohon of someone entering a tori attacking with a stick. If you squint your eyes, you see the circle and rising elbow either of Seisan (generally done in front leaning stance) or Sanseiryu (generally done in horse stance). But the uke isn't doing a circle. Instead, what you see is arm feeling its way inside and past the donut-shaped danger zone around the tori. By the time the photo is snapped and the elbow is contacting the stick attacker, the "circling" arm is still up. You never really complete a full circle like one sees in Sanchin kata. You're only using a piece of it, or perhaps the concept of what the circle means. (intercepting or receiving) Using an attacking mindset, the circle is nothing more than feeling your way into the sweet zone of destructing inside the attacker's defenses.
Other interpretations of what this could mean work as well, such as Mike's comment about the chudan shuto uke inside the crotch of the elbow of a looping attack. You are after all leading with the shuto in a wauke, right? Works for me!
And then you get to watching someone like Rory whose comfort zone is his old-world, brutal jiujitsu (Sosu$hitsu Ryu). Some things Rory does (such as Dracula's Cape) use the concept of the circle when entering. But a circle to him also means getting an arm around that neck when he gets inside, or some other intercepting movement that allows him to stick on and control the BG. And that works for him.
- Bill
