Martial arts have to change with time and conditions of the modern world. therefore the question of disrespecting the founders is besides the point.
kata are the poetry of your style. when right they express the principles your style is based on. Maybe somebody should develop a kata for the modern "NHB" "UFC" style fighting, that might be very interesting...
I think in this modern world kata is like the alphabet. writing the alphabet again and again is not going to make you a better story writer or poet. To become good at writing stories you have to write stories or write poems. As in relation to martial arts kata is the alphabet which teaches you the techniques and how to make the flow together. But if you want to be a better fighter you have to learn how to fight.
I think your metaphor is broken. when you say "writing the alphabet again and again is not going to make you a better story writer or poet", you are assuming that the writer has learned the alphabet. if a writer only know the vowels (and sometimes can do Y correctly) then he doesn't know the alphabet. When you were 4 years old and learning the alphabet, how many times did you have to sing that song before you got it all the way through, correctly? Did you get a cookie when you did it? hahahaha and guess what, knowing all the letters is not enough to make you a good writer. you need all the phonetics too! and 2,3,4 letter combinations.. so here is where i think we agree : once you have mastered a kata down to every variation in pronounciation of each letter, (how many sounds does the letter g make? by itself and with any other letters?) there would be no more reason to practice that kata - you have learned its alphabet. the big question is , who has managed to accomplish that for any given kata. I've spoken with a 10th Dan who said he felt he had never "completely mastered" any of his Goju kata, that they all still had things to be learned, even after 49 years of study. but yet I've read on these forums people with a few years experience claim they have no more to learn from kata. they can't all be right haha! David "But if you want to be a better fighter you have to learn how to fight." I agree 100%
Maybe I shoud say the modern way of practising kata. Very few karatekas in the whole world nowdays probably undertsand and absorb everything in the kata.
Kata is the number one reason why I'm still practicing Karate. My mother's afraid of the consequences of kumite (since my sister fractured her leg during a fight). Tekkei's my favorite. Nevertheless, I'll still join a kumite when I'm old (and good) enough.
Yeah martial art can change as how it see fit in the modern world, but style can not. I agree with red-dragon, if you are not practicing style as they once were, then you can not claim to be a practitioner in that certain style. Kata prepare you for a lot of things, even though they may not seem as practical as they should. Look at it as a tool for sharpening your discipline, and mentality.
Hi, Someone wrote "Martial arts have to change with time and conditions of the modern world." Well, you hit on something there. (no pun intended). At one time it was actually used in warefare and daily survival. What did not work died odd, literally, and was not passed forward. I like to call this a 'trial by fire' theory. It kept techniques honest, reasonable and workable. Today we have tournaments. Can you imagine what sorts of BS techniques might creep into a style if we left the katas behind and let things develop as they would? Some folks actually do this, and believe me it is not pretty and it does not last 3 seconds past contact in a real fight. Today, kata is all we have left of a time when all techniques were tested in trial by fire. I would not give it up, myself. If you think a technique in an old kata would not work, you possibly do not understand it well; keep working it anyway for at least 15 years, then decide. -Chris J.
I would have to agree Chris. Kata and the techniques that have been used for centuries seem to work pretty well. Why would we bother to change it if it works perfectly fine? But then again, martial arts didn't help much when the Japanese invaded Okinawa in WW2, according to my dad.
My Sensei has told me he knows of some "schools of thinking" that just teach kata, no sparring or little of it, and others that do not teach kata at all and the instructors beat their lessons into their students. My Sensei has taught me without one to support the other you do not have a sturdy foundation to stand on. Because katas show you the moves, where sparring will teach you how to apply them. While you progress in your learning you will find other applications of the strikes, blocks, and throws in the katas and be able to apply them to your sparring and/or fighting. I figured I would just share my opinion.
To me what makes karate what it is, is kime, locking out all muscles at the moment of impact. Shoulder extention, hip snap etc. These are all the same regardless whether or not one is doing kata or not. IMO that kata is a training aid not the essence of karate.
I agree with Broijo. Once agian, like I said in a earlier post. Kata is truely an artful form of moves to test ones performance, and posture. The actual application of these moves will have to be done on instinct, and I truely doubt you will perform a kata on the battlefield. Maybe individual moves learned from the kata, that you already learned anyways from training will be applied with the knowledge and experience you already have learned. I see kata as a ceromonial dance of moves, to show respect to past masters of karate. Actual application of moves comes from your basics training. Cuz thats where all your advance moves originated from. So its from instinct, in a real fight unless you did the kata more than your regular punchs and side kicks, your nto going to use it in a real life fight.
bingo... I could not agree more. I thought I said that, but not as clear as you did, so thanks for your input.
If you train sparring and with out kata you often leave out more complex parts of your karate. Once you know a kata by heart and with your spine your kata techniques should become spinal reflects and usable in a real fight. I have felt this and thought .. WOW where the hell did that come from and when I realize it's from a kata I think: "Kata is good way to pass down experience to future generations." Regards Kerling
In my opinion, kata is a series of movements or techniques. They are designed to give us a chance to practice techniques and find different applications. For example, in Goju Ryu, in the kata Gekisai dai ich, you start by pivoting to the left, executing a high block. You step forward with a strike, and step back into a low stance (shiko dachi) with a low block from the direction you just came. This is half of the opening sequence. The most obvious application of this is when you know an attack is coming from your left. Or even if it's coming from in front of you, you could just skip the pivoting step. So let's do it that way. You step into the stance (sanchin dachi) and block high, step forward and strike where you have been for the countless number of times you performed the kata previously (assuming you're like me ). Then you step back into Shiko and block low, eliminating the threat of a kick or punch by both moving yourself away and blocking. And then you can modify it. Say when you initially block, you grab their hand or arm or wrist (assuming they're striking with one of those) and then just form a fist in their flesh. then as you move in and strike, your clenching arm moves just like it has for countless times before, drawing your opponent into your accelerating fist as you step forward. Then as you step back into shiko, you shed them off and push them away as you low block. There are many different applications just with the first three movements of the kata. That is my explination of kata, and that also effectively explains why i think you need it to have karate. You practice the techniques over and over again, to or near the point where its muscle memory. Now that i'm done ranting and raving, i'm going to go now.
