Sparring combos from kata

[punisher73]

Seeing the last part of an exchange in another thread (American Karate--what is it?) got me to thinking...

What combos do you pull out of your traditional kata and use in a sparring type match? I realize that this is not the purpose of kata (teaching tournament fighting) but thought it would be interesting.

 

[clfsean]

How about a different way... why wouldn't you pull from kata to use? Sure... things won't fit "exactly" in the ring as done in form, but the pieces are the same, uses vary, but it's there.

 

[Grenadier]

Heian Yondan and Heian Godan have a couple of places that give some good ideas for combinations. Of course, you're not going to use exactly the same stances, or punch locations, etc.

In Heian Yondan, after the 1st half, where you turn and wait in forward stance, followed by an explosive front kick and two fast punches, that makes for a really nice three attack combination that's relatively easy to pull off. It's also hard to block, since a well-thrown, explosive front kick can punch through a block that isn't very well set.

In Heian Godan, there's a single step that incorporates a double punch as well that also works quite nicely in the ring, if you spring off the back (left) foot during that process.

Tekki Shodan, where you're sweeping and blocking with the outward block using the edge of the fist / outer forearm, you can modify this to follow up with a strong reverse punch after using the blocking arm to knock the opponent's guard away following the sweep.

 

[seasoned]

Back fist to the head with a reverse punch to the body is in some of the goju kata.

 

[Jason Striker II]

I don't know what Kata you are working with, but if it's the Heian/Pinan series, there are many useful counter-techniques (e.g. in Yodan, sidestep with low sweep parry to avoid a kick, then pivot back with a grab and Shuto while he's off balance). However, this series of Kata have nothing really in the way of Lead-off (i.e. attack) techniques, the lot being defensive in nature.