PERSPECTIVE: Kata’s Purpose

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Some mindless meanderings on a major karate subject of contention: 

1. Breaks up training into small chunks;
• start with basics as chunks, i.e., stance, posture, movement, etc.
• chain basics together into chunks of three, i.e., three distinct movements while moving individual parts such as strikes, etc. 
• demonstrating principles in movement, etc.
2. Allows smaller chunks to teach principles;
• example: teaching proper fist formation with structure, etc., to achieve maximum force and power along with stability to reduce or eliminate injuries, etc. 
• how fingers are curled, how the wrist is supported and stabilized and how the wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm and shoulder girdle form a structure with alignment and stability through strong muscles, etc.
3. Teaches how to chain together methods and methodologies;
• kata forms and patterns are broken down into individual steps chained into a set of three moves with techniques then chained further into sections that make a complete kata. 
• the one rule is that all of it must adhere to proper principled methods and methodologies, etc. 
4. Used to transmit a training regimen;
• kata are merely the tools to discover the creativity within each person who then is tasked with making it work. 
5. Teaches transitions into actual reality based methods based on principles to self-protect (basics to kata to limited to hands-on);
• basics to kata to kumite to creative drills to adrenal reality-based drills, etc.
6. Used in testing and competition to expose students to adrenal stressors found in battle/self-protection; 
• what makes commercialism commercial in the dojo, a means to grade, test and evaluate toward a more competitive perspective and NOT self-protective. 
7. Teaches how to begin movement using physiokinetic’s, i.e., structure, alignment, balance, axis, energy, etc. 
• each part of the body is taught to align to form proper structure to generate and conserve energy that will be translated through movement, etc., into power and force necessary to achieve protection and defense against an adversary bent on doing harm. 

Kata was never meant to represent actual hands-on fighting ‘but’ it was meant to teach the very principles that matter in self-protection through self-defense defense. 

Kata were created toward the need to transmit abilities and principles so that one or several as a group can survive conflicts with violence. It holds, hand to hand that is that translates to empty hand, a place set last in the training of military arts for combat where weapons take precedent unless, and as last resort, is necessary. Empty hand, from Okinawan historical sources, were set to train soldiers how to move and utilize the body in efficient, constructive and destructive ways with a natural transition from empty hand to filling one’s hands with force multipliers such as the spear, the bow-n-arrow, as well as sword-n-shield. 

In modern military arts the hand-to-hand training is given ‘lip-service’ as a last resort should one be overrun or caught without their weapons because modern weapons, unlike sword and spear, are used from distances except in unique situations. Modern weaponry and how they and men/women are deployed along with adherence to whatever art of war one may use means victory or defeat. 

Kata, historically, were methods of transmission; especially to new recruits or to fill in knowledge and understanding between campaigns to which long spaces of time may pass. It is especially good at transmitting such knowledge during times when there was no other means of recording until writing came into a state of easy print and transmission where modern times have greater recording and transmission abilities through various electronics and media. 

Kata have become, first a form of testing and aesthetics for competition and to support the needs of a commercial endeavor and finally to fill in and stretch stimulation of the mind and body to further longevity in a commercial enterprise except when the training deals with professions that deal with conflict and violence. 

Finally, as with the belt system in martial arts; the kata, as to form and aesthetics, also provide criteria for rank levels and promotions with accumulation being the requirement rather than functionality in violence for self-protection. 

Originally, militarily speaking and historically driven, rank as belts was not present or utilized but rather one’s skills in application and with the only result of being survival, i.e., not dying on the field of battle and in modern times not suffering grave harm or death along with grave harm or death from social and economical sources, i.e., the legal system and societies current state on conflict and violence by non-professionals. 

The lesson herein is DON’T assume the kata’s are going to teach you to fight, do assume they will provide you the knowledge and limited experience to teach you the principles and the creativity to create methods and methodologies to get-r-done in self-protection. 

A short piece of metal pipe is just that, a short piece of metal pipe until you pick it up and swing it against aggression and violence properly for self-protection in self-defense defense; then it becomes a weapon, what we call a force multiplier. The pipe itself teaches you nothing and kata teaches you nothing but both are tools when used creatively do teach you how to manifest methods and forces necessary to protect and defend. 

Don’t make or assume or perceive kata as doing anything beyond what they were created, developed and used for all those many years past because if you assume that, you will fail and you will be harmed or killed when you try to make them work in a manner not born of and into the kata. 

For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)