Watching/Evaluating a Kata

[cathal]

Hello all,

 

I'm wondering, when you are watching your students perform a kata, what goes through your mind? Aside from the physical techniques, do you consider "the story" of the kata? Do you think about the intent of the kata's philosophy?

 

If you are judging, do you take this into consideration when you decide upon the score?

[koryu]

When teaching kata to a student, it helps me to analyze it further. Both in the "story" behind it, and the potential applications. When watching someone else, it is easier to see hidden application within the kata, that you would not normally see.

 

I used to judge competetions. The tournaments were open-style, and I judged based strictly on the performance of the kata. I mostly looked for crisp technique, solid stances, correct postures, and things of this nature. Being as I am more familiar now than I was then with other styles, I did not know enough to judge someone based upon the certain kata that they chose.

[isshinryu5toforever]

I've judged at open competitions before, and I have always looked for clean technique, correct stances, and there needs to be energy and life in a kata. I am not talking about a kid screaming his head off, I've seen plenty of those, but someone who seems to have something intangible in their kata. It could be someone who kiyai's a lot or someone who kiyai's twice. There is just a feel to the flow of the energy in the kata that is right. You recognize it when you see it.

[cathal]

Thank you

[Shorin Ryuu]

My personal opinion is that during the judging of a kata, the judge should be able to tell from the contestant that a particular kata will "work" in a fight. What's more, I think the judging of a kata should also include either judges being able to ask contestants about the applications of their kata (or analysis if it is more of a "training kata") or the contestant also being required to explain their kata. Obviously, the amount of contestants and the time involved for this makes this scenario very unlikely. People may say that judges will be biased and things, but if they employed critical reasoning, it would be no different than a teacher grading the paper of a student based on content and analysis rather than whether or not the teacher agrees with the conclusion (sadly, there are many teachers who do the latter). This is how you could get around the argument that people who do not practice the same style would be unable to judge kata from that style. If nothing else, it would simply help judges from other styles to judge the kata. Regardless, I'm not a big tournament person, anyway.

[ShotokanKid]

Look for where there eyes are... if they're not where they're hitting, they're not doing it right. Look for clean stances, proper retract hand, strong spirit, etc.

[Sparkey]

I had an interesting experience with watching/evaluating a kata this weekend. In our class on Friday, it was an all rank all ages class. We were each asked to perform a kata in front of the class. The white belts started. Each of us then were asked to provide feedback on what each student could do to make their kata better. If we had something that we liked about each student's kata, we could also mention that. It was interesting, because every student had something in their kata that they did really well, whether it was a focused intentful look in their eye, to paying attention to stances. One girl, a very young, very sweet white belt had all sorts of things wrong with her first kata (how could she expect to have it "perfect", she's only 6!) but there's one part where we are ALWAYS told to bring the foot over the knee to step (Nahihanshi Shodan) and this little one had really taken that to heart and paid real attention to the step over the knee. Kudos to her! As the students performing the kata progressed in rank there were fewer and fewer "critiques" and more and more "kudos". WHen it was time for me to perfom my Kata, I was asked to do a Bo Kata (Tokumine nokun) I had JUST finished learning the last moves of the kata the night before. WHen I was finished this little6 year old white belt looked a little nervous to say something. I'm a 35 year old brown belt, so she may have felt somewhat intimidated. I told her, "it's OK Maya, you can say whatever you want, don't worry about it."

 

"well, ummmmm, it's just that....welll....."

 

"yeah, really, it's OK"

 

"Well...it just seems you need to know the kata a little better."

 

I laughed. Sweet kid.

 

"You're right, Maya. I JUST learned it yesterday." I said, "So now, I need to practice it for about 35 more years."

 

Maya's last dig was when she smiled and said, "Yeah, that'd be good."

 

Oh my my maya. Too funny.

[cathal]

That's a good story

 

What about watching/judging a lot of students performing the same kata? Does the repetition get to you?

[taiji fajin]

Nice story Sparkey. I normally do that in small groups during every belt test, I feel it really helps.

 

As for watching forms, it depends (at least for "grading") which martial art I am doing.

 

Kuk Sool - I watch for the five hyung bi-laws: Eyes Bright, Mind Clear, Hands Fast and Precise, Feet Slow and Controlled, Stance Low.

 

Taiji - intention, structure, qi, silk reeling, central equilibrium (in the taiji sense, not just body having the weight centered), and yin/yang.

[Grenadier]

When judging, I look for the following:

 

1) The person performing the kata is focused, maintains good zanshin. Eyes do not wander, and are focused on the target in question.

 

2) Performs clean and strong techniques that blend in well (not too jerky / rough) that would land accurately.

 

3) Maintains a consistent pace, unless the kata specifically calls for acceleration / deceleration of the pace.

 

4) Does not show emotion while performing, unless a kata calls for a specific emotion (rare). If someone messes up, and keeps on going with confidence, then I'll be a lot more generous towards him, than I would with, say, someone who rolls his eyes or shakes his head.