I have sat at the feet of my grandmaster in Okinawa as he taught Sanchin and explained why it is the most important kata in Goju-ryu. This video was absolutely fantastic in the way that you let Mr. Watts not only explain in his brilliant form, but also physically demonstrate techniques without hesitation or resistance. Thank you!!
You should have checked his channel. He is genuinely a karate teacher, so sensei seth is not a “culture vulture”. I can tell you from experience that the japanese, by-and-large love appreciation of their culture by foreigners.
Yongchian village is in the country near Fuzhou? I think I went there in 2004 with a martial arts group that included Jonathan Kenney of Toraguchi Martial arts. We did kata in a parking garage. 🙂
I deeply appreciate Mr. Enkamp's open and humble way of listening to this high /deep level adept. Mr. Martin Watts : Thank you! For being so generous and open. 谢谢您老师! 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Literally went through a deep Sanchin session today. Doesnt matter if you are shodan or godan, there's always so much more to improve and learn from such a "simple" kata. I see the other half of Goju here too- lots of tensho concepts too ie. The soft and open hand parts of it.
When Mr. Watts said that Ki comes from intention my ears perked up because in Taekwon-Do we learn that... The will comes from the mind (intention) the Ki comes from the will the Ki must flow with harmony and with power I love to see the commonalities across all the martial arts styles. One big family.
I love watching ALL of Jesse’s videos, he is an outstanding martial artists and teacher. But…watching Mr Martin perform Sanchin is an otherworldly experience for a fellow martial artist. Absolutely beautiful to watch.
For those that didn't know, the village where this White Crane style comes from, is in Cantonese, "Wing Chun". Then if you look at Southern Mantis that also trains SanChin, White Crane and Wing Chun, you'd see a *lot* of similarities.
I searched for such a comment and was not disappointed. When I heard the name of the village I was like "wait what?", and I can confirm, what he is doing is pretty much exactly what we are doing in the internal Wing Chun.
Sanchin has a stance very similar to Wing Chun's Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma, just with one foot straight. I find it cool that concepts rhyme with one another across all the arts.
Jesse Sensei it’s a high time to meet with Ushiro Kenji Sensei. His skills and knowledge about Sanchin Kata are out of this world! Greetings from Poland🥋⛩
This is one of my favorite videos you've done. I've been following Martin Watts for almost 20 years. He is amazingly skilled and 100% dedicated to true martial study. No magic or superstition. Just good breathing, mechanics and physics.
What an amazing video! He stressed something interesting on the upright posture part. I see people practicing katas with a curved lumbar and a prancing butt, when it's supposed to be engaged forwards and the lumbar less convex.
Excellent Jesse. Not flashy, not mystical - just clearly very advanced & essential. Martin Watts is certainly the real deal. You were asking the right questions and he was giving thoughtful, intelligent answers and explanations. Thank you.
Karate doesn’t just mean “”empty hand “, its real hidden meaning is “China hand “. Kind a like a double entendres. I love how you cover classical karate and bring life to it. Thanks 🙏
"Kara" or its On reading "Ku" can also mean "air" or "atmosphere". Does the idea of "air hand" or "a technique in the air" mean anything to you? If not you should look into it as it is a very interesting concept and very powerful when understood.
Yes, Chito Ryu Karate Do founded by Dr. Tsuyoshi Chitose - translates to 1000 year chinese style or school - Chitose combined Naha and Shuri Te to form Chito Ryu
All Chinese martial arts ultimately focus on structure, body mechanics, and power generation. This kata is the bridge of a lot of that sort of knowledge into karate.
This doesn't make sense no offense.....it's not all "Chinese" martial arts "focus on structure, body mechanics, and power generation"...that's literally ALL martial arts including boxing, wrestling, TKD, jiu jitsu, Tang Soo Do, Sambo, etc, etc....every combat from every country....all really the very similar thing, just using different levers and strategies to apply for the same goal....tons of things work, but no way to know them all except can know a wider expanse of them by understanding concepts and practicing specific moves, but Sambo/Jiu Jitsu/Wrestling all overlap each other a lot, and so do tons of other styles since leverage and physiology are leverage and physiology.
This video is great! He explained it very well. The characters for San Zhan is usually written as 三戰 Three Combat Battle, and I have seen it is also written as 三顫 Three Trembling, 三展 Three Extensions, 三箭 Three Arrow 三進 Three Moving Forward. They are homonyms in Min and Yue dialects. By the way, the environment is perfect setting for a retired sensei who lives a hermit like life. Ultimate goal in Daoism-Confuciusinism-Buddhism Ideology, as in the Samurai movie Hidden Blade.
@@perfectsplit5515 They were real. One such great martial artist Yao Ming-rui (姚明瑞 1847-1912) came from a prominent land owner family in 陝西渭南 Wei Nan County in Shaanxi. His whole family was murdered by Muslim Rebels when he was 16. He joined the Manchu Military and became an adopted son of Marshall 多隆阿 Dorongga. After Dorongga died from injury on May 18, 1864, he retired as a 游擊 Youji equivalent to major aged 17 and became a Quanzhen 全真 Taoist hermit in Laoshan 嶗山, Qingdao 青島. He became abbot of 玄妙觀 Xuan Miao Monastery in Nanyang 南陽 Henan later in his life, and was executed by Christian military in 1912 for defending the land owned by the Monastery. The Chinese hereditary military class began in the 4th century and ended in 1912. He was one of the last.
Good stuff. My sensei calls the isshin ryu San chin, practicing prolong chincuchi. Appreciated the gentleman’s honesty in demystifying this practice. It’s body mechanics.
