The value of kata and basics.

[cfr]

Alot of people seem to talk down on traditional training like kata and basics since sports like the UFC came out, or just dont have the dicipline to take the time to do it because they just want to learn how to hurt someone as fast as they can. Kata and basics teach you good quality movement, foot work, gives the new student a good feel of the martial arts, and a great foundation to build on. The only catch is, this takes alot of dicipline and a good attitude to finally realize what you have accomplished after so long. The old masters were very clever by teaching this way because it basicly WEEDS out the bad apples who have short fuses and no patients, and have no buisness learning how to be effective fighters to begin with.

Guess Im a bad apple. My take on katas is this:

If you beleive in them, nobody can talk you out of them. You will defend they're practice and beleive in them whole heartedly. You will cast aside any arguement you hear against them and have lots of good reasons as to why they should be practiced.

If you dont beleive in them nobody can talk you into them. They will appear to be a silly waste of time and your head will never shut up about how rediculous they are. You may have even @ one time been willing to give it a shot, but just cant seem to beleive in they're value no matter who says how benificial they are.


I beleive in them... but only for other people. I know lots of people here really cant imagine training without them and I think thats great. I beleive that if you beleive in them and that they can help your training, you should do them with enthusiasm. If however, you just cant seem to see the benifit to spending 5 - 10 minutes learning to do the perfect downward block while turning to your 6 into the perfect cat stance, you should go elsewhere. IMO that doesnt mean you're a bad apple, have a short fuse, have no patience, or have no business learning how to fight in the first place. It could mean some of that, but not always. It could also mean that you've read about too many people that did them for years, got good at them ,beleived in them, spent time perfecting them, and then one day said, "this is lame." It could mean that you've read about too many people that have gone before you that invested lots of time and then thought of it as a waste.

To me, this is something for each individual to answer for himself.

:idunno:

 

[OC Kid]

A person has to know the bunkai for the kata to understand why we practice it.
There are basically 2 katas in one. One is the moves we are taught which is missing a lot of movements mainly offensive techniques.
The 2nd is the bunkai , What is the attacker doing, Why and the missing moves of his attack.

The study of any kata can be quite complexed if you look at it by all the angles (all the components of it both taught and not taught)