I can clearly remember my karate sensei telling us the story, of how the karateka on the island of Okinawa used to train, over a hundred years ago. He told us that karateka on Okinawa never used to practice free sparring. They simply practiced kata and
or applications. They would partner up and go through each karate move in the kata, attacking each other so hard and fast, it was extremely dangerous.
Even today, there are some karate dojo who practice the old way, no free sparring, just kata and kata applications, working on the Ikken Hissatsu concept or to finish or kill with one blow.
When first learning a karate kata, practice one karate move at a time, at this stage, do not worry about the applications of each move, what we are trying to do here, is simply learn the order of the techniques in the kata and be able to string them together. so at this stage try and understand where each step, jump, spin, angle and karate technique is and in what order.
So first, try and get the pattern of the kata and everything in the right place. By the way, this is where people who do not understand kata, say ‘OK, I know that kata, show me another!’
So now you have the order of the kata, it is time to start putting groups of moves together. Say there is a combination at the start of the kata, involving a block, punch, kick, punch. Take these four karate moves and practice them slowly, start trying to get the moves to flow, then start to speed things up, it is at this time you should start to learn the applications of each technique.
Every kata has it’s own timing and rhythm, so check to make sure you have the combination of karate techniques right.
Once you have the right timing and understand the applications, you can really start to speed these combinations up.
Now start to put the combinations together, start slowly, stringing these combinations together, remembering the applications and timing, now you should be able to get through the whole kata slowly, with good rhythm and timing.So now it is time to speed up!
Karate kata should be strong but not rigid, flowing but not weak. Many karateka are either robotic or dance like, when practicing kata.
Remember to have a strong fighting spirit when practicing your karate kata fast, as if your life depends on each move.
So to finish, I believe kata is the soul of karate, so to me, kata is karate!
Ossu
Linden
