Just for something different from everyone else's comments, thanks for sharing the kata video – snappy, controlled, powerful, looked really awesome

It's called “square” because the movements are clearly articulated with distinct beginning and end points and a clearly defined transition. It is also practiced slowly.

The “round” form is the flowing form that most people would recognize as taijiquan and tends to be practiced as a “fast form.”

Bunkai is a process of discovering applications to specific movements. So a lot of times in a kata, we will say a bunkai for this-or-that technique is a 'punch coming in with the right hand, and we block with the left, strike with the right, and follow through with a sweep' or something to that effect.

TiChiKi takes that process to a more core level and asks how is the body interacting with the body of the attacker. How are we effecting height, distance, angle, stance, and timing. Are we rising into a technique and what does that mean? Is out body sinking and how can that effect the outcome when combined with the angle we approach the opponent.

It's not a replacement for bunkai, simply another step to help us arrive at the core concepts of the kata. Ultimately, it also helps us use these techniques instinctively as TiChiKi can be utilized for any attack, it needn't be anything specific since its the principles that will kick in.

Hope that helps!

Thank you very much for stopping by the blog! You can imagine my surprise when I first learned about your work. It's great to here that the book is rather style agnostic, although I probably should have assumed that even at the start given the depth of your study.

Since you've been kind enough to reach out I will definitely secure a copy of your book and try to learn from your experience.

I'll be in touch via email to discuss!

My best,
Matt

Good luck with your endeavour – I'd be keen to keep up with how you get on with this. My book is more style agnostic than you might think. Certainly the first 70 pages should make interesting reading for you and may adjust your thinking or maybe not – if you want to discuss just get in touch with me.

Regards

Bill Burgar.

He has a shotokan background, so there would certainly be some differences there as I've already explored the shotokan version a bit and it has some distinct differences. Nevertheless, I'm sure he digs down into some core concepts that would be interesting to read about.