Aww, you gotta try it. Turn the shower on, steam the mirrors up a little bit, make it look like you've trained so intensely you've raised the temperature in the room. *cue macho pose* It'd be a hell of a lot better than constantly having to fish monster slugs off the area you train in like I have to Seriously though, competing would still likely go a long way to helping with your framing of the concept of training katas at home.
Back when I was a wee teenager (LONG time ago!) I practiced my TKD forms in the backgarden. A neighbour saw me and asked me if they could train with me. Turns out they were my first ever private client. Amazing what happens if you just give stuff a go.
Slugs. Still better than people who burst into the room while you're doing push ups and give you dirty looks. -What are you doing?! -I'm writing a book. In this position I am certainly writing a book.
I don't mind. It's just that in some places it would be annoying to people, so I don't do it in crowded parking lots, shopping malls, etc. There's a relatively open spot in my gym in which i do kata as a cooldown sometimes. It's a very visible spot, but I don't feel self-conscious about it. yards, parks, gyms, and dojos are my favorite practice zones.
LOL! That reminds me of a cadet friend who was doing pushups. Naked. With a lady underneath him. Senior officer bursts in, screaming "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!". His response was "...WHAT DO YOU THINK?!". Without stopping. To which he was told "...ten minutes!!!" and the officer walked out. Ever since then, he's been a hero with the guys who were under him. It's even worse when you think he was a 250lb fat dude with hair all up and down his back and below. It would have been like screwing Chewbacca I've gone from trying to rescue all the slugs lovingly to just tossing them over the fence into the field behind. Well my neighbour was salting them all anyway. Well it's all well and good when you can defy gravity, but not for us mere mortals I wish I had your luck though. Maybe that way I'd get a reliable training partner.
Yeah, I just feel silly doing it. Just like dancing on your own. I know its not dancing, but doing the movements with application feels even more silly. Hopefully its something I'll just get over and I wont care what anyone thinks...
Sorry, I meant purpose and determination, maybe application was not the best word. ..but apart from all that, really pround of my Karate haha
...except it is This is probably going to be a weird question. When you practice your kata, are you practising as many people do - as essentially a sequence of moves that must be performed in a particular order? Have you tried applying it like it's a form of shadow boxing? Aw man, you gotta do it. The looks you get when people think you know what you're doing are well worth it Do you have any mirrors you can hang in your training space?
Indeed! ...:jawdrop: Get out. Leave MAP. Never come back again. Ever. Or suffer a mankini suffering El Mitcho style! Lol, I kid of course. XMA is just...dire.
Yeah, when I do, I practice the Kata in either 1, 2 or 3 chained movements. Then piece them together depending on space restrictions. It kinda feels robotic though. How would you apply it to be more like shadow boxing? Sorry I know this has gone off topic now.
It's more about the mind set than anything else. I've trained with a lot of karate-ka who have practised kata like a sequence of steps. You know, "move forward, rotate, apply deflection, move again and strike, then take a step back, down into this stance here and apply a deflection...". And so on. Which is fine for getting the hang of a kata the first few times, but the problem is when you practise it like that it is more of a modern dance routine or even a toned down version of XMA. Then the kata becomes soulless. I don't have enough experience with boxing to say for certain about this. But when I see them shadow box, it always feels like they're not just chaining together random punches and stepping randomly. Instead it feels like they are visualising an opponent striking and moving against them, then responding to those movements, looking to press the advantage and yield where necessary, seeking openings, etc. So it isn't just a sequence of random moves, it's almost as if they're actually sparring with an invisible opponent. Kata shouldn't really be different in this respect, even though it can feel rigid at times. Perhaps it might be a good idea to change the way you see the kata in your mind, change the way you frame it? :dunno:
I am not currently a Karate-ka but have been in the past (Kyokushin). But in my current training we have applications that directly relate to our forms (kata). I find 'feeling' the movement in an application greatly helps with the visualisation in the form otherwise it can seem like doing something without really understanding what you are doing and how it is applied.
What helped me WRT this is having my Shihan demonstrate what the parts of the kata are designed for. That way you can visualize an opponent(s) and practice the blocks and attacks in the kata as you would in real life (more or less). Without knowing at least something about application, it's just going through the motions like dance. Hope this helps.
There is nothing to feel silly about when you do kata like this guy. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycrxxGtpt5g"]Tsuchiya Kata Demonstration: Sochin - YouTube[/ame] I'm not an expert in karate or boxing or any martial art, but I think that while shadowboxing and kata kind of serve the same purpose, kata is just way more about your form. Shadowboxing is also about rhythm and footwork, things that are supposed to come to you naturally. But kata is really rigid in comparison and seems to focus on your form a lot more than shadowboxing. Form gives you technical skill, from technical skill you get economy of motion and power. Of course, each practitioner gives it (shadowboxing or kata) their own meaning but this is how I look at it. Either way, I think that doing kata is a legit exercise that you can benefit from. So there is no real reason to feel silly about doing it.
Good point, I hadn't thought about the rhythm. My view is that kata still has got rhythm, it's just not always as obvious. I'm not one for competition kata personally, generally speaking I find it soulless with too much emphasis on looking pretty. That said, Rika Usami is OK: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiiznDpoapQ"]Final Female Kata. Rika Usami of Japan. 21st WKF World Karate Championships Paris 2012 - YouTube[/ame] Certainly better than this (which I have to say is genuinely embarrassing): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghtsniMJX4"]Bargain Basement Black Belts - YouTube[/ame] But I'd still rather watch demo katas by people like this: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjddaBWugLs"]Morio Higaonna - YouTube[/ame]
I like it when katas are done in a way that you think, 'I wouldn't want to get hit by that'. Competition katas seem to be about speed, but if I were to make an observation on the economy of motion, I wouldn't be impressed. I see a lot of pre-motioning in order to make it look it faster. I still think it's impressive how perfect their form is otherwise, but I think competition kata looks weird.
I'm sorry, is this a joke I'm not getting? All the kata I've done and seen have blocks in them. (I'm most familiar with kihons myself, but I've seen a lot of interesting kata on youtube)
