Yahara Kata: Unsu

[ameressam23]

this is a master piece....

[brinnonvallere]

i never really understood "pull back arm" of shotokans punches/blocks until i seen yahara fight

[Larloch80]

I understand your point when you're saying "traditionnal kata". The fact is that the change are supposed to be improvement and, I know I'm not sitting on the right chair to comment this kata, but there is some point I dislike on Yahara kata. I would like to precise also that I'm far from being good as he is :)

The unsu link below is prolly the best Unsu I ever seen, even better than Luca Valdesi, Michael Milon and so on... look at it: "watch?v=aNyPbcETA54"

[kishorekumarbairi]

I find his kata better than Kanazawa sensi's Unsu. Its more like Nakayama sensei is doing it.

[rafadiiaz]

thiss is one of the best kata i´ve ever seen this is Great Shotokan

[KDonxcrack]

I remember first seeing this kata as a white belt, promoting to yellow. i thought it was the coolest thing ever. and i still do. haha. i know about half the moves, but would probably fail at trying this, LULZZ. :P

[MMilon]

During those times, the kata performances were quite poor, but the fights were amazing. The kumite-ka had the spirit and the attitude of a real martial artist. And the speed and reaction were mind-boggling.

[SenseiShotokan]

excuse me but what do you call "kumite-ka"? I see the presentation of kata in this video. Are you searching the word "karateka"?

[Dubinin1]

das ist shotokan karate als kriegskunst.

[JanBloem]

Although I admire Yahara as a fighter, this is not a performance of a master. To much tension, techniques unfinished. I prefer the version of Mikhail Milon. Milon showed that indeed you do not need to be Japanese to be a master in karate.

[jippzmcghee]

I'd hate to get hit by that guy..it's my understanding that yahara is quite the fighter as well. does it get any better?

[rcadag]

by the way, does anybody know where I could find a video Aihara sempai? That is if anybody here still remember him. He as won kata competitions using unsu.

[krisnasan]

Master Yahara Unsu performance, was just comparable to Nadia Commanecci Perfect Gimnastic permance obtaining the perfect ten califacation of the judges.

[bbhaz]

not brilliant

[krisnasan]

What ??????, are you saying...

[CCYKWONG]

great unsu. funny thou i found that his first two attempts were better than his third - which he won.

[adhamsabree]

Traditional is better than modern

Japan is better than America

[Flyingoutofadream]

YES YES YES!!!

[dschungelkaempfer]

michael millon died of a cocaine overdose, anything more to say???

[Sebmagic2]

Michael Milon ? Plus fort ? Laisse-moi rire... Tain mais Yahara c'est une légende, regarde un peu son kimé, sa puissance, CA c'est du karaté, du grand art !

[fandesteve]

michael milon est plus fort que lui !!!

[kataman123]

Love it Yahara then Yahara now brilliant !!

[toanthony]

are you guys kidding????

Current guys are so much better than this guy. His punches come from his ribs (not hips). He telegraphs his moves, making him slow (strong but slow). His haito's have the thumbs out (making the technique weak - he would prob break his hand if he hit something).

[glennkugb]

he would probably break his hand on your face,maybe you should train with yahara sensei,and point out what he is doing wrong!

[toanthony]

I have seen Yahara sensei do kumite and know he is a killer. But this is his 'kata' we're looking at. People commented that his kata is soooo much better than the top people nowadays - and thats a ridiculous statement. Fear not, i have much respect for him. But kata wise, the top people today are far better. But thats ok because karate continues to evolve. Yahara has better kata than the old karate masters and in 20 years they will be better than our current crop...thats life.

[ryukyuprime]

more like it de-evolves since the real bunkai of the kata is lost to flashier performances

[toanthony]

You make a great point. The flashy performances today are lacking in terms of real-life effectiveness. Then again, the way they train and compete may differ. And further more,

kata is as much about self-mastery as it is about bunkai. Mastering your body and your emotions til you get a perfect performance. people who are too bunkai orientated tend to lack self-mastery (performing loose techniques). So it goes both ways

[ryukyuprime]

I think those who have a true understanding of combat oriented combat in kata bunkai suffer far less from this than those who bunkai and kata centers around tournaments

[DunxMeister]

@toanthony bullshit. Kata has too much importance placed on it. It wasn't devised too help people fight but practice techniques when people had to train on their own. Nowadays most people get wrapped up in it like its as important as kumite. Its a very small part of karate

[Saurichard]

what kind of championship is that? not serious!

[joelardz]

boto ninyo!

[zedosix]

Do you see the energy emitting from his body, spectacular. I would aspire to be 1/10th as good as this man.

[Karatedo94]

Yeah, really good demonstration and that's no Sports Karate!

[kevinkhk]

Not just Unsu. Kata is a form of fighting and should be performed like that. Not some kind of dance like what we see nowadays. That is the problem.

[broomstick123]

the reason why u don't see katas like this much in karate competitions is becuz the kata Unsu is very rare and advanced in Shotokan and Shito-Ryu karate styles. many schools remove "cloud hands" from the curriculum alltogiether

[aiyer1989]

Eum LoL? Unsu is done by more than half of the kata competitors. Last competition I joined the final was Unsu vs Unsu. It's one of the most important competition kata together with gojushiho sho and the shitei kata.

[beatchanter]

great performances! What happened in the last 26 years to make kata competitions so lame. This is karate.

[Karatedo94]

Karate became sport. That's it and it's a shame!

[Jh7478]

I love his kata.