I am a fighter. I don’t do kata.
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:31 pm
Hi All,
As a habitual forum lurker I feel guilty (and often shamed by Gordon) for my lack of input.
So…
“I am a fighter. I don’t do kata.”
This comment was made to me during a course in January by a fellow student and it made me laugh. But, then it occurred to me that in all his years of training he had never really got the point of kata as a relevant training aid for fighting.
His instructor or association had either failed to give him the information for him to make this connection or perhaps he had failed to listen.
Either way it doesn’t matter. If he is the ultimate fighting champion then indeed Kata is unnecessary.
But, I began thinking how I would explain this to someone if they asked. “Why are we doing this?”
I don’t think I have ever really asked it myself as I just sort of got the point early on.
This morning I scratched down some basic notes:
• Kata illustrates strategies of combat, each kata adds another layer to the whole
• Kata provides an accessible and manageable method of assessing, exploring and training most variations and types of body movement. Each kata adds another layer of variation to the whole.
• Kata involves internal and external principles of application and flow. Many of which I only became to truly understand when searching for the best solution in combat.
To me they are a bit like the reason many musicians continually work through scales, chords and various musical theory. It provides them with the basis to produce great works.
To be fair, not every great work came from classically trained musicians who spent years studying the craft of music as well. But, then the question probably has to be asked, “How much greater could those works have become with that training?”
I suppose my question is “What is the point of Kata?”
Regards
As a habitual forum lurker I feel guilty (and often shamed by Gordon) for my lack of input.
So…
“I am a fighter. I don’t do kata.”
This comment was made to me during a course in January by a fellow student and it made me laugh. But, then it occurred to me that in all his years of training he had never really got the point of kata as a relevant training aid for fighting.
His instructor or association had either failed to give him the information for him to make this connection or perhaps he had failed to listen.
Either way it doesn’t matter. If he is the ultimate fighting champion then indeed Kata is unnecessary.
But, I began thinking how I would explain this to someone if they asked. “Why are we doing this?”
I don’t think I have ever really asked it myself as I just sort of got the point early on.
This morning I scratched down some basic notes:
• Kata illustrates strategies of combat, each kata adds another layer to the whole
• Kata provides an accessible and manageable method of assessing, exploring and training most variations and types of body movement. Each kata adds another layer of variation to the whole.
• Kata involves internal and external principles of application and flow. Many of which I only became to truly understand when searching for the best solution in combat.
To me they are a bit like the reason many musicians continually work through scales, chords and various musical theory. It provides them with the basis to produce great works.
To be fair, not every great work came from classically trained musicians who spent years studying the craft of music as well. But, then the question probably has to be asked, “How much greater could those works have become with that training?”
I suppose my question is “What is the point of Kata?”
Regards