A criticism some practitioners of combative sports such as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Muay Thai and Western boxing lob against “traditional” martial arts relates to forms. Forms are a core of martial arts practice in many Asian martial arts, including Karate, Kung-Fu, Tai Chi, Kuntau, Silat and Eskrima. In those martial arts, forms (called kata in karate), are practiced extensively. It is also common for practitioners of those “traditional” martial arts to spend a lot of time studying the combative applications of kata moves. In Okinawan Karate this is called bunkai (分解), which literally means “analysis.”
The criticism lobbed by some practitioners of combative sports is that studying and practicing forms/katas is a waste of time. Those martial artitst believe that instead of practicing forms, it better to train and drill techniques with an actual partner. Some go as far as saying that the “muscle memory” trained by forms/kata is useless, as it is not practical in combat.
To some extent, this is true. Practice of kata in a vacuum, with no understanding of the practical application of the moves is not likely to gain the practitioner any self-defense or fighting skill. As the great karate masters said:
“Practice each of the techniques of karate repeatedly. Learn the explanations of every technique well, and decide when and in what manner to apply them when needed.”
Anko Itosu
“Once a kata has been learned, it must be practiced repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a kata in karate is useless.”
Gichin Funakoshi
“Kata are not some kind of beautiful competitive dance, but a grand martial art of self-defense, which determines life and death.”
Kenwa Mabuni
In summary, by studying kata and its application deeply, the practice of kata becomes one of the most meaningful endeavors in karate. Each kata is like a seed, containing the information needed to grow and entire fighting system. It is up to the martial artist, though, to unpack the information contained in kata, or else its practice will not yield much utility in self-defense or in combative sport.
The video below does an excellent job of correlating classical moves from karate kata to actual techniques used in MMA and other combative sports. See how the same moves that appear in kata are used by MMA fighters in the ring to great effect. As you can see, although MMA and karate take a different path to training, the techniques trained are similar.
Do you recognize any of the kata in the video? If so, post below.
See you at the San Diego dojo!
I saw some from Pinan katas and some from Naihanchi katas.
Good spotting, Justin!!!
Hi, I am sorry to disagree here. Kata is beautiful to watch and that is it. Any Bunkai application you think it was for is wrong they have been changed and changed and then changed again over time. I wont call it a total waste of time, but if you took the same time to rather compete in kickboxing, wrestling or any other additional combat sport to point-karate you would be a 1000 miles ahead of the Kata guy.
Hello Atties!
There are many opinions on kata, and I appreciate your opinion.
There are a few things to note:
1. Karate as a martial arts was originally intended for civilian self-protection.
2. There are big differences between combative sports (rule-based consensual fighting) and self-protection. For example, physical altercations in self-protection tend to be extremely short — a few seconds long is not uncommon.
3. Some combative sports skills are extremely helpful in self-defense, while others are not. For example, developing confidence and comfort in standing in front of someone who is throwing punches and kicks at you is a very good skill in self-protection. On the other hand, techniques for closing the void between the fighters, as well as various feigns and timing maneuvers used in combative sports are not very applicable to self-protection. Self protection physical altercations almost always start when the participants are already in very close range.
4. Practicing kata on its own will not produce a martial artist competent in self-protection, nor will it produce a martial artists competent in combative sports. Partner drills, including non-cooperative drills such as sparring, are key to developing the skills required for self-protection and for combative sports. Other required components are “heavy hitting” practice — learning how to generate large amounts of power in strike and takedowns.
The bottom line is my belief that, properly used, kata practice has value in developing a competent martial artist.
Train hard!
Brian
I think that kata is a good form of practice. If you only go train with other people once or twice a week, kata can be used to train the rest of the week to give you more time developing your self.
With fire arms it isn’t just shooting a gun. You spend time practicing the trigger reset and mag changed until you can do them fast and flawlessly. That is kata.
Nice analogy, Peter!
Brian
Kata is the dictionary / phrasebook of karate. Kumite is the conversation. However, out of the 150+ techniques in kata and kihon (I’m talking from a shotokan background), how many do we see used in kumite? Maybe ten? Less? If someone has a shakespere dictionary but converses at the level of a ten year old, there is a disconnect between their knowledge and practice. I’d suggest that it’s because on the way to first dan, you are learning a new kata every 12 weeks. More than that, you’re doing 90% of that learning by moving from one shape to another, without the feedback, distance and timing of doing bunkai with a partner.
My ill-informed solution? Firstly, do kata like in Judo, where it is a TWO person exercise. Solo training is a way of remembering what you did with a partner (the bulk of kata practice), rather than bunkai being an add on to movements mostly performed in fresh air. This can even be practiced with impact equipment / padding to allow for actually putting power into strikes. Second, like the Okinawans say, “One kata, three years”. Learned and assessed in bite sized chunks, allowing time for indepth study and building muscle memory for applying in kumite.
Hello Niall,
I 100% agree. In many dojos there is a “disconnect” between combatives and kata, where combatives (kumite) is taught in its own way and is seemingly unrelated to kata. Part of this is that in some karate competitions, the rules are such that throws, lock, hitting with power, etc. are not allowed (for the sake of safety). This yields a kumite “game” that is quite different from the type of real-world combat that karate was designed to address.
A great way to teach the wealth of information that is in kata is by exploring the applications (bunkai) of the moves, and then practicing those applications with a partner. In that context, both solo kata practice and partner work create synergy, and enhance the learning. I am really happy to see that in recent years more and more dojos are going back to this type of teaching.
All the best, and train smart!