Me after seeing any of Jesse's videos in notification: I MUST CLICK WITH SPEED OF THE WHITE CRANE! And elegantly flap my wings and watch all the seconds of the video while catching all info as if catching swimming fish.
I like Jesse's videos bc he asks the right questions, enabling the viewer to gain depth into the lesson. Equally important is the kindness and graciousness he shows.
YES! it's so good seeing people talking about "ki/chi" in the only way that makes sense: movement, breath and focus. no mystical mumbo-jumbo. great video, as usual
"no mystical mumbo-jumbo" HAHAHAHA; hey, "positivist-guy" better don't go deep into old karate masters saying that their styles were shown to them by nature deities :)
The trouble with the western mind is that you ONLY associate "chi" with the martial arts. In my Chinese 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚, we do not do that. We see how Nature is animated by this life force. It is not 'mumbo jumbo'. The western mind only interprets it ALL mechanistically, which is a mistake. And making Jedi jokes about it only further confuses it for you. Where the heck did you think Lucas got his new agey ideas from ?
When they say sink your chi/ki, it means when you breathe out, you're also breathing downwards at the same time. But unlike the super hard style of sanchin in karate where you flex all your muscles, it's actually a soft styles where you relax as hard as you can on the exhale. If your feet feel heavier on the exhale because of it, that's your root building. You're doing it correct.
You do that same while meditating in the zen style and some tao styles. But the difference for example in zen is that the lower back is concave, as opposite to the explanation of the kata in this video, because meditation is some soft practice, it's usually made sit down but also walking, and the aim is to widen the belly for breathing. I have had a hard time connecting the upper and lower part of the body in karate because of that, i always tried to keep the meditation mind by keeping the belly breathing for most of the time, but now I'm correcting that mistake engaging my abs more while moving, because I noticed they weren't working their best and my lower back was too much stressed.
As a lifelong practitioner of Isshinryu Karate, I have been fortunate enough to learn 3 versions of San Chin kata. It's interesting to see how San Chin kata goes way, way back to White Crane martial arts.
As a long time Uechi-Ryu practitioner, I agree with you 100%. When you go back to the foundation of Sanchin from China, you can gain a better understanding of the fundamentals. Great video
SanChin was the first kata I was taught during my Karate training. We performed it during every class. And I agree that there is a soft and hard component to it. Good video.
Sensei Jesse I am always astonished what high informative and godlike quality videos you puplish on your channel and I am so thankful for your videos because I can gather so much information and try stuff out or studie some new aspects. So in short thank you very much. Greetings from Germany
All those subtle movements become very pronounced when he does them. You can see how good his body control is as well as how aware he is of the small imperfections in the Earth beneath his feet. Even from the far shot, you can see all the changes in his posture, his drawing of breath, the push and pull of the muscle groups and how focused he is. Cool guy!
I remember watching Mr. Watts' videos before youtube was a thing as i was a big fan of White Crane as I was searching the interwebs for versions of the Hakutsuru kata. Now I have to go search all my hard drives for what I downloaded as his channel has mostly "newer" stuff available than what I remember. One of my favorites was watching him do Bashou I think it was.
I thought Martin was a karate practitioner until he spoke ready and start in mandarin before going into San Zhang. Then I realized he’s wearing a red sash.
This was incredible! I study wing chun and hearing soooomany of our roots through this white crane info. He’s An amazing teacher!!! How he was explaining everything was insane!!
Thank you both for this fascinating video. My own training has been almost entirely Shotokan/Wado and then Jujitsu, so San Zhan/Sanchin is a kata I have never learned, but often read about. It is great to finally see it (and there's so much information in here, it's going to take me a long time to unpack :) ). I may have to go bug an old friend who trains in White Crane :)
Its found in ueichi ryu, goju ryu, ... a few styles of karate but not all of them. Besides white crane its found in five ancestor fist, black tiger fist and a few kung fu styles.
@@SI-ln6tc Yes, in terms of karate, sanchin is pretty much limited to the 'naha' type styles, whereas the 'shuri' type styles don't use it. That's why I've never trained in it, because the styles I've trained have both come from the shuri side.
Holy shit, that was so awesome. I've practiced aikido for 4years, and a lot of what he says about ki, bridge (which we call connection in aikido) and the misconceptions about softness and hardness resonate with what i've learned. I'm also a lot interested in Uechi Karate, and it was awesome learning a different take on Sanchin xD.
I practice white crane Kung-fu and often times when my instructor explains this form he tells us how Karate adapted these same movements. Glad to see it being shown here
The demonstration and explanations of Mr Watts seem to be linked to Wing Chun concepts, where Chi Sao is trained all the time. Bridging, and all other things he explained are also present in Wing Chun. I assume this is a more chinese martial arts thing in general.
This as stated is where Wing Chun came from. When the group of masters who created the art came together, White Crane was one of the styles that was used as a base for the concepts and techniques that founded Wing Chun. The place where this conference (for lack of a better term) happened was at Sil Lum temple (Southern Shaolin) where they gave the first set of Wing Chun its name in honor of - Sil Lum Tao.
San Zhan is a very important Southern Kung Fu Form. It is also included in Hu Zun Quan (Tiger Respecting Fist), Long Xing Quan (Dragon Form Fist) and Hong Jia Quan/Hung Gar Kuen (Fist of the Hong Clan).
I think tensho also gives these effects if you play it correctly. Therefore the saying that sanchin and tensho should be practised one after the other is meaningful and just like practising the shan zang.
