Shotokan students learn H. Shodan as their first kata, or possibly the first "real" kata after the Taikyoku kata(s). Either way, their introduction to karate is based on front stance, front punch, and high-speed stepping around the room. We do one-step sprints all over this kata. Since it is our first kata, it never occurs to us that this is very, very odd.
Matsumura created hard-style karate, a revolutionary departure from the Chinese soft-styles of his youth. His new approach let him beat the daylights out of all the martial masters of Okinawa. What, exactly, was his revolution?
To gain some perspective, have a look at George Alexander's Hakutsuru, Secret of the White Crane], or the similar Hakutsuru tape by John Sells. The White Crane kata is thought to be ancestral to Shotokan. (The crane appears at the beginning of Kanku Dai.) Compared to Shotokan katas, Hakutsuru performers are practically standing still. Each delicate step introduces multiple hand techniques. The spectacle of Shotokan whitebelts charging round the room like a pack of mad dogs is completely at odds with this image.
For more perspective, have a look at the beginner katas of Wing Chun, such as Siu Lim Tau. They are thought to be the forerunners of Shotokan's Tekki (Naihanshi) katas. The performer plants his feet and waves his hands. He doesn't move around at all.
So why do we charge around the room? Here's an except from the Momentum topic in this forum:
The essence of Shuri-te was Matsumura’s discovery of momentum power instead of (really in addition to) muscle power. Up to that time, karate masters were weight-lifters. They would root in place and slug it out for minutes on end, trying to wear down the opponent. Matsumura changed the game. He charged in at high speed, using his body momentum to knock the opponent off his feet. From that point on, you didn’t need big muscles to do karate. However, you did need "basic principles..."
The important thing to realize about this is that speed of the body core toward the target has a larger impact on results than body weight or muscle development alone. Kinetic energy goes up linearly with weight, but exponentially with speed.
In other words, Matsumura changed the game. No more weight-lifting. Instead we do deep stances to develop our leg muscles. No more short, mincing steps. No more standing still like a tree. Instead, we charge at the enemy and use the kinetic energy of the collision as the power source for the technique. Oi zuki, with body momentum behind it, can literally make a man airborne. I know; I have flown.
So what's the downside? If this is such a powerful technique, why isn't everybody doing it? Why doesn't it win all the tournaments? Compared to the lightning punches and blocks of Wing Chun, oi zuki is glacially slow. It is easy to block and easy to dodge. it works best against a retreating opponent who can be suckered into falling for a change in timing. You use two standard punches to set the defender's expectations, and then you accelerate the third punch to drive through his defense before he is ready.
That's what this sequence is teaching. "Oi zuki" does not mean "front punch." It means "pursuing punch."
The purpose of oi-zuki is to knock people down, and in Matsumura's context, to knock them backward into the person who is behind them. That’s what all that forward momentum is for.
“Pursuing punch” implies that the target is backpedaling and we catch him in kyo (unreadiness). He’s going down into the legs/knees of the man behind him. There’s a chance but no certainty that one or both of them will be out of the fight at that point.
Certainly he is incapacitated for the moment, or we wouldn’t turn our back to him. Tactical lesson: In a mob, a crumpled body on the ground creates a momentary “safe zone” that you can turn your back to. The point isn’t that the crumpled man is harmless, but that the other fighters generally won’t step or stand on him. This lets us turn our back to a zone of reduced risk as we turn our attention elsewhere. It isn't a coincidence that the "finishing blow" comes just before a turn in the kata.
