Kata Practise

[Joecooke007]

Every class three times each I practice them 5 tmes each on non-class days.

 

 

[jakmak52]

Practice till I drop and my instructor says it's looking better... Can always be better..huh

 

 

[AnonymousOne]

Jared my dear son, as I have told you many many times, that within Kata are many great truths. Kata is really the lost art of Karate and many seem to only pay lip service to it today.

 

Within Kata are fighting techniques, methods that develop eye body reaction time, co-ordination, speed, power, endurance, anaerobic and aerobic development, balanced fighting skills, body shifting development, complete body muscular development, balance, poise, focusing and so many other things.

 

For thousands of years Masters used Kata to develop their students and those students were some of the greatest fighters that ever lived. But many today are attempting to throw away or at least minimize the very thing the art was founded upon. This is a very sad state.

 

When I teach I take a balance of basics, kata and kumite. To me it is inadequate to only practise Kata a couple of times or only a few times each lesson. How can a student ever see the benefits of practising Kata if they never get a chance to really learn the Kata properly?

 

I would challenge any student to take one single Kata and practise assiduously every day for at least an hour and at the end of a year to measure the effect it has on them. Most wont stick to this so they never really get to see what true effect it will have.

 

I am just repeating the same things the masters of old have said over and over. If one has an open mind and truly seeks to get to the bottom of the issue, I believe one will soon see it. Once you see it, you will never look back.

 

 

 

 

[Jack]

AO, just out of curiosity, in what ways does Kata benefit that doing drills up and down the dojo doesn't? Out of all the benefits you listed, I'd say that they'd all seem to come from drills also. Not that I'm insulting your views at all here, just curious

[AnonymousOne]

On 2002-03-02 18:44, Jack wrote:

 

AO, just out of curiosity, in what ways does Kata benefit that doing drills up and down the dojo doesn't? Out of all the benefits you listed, I'd say that they'd all seem to come from drills also. Not that I'm insulting your views at all here, just curious

 

I think many of the movements in Kata are significantly different to line work. The turns are different etc.

 

Kata doesnt work in a straight line in the same way an opponent doesnt always work in a straight line. Also the variety of techniques practised are not usually done in line work.

 

Line work has an important role and in our school its primarily used to practise one technique or a combination of techniques for the purpose of developing endurance. I feel it has a different role.

 

Sometimes in a small dojo with many people its more practical to do line work.

 

With many of the advanced Kata with sudden changes in direction its impractical to do this in line work and yet those movements are critical to the development of the Karate-Ka.

 

Personally if I only was able to pratise Kata and nothing else, I would be happy with the well rounded training it provides.

 

Some see it others dont. When I was young I thought it was pointless. Years later my attitude has changed significantly.

 

 

[KickChick]

Pattern training is good exercise. It allows students to practice fighting techniques without an opponent, similar to shadow boxing. Students can personalize the intensity of their workout by performing the patterns with varying degrees of power and speed.

 

Students tend to practice what is easy for them to do. Patterns force students to learn and practice difficult techniques they probably never would have even tried otherwise and to use them in combinations they probably would never have imagined. Patterns depict self-defense situations rather than than sparring techniques and show how (as in my case, TKD) can be a used as a practical fighting system.

 

Some people love to perform patterns, while others hate patterns. No matter your feelings about patterns, if you wish to learn and advance in Tyour specific martial art, you must learn patterns and become proficient in them.

 

Traditionally, students must perform a pattern hundreds of times before learning the next one, but in today's study of TKD, this level of proficiency is not usually required.

 

You wanna do it for 2 hours....

 

_________________

 

1st dan Black Belt Tae Kwon Do (ITF)/ CardioKickbox/Fitness Instructor

 

[ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-03-02 19:05 ]

[spinninggumby]

I used to perform each separate kung fu form for an hour straight and that was plenty. Kung fu forms in general are much more circular and flowery (at least in my particular style, Shaolin long fist) than karate or tkd forms, and not that kung fu requires more skill, but at least in my experience kung fu forms have been much more difficult b/c they are not as linear and they require a bit more bodily control and coordination (note: in my case). Even practicing each 'separate' form for an hour each day for a period of about thirty days (about 30 total hours on each form), I felt that continuous practice beyond that amount of time did little to no good b/c if you practice it vigorously enough you will reach your peak and then after that it declines. I really don't see the benefit to continue practicing each form/kata/poomse beyond 30 committed hours, unless perhaps I am too young to see beyond the technical aspect. I feel that adequate proficiency in a form is reached when the practitioner can flow from one movement to the next with excellent technique and ease with a decent amount of speed, and come to an understand as to the reason or story behind every step and why it is there (application, ideology, etc.) Once again, I guess you can't really put a time limit or recommendation, since everyone is different.

 

However, one thing I have learned about forms is that, a lot of times one's outward proficiency is strictly muscle-memory based (like reciting the alphabet). When you recite the first four words of a song you know well, you can easily also recall the next four words in the verse. However, recite the last four words first. It is a lot harder to recall the first four words. Just like in forms. Try practicing a form for 2 years and then try doing it with opposite or mirroring hands and legs (i.e. left kick becomes right kick, left block becomes right block, etc., step to right instead of leg). You will find that it is tough as hell, either that or I need to change the way I practice. I think it's a good idea, via further understanding of the concepts, to be able to become equally proficient in every form from both mirrored sides. I guess that is why so many already have movements which mirror the other but many often times it may not be the case. :razz:

 

[ This Message was edited by: spinninggumby on 2002-03-02 19:36 ]

[AnonymousOne]

The purpose of training is to break the bodies muscles down and allow them to recover so they can take more load and perform the movement better.

 

I have had many students complain about doing things repetitiously but they miss the principle of the need to wear the body out so it recovers stronger. This is why Funakoshi said "you must become weak not strong"

 

Bruce Lee said you must come away from your training with a sore body.

 

Repetition is the mother of learning.

 

There is no cut off point where the training is ineffective. When your body is worn out its your mind that is getting trained.

 

I, on a multitude of occasions, have trained myself on my own, so hard I was not able to even walk the next day. So what did I do?

 

I then went to the development of my mind by practising eye-hand co-ordination via computer software or playing table tennis sitting down. I was still able to develop my eye-hand response rate.

 

I think if one is serious you will take advantage of every opportunity to train no matter what state you are in.

 

When I was in Japan in 1982, I trained full time and we trained for at least 6 hours per day. Some months we never got a day off at all!

 

The human body can do amasing things. Look at 140 mile marathoners. Thats some kind if distance and people run them in between 30-40 hours. I know a lady that look up running at age 59 and now at 65 she can run 50 mile marathons.

 

Heck if an older lady can do something like that, what is a younger person capable of? We should not limit ourselves.

 

 

[KickChick]

...thought we were talking about the practice of "kata" here...not running marathons.

 

I like spinninggumby's post.

 

 

[AnonymousOne]

On 2002-03-02 20:51, KickChick wrote:

 

...thought we were talking about the practice of "kata" here...not running marathons.

 

I like spinninggumby's post.

 

Ever heard of analogies?