It is interesting to see how Karate and Wing Chun seem to share the same roots and how much someone who is a Practitioner of Wing Chun still can recognize the movements of the ancestors and it is really fascinating for me how the evolution of Karate and Wing Chun seem to express these roots in very different ways. I don't know Karate as well, but from what I see in the movement it looks to me like Wing Chun stayed a lot closer to the so called internal idea and the movements expressed in this form. Also the expression and development of the so called internal power seems to be lost in many Wing Chun lineages today as well. I think I remember in one of the videos the history of Karate was shared and it was simplified and streamlined for military training in Japan and that progression developed into modern Karate. Like I said, I don't really know, but I can imagine that the form is still taught out of respect for its roots, but not well understood anymore in modern Karate and therefore not applied well and as effective as it could be. Like Tai Chi where the forms still exist, sometimes also were simplified and streamlined (rumors say to take away the martial qualities) and are valuable for conditioning your body, but where it is rare to find people who can apply the techniques properly in a real fight because the meanings of the movements have been lost and seem to be shadows of themselves.
I’ve studied Wing Chun since 1970 under 8 different Sifus 4 of them were direct students of Yip Man. I also studied in Okinawa in the early 1960’s. Wing Chun Bak Hok aka Yong Chun Bai He is obviously the root style.
Kung Fu is a modern label established by western societies for a vast amount of different fighting styles for different purposes that were developed over many generations, shared and collected by many different people who had their own interpretations of their practice. It is not one thing. The label is derrived from the words Gong Fu (I can't read, write or understand chinese really. So as far as I'm aware, this is the more accurate way to pronounce it translating it into latin letters) which translates to aquiring skill over time through hard work. So for chinese it doesn't even necessarily refer to martial arts at all. @@donsab-xz4so
I actually love what he said when he said ‘I don’t believe in Chi’. I’ve always preferred the science behind movement, and hated the idea of this hocus pocus magical spiritual crap that is attached to bodily movement. It’s just basic movements as the man said. And that is why people like Xu Xiaodong is kicking ass of those Kung fu masters in China. They’re masters who concentrate so much on the idea of this magical force that they forget to actually train the physical body. And that is why they always lose and look like completely novices when they fight.
thanks for sharing, I was fortunate to have a Sensei who was a Marine in Okinawa and studied under a Shorin-Ryu master , Hohan Sokein. I remember well the Sanchin training and still practice my katas and basics some 26 yrs later. I like to read history of the Martial Arts.
When he talks about strength, in Wing Chun we call it forward energy. It's not just strength, but it has direction and purpose. If it's not going anywhere (in this case towards the opponent's centre to break their structure) then it becomes something to easily control and manipulate (like an arm bar). When the other person does try to manipulate it to get it away from them, then this becomes that weakness, that softness and flow, but it always has a direction and support from your own body to structure to stop it from collapsing.
I was thinking the exact same thing, the forward pressure we apply in chi sao and reading the information from your opponents pressure or lack of pressure, change in direction etc. After all White Crane was one of the styles from which Wing Chun emerged. I can't help but remember when I watched a Karate Master some 25 years ago demonstrate his techniques and when at some point he did some advanced stuff this seemingly stiff fighting style transformed into something with amazing flow which I had only seen in Wing Chun at this point
the self awareness spacial awarness and metacognition as well as mindfulness is amazing wonderful video and fascinated ... totally opposite modern westrn tik tock society
I am an old westerner and though I have heard of this Tik Tock , I would never pay enough credence to acknowledge by citing it. Old people , whether Western or NOT , don't have time to waste on such trivial things ........ we're using what's good from the past & disregarding the nonuseful .......... of which , I suspect your Tic Tock is in that category ..............
Qi, for my learnings in kungfu "inner energy" = the quality of your tendons and muscles and fascia. Is your efficiency in doing kinetic energy flow with good movement. Less movement of independent parts, more movements with whole body or more composted movements
@@varanid9 qi is biomechanics. Is in someways even more complete than modern concepts, the thing with fascia is likely new for western people but made a huge difference when you known that there's more than muscles and tendons. Not only for martial use, for health and longevity.
Good stuff. All the white crane teaching is right up my alley. My style has a lot of white crane influence that is pretty obvious in our katas. My favorite kata is one I learned from a source outside our dojo. Hakutsuru. When I first showed it to my sensei, he told me it was the first form showed to him way back in the late 60s. He was delighted to see it again.
It's super cool to see legit discussion of softer "internal" styles! I think there's a lot of potential there that's largely untapped by western martial artists
Hi Jessie, I love your videos. They have genuinely changed my attitude towards Karate. I've studied Wing Chun (also known as Yong Chun) for a number of years and we practice a lot of the San Chin concepts at various stages in our forms, especially the first form. A more modern interpretation of wing chun actually practice the San Chin (or San Chien) form in it's entirety. Keep exploring!
I enjoyed the video. Good to see the emphasis on proper body mechanics. So important. There are no secrets. It’s just using the body in the most efficient aligned manner.
I have just started karate at kokoro kai dojo in Sweden, this kind of video is so interesting to me, learning history, terms and useful knowledge. I love it and keep what you do, more history!
White crane, when you find a real master. Its really a destructive art form. I love internal/soft arts and the fajin developed with white crane training is incredible. Blessed to have one near me and slowly learning it. Im mainly Wing Chun, Chi-Na and southern styles. So white crane is exciting to find.
