Speaking of keeping one's ego in check ...
As one whose art doesn't involve kata, I'm going to reach for my dunce cap and ask. I have a vague idea what it is from conversations here and watching videos. But having never practiced them myself, I don't really understand the purpose. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Kata is form of idealized training method designed both as a vehicle for the storage and transmission of knowledge within a specific system, and as a method of physical practice designed to ingrain the necessary movements and techniques in the practitioner.
It is scripted air karate. And it exists so instructors can keep important information in the system from generation to generation, and so that students can practice that material until it becomes a part of their muscle memory. Most kata is designed with multiple interpretations of the movements which are supposed to be explored thoroughly in order properly understand the applications. Unfortunately, not every student explores their kata, and not every instructor knows what the kata contain.
Bad kata is little better than martial arts style dance. Good kata is a brain/body exercise which transfers the practitioner into a meditative state where the techniques and lessons contained are spontaneously expressed.
Michael Rosenbaum wrote an excellent book on the subject called
Kata and the Transmission of Knowledge in Traditional Martial Arts which I quote from extensively in an article I put on my blog for my students called
The Purpose of Patterns. Essentially, any time an instructor teaches a student an "idealized" technique in the air, from a simple boxer's jab to a long Kenpo weapons form, he is engaging in "kata" practice. It is not intended to be the entirety of the method. It is simply one part of it.
Kata isn't necessary. But it works. And with the right approach it can be very effective. It's like a form of controlled shadowboxing. And like all other aspects of karate, it must be engaged in with utmost seriousness in order to truly be of value.
-Rob
