Sanchin, Shime, and Hard Impact

At the conclusion of the examination, we gathered around the new Godan, the finger imprints from the teachers slapping his shoulders resonated red, buried deep in his sweat, covered skin. Just being newly minted black belts, we worked our way around his torso, calling out, “look at this one,” as we discovered with reverence more marks left on his body from the test. We, I would come to learn, had bought into the falsehood that these marks indicated good, strong karate.

Shime Testing

Shime testing is a two-person drill which serves as a way of testing a practitioner’s ability to apply the strategies and tactics of sanchin kata. (Read more here)