Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
“The masters who developed and refined kata did not want them to be sterile masterpieces, imitated forever with no creative input, nor were they designed to teach the practicalities of combat. They were designed to teach at an instinctive level the principles of combat, body dynamics, timing, power, balance and motion that can make the practitioner more adaptable to a wide range of combat contingencies. Kata is not combat, but understanding kata permits us to meet combative situations with the proper skills.” - Dave Lowry, The Best of Dave Lowry - ‘Does Kata Practice Prepare You for Combat?’
The kata argument, similar to other arguments such as rank validation, etc., goes on ad infinitum simply because it is misunderstood. Misunderstood because, my theory, those who first brought karate and the like to the West were not given the underlying reasons why kata even exist. In truth, in all cultures and in varying forms all combatives of all cultures have kata.
Kata are not fighting forms, kata are not representative of fighting another person be it sport or in self-fense or in combat and kata are not about teaching you techniques. Kata are about principles, those base principles that underly all physical forms of hand-to-hand fighting in all its forms and functions.
Kata two person drills are not about teaching you how to fight others because when you are faced with those who truly wish to do you harm for something you have they want or for some emotional need they have to get through hurting others, i.e., resources and processes. Kata two person drills are not to teach you what technique and how it is applied against the others applied technique.
Kata are about learning the principles and methodologies necessary to stop a threat and end the danger and damage. Principles such as physiokinetic sub-principles, i.e., “Breathing, posture, triangle guard, centerline, primary gate, spinal alignment, axis, minor axis, structure, heaviness, relaxation, wave energy, convergence, centeredness, triangulation point, the dynamic sphere, body-mind, void, centripetal force, centrifugal force, sequential locking and sequential relaxation, peripheral vision, tactile sensitivity, rooting, attack hubs, attack posture, possibly the chemical cocktail, Multiple Methodologies [actual tactics and attack methodologies of impacts, drives (pushes), pulls, twists, takedowns/throws and compression, etc. are best for stopping a threat]”
Kata are a means to convey such principles in a rhythmic, cadence-like, patterned form that the mind and body, the human factor, can most easily absorb and apply in both reality based adrenal stress-conditioned training and in the most volatile and dangerous world of actual violence and conflict.
Since I have written on this before, I won’t restate the reasoning again but you can read about them here:
Bibliography (Click the link)
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