This is the second segment of Taikyoku Shodan. In contrast to the first segment, there do not seem to be many applications for it. This segment appears only in Taikyoku Shodan and Heian Shodan, and seems to be purely offensive. Perhaps for that reason, it rarely appears in bunkai videos that demonstrate defences against a particular attack. But I find it interesting for a couple of reasons:

• it is the prototype for repeating one same technique (or group of techniques) 3 times, which appears time and time again in several Kata. Taikyoku Shodan is itself a Kata prototype, and is an appropriate place for smaller prototypes like this.

• it could be a stylized form of a flurry of punches, a chain sequence of repeated techniques, and can help to teach the karateka to think beyond making a single attack intended to finish the fight. That can easily happen in dojo sparring, where the attacker commits to a single powerful strike, maybe after a feint, the defender parries and then throws a counterstrike, reversing the roles. Instead, the karateka should try to sustain a persistent attack to overcome a determined defender that blocks the first strike, but may well be surprised by the continuation.

• it could also be seen as a two-step attack, that is first exemplified on the right, and then finishing on the left. In this interpretation, the first punch is probably an advance to grab some part of the body the attacker has left exposed. If the grab is successful, the Karateka will keep control of it and then strike with the opposite hand, in what corresponds to the second punch.

The following video by Andy Allwood (practising Shukokai, a Karate style derived from Shito-Ryu) gives an idea of how these principles can look in practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf_jdp_aITE&t=455s

A word about rhythm

There are many occurrences in Shotokan Kata of triple-steps travels. These are sequences of 3 repeated techniques, or 2 repeated techniques with a closely related third.

They tend to form a single segment, and therefore represent one self-defence principle. The default interpretation could then be to string all three techniques into a single response to an attack, but I prefer an alternative view. Just like in a mirrored baseline, that is demonstrated for the left and then for the right, these triple-steps can also be seen as a sequence demonstrated first for one side and then for the other. And since the end of one sequence would be repeated as the start of the next sequence (say, an oi-zuki advancing the left leg), the two halves are compressed and joined on a shared step.

I like to vary the rhythm of a Kata to highlight the several segments, introducing some longer pauses at the separation points. But this view presents a problem for triple steps, since the compressed middle-step means only one half of the segment will be complete, and we have to choose which one to highlight: the first (steps 1 and 2) or the second (steps 2 and 3). I usually prefer to highlight the second segment, introducing a somewhat longer pause after the first step, and chaining the other two quickly.