Tekki Nidan - Iron Horse Number Two
Tekki Nidan is the second of three katas in this series. It was also originally known by the Okinawan name, Naihanchi, a name that is still commonly used today for this series of kata in several other styles of karate. Tekki Nidan introduces several new techniques such as morote-gedan-soto-uke (lower level augmented outward inside block), as well as the opposite technique, morote-gedan-uchi-uke (lower level augmented inside outward block). Only when a student has thoroughly familiarized themselves with Tekki Shodan should they begin to learn Tekki Nidan, in which they will discover a whole new set of challenges while still maintaining some of the techniques familiar to them.
As I stated earlier in Tekki Shodan the three Tekki katas were once thought to be one single continuous kata. If so then Tekki Nidan represents the "middle" portion of this series. This kata contains 24 movements and should also take the student approximately 35 seconds to complete. The correct performance of this kata is required in order to advance from 1st kyu brown belt to Sho Dan (1st Black Belt).
There are two kiai points in Tekki Nidan. The first one occurs half way through the kata on the first morote-shita-zuki (augmented upper level inverted punch) on the right side of the body. The second one occurs on the last movement of the kata, also a morote-shita-zuki (augmented upper level inverted punch), this time on the left side of the body.
To finish the kata from the last movement, leave your left foot in place and withdrawing your right foot stand up and face forward in a hachiji-dachi (natural stance), now bring your left foot half way in towards your right foot, and your right foot half way in towards your left foot, and at the same time bring your hands to your sides, now standing in heisoku-dachi (attention stance), rei (bow), now step out with your left foot, then your right foot and stand once again in hachiji-dachi (natural stance).