The fundamental principles of the martial systems as provided in Steven J. Pearlman's book, "The Book of Martial Power," is the basis for this post. In general, there is kata and there are the principles and this is to provide a view where to two meet and provide balance - Yang-Yin.
There are five sections to this book on principles where I would loosely associate those with the five elements in Chinese belief, i.e. wood, water, earth, air, and fire. I would then promote my belief that this set of principles can be divided into two major categories, i.e. principles of the body and principles of the mind.
We also practice kata in karate. The purpose is to catalog our many system techniques. The next is to piece them together in a form or pattern for learning and passing along to the next generation of practitioners. Then the third is to use our kata to learn and practice all the fundamental principles of the martial systems. We would make them an intricate part of bunkai, i.e. to take the kata apart into pieces; to analyze them and to practice them in their entirety.
When this is done we don't just derive the technique and its applications but rather associate that particular one to those principles that make it unique and applicable to the situation. Even those bunkai that are associated indirectly with the fundamental technique purpose and application we can also derive those principles, all of them to specified degrees of implementation to application, that will maximize the use in fighting, etc.
When we speak of and discuss the fundamental principles of martial systems we can move them along with all the training and all the levels of training over the entire life of the system and the individuals practice of it. Each step, each phase, each scenario, each drill, etc. will need to discuss what principles, a part of the complete bunkai, are inherent in that specific. Practice of kata are unique to this type of training and promotes a validation to kata never discussed openly in any forum that I have found. Make your kata practice and training complete by consciously including application of fundamental principles a kata bunkai.
分解する - Bunkai suru: take apart [to pieces], analyze, decompose, be decomposed, break down [my addition: the physical technique + the applicable fundamental principle]
p.s. as you adhere to this maxim of kata training/practice take into consideration that if you cannot discover and promote a kata technique/combo/drill with all the fundamental principles then consider its usefulness in combat/fighting/defense/protection.
p.s.s. consider this, if you take bunkai apart, see how the principles apply, then determine how those principles cooallate to maximize that particular bunkai then you can compare all the perceived bunkai and then select the best and keep it as the primary bunkai. We are taught it self defense to choose those techniques most beneficial, natural, and most likely to become instinctive, this is a way.
p.s.s.s. take it as a means to keep bunkai in the quality range vs. the quantity one.
No comments:
Post a Comment