Saifa - To Destroy by Pounding or Pulverising:

Saifa kata introduces tai sabaki (body evasion) and open handed palm-heel blocks and strikes (haito uchi). It mixes swift, light stances (neko ashi dachi & sagi ashi dachi) with solid, grounding stances (shiko dachi). Saifa contains a vast number of techniques like hammer fist strike (tettsui uchi), back fist (ura uchi), morote tsuki (double fist punch), ashi barai (foot sweep), haito uchi (ridge hand strike) etc, etc.

This kata is the first of traditional Goju-Ryu's Kaishu kata. The first three moves are the signature of the kata - a wrist-grab-throw technique that is very similar to Aikido's iriminage technique. Saifa teaches, among other things, how to counter being grabbed by one or two opponents. The centrepiece of the kata is the crane kick movement.