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Post by meguro on Jan 8, 2014 4:34:07 GMT -5
Speed and exactness in kata are overrated. Although kata have been used as exercise, a teaching method, or as some kind of moving zen, it's real value (if you consider alternatives like practicing combinations, shadow boxing, drilling with partners, running, etc.) is in communicating ideas. Kata, like flipping someone the bird or giving them the one gun salute, is symbolic. For the initiated, the gesture is loaded. You know exactly what is involved and how fast (or slow) the movements should be. The innocent will quibble about movements in the air that they don't understand.
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shugyo
Member
Proof Is On The Floor!!
Posts: 76
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Post by shugyo on Jan 19, 2014 14:38:26 GMT -5
Osu! Thank you I have a love/hate relationship with kata since I posted that. My hate comes from the fact that I was forced to learn too many kata. When I last taught, it was at a university with many students that obviously weren't keen on learning kata. I wasted a lot of time having to re-teach kata to them because they obviously weren't practicing outside the class. I don't believe in diluting a style to meet the student but when you have very few to no students retaining the kata you teach them...what's the point of teaching them? What was funny I had this discussion with some of them, and one of the students said the kata is necessary...and he was one of the guilty ones, that forgot much of the kata. I had to explain to him, that to get to shodan, he had to learn many more kata than he's been shown and actually know them LOL! This made him shut up a bit! In my shito ryu days I knew around 50 different kata at one point and I was still a teenager. Part of the reason was my sensei knew he would be closing down the dojo and wanted to show me all the kata he knew before he closed down the dojo. This is primarily where the "hate" part of my love/hate with kata comes from. I probably only know 25-30 kata today, but I'm sure I could quickly remember the 20-25 kata I used to know...but no thanks, I won't bother. Osu! Solid post!! I suppose that it's that drive within me to learn kata's that are outside of the Shindokan syllabus because I want to know the possible different Bunkai/Oyo; in that, how the many karate styles address similar applications within their various codes whenever Bunkai/Oyo is considered. In that, I've found some very vital and important Bunkai/Oyo that's not found within Shindokan. That very same movement found in how Shindokan address movements/applications, differs from, i.e., how Shotokan or Shito-ryu or Goju-ryu or whomever else addresses same. I'm not a collector of kata, no way! I'm a collector of applied effective knowledge; some of that comes from the many kata's outside of Shindokan.
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Post by MMX on Mar 5, 2014 15:50:04 GMT -5
I have been recently doing the Enshin Kata in multiple ways. Sometimes very effortless and smooth like a dance and other times fierce and fast.
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Post by senshido on Mar 6, 2014 5:18:10 GMT -5
The Steve Arneil Kyokushin Kata book actually gives timings for each kata, for example Pinan Sono Yon has a minimum time of 30 seconds and a maximum of 33 seconds
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