Kata is a waste of time

[Taikudo-ka]

Well I don't hink Shihan Bluming was being racist with any comments. Criticizing a particular organization in a country (eg the Japanese Karate Association) for its methods is not the same as racism or prejudice.

 

So if someone says "I think the way the Japanese train is outdated" that is not racism, it is a constructive criticism from a professional or artistic point of view. Said person may well have formed this opinion by talking to many good Japanese friends, and be willing to work with said organization to implement what they think are improvements.

 

On the other hand, if someone says "Well I hate the Japanese because they have slanted eyes and sound weird and their cooking smells funny" - that's an example of stupid cultural bias and prejudices and pure racism. It's directed at the whole group generically, and has no rational base or room for discussion, only personal prejudices with no quantifiable measurements. You hate because of difference, forgetting that the same applies to your own culture viewed from outside. Pure racism.

 

I don't recall Shihan Bluming saying anything like this...

 

To me not being racst doesn't mean I never criticize a person from a diferent race, it means I treat them like a human being, regardless of external factors like skin, eye or hair color, the shape of your skull, the way your language sounds, what you eat, or the style of your hat or jacket.

[Bitseach]

"I challenged Matsui and his sister-boys to a good team fight to be held in Japan in 1994."

 

"Don’t forget the almost homo games from the Wado..."

 

blah blah. can't really be fagged reading it again but it continues in a similar vein! I'm not saying he's not a great fighter, just that he seems to be a bit of an ar5e as well!

 

 

[Taikudo-ka]

Well I agree he comes across as a bit of a hard-case - rude boy - street tough, whatever you want to call it. I guess homosexual related phrases are his favorite swear words... everyone's gotta swear somehow and I don't see him saying "oh fiddlesticks!"...

 

Maybe he secretly enjoys the after match showers a bit too much... who knows or cares...

 

 

[Morgray]

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

 

[Bitseach]

LOL - well ya never know! Wouldn't necessarily suggest that if I ever met him though! )

 

 

[--]

Not that it's any of my business, but how the flying f*ck did this get from kata to after-match showers?

 

 

[KickChick]

Seems we are wssting time here ....

 

Let us now return to the topic ....

 

"Kata -- is it a waste of time?"

 

 

[dafabe]

When I started this topic I knew it would cause alot of talk, but did