r/karate • u/TheJapanMistake • 3d ago
Question/advice Cheats for making my shikodachi good fast?
This is embarassing but I'm a goju ryu brown belt and I've been working on my shikodachi for quite some time. SOMETIMES I can do it really well for certain periods of time,
and then sometimes I suddenly can't do it at all.
Which leads me to believe that at some point I just lose track of what makes shikodachi work, rather than me being unable to do it.
I have a kata tournament where I'll be doing seiyunchin coming up this month, so I need to be able to do shikodachi proper by then.
May I ask for cheats/tips and tricks for how to do proper shikodachi- or at least, proper looking shikodachi fast?
... I'm probably physically able to do it, I just don't know what it is I do when I do it right which is why I revert to being completely unable to do it.
Sorry for the weird/pompuous question.
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u/LieUnlikely7690 3d ago
Two tips, that apply to anything:
Film yourself doing it.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Learn it slow and proper, while slowly speeding it up. Trying to learn it fast leads to sloppy execution.
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u/Mightymelface 3d ago
Are your hips tight?
For me, the only way I was able to finally perform a proper shikodachi was when I was pregnant with my children. The weight distribution then was different and my hips were looser.
Then I found out in postpartum that my hips are very narrow so I had to take care of that before I could do it proper again.
Not really a cheat, but my sensei had us conditioning for shikodachi by doing punching drills and moving our legs from kokusudachi to shikodachi and back with each punch. For me it seems to help with the ankles and tone up my thighs.
Not sure if any of this is helpful. I definitely don’t recommend trying pregnancy as a cheat way—it’s way too long and takes forever to recover sometimes. 😅
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u/Flugelhaw Shoto Budo & Kyokushin 3d ago edited 3d ago
External cues tend to be better than internal cues for most people, because you don't usually know how to do the thing inside you without some kind of external goal to achieve.
So we could talk about doing this with your glute or that with your abs or the other thing with your quads - but you might not be able to do that.
Instead, can you point your big toes out to 30° to each side? Can you bend your knees in the direction of your smallest toes? Can you sit down a bit, with your weight equally between your legs?
That will help.
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
That must be true. My Japanese sensei's say a lot of things about things coming from inside that I don't yet at all.
I will do my best using your descriptions. Thank!
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u/Flugelhaw Shoto Budo & Kyokushin 3d ago
Your instructor might be entirely right. But if you dont understand the instruction, the instruction isn't actually helpful. You need something helpful instead.
Which is easy to say, and much harder to put into practice in a helpful fashion!
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
Yeah sometimes it's some real "find out for yourself" somehow sorta thing that wasn't present in the dojo back in sweden... I'm not smart...
Yeah I can imagine
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u/OyataTe 3d ago
Are you perhaps slightly pidgeon toed?
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
not necessarily, or at least not noticeably.
That said, my most recent shoes started leaning/tilting inward, so I had to buy new ones
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u/LifesGrip 3d ago
https://youtu.be/zo5K_j7S-3I?is=R9BTMFVsMDObrysf
Youtube has several videos on guides which would be easier to put to use than a few paragraphs on reddit.
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
Yeah but I have a maximum of two weeks. This is more for like, long term gains right. And redditors have different viewpoints than youtube vids so what's wrong with consuming both
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u/LifesGrip 3d ago
You're expecting too much from the internet within two weeks , best bet is to talk to your instructors , they see how you perform often and would be best suit to diagnose any problems.
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
Idk why you have an issue with my asking. Clearly what my instructors are telling me isn't working which is why I'm here. What's the harm in asking, even if nothing written here ends up helping?
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u/Odd-Engineering-7959 3d ago
Loosen and warm up your hips properly before beginning your training/tournament/kata routines. Hip mobility exercises also help me tremendously.
For reference, I'm over 40 and need to spend at least 30 minutes stretching and loosening my hips before I can do a decent shiko dachi and mawashi-geri.
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
Ok. 100% doing that
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u/Odd-Engineering-7959 3d ago
I'm also having challenges with the Seienchin kata's shiko-dachi movements, but yeah hip rotation exercises and drills to move around in shiko-dachi while maintaining stability do help a lot.
Good luck in your tournament!
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
Sensei said that's exactly why it's so early, because it's so challenging on that font... 😭 I'll do my best!!! Thank you for your advice. It's like four people in the kata part (colored belts) so I just need to do Shisochin and Seiyunchin really really well to win
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u/Wilbie9000 Isshinryu 3d ago
Stretch - a lot.
Practice moving in and out of the stance. More often than not, the difficulty is more around the movement into the stance than the stance itself. So, basically pick the parts of your kata that have you moving into the stance, and drill that movement over and over again.
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u/Capable-Grab-2803 3d ago
A tiny Asian women once told me ‘be fat’. It works. Push your lower abdomen forward a little.
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u/Wild_Horse_Rider 3d ago
I think you should do Shisochin for the tournament. Or any other kata that’s not almost entirely in shiko.
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
I need to do two kata and I'm doing shisochin and seiyunchin. Seiyunchin, I am required by my sensei to do
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u/Wooden-Glove-2384 3d ago
personally I think you are overthinking this
its a stance
stand in it
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u/TheJapanMistake 3d ago
Maybe we should swap bodies for a few secs and see if you can do shikodachi in mine
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u/Wooden-Glove-2384 2d ago
is there something unique about how you're put together that you can't do it - ankle flexibility or something?
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u/foxydevil14 2d ago
I had the same problem until I went to a seminar and did seiunchin for four hours straight.
I’ve been rock solid in shikodachi ever since.
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u/TheJapanMistake 6h ago
Insane. So seiyunchin is the answer
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u/foxydevil14 4h ago
I struggled with shikko for a long time before that day. After that, in there like swimware.
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u/Boblaire 1d ago
2 weeks?
Besides doing a lot of shiko-dachi holds, I could see Sumo DL and Squats being of use.
If you dont ever do barbell squats/DL, they might help a lot.
Besides anything that works the Adductors. "Fire Hydrants", "Clamshells"
Maybe even seated pancake or Middle Splits or Froggie Splits (realistically these probably are not gonna improve much in 2 weeks unless you never do them).
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u/spicy2nachrome42 Style goju ryu shodan 12h ago
Tbh. Cheating isn't gonna help your shiko... that shit hard No matter what. When im at work cutting things I sit in shiko(it doesn't help because when we're doing sandangi and shiho Wana, its still hard. But I last longer
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u/TheJapanMistake 6h ago
I'm just gonna need to cheat it for the tournament and then work on it properly when I come back to Sweden
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u/spicy2nachrome42 Style goju ryu shodan 6h ago
Its a long kata but it isnt that long. You're a brown belt? You've been doing this kata long enough where it shouldn't be that difficult
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u/TheJapanMistake 6h ago
I mean, it isn't that difficult but no matter what, my shikodachi is no - good and gets corrected. Then again, I'm in Japan and we do it after my muscles are already dead and I can't use them.
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u/spicy2nachrome42 Style goju ryu shodan 5h ago
Well, that's great, strengthening them while you're tired. It is a good strategy. But solo training is probably your best bet. So make sure you're constantly working on your angles. In your shiko Dachi, when you're not training with people. Seiyunchin is the only thing you eat sleep and shit for the next 2 weeks... tape lines on the ground and shiko walk 45 degrees
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u/TheJapanMistake 4h ago
I don't think it's a good strategy. Makes no sense sports science wise, since I'm not doing it correctly when I'm tired
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