Do We Make Too Much of Kata?

[Cri70]

Then why not drill simple movements and even have students make their own kata? ( being devil's advocate)

Indeed. The only reason is that kata speed up the process, by pointing out the stuff that works.

You can in principle reinvent all math from scratch, but you will take a lifetime and end up inventing the same math that you could learn in a few years, maybe with different symbols and names, but essentially the same.

The same is karate: human biomechanics is human biomechanics and the way you use to your advantage are already there. So it's just faster to learn them directly rather than reinventing them,

But the exercise of taking a solution and encode in a kata is a very good idea.

 

[E0richt]

Indeed. The only reason is that kata speed up the process, by pointing out the stuff that works.

You can in principle reinvent all math from scratch, but you will take a lifetime and end up inventing the same math that you could learn in a few years, maybe with different symbols and names, but essentially the same.

The same is karate: human biomechanics is human biomechanics and the way you use to your advantage are already there. So it's just faster to learn them directly rather than reinventing them,

But the exercise of taking a solution and encode in a kata is a very good idea.

I think kata as taught is for use in transmitting the system down the line to other students... if you take the kata apart and drill their components (need bunkai for this) then kata becomes useful in self defense.

 

[Cri70]

I think kata as taught is for use in transmitting the system down the line to other students... if you take the kata apart and drill their components (need bunkai for this) then kata becomes useful in self defense.

My $.10 is that we tend to treat these things as a movie, so to say, in which there is a story to tell and everything has a precise meaning or function to support the telling.

But they aren't. People use pencils to write shopping lists or a sonata.

Kata can be used (and made) by so many people for so many different intents. If I see or figure a combination I like when sparring/drilling, I often string it together in a kata just to remember it. A student will do that when the master shows something interesting.

But then if I want to show it to my son, I will use the kata as something for him to try, so suddenly it's also a way to transmit information (and should he remember and decide to pass it on to his children when the time will come, it will also become a way to pass information across generations).

I also do a "kata" of sequence I find particularly difficult, or when I want to optimize speed or momentum. I try different ways and when I find something I feel is better - there's my new kata!

I mean, people do stuff. They often have a sense there and then, but it's very rare they have a sense.