I’m genuinely trying to track this thing. Are you saying doing kata will make a competent fighter incompetent? It seems not. I take your argument to be that overemphasis on kata can lead to neglecting things that actually build skill. So, it’s not the doing of kata that’s leading to incompetence. It’s the doing kata to the exclusion of doing other things, like fitness, sparring, and fighting. Do I have it right?
I’m just trying to understand what’s going on. I think I’m about halfway there.
Someone’s angry?
One day a stranger knocked on my front door. He wanted to challenge me in Taiji push hand in my living room. I told him that I don't do Taiji push hand (even if I have trained Taiji since I was 7), but I don't mind to spar or wrestle with him. He said that he had bad knee and could not spar or wrestle any more.
Personally, I don't think there are 200 different throws in a situation like that. There are probably 25 groups of throws, and that's a lot easier to remember. If they're learning by principles, they need a primary throw in each group to learn/remember the principles, then the others in that group become variations on the same idea. I could teach a narrow-stance hip throw (pretty common) and a wide-stance hip throw as the same throw. Some mechanics change, as do some vulnerabilities and such, but it's easier to learn the second as a variation of the first than as a separate technique. Eventually, some of the 200 just show up as blends of two they already know - mechanics from one applied to the position of another.
I think his point was the use of "despite", which implies that the kata are a negative factor. If that were true, the removal of the kata (with no other substantive changes) should lead to improvement.
Agreed. Though maybe I'll start telling students one movement in kata is slamming the door and locking it. But you have to come to bunkai training to learn that application.
Agreed, for training where people are working to develop fighting skills. There are folks who simply want to learn new physical skills, with no real concern about being able to apply them. That'd be analogous to someone wanting to learn to use hand tools, with no desire to build that chair. There have been times when I just wanted to learn a cool new technique because it felt good, so I guess that'd be like me wanting to learn to buy and restore an antique plane, knowing I won't ever really want to use it where power tools give me a better result. And sometimes I grab my granddad's hand auger, though it's never a better answer for me. I have to admit, I can't really see doing all that without some practical thought in mind, though, at least part of the time.
That's a gross overstatement. I actually really enjoy both forms and live work. I've always liked live work, but discovered a love of forms in the last couple of years. Number of repetitions doesn't define love. I'll never balance the two in equal amounts in my training - that has nothing to do with how much I like them. Some days, I just want to run forms and enjoy the movement and challenge of them. Other days, I want to beat the snot out of a heavy bag. Other days, I just want to get some strength exercise. And some days, I just want to have some fun trying stuff out against someone else, to see what we can manage against each other. It's all fun.
I think we are into some very questionable territory. It's entirely speculative. For example, I could just as easily suggest that many folks are drawn to kyokushin because it fills the gaps better than other styles of karate precisely because it has much in common with styles like muay Thai.
