Putting Kata Back at the Heart of Karate.Column by Bill Burgar author of Five Years, One Kata.
Kata is one of the things that defines karate. In the pioneering days of karate in Okinawa, kata was karate, and the way in which karate was practised was quite different from today. Modern karate typically consists of the three k's (kihon [basics], kata and kumite [sparring]) practised in varying proportions depending upon the instructor's preference.
Often kata is poorly understood and is considered the poor cousin of kumite - free sparring being generally thought of more use because it more closely matches what people think of as fighting. Worse still, kata has been relegated to such a degree that it is now just something that you have to do for gradings or competition and its value, in practice, is just to improve balance and co-ordination.
The question is, "what happened to 'the jewel of karate' (as Funakoshi called it) to cast it so low?" One possible answer is that we stopped practising the contents of the kata and started practising the performance of kata.
Let's look at the contrast between practising content and practising performance by first understanding the possible objectives of them both.
Practising the content has several possible objectives. The most obvious is to train in a workable system of civilian self-defence by practising specific techniques to combat the common instinctive acts of violence. Another possible objective could be to practise the techniques of the art of karate.
In contrast, practising the performance of the kata is aimed at reaching goals of perfecting balance, coordination and technique. Rarely is an opponent visualised at any more than a superficial level so the combat effectiveness of the exercise is limited to gaining physical familiarity with the movements only. Over time, the objective has changed and has moved further away from the goal of movement and coordination and has been replaced with passing gradings and winning competitions. This further places the focus on the outward appearance of the kata rather than the functional use of the moves.
So, where does your focus lie when you practice your kata? Is your primary concern how it looks? Are you thinking about what the next move is? Are you thinking about how you move? In a typical dojo the answer to these questions is yes; which means that you are practising performance rather the practising the content.
Now, the problem is that very few people know how to practise the content of kata which requires quite a change in what a training session consists of.
First, you need to understand what the applications of the movements are. They need to all hang together properly as a well thought out system rather than being just a random set of techniques. Once you have your applications then you can start to practise them both with a partner and also alone by using visualisation (The subject for a future article). Finally, you should practise drills (again both with
a partner and solo using visualisation) which aim to allow you to move spontaneously from one technique to any other in the kata.
The use of visualisation is most important and is the subject of next month's article.
About the author: Bill Burgar is a 6th Dan, member of Rick Clark's ADK organisation and author of the advanced karate text Five Years, One Kata which is available on-line and to order at all good book shops.
Often kata is poorly understood and is considered the poor cousin of kumite - free sparring being generally thought of more use because it more closely matches what people think of as fighting. Worse still, kata has been relegated to such a degree that it is now just something that you have to do for gradings or competition and its value, in practice, is just to improve balance and co-ordination.
The question is, "what happened to 'the jewel of karate' (as Funakoshi called it) to cast it so low?" One possible answer is that we stopped practising the contents of the kata and started practising the performance of kata.
Let's look at the contrast between practising content and practising performance by first understanding the possible objectives of them both.
Practising the content has several possible objectives. The most obvious is to train in a workable system of civilian self-defence by practising specific techniques to combat the common instinctive acts of violence. Another possible objective could be to practise the techniques of the art of karate.
In contrast, practising the performance of the kata is aimed at reaching goals of perfecting balance, coordination and technique. Rarely is an opponent visualised at any more than a superficial level so the combat effectiveness of the exercise is limited to gaining physical familiarity with the movements only. Over time, the objective has changed and has moved further away from the goal of movement and coordination and has been replaced with passing gradings and winning competitions. This further places the focus on the outward appearance of the kata rather than the functional use of the moves.
So, where does your focus lie when you practice your kata? Is your primary concern how it looks? Are you thinking about what the next move is? Are you thinking about how you move? In a typical dojo the answer to these questions is yes; which means that you are practising performance rather the practising the content.
Now, the problem is that very few people know how to practise the content of kata which requires quite a change in what a training session consists of.
First, you need to understand what the applications of the movements are. They need to all hang together properly as a well thought out system rather than being just a random set of techniques. Once you have your applications then you can start to practise them both with a partner and also alone by using visualisation (The subject for a future article). Finally, you should practise drills (again both with
a partner and solo using visualisation) which aim to allow you to move spontaneously from one technique to any other in the kata.The use of visualisation is most important and is the subject of next month's article.
About the author: Bill Burgar is a 6th Dan, member of Rick Clark's ADK organisation and author of the advanced karate text Five Years, One Kata which is available on-line and to order at all good book shops.
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