Originally posted by RyuShiKan
That is a good question.
My own personal feeling is it is the way karate training and teaching changed in the first part of the last Century.
Originally there was a 1 to 1 teaching environment which was very personal and teacher and student could spend time going over detailed information on kata and it's techniques. Since the first part of the last Century group instruction has taken over and teaching details about kata is nearly impossible in large groups. Also the emphasis and motivation has changed to a great degree as well. Profit and sport being the motivation and emphasis for some.
I have several friends in Japanese karate systems over here. They said when they are training kata 99.9% of their time is spent on training for how it looks for competition rather than what the techniques are for.
Well RyuShiKan,I agree with your friends.Most schools are like that,they concentrate on how impressive they will look in competition rather than what the techniques are for.Your friends are 100% correct.
That's the other problem with many schools.They only care about how good they will look,not how effective is what they really teach.
If katas are so effective and important to learn why is it most instructors themselves don't even know the bunkai to the katas they teach.I know the bunkai to my katas,but only because I figured it out on my own and also partly because I found books on the styles I had been taking at the time,my instructor never showed us the bunkai.
When I first did karate we did katas,sparring and weapons in every class,after a few years ,we stuck to doing only katas in class and did sparring when he knew a tournament was coming up and some weapons.He claimed katas on its own can help improve a person's fighting ability without getting hurt,but got us to sparr just to give us some extra help anyways.Other then tournaments coming up we hardly ever sparred.
He liked to claim that katas are the foundation of improving techniques which a true martial artist needs to know before he is able to defend himself whether inside or outside of martial arts and that without proper form one is unable to properly focus on his opponent and keep his balance or co-ordination,and that katas are supposed to strengthen you both physically and mentally to prepare you for any situation.
We did do some drills that I could say would be effective and came from the katas,but most didn't come from the forms because I get the feeling he didn't know the bunkai to the forms he taught ,either that or knew himself that they would be useless to teach as a drill.
From my own experience and from what I know of all my katas I have come to the conclusion that katas are meant only as a foundation,and to strengthen you physically and mentally,however they aren't really as good a foundation as claimed and are not really needed in order to be a good fighter.
So if katas aren't really needed ,then what is?
Proper movement from a regular fighting stance,focus,balance,co-ordination,speed,power (strength is not important),proper mind set (fighting mentality),knowing how to properly block,kick,punch,grappling and avoid it happening back to you.
Learning both defensive and offensive is important.In order to protect yourself you have to know what it would be like to be on the offensive side.You simply can't learn one without the other.
True speed comes from heavy bag training and recieving punchess and to avoid them as well as how to react back quickly.
Many karate people for example think that you don't need actual contact or actually blocking of tecniques to become quicker,many martial artsist have come to the assumption that katas on its own can help them develop speed with lots of practice,this is so untrue.
You can do katas for the rest of your life,but without any actual contact or practicing of avoiding a punch or kick,you will still not gain speed,you might have strong legs and good focus though.