I am a chinese from Malaysia if you read the sanchin in my dialect is it call sanchin too... Sanchin type of form/kata can be found in many Southern chinese martial art. Some style might use a slightly different pattern or some technique are a bit different but the core/form the principle are very similar. You can search about five ancestor fist wuzu quan五祖拳， hakka kungfu 客家功夫，and of course white crane . I love your video and please keep on spreading the spirit of Karate Do空手道。 Osu! Ohya (by the way) 三战 sanchin for what my friend told me is 3 battle or 3 war in chinese 1 is 天 heaven 2 is 地 earth 3 is 人 man Heaven earth and man combine as one to generate the power ..
Loved that. Really great interaction. Thanks for sharing. So much in there, soft /hard, rising /falling, body structure (soft tissues, bone arrangement), breathing, listening in the body and more!
I'm glad that there's a Jesse Enkmp that takes us with the journey to explore several spiritual and martial aspects of the art. I saw the video with Steven Seagal and he suggested that you focus on one master only. I think he wants the Enkamp brothers to be his Padawans.
As someone who practiced Hapikido, let me tell you, It should have this kata. If you could master Sanchin kata, and applied it to hapkido, you would be 80% there in mastering any hapkido defense technique.
Wow! This is exactly what Taijiquan (Tai Chi) push hands is all about, explained without any woo woo stuff. Very cool. Also worth noting that White Crane style deeply inspired Tai Chi, so much so that some movements in White Crane forms are seen in many Tai Chi forms. It's cool to see another art that developed out of White Crane and see the similarities between these two siblings.
5:03: "selective tension" Exactly. It's not about being "totally relaxed", as some instructors mistakenly say. It's about tensing the right parts of the body and relaxing others. It's also about using the right muscles to generate power but transferring that power via the elasticity of the fascia. The fascia surround and penetrate all our muscles and organs. Hence: "internal" power. It's also about using less tension in more muscles, so the tension is spread throughout the body and not focused in one area. Thus, the opponent finds it hard to sense where the power is coming from.
What’s your favorite kata? 👊
Basai dai
naianchi shodan
Kanku Dai
Tekki shodan
kanku dai
The hips, the breathing, the shoulders, I can clearly see the influence this style had in karate in general, not just the katas.
It’s all in there! 👍
I like this guy
I like you. 😉
He needs his own channel.
@@RichardRohlin he does, I have seen it, but it doesn't have a lot of subscribers
Me too Seth
@@md_f_dnnwhats his channel called
I have sat at the feet of my grandmaster in Okinawa as he taught Sanchin and explained why it is the most important kata in Goju-ryu. This video was absolutely fantastic in the way that you let Mr. Watts not only explain in his brilliant form, but also physically demonstrate techniques without hesitation or resistance. Thank you!!
So cool to see these different variations of the Katas I grew up doing. Thank you Jesse!
You should have checked his channel. He is genuinely a karate teacher, so sensei seth is not a “culture vulture”. I can tell you from experience that the japanese, by-and-large love appreciation of their culture by foreigners.
Yongchian village is in the country near Fuzhou? I think I went there in 2004 with a martial arts group that included Jonathan Kenney of Toraguchi Martial arts. We did kata in a parking garage. 🙂
Dear Mr. Enkamp: you are a real Karate scholar. This masterclass is amaizing.
I deeply appreciate Mr. Enkamp's open and humble way of listening to this high /deep level adept. Mr. Martin Watts : Thank you! For being so generous and open. 谢谢您老师! 🙏🏻🙏🏻
As a guy who has done Goju Ryu, I really enjoyed this video
This is a kata that is really epic
I do Goju as well!! It's awesome
San chin kata. It's very gojuryu.
Apurva Singh, absolutely agree ✊🏾
Literally went through a deep Sanchin session today. Doesnt matter if you are shodan or godan, there's always so much more to improve and learn from such a "simple" kata. I see the other half of Goju here too- lots of tensho concepts too ie. The soft and open hand parts of it.
@@phanthomboy3 Thanks for mentioning Kata Tensho. They really belong together. You shouldn't do Sanchin without also doing Tensho.
When Mr. Watts said that Ki comes from intention my ears perked up because in Taekwon-Do we learn that...
The will comes from the mind (intention)
the Ki comes from the will
the Ki must flow with harmony and with power
I love to see the commonalities across all the martial arts styles. One big family.
“Ting li, listen to strength”
“But not with your ears though?”
“No, but it is the same Ting”
Haha that was pretty good @5:51
I loved that too haha
Hahahaha
Witty.
Next level puns
I love watching ALL of Jesse’s videos, he is an outstanding martial artists and teacher. But…watching Mr Martin perform Sanchin is an otherworldly experience for a fellow martial artist. Absolutely beautiful to watch.
Yes. He is bringing an ancient path forward, in an accessible way. Fascinating.
For those that didn't know, the village where this White Crane style comes from, is in Cantonese, "Wing Chun". Then if you look at Southern Mantis that also trains SanChin, White Crane and Wing Chun, you'd see a *lot* of similarities.
I searched for such a comment and was not disappointed. When I heard the name of the village I was like "wait what?", and I can confirm, what he is doing is pretty much exactly what we are doing in the internal Wing Chun.
Wing Chun is comprised of both Crane and Snake elements primarily, so crossover with White Crane makes sense.
Sanchin has a stance very similar to Wing Chun's Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma, just with one foot straight. I find it cool that concepts rhyme with one another across all the arts.
@marcotrosi because this is where the white crane techniques of wing chun come from. Many southern styles are traced back to southern white crane.
