Was Morio a little bit too much in the shime?

[TSDTexan]

GOJO karate, Sensei Molyneux does sanchin kata.
Gm Morio H. was doing the slap and strike testing for proper muscle position and engaging.

I counted 4 or 5 groin strikes and massive shoulder whallops. Was it necessary or was it a tad excessive?

 

[clfsean]

Looked good to me. I saw shots that would be groin shots if he didn't have his hips tucked but otherwise it looked good to me.

 

[dancingalone]

I've trained with Higaonna Sensei several times. The "strikes" look heavier than they really are. It's more about checking the correct muscle groups are tensioned along with the stances and positional locking creating bracing alignment.

By the way, you don't really think he is kicking the gonads do you?

 

[Noah_Legel]

Really, shime can be done by pushing--hitting just looks cooler for demonstrations, and has the added benefit of doing some impact conditioning. I've seen some people go overboard on shime, but this is fine.

 

[Koshiki]

Many times, I think pushing is actually a better challenge. A good strike doesn't move you as much or as surely as a good push, unless it's a very pushy strike.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I've seen people tested much more harshly. I saw nothing wrong or excessive on that video

 

[donald1]

Looked good to me! Ive seen it done, ive had it done on myself and ive also been lucky to do it on other people (I have to put effort not to smile, its that fun.). This guy really likes the shoulder hits. He hit that guy a lot on the shoulders. if it were me I would give him a push every once and a while(see if his stance was good)

 

[geezer]

GOJO karate, Sensei Molyneux does sanchin kata.
Gm Morio H. was doing the slap and strike testing for proper muscle position and engaging.

I counted 4 or 5 groin strikes and massive shoulder whallops. Was it necessary or was it a tad excessive?

I don't know anything about this style or the practice of shime in sanchin. Wikipedia revealed this:

Shime[edit]
Some styles use Sanchin as a method of checking strength and posture, as well as concentration. All hits directed towards the karateka are done at the end of the punch, when they are in their most tense position. Most Goju-ryu schools use the following checking procedures:

• Light to heavy slap down on the shoulders. This checks that the shoulders are in a natural position, yet tense.
• Light to heavy strikes (generally a ridge hand) to the lats. This is to check if the lat muscles are tight. Light trapping of the elbows with a hand or fingers check that the karateka is holding proper form with their arms and elbows, and using full strength to strike.
• Checking the legs. From behind, slapping the sides of the knees to make sure the legs and stance are solid.
• Fingers to the back of the neck. This is a reminder to fix posture.
• Groin and pelvic tuck(tilt). From the front or rear, kick or raise arm to the groin. If the karateka is in proper Sanchin stance and the pelvis is tilted, he will trap the kick or arm with the inner thighs.
• Breathing check. Light to heavy striking of the stomach. This could be a standard punch or a ridge hand from the side. This will check for proper ibuki breathing.
• Concentration check. The person performing shime should not strike in a specific pattern, allowing the karateka to anticipate the strikes. He should strike randomly, allowing the karateka to focus on the kata itself and not on the strikes. This may involve occasionally "faking" a strike in view of the karateka to check that he does not react to it. This is a portion of the "mind" part of "mind, body and spirit."
• Concentration check. Some styles will test a karateka's concentration by breaking a board across a strong point of the body, such as the leading upper leg.
• Posture. Check the strength and posture by hooking, open palmed, the wrists, and guiding the punch, while applying resistance.

In Uechi-Ryu, the practitioner stops the kata for each sequence of shime checks, then the kata starts up again - stopping and starting for each series of checks; as opposed to the kata being done continuously without regard to the person giving shime. Also in Uechi-ryu, the practitioner is open handed and the shime involves roundhouse kicks directed to the legs and occasionally the arms. Shin conditioning is checked by toe-kicks directly to the shins.

Traditional Okinawan schools will vary on their application of shime.

The shime in the video seems consistent withbthe description above. The Master tests the student vigorously but does never exceeds the student's level to withstand the stress. And the student does a good job of holding up under the testing and maintaining both structure and mental focus. Afterwards, his response makes it pretty clear that he was proud to have been so tested and to have met the challenge.

On this basis I would rate the display as impressive, not excessive.

 

[donald1]

It always scares me when the instructor stands behind me and does nothing... im thinking whats he going to do?!