Excellent post, thank you so much for taking the time to write it. I love this forum!
Also, I didn't mean to imply that your thoughts were mere, "speculation", just to be clear. If I came across that way, I apologize instantly! (Not that you seem offended, just covering my bases!)
Even when the movements are really what they seem to be (for example, when what is called a "block" is being really used to "block" a strike), in most of times that very kind of application is rarely teached correctly and so most people don't learn the technique the way it was really intended to be used. The problem goes worse when it comes to forms -- the understanding of their meanings goes even shallower. Have you ever, for example, wondered why you pull your opposite hand to the hip in most of the techniques you practice?
We spend quite a bit of time at my school discussing bunkai. The highest rank in the school likes to go through forms and turn every technique into a takedown. We like to take a section of a given form and spend a class experimenting with as many ways as possible to utilize it. The turning down block at the beginning of Basic One/Kicho Il bo/Taikyoku Shodan could be a simple turning block to jam up a waist level round or front kick. It could be a clearing defense against a grab to the belt/waist. It could be a hammer strike against the head of an attacker attempting a double leg takedown, and the stance might in this case be interpreted as more of a sprawl. It could be a low groin strike to an attacker from the rear. With some manipulation it becomes a very clear armbar/break or takedown, with the chambered hand immobilizing the wrist. It could be a bear hug defense against an attacker from the right, breaking the hold with the downblock-ing arm, and elbow striking to the rear with the chambered hand. It could be an across the chest throw against an attacker 45 degrees to your left, with your front leg of your stance as the fulcrum behind their knees. I'm certain it could be many more things, and they are intensely fun to speculate about, experiment with, and train. The front leg of the stance can, in and of itself cause a huge disruption to the opponents footwork, which could be intensified by a more pushing application of the downblock.
So yes, we have wondered about the chambered hand, as well as many other things. One instructor's answer is rarely the same as another. However, for something like that first turning downblock, especially followed by the stepping punch, I tend to think that the explanation which requires the LEAST modification of the technique is jamming a kick, stopping a low grab or takedown, and following with a driving punch. Also, the forward stance, to me, indicates a desire to have stability and power in the direction one is facing. In the forward/front/hill stance I have generally encountered, the stance is considerably weaker from pressure to and from the sides or rear, and is exceptionally strong to the front.
Of course, that said, I am now simply burning with curiosity to know what interpretations you had in mind for the "downblock" and chambered hand!
I'd suggest you to check a few posts I've written in recent threads so you'd have a little more context, like the following:
Wow. I officially qualify myself as a "lurker" when I realize I have already read through two of the three threads (the first two). To my credit I DID actually jump in on the thread about blocking a few days ago, so I haven't JUST been lurking. I've been stumbling across this site for years. Love it. I have to say, too, that reading the first two threads previously, and revisiting them now, as well as the last one, I greatly enjoy the input you (and others) have expounded upon.
So the problem with the head snaps is that they come from the mistaken interpretation of karate kata (and later of poomsae) that suggests your turn means you are turning to block an attack that comes from the side or behind. In the truth, the turns says that you should go to the side in relation to your opponent (like dodging) when performing the technique. So in reality the opponent is in front of you all the time. If that's the case, why should you snap the head first, to "see what's coming" (what is in an of itself kind of questionable for various reasons), if your opponent is already in front of you?
I take a little bit of issue here... I can't speak as to what Funakoshi was really envisioning with the Taikyoku kata. I'm not entirely certain that he had envisioned them so much as perfectly applicable self-defense, either. For all I know, he was mainly thinking about introducing an training stances and techniques. You seem MUCH more well versed in Karate history than I, and I would guess that you DO know.
Here's what I take issue to; that Funakoshi's intent must be the only interpretation. That may not be what you meant, but that's how I am understanding you, currently. I love tradition, but when it comes to Martial Arts, I love experimentation and testing more. So, when someone tells me, "here is the original way, the true way, the legitimate way," I may believe, them, but I don't accept that because that is how it WAS done, that that is how it SHOULD be done. It depends greatly on whether or not your focus is on maintaining a traditional art, or continuing the millennia of development and adaptation of the art.
That said, I am deeply interested in what you have to teach us about what Funakoshi and other early 20th century practitioners envisioned with these forms. I admit that I am having a great deal of difficulty mentally, in understanding how technique one of Taikyoku Shodan is a dodge from an attack to the front. Also, when I have seen this form Shotokan style, the may not head snap, but they still face 90 degrees. I understand what you have said about the plasticity of the angles in application versus tradition, but, shouldn't the direction of your vision generally be towards your attacker? I'm not trying to be a pedant here, just explaining my confusion. Help me out, I'm stuck, and it's going to drive me crazy trying to see that first move as a dodge from a forward attacker!
Again, thanks for the input!
IMO, forms is designed for teaching and learning only. It's not designed for training. You should train solo drills or combo drills but not forms.
