Kata Taigyoko Shodan

This is Sensei Mark Brown, the Karate practitioner who is totally Blind and our resident Sensei here at Mill Hill Dojo, in this video Mark is performing the Karate Kata of Taigyoko Shodan which is one of the first katas learned in most schools of karate. Despite been totally blind, Mark is a master of many of the karate katas understanding multiple bunkai and techniques.

The Kata under normal condintions uses full long front stances known as Zenkutsu Dachi, however the limited width available of Mill Hill Dojo only allows for short stances when performing this Kata. Therefor in real life, this kata requires much more space, this is basically a compressed version.

The kata is typical of the styles of Shito Ryu and Shotokan and is also known as Taikyoko Shodan although in some styles this kata is treated as a totally different form. The feel of Taigyoko Shodan should be that of directness, robustness with hard powerful blocks and punches, honing your techniques and combining them with speed, all strikes are to the center of your opponent, another typical trait of Shotokan Karate-do.

Despite this form been the entry level Kata and such a simple kata to learn and perform, it is also very important to revisit the kata and practise good technical technique, there is ALWAYS room for improvement in Karate, no matter how good you think you are.