Class that teaches one kata for six months

[Makalakumu]

Recently, I've had the opportunity to perform some experiments in martial arts teaching and I thought I would take the opportunity to report the results here. One of the experiments that I performed involved taking one kata and teaching it exclusively to a beginning group of students for six months.

There were two sections, I taught pinan shodan to one class and a basic kobudo kata to the other. The class met twice a week for a two hour block. There were about ten students in each class. The results of the classes were remarkable. Students were not only able to perform the kata well, they were able to really understand what the kata was teaching and PERFORM that material under pressure.

This has been one of the biggest things I've struggled with in my martial arts teaching. How do I teaching the kata and the applications and get my students to be able to perform that material well while sparring? Previously, I taught a wide range of techniques and watched as skills develop slowly in my students. It's good to see that a focused approach will build a high level of skill quickly.

Yeah, that sounds like common sense, but then again, it's different when you get to see that in action. For me, I think that this will probably change how I teach my curriculum. Usually I will refer to this or that kata with my students during class. Now, I think I will focus on hammering home the kata principles at each rank with kids learning one kata every other rank and adults learning one kata per rank.

 

[J Ellis]

I'm glad to hear of the success of your program. Tell us a little about the ways you developed and drilled the material over the six months to keep the students engaged in the training. Personally, I'm fine with drilling the basics and let those who get bored go elsewhere. But I'm sure there were multiple things you did to explore the material besides just repping the kata for two hours in every session.

Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[Makalakumu]

I'm glad to hear of the success of your program. Tell us a little about the ways you developed and drilled the material over the six months to keep the students engaged in the training. Personally, I'm fine with drilling the basics and let those who get bored go elsewhere. But I'm sure there were multiple things you did to explore the material besides just repping the kata for two hours in every session.

Looking forward to hearing more.

The biggest thing that I did was break down the kata into it's bunkai and then group all of the basic techniques that needed to be drilled in order to perform the bunkai well. Then we spent the class drilling the basics, putting them back together into the bunkai and trying to find ways to pressure test what they were doing with sparring. We actually performed the kata maybe 1-3 times per class. Not much considering that it was the focus for the entire class.