Actually yong chun is Mandarin translation and Wing chun is the Cantonese translation
Jesse Sensei it’s a high time to meet with Ushiro Kenji Sensei. His skills and knowledge about Sanchin Kata are out of this world! Greetings from Poland🥋⛩
So many people to meet, so little time 😂
Greetings from Germany
This is one of my favorite videos you've done. I've been following Martin Watts for almost 20 years. He is amazingly skilled and 100% dedicated to true martial study. No magic or superstition. Just good breathing, mechanics and physics.
What an amazing video! He stressed something interesting on the upright posture part. I see people practicing katas with a curved lumbar and a prancing butt, when it's supposed to be engaged forwards and the lumbar less convex.
Martin Watts was absolutely fantastic! I’d love to see more of him on your channel Jesse. Keep up the great content
Excellent Jesse. Not flashy, not mystical - just clearly very advanced & essential. Martin Watts is certainly the real deal. You were asking the right questions and he was giving thoughtful, intelligent answers and explanations. Thank you.
Karate doesn’t just mean “”empty hand “, its real hidden meaning is “China hand “. Kind a like a double entendres. I love how you cover classical karate and bring life to it. Thanks 🙏
"Kara" or its On reading "Ku" can also mean "air" or "atmosphere". Does the idea of "air hand" or "a technique in the air" mean anything to you? If not you should look into it as it is a very interesting concept and very powerful when understood.
@@bordonbert Where would a person look into that?
Yes, Chito Ryu Karate Do founded by Dr. Tsuyoshi Chitose - translates to 1000 year chinese style or school - Chitose combined Naha and Shuri Te to form Chito Ryu
in Okinawa it's called Tode..... Tang Hand
All Chinese martial arts ultimately focus on structure, body mechanics, and power generation. This kata is the bridge of a lot of that sort of knowledge into karate.
Про дыхание забыли!
You were perfect
But most importantly: fluidity.
This doesn't make sense no offense.....it's not all "Chinese" martial arts "focus on structure, body mechanics, and power generation"...that's literally ALL martial arts including boxing, wrestling, TKD, jiu jitsu, Tang Soo Do, Sambo, etc, etc....every combat from every country....all really the very similar thing, just using different levers and strategies to apply for the same goal....tons of things work, but no way to know them all except can know a wider expanse of them by understanding concepts and practicing specific moves, but Sambo/Jiu Jitsu/Wrestling all overlap each other a lot, and so do tons of other styles since leverage and physiology are leverage and physiology.
@@locophoto6881agreed any martial art can be an internal martial art. Depends on the person training
This video is great! He explained it very well.
The characters for San Zhan is usually written as 三戰 Three Combat Battle, and I have seen it is also written as 三顫 Three Trembling, 三展 Three Extensions, 三箭 Three Arrow 三進 Three Moving Forward. They are homonyms in Min and Yue dialects.
By the way, the environment is perfect setting for a retired sensei who lives a hermit like life. Ultimate goal in Daoism-Confuciusinism-Buddhism Ideology, as in the Samurai movie Hidden Blade.
@@perfectsplit5515 They were real. One such great martial artist Yao Ming-rui (姚明瑞 1847-1912) came from a prominent land owner family in 陝西渭南 Wei Nan County in Shaanxi. His whole family was murdered by Muslim Rebels when he was 16. He joined the Manchu Military and became an adopted son of Marshall 多隆阿 Dorongga. After Dorongga died from injury on May 18, 1864, he retired as a 游擊 Youji equivalent to major aged 17 and became a Quanzhen 全真 Taoist hermit in Laoshan 嶗山, Qingdao 青島. He became abbot of 玄妙觀 Xuan Miao Monastery in Nanyang 南陽 Henan later in his life, and was executed by Christian military in 1912 for defending the land owned by the Monastery.
The Chinese hereditary military class began in the 4th century and ended in 1912. He was one of the last.
Good stuff. My sensei calls the isshin ryu San chin, practicing prolong chincuchi. Appreciated the gentleman’s honesty in demystifying this practice. It’s body mechanics.
Me after seeing any of Jesse's videos in notification: I MUST CLICK WITH SPEED OF THE WHITE CRANE! And elegantly flap my wings and watch all the seconds of the video while catching all info as if catching swimming fish.
Right on!! 🙏
@@KARATEbyJesse Trivia quiz, which is faster: Light or the amount of time to get a heart and reply from Jesse?
@@aungheinkhant-zemusashi3517 speed is an illusion.
@@varanid9 Ah yes, your wisdom is complete.
I like Jesse's videos bc he asks the right questions, enabling the viewer to gain depth into the lesson. Equally important is the kindness and graciousness he shows.
Mr. Martin Watts. Gotta love Westerners that keep traditional Asian martial arts alive. :)
YES! it's so good seeing people talking about "ki/chi" in the only way that makes sense: movement, breath and focus. no mystical mumbo-jumbo. great video, as usual
alternate title sugestion: the karate nerd meets his match
"no mystical mumbo-jumbo" HAHAHAHA; hey, "positivist-guy" better don't go deep into old karate masters saying that their styles were shown to them by nature deities :)
@@markecheverria1531 wtf?
@@markecheverria1531 could you elaborate on that? :)
The trouble with the western mind is that you ONLY associate "chi" with the
martial arts.
In my Chinese 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚,
we do not do that.
We see how Nature is animated by this life force.
It is not 'mumbo jumbo'.
The western mind only interprets it ALL mechanistically,
which is a mistake.
And making Jedi jokes about it only further confuses it for you. Where the heck did you think Lucas got his new agey ideas from ?
I am learning San Chin in Isshinryu style, the wonderful explanation about the breathing and body control is a great help.Thank you, Sensei.
When they say sink your chi/ki, it means when you breathe out, you're also breathing downwards at the same time. But unlike the super hard style of sanchin in karate where you flex all your muscles, it's actually a soft styles where you relax as hard as you can on the exhale. If your feet feel heavier on the exhale because of it, that's your root building. You're doing it correct.
You do that same while meditating in the zen style and some tao styles. But the difference for example in zen is that the lower back is concave, as opposite to the explanation of the kata in this video, because meditation is some soft practice, it's usually made sit down but also walking, and the aim is to widen the belly for breathing. I have had a hard time connecting the upper and lower part of the body in karate because of that, i always tried to keep the meditation mind by keeping the belly breathing for most of the time, but now I'm correcting that mistake engaging my abs more while moving, because I noticed they weren't working their best and my lower back was too much stressed.
I feel like this has more tensho kata with that concept too. Very interesting
The techniques he shows are really similar to Wing Chun, like sticky hands, or where the energy comes from, or how he controls you with his arms....
“Unless your a Jedi” 😄
Love this guy, legit! ✊🏾
As a lifelong practitioner of Isshinryu Karate, I have been fortunate enough to learn 3 versions of San Chin kata. It's interesting to see how San Chin kata goes way, way back to White Crane martial arts.
Cool!! 👍
I learned different versions practicing Isshin Ryu, but I came with a background in Goju Ryu and White Crane.
As a long time Uechi-Ryu practitioner, I agree with you 100%. When you go back to the foundation of Sanchin from China, you can gain a better understanding of the fundamentals. Great video
This Martin Watts fellow is a seeker of truth. I think a person could learn volumes of knowledge from him.
He shows more mastery and understandings of movement. No BS on mythical power some masters sell with. Respect
SanChin was the first kata I was taught during my Karate training. We performed it during every class. And I agree that there is a soft and hard component to it. Good video.
Very important - invaluable I'd say - lessons about body connectivity. Awesome video, thank you Jesse, and thank you Master Watts!
It is always encouraging to see an enthusiast Karate lover.
Thank you Jesse for sharing your research of Karate, very inspiring.
Sensei Jesse I am always astonished what high informative and godlike quality videos you puplish on your channel and I am so thankful for your videos because I can gather so much information and try stuff out or studie some new aspects. So in short thank you very much. Greetings from Germany
All those subtle movements become very pronounced when he does them. You can see how good his body control is as well as how aware he is of the small imperfections in the Earth beneath his feet. Even from the far shot, you can see all the changes in his posture, his drawing of breath, the push and pull of the muscle groups and how focused he is. Cool guy!
"Selective tension." I really like that.
The thing I live about these videos is I feel like I’m learning alongside Jesse. Awesome video as usual :)
I love the smell of Kata in the morning...
I remember watching Mr. Watts' videos before youtube was a thing as i was a big fan of White Crane as I was searching the interwebs for versions of the Hakutsuru kata. Now I have to go search all my hard drives for what I downloaded as his channel has mostly "newer" stuff available than what I remember. One of my favorites was watching him do Bashou I think it was.
I thought Martin was a karate practitioner until he spoke ready and start in mandarin before going into San Zhang. Then I realized he’s wearing a red sash.
This was incredible! I study wing chun and hearing soooomany of our roots through this white crane info. He’s An amazing teacher!!! How he was explaining everything was insane!!
Thank you both for this fascinating video. My own training has been almost entirely Shotokan/Wado and then Jujitsu, so San Zhan/Sanchin is a kata I have never learned, but often read about. It is great to finally see it (and there's so much information in here, it's going to take me a long time to unpack :) ). I may have to go bug an old friend who trains in White Crane :)
Its found in ueichi ryu, goju ryu, ...
a few styles of karate but not all of them. Besides white crane its found in five ancestor fist, black tiger fist and a few kung fu styles.
@@SI-ln6tc Yes, in terms of karate, sanchin is pretty much limited to the 'naha' type styles, whereas the 'shuri' type styles don't use it. That's why I've never trained in it, because the styles I've trained have both come from the shuri side.
The way he explained Chi in a demystifyingway was interesting.
Holy shit, that was so awesome.
I've practiced aikido for 4years, and a lot of what he says about ki, bridge (which we call connection in aikido) and the misconceptions about softness and hardness resonate with what i've learned.
I'm also a lot interested in Uechi Karate, and it was awesome learning a different take on Sanchin xD.
I practice white crane Kung-fu and often times when my instructor explains this form he tells us how Karate adapted these same movements. Glad to see it being shown here
The demonstration and explanations of Mr Watts seem to be linked to Wing Chun concepts, where Chi Sao is trained all the time. Bridging, and all other things he explained are also present in Wing Chun.
I assume this is a more chinese martial arts thing in general.
This is where Wing Chun originated 👍
This as stated is where Wing Chun came from. When the group of masters who created the art came together, White Crane was one of the styles that was used as a base for the concepts and techniques that founded Wing Chun. The place where this conference (for lack of a better term) happened was at Sil Lum temple (Southern Shaolin) where they gave the first set of Wing Chun its name in honor of - Sil Lum Tao.
@@danielhaire6677
That is NOT what that Siu Lam means in Chinese.
It's a white crane thing
It's the other way around, some of the Wing Chun concepts and moves are linked to one of the Crane martial art styles.
