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Tasks and Goals

Extract from Sensei Denis Labbé (President) letter to the SWKKF Membership

Shindo Committee / September 9, 2010

The Shindo committee has been continuously working at fulfilling the dream Sensei Shintani had for Shindo. The goal is to bring Shindo into the lives of all the students in the federation.

 

To this end, the Shindo committee has worked on, and continues to work on, a number of items to facilitate the completion of this task.

 

Teaching Aids - There are a number of teaching aids currently available to provide instructors a starting point for the instruction of Shindo at the club level. The curriculum for the three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced has been developed and remains in place. Accompanying the curriculum are the three DVDs

 

Clinics - Clinics are taught across the country by accomplished Shindo practitioners to introduce students to the art, refresh instructors, and provide new ideas from which it will grow

 

Beyond these currently available aids, there are a few suggestions for incorporating Shindo into our routine karate workouts. As in karate, students must start with the basics and work their way up to advanced interpretations of karate movements.

 

The basic grading structure for Shindo is as follows:

 

Basic Shindo

  • White Stripe - white belt to green belt stage of karate.

Intermediate Shindo

  • Green Stripe - green and blue belt levels.

​Advanced Shindo

  • Brown Stripe – brown belt and above.

Ideally, a student in the white belt to green belt stage of their karate should be able to translate their knowledge of karate basics to the Shindo and perform at a basic level.  Thus, the white stripe awarded for successful performance of the basic level of Shindo is thought to be appropriate at green belt.

 

The green stripe for completion of the intermediate requirements is approximately parallel to practice at the green and blue belt levels where combinations of techniques are introduced.  It is recommended to be awarded at blue belt.

 

Advanced kyu belts should, with regular practice, be able to perform the advanced portion of the Shindo curriculum.  Therefore, at brown belt it is suggested that the brown stripe be awarded.  Of course, these are not set times to award the stripe; it should be awarded as appropriate at this time or later, as the student progresses.

 

Black belts, as in karate, will continue on beyond this program, and use their minds and skills to interpret the art.  They will learn the newly developed kata Kushanku no Shindo, and begin to apply their knowledge of Shindo to techniques of the everyday karate class.

 

The ability to accomplish this demonstrates the parallel with ‘regular’ karate and the parallels which Sensei Shintani created when he developed Shindo.

 

A grading format beyond the current curriculum is being investigated to award Dan rankings.

Tips for Teaching Shindo

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  • At first the student may feel overwhelmed by the foreign object in their hands, especially when starting out.  Remember to teach at the level of the students. This caution is warranted to help decrease this possibility, regardless of the level of the student

  • Shindo should be related to everyday karate.  For the very first punch or block techniques we learn we can develop Shindo techniques to coincide with them.  This is an important point for Shindo instructors and practitioners to grasp.

  • Shindo classes can be structured exactly the way that ‘regular’ classes are.  There should be at least an emphasis on the basics every time the Shindo is picked up.  How these basics relate to karate (ie: kumais, sabaki, etc) is a good way to begin showing how Shindo really is Shintani Wado Kai with a Shindo hand-bo (short staff) of self-defense in our hands.

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Going forward, there are many ways to continue to develop Shindo across the Shintani Wado Kai Karate Federation.  Instructors should encourage their students to study - as they should themselves have awareness of the art. This will help and improve their abilities in karate and Shindo.  Positive encouragement to participate in the Shindo divisions at tournaments is a great way to demonstrate knowledge and compare philosophies with peers.

 

 

Encourage your tournaments to have two Shindo divisions, one for the kyu belts and one for the black belts.  This is an ideal situation and something to be strived for.

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There in fact may be some kata that are not a part of the current curriculum as it stands now.  The Shindo Committee welcomes and in fact seeks members’ own creative ideas for kata(s) (TAI SEI NO SHINDO, CHINTO NO SHINDO, WANSHU NO SHINDO, etc).

 

These would be used in some manner as a part of the teaching and tournament system for Shindo.  That is to say, in pockets of the North America there is lots of good work being accomplished with the Shindo, and everyone deserves to have access to this knowledge.  By sharing ideas, they may be incorporated in some form into common Shindo practice.

 

More information on introducing more Shindo kata(s) will be released in the near future from the Shindo committee.

 

The goal of all involved in Shindo is to have all students practicing Shindo on some level.  This is what Sensei Shintani envisioned.  With current aids in place to assist instruction and the new directives and recommendations of the Committee we hope that the organization can move towards this goal.

 

The Shindo Committee welcomes constructive feedback, suggestions, recommendations, and/or comments from the SWKKF members as a means to assist everyone to work and promote Shindo.

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