Tag Archives: Jinto

Checking My Balance

Leave a reply

Is it just me or is it starting to feel distinctly Autumnal? Maybe that’s a bit of wishful thinking, as I write this it’s gorgeous outside and very hot, but that’s been the exception over the last few weeks rather than the rule. I know I probably sound like a bit of an idiot, wishing away summer, but I love autumn. Hell, have a search here for that word and see how much I do. It feels like the year’s speeding up now, and I think that’s the impending Bank Holiday making me feel like that, either way I’m looking forward to it.

Training’s still ongoing, and I’m still really enjoying it. I’ve finally nailed Jinto into my subconscious, and it’s really nice being able to concentrate on the performance of the moves rather than which one comes next. It’s a really tricky form to get right, there are very few ‘standard’ moves in it, save for a few punches, and so execution is going to take me a while to get right. The cats are already getting fed up with me stomping around the kitchen practicing – getting excited as I get near the food cupboard, and then shouting at me as I go back the other way again. The most difficult part so far is nailing the balance during the crane stance parts of the form.

I don’t normally have too much of a problem with crane stances in other forms, I feel relatively solid during Chil Sung Sam Roh, Sip Soo and Rohai, and to be fair even in Jinto. The problems come with the transitions from the crane stance to the snap and precursor for the front kicks. The snap entails a 90° rotation of the upper body and a repositioning of the arms, but in order to do that it means a lot of torque which needs to stop abruptly and in a very solid position, all while balancing on one leg. In itself it shouldn’t be as hard as it is, but because it’s a very unnatural movement it’s very difficult. I think the root of my problems lie with not applying the same amount of torque with the top half as the bottom, and because they’re moving in opposite directions it means if more force is applied in one direction than the other, I keep moving when I intended to stop. This throws my balance off and leaves me hopping around like someone who just had their foot run over.

Unfortunately there’s no short-cut to getting it right, I’ve learned now that there’s only one way to make it happen, and it’s just repetition, repetition, repetition. But repetition done correctly of course! It reminds me of something I read somewhere once, but I can’t remember where, or how it goes exactly but it’s along the lines of: “If you practise a form 1,000 times you’ll know the form. If you practise it 10,000 times you’ll be able to see your opponent. If you practise the form 100,000 times, other people will be able to see your opponent”.

Tackling Jinto

1 Reply

Training feels more like it used to at the moment, I’ve got loads of new stuff to learn, it really reminds me of being a lower gup grade and having to take loads of new stuff on. At the moment I’m trying to load my brain (and muscles) with a combination of Naihanchi Ee Dan, Jinto and Joong Jol (Yuk Roh Ee Dan).

I always love the challenge of trying to take a new form on board and to learn it from start to finish. Refining it and making it look good always take time and come later, but remembering the sequence is the first step, and with some forms it comes much easier than others. Naihanchi Ee Dan went in easily enough, because it’s a small number of moves which are just mirrored (note: whenever I say I know a form here, I mean I know the sequence of moves, being able to perform it well is a whole other story!), some of which are straight out of Naihanchi Cho Dan. Over the past week or so we’ve been learning Joong Jol and so far I love it. I think over time it’s going to be one of my favourites. I’ve just about got the sequence in my head now, but there’s still quite a bit open to adjustment as we find a happy medium between how the Moo Duk Kwan originally taught it, and what’s being taught now.

That leaves me with Jinto (Chin To, Jin Do, Gankaku in Karate), a form which – if I’m honest – I’ve never been a fan of. I’m not sure what it is about it, but the times previous that I tried it I didn’t enjoy it, and I never really enjoyed watching it either. In a way, this is what will mean that I spend a lot more time with this form than any of the others. When I like a form I’ll practise it a lot, obviously because I enjoy it, but some tend to get neglected in comparison. Chil Sung Il Ro is a great example, I’ve never really liked it in the past (although I am warming to it more now), so I would seldom put the extra time into it that I should have. Jinto however I’m determined to crack. It’s taken me a relatively long time to memorise the sequence but I think I’m there now, it’s a strange form in as much as there’s very little repetition or mirroring, not like the vast majority.

When I learn a new form, I like to find out as much as I can about it, but this is much easier to do with some forms than others. Take Chil Sung and Yuk Roh for example, being relatively young forms, and having very limited exposure to styles other than Soo Bahk Do, there’s very few places to go to find out about them. Jinto is an absolute goldmine however, being a very old tode/karate form with a lot of history, most of it anecdotal of course, which is always the most fun. Even the meaning of the name is disputed, but I know what I believe in terms of its origins. In Chinese (China being the form’s origin) and Okinawan, the closest translation is something like “fighting to the East”. This came as a surprise to me, as I’ve always thought of it as being ‘the crane form’, and the crane stances in it obviously point to an origin in Chinese White Crane style kung fu, but it seems we have our old friend Gichin Funakoshi to thank for a lot of that.

Funakoshi is rightfully thought of as the father of karate in Japan, as he was instrumental in bringing it to the country from Okinawa and founding Shotokan. One of the more famous changes he made was the change from Pyung Ahn/Pinan to Heian, and personally I think a lot of the changes around this time were due to the bitter rivalries between Japan and its neighbours. Anti-Chinese sentiment was rife during Karate’s formative years, hence the change of Kanji used to write ‘kara-te’ from ‘china hand’ to ‘empty hand’. Funakoshi changed the name of Jinto/Chinto to Gankaku, changing its meaning  from something like ‘fighting the East’ to ‘crane on a rock’. It’s an obvious choice to make, as it made it far more socially acceptable, and it was instantly recognisable as to why to anyone who saw the form.

The story about the stranded pirate/sailor who defeated Matsumura Sokon with the form is a nice one, but I can’t really see it being any more than that – a nice story. There are other changes of course, like the fact we now perform it on a very North-South path, whereas originally it was diagonally, but that’s what makes it so interesting. A form with some history, a lot of stories and a lot to read about and to make my mind up about. This is the learning part of Tang Soo Do that I absolutely lap up. Whether or not I ever nail those crane stances, that’s another story.