Thank you Jesse, your fact based approach to interview and professional conversation will keep me watching. Much Respect!
San Zhan is a very important Southern Kung Fu Form.
It is also included in Hu Zun Quan (Tiger Respecting Fist), Long Xing Quan (Dragon Form Fist) and Hong Jia Quan/Hung Gar Kuen (Fist of the Hong Clan).
This was fantastic. Thank you for sharing wisdom.
It's madness how close this is to Uechi-Ryu Sanchin!
That's because uechi ryu is just white crane but with a different name
It's so cool to see intelligent people talking about martial arts! Never thought it could be real!
I think tensho also gives these effects if you play it correctly. Therefore the saying that sanchin and tensho should be practised one after the other is meaningful and just like practising the shan zang.
This was definitely informative. Rooting is the most often forgotten aspect of martial arts in the western world. Awesome content. ❤
It is interesting to see how Karate and Wing Chun seem to share the same roots and how much someone who is a Practitioner of Wing Chun still can recognize the movements of the ancestors and it is really fascinating for me how the evolution of Karate and Wing Chun seem to express these roots in very different ways.
I don't know Karate as well, but from what I see in the movement it looks to me like Wing Chun stayed a lot closer to the so called internal idea and the movements expressed in this form. Also the expression and development of the so called internal power seems to be lost in many Wing Chun lineages today as well.
I think I remember in one of the videos the history of Karate was shared and it was simplified and streamlined for military training in Japan and that progression developed into modern Karate.
Like I said, I don't really know, but I can imagine that the form is still taught out of respect for its roots, but not well understood anymore in modern Karate and therefore not applied well and as effective as it could be.
Like Tai Chi where the forms still exist, sometimes also were simplified and streamlined (rumors say to take away the martial qualities) and are valuable for conditioning your body, but where it is rare to find people who can apply the techniques properly in a real fight because the meanings of the movements have been lost and seem to be shadows of themselves.
I’ve studied Wing Chun since 1970 under 8 different Sifus 4 of them were direct students of Yip Man. I also studied in Okinawa in the early 1960’s. Wing Chun Bak Hok aka Yong Chun Bai He is obviously the root style.
Kung Fu is the grandfather of all Asian martial arts
Kung Fu is a modern label established by western societies for a vast amount of different fighting styles for different purposes that were developed over many generations, shared and collected by many different people who had their own interpretations of their practice.
It is not one thing. The label is derrived from the words Gong Fu (I can't read, write or understand chinese really. So as far as I'm aware, this is the more accurate way to pronounce it translating it into latin letters) which translates to aquiring skill over time through hard work. So for chinese it doesn't even necessarily refer to martial arts at all. @@donsab-xz4so
Just the stance alone,which expresses confidence,fighting experience&
strength&admiration,will make most decide to not want to fight.
I actually love what he said when he said ‘I don’t believe in Chi’.
I’ve always preferred the science behind movement, and hated the idea of this hocus pocus magical spiritual crap that is attached to bodily movement. It’s just basic movements as the man said.
And that is why people like Xu Xiaodong is kicking ass of those Kung fu masters in China. They’re masters who concentrate so much on the idea of this magical force that they forget to actually train the physical body. And that is why they always lose and look like completely novices when they fight.
Exactly. That, and, they arrogantly think that their one style has it all.
thanks for sharing, I was fortunate to have a Sensei who was a Marine in Okinawa and studied under a Shorin-Ryu master , Hohan Sokein. I remember well the Sanchin
training and still practice my katas and basics some 26 yrs later. I like to read history of the Martial Arts.
When he talks about strength, in Wing Chun we call it forward energy. It's not just strength, but it has direction and purpose. If it's not going anywhere (in this case towards the opponent's centre to break their structure) then it becomes something to easily control and manipulate (like an arm bar).
When the other person does try to manipulate it to get it away from them, then this becomes that weakness, that softness and flow, but it always has a direction and support from your own body to structure to stop it from collapsing.
I was thinking the exact same thing, the forward pressure we apply in chi sao and reading the information from your opponents pressure or lack of pressure, change in direction etc. After all White Crane was one of the styles from which Wing Chun emerged. I can't help but remember when I watched a Karate Master some 25 years ago demonstrate his techniques and when at some point he did some advanced stuff this seemingly stiff fighting style transformed into something with amazing flow which I had only seen in Wing Chun at this point
Karate has opened my mind up to all kinds of bodily and spacial awareness, and just how much I suck with both
the self awareness spacial awarness and metacognition as well as mindfulness is amazing wonderful video and fascinated ... totally opposite modern westrn tik tock society
Old is gold 🌟
I am an old westerner and though I have heard of this Tik Tock , I would never pay enough credence to acknowledge by citing it. Old people , whether Western or NOT , don't have time to waste on such trivial things ........ we're using what's good from the past & disregarding the nonuseful .......... of which , I suspect your Tic Tock is in that category ..............
He was really good at explaining things, and even popped a few jokes! Great episode.
Qi, for my learnings in kungfu "inner energy" = the quality of your tendons and muscles and fascia. Is your efficiency in doing kinetic energy flow with good movement. Less movement of independent parts, more movements with whole body or more composted movements
Best just to take any idea of "qi" out of the equation and just concentrate on correct biomechanics.
@@varanid9 qi is biomechanics. Is in someways even more complete than modern concepts, the thing with fascia is likely new for western people but made a huge difference when you known that there's more than muscles and tendons. Not only for martial use, for health and longevity.
Wow - that was beautiful. The core control, and muscle control - and the way it flows. Stunning.
what a beautiful day with matin watts to see you two makin timeless chinese kata thank you very much jesse
Jesse, your interview skills are impressive in terms of directing the discussion but letting your subject talk. It isnt easy. Nice job.
I appreciate that my friend!
Good stuff. All the white crane teaching is right up my alley. My style has a lot of white crane influence that is pretty obvious in our katas. My favorite kata is one I learned from a source outside our dojo. Hakutsuru. When I first showed it to my sensei, he told me it was the first form showed to him way back in the late 60s. He was delighted to see it again.
I like how he took the freedom to joke around a bit and not being all stiff!
It's super cool to see legit discussion of softer "internal" styles! I think there's a lot of potential there that's largely untapped by western martial artists
I hear the power you both create. I was known for my power and my fluidity.
Kung Fu guy here. I love Jesse. He's the real deal. I've never heard him disrespect any style. That Kata at the end was a privilege to see. Thank you.
Hi Jessie, I love your videos. They have genuinely changed my attitude towards Karate. I've studied Wing Chun (also known as Yong Chun) for a number of years and we practice a lot of the San Chin concepts at various stages in our forms, especially the first form. A more modern interpretation of wing chun actually practice the San Chin (or San Chien) form in it's entirety. Keep exploring!
As a Uechi-Ryu stylist, I got quite a bit out of this video. Thank you for doing it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I enjoyed the video. Good to see the emphasis on proper body mechanics. So important. There are no secrets. It’s just using the body in the most efficient aligned manner.
“Keep going - it’s all in there.” 👍
Awsome document. As a Uechi Ryu practitioner, I really appreciate this.
I have just started karate at kokoro kai dojo in Sweden, this kind of video is so interesting to me, learning history, terms and useful knowledge. I love it and keep what you do, more history!
White crane, when you find a real master. Its really a destructive art form. I love internal/soft arts and the fajin developed with white crane training is incredible. Blessed to have one near me and slowly learning it. Im mainly Wing Chun, Chi-Na and southern styles. So white crane is exciting to find.
That man is excellent. I can tell by looking at him he spent countless hours practicing
This was excellent!
I am a chinese from Malaysia if you read the sanchin in my dialect is it call sanchin too...
Sanchin type of form/kata can be found in many Southern chinese martial art.
Some style might use a slightly different pattern or some technique are a bit different but the core/form the principle are very similar.
You can search about five ancestor fist wuzu quan五祖拳， hakka kungfu 客家功夫，and of course white crane .
I love your video and please keep on spreading the spirit of Karate Do空手道。
Osu!
Ohya (by the way)
三战 sanchin for what my friend told me is
3 battle or 3 war in chinese
1 is 天 heaven
2 is 地 earth
3 is 人 man
Heaven earth and man combine as one to generate the power ..
Loved that. Really great interaction. Thanks for sharing.
So much in there, soft /hard, rising /falling, body structure (soft tissues, bone arrangement), breathing, listening in the body and more!
Im 40 i just started karate with my 9 year old son. It has been the best thing i have done in a very long time.
The little bit of Chinese he spoke, he spoke with the most elegant British accent. Goodness I'd love to hear him instruct in Mandarin.
Coming from a white crane background it’s nice to see an interest in the Fujian styles. Great explanation
This person is an special one you been with. I think he really know about human fisics. Thanks for the video
These villages are so serene, you can literally sense the karate spirit in the air and in the landscape
It's a delight to watch channels that research and record the arts like Jesse Enkamp, The Martial Man, and Monkey Steals Peach. 👍
I'm glad that there's a Jesse Enkmp that takes us with the journey to explore several spiritual and martial aspects of the art.
I saw the video with Steven Seagal and he suggested that you focus on one master only. I think he wants the Enkamp brothers to be his Padawans.
Absolutely fascinating. I can see the foundational influence this has in the San Chin we practice in Shuri-Ryu.
Great!!
Yay. He said it!!!! Okinawa birthplace of Karate. Love your content Jesse. 👍
Good kung-fu master, his demonstration really showing the traits of Fujian kung-fu.
As someone who practiced Hapikido, let me tell you, It should have this kata. If you could master Sanchin kata, and applied it to hapkido, you would be 80% there in mastering any hapkido defense technique.
Wow! This is exactly what Taijiquan (Tai Chi) push hands is all about, explained without any woo woo stuff. Very cool.
Also worth noting that White Crane style deeply inspired Tai Chi, so much so that some movements in White Crane forms are seen in many Tai Chi forms.
It's cool to see another art that developed out of White Crane and see the similarities between these two siblings.
It's so good to finally get a western perspective on the internal system from someone who actually uses it.
Really interesting to see where Sanchin came from. Nice job!
His house is out of this world, it's so beautiful!
5:03: "selective tension"
Exactly.
It's not about being "totally relaxed", as some instructors mistakenly say.
It's about tensing the right parts of the body and relaxing others.
It's also about using the right muscles to generate power but transferring that power via the elasticity of the fascia.
The fascia surround and penetrate all our muscles and organs.
Hence: "internal" power.
It's also about using less tension in more muscles, so the tension is spread throughout the body and not focused in one area. Thus, the opponent finds it hard to sense where the power is coming from.
It’s always a pleasure to see and hear Martin.
Look me up if you ever visit Madrid.
Reminds me on my Wing Tsun training. So much in common. Thx for sharing. 🙏🙂
It came from Yong Chun county, Yong Chun in Cantonese is Wing Chun which is the namesake of...