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Kata - Wankan

English - King's Crown

The shortest of all Shotokan katas, Wankan is sometimes said to be only part of a full kata, having as it does just a single kiai. A Tomari-te kata, it moves from a flowing and light start through to much stronger and heavier techniques at the end, making it much harder to master than at first might appear to be the case.

The opening wedge blocks can be performed in either kokutsu-dachi or neko-ashi-dachi.

Video links

Videos from YouTube.

Sensei Kanazawa

Fast and then slow. He performs the opening moves in neko-ashi-dachi.

"Blue Video"

From the front and then the rear. He performs the opening moves in kokutsu-dachi.