Using beach sand and water as a training tool: Okinawa Prefecture produces Karate video

Using beach sand and water as a training tool: Okinawa Prefecture produces Karate video

Shorin-ryu Myobuan director Hirokazu Matsuda (right) and dojo master Hideyasu Higa (left), training their hands, feet, and bodies using sand as a tool – January 19, at a beach in Nakadomari, Onna


January 25, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo

By Takesaburo Koyama

 

Onna – The Okinawa Prefecture Department of Culture Tourism & Sports’ (OCTS) Karate promotion office hosted a karate training session at the beach in Nakadomari, Onna January 19, led by the instructors at Shorin-ryu Myobukan (Hirokazu Matsuda, General Director), for a video the department is making titled, “Okinawa Karate Remote Instructor Initiative.”

In the morning at Myobukan’s Onna Dojo, director Matsuda recorded performances of kata, and then branch dojo master Hideyasu Higa trained against two opponents. At the beach, after giving a brief overview of how to use sand as a tool for training, the pair of instructors showed how to train the body’s core using weight and unsteady footing, with Higa performing kata standing on the sand with Matsuda on his shoulders. Then, they entered the water and showed how to build strength with resistance training using the water with thrusts and kicks.

It is said that the unstable footing on the beach makes a good environment for training. Director Matsuda said that retired singer Namie Amuro was a pupil of the dojo when she was in junior high school, noting, “She took lessons on the beach, and lots of fervent training led her to obtain a black belt.”

The remote instruction project is part of a larger undertaking to preserve Okinawan karate and to pass it down to future generations, and are working on things such as distributing a video seminar made with the help of 16 instructors from the various schools of Okinawan karate, as well as planning for the development of both karate instructors and disciples.

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

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