Karate Kata

In the first of a series of articles, Alan Gill discusses the reasoning behind the practice of kata.

Kata is, to those who do not practise it, a fairly simple affair. It is commonly thought of as a set of pre-arranged movements, somewhat like a dance. For some people, kata is about performance, the primary goal being to develop the speed, power and timing required to win a coveted trophy. For others, kata is the remains of a long dead tradition that no longer has any place in the modern day. In many dojo, kata training has been replaced entirely by other training practices. These practises are usually either sparring based, or what has become known as “Reality Based Self Defence” training drills. There are those however, to whom kata is more than just a collection of movements. Instead, it is the core practise of a combative art.

Karate is practised by a large number of people throughout the UK. Most practise it as a form of sport or exercise. But there was a time when its practise was a practical form of combat, and for a few modern day practitioners it still is. So why is there confusion? When I speak to people who do not practise any form of Budo, the purpose of training to them seems quite straight forward, the goal being an ability to defend yourself.

It appears to me that a student will enter training with this goal in mind, but as they advance they may not receive any tuition in actual fighting techniques, and generally accept that this is the way things are. In many Karate dojo I have visited, effective techniques, which result in serious damage to your opponent are considered to be very advanced, or even secret teachings. Often a student can train for many years before reaching a dan grade level, having never been taught any effective fighting techniques.

In most traditional fighting systems, kata or pre-arranged fighting patterns are the core of the fighting art. Examples of this would be Karate from Okinawa, Kenjutsu from Japan and Wing-chun from China. Being the core practice of the art, it would seem logical that the pursuit of knowledge of Karate must ultimately be the pursuit of perfecting and understanding kata.

From the point of view of a fighting system, the understanding of kata must mean understanding the meaning of the movements, and understanding how to apply these movements in a combative situation. In arts such as Jujutsu and Kenjutsu, the kata are performed in pairs. Japan appears to be somewhat unique in this, as kata from China, Okinawa and Korea are generally practised alone. This often leaves the Karate practitioners performing movements in air, and never practising them against a resistant partner. In order to be an effective fighting system, partner work is essential. As the kata are in essence a library of the systems fighting techniques, they must be practised on a regular basis against a partner. I have found however, a worryingly large number of practitioners with almost no idea of the meaning of kata movements on even the most basic level.

This lack of knowledge has more recently become somewhat of a bugbear to traditional Karate instructors. With the spread of more reality based self-defence arts, teachers are finding more and more students questioning the practicality of Karate-do. As a result, there has been an increase in teachers who now claim to be teaching realistic combative applications to kata, often sold as kata “secrets.” Many of these applications however, are what I refer to as “bolt-on” applications. By this, I am referring to practitioners looking at a movement within the kata, and finding a fighting technique that roughly fits this position. Often the techniques are not very practical and do not truly follow the movements within the kata.

The key issue with these techniques however is their effectiveness. Techniques which rely simply on blocking and punching an opponent can often result in the practitioner standing toe to toe and slugging it out. In such situations knowledge of technique is not enough, and more often than not leaves a larger and more aggressive assailant with the advantage.

Over the coming months, through a series of articles for The Martial Arts Journal, I hope to show a number of applications from various Karate kata, from junior to senior. Most importantly, I hope to pass on the principles of kata application, allowing the reader to better understand the movements and discern the applications for themselves.

About the Author

Allan Gill has been practising martial arts for 23 years. He is currently a 3rd Dan in Shotokan Karate and is a practising student of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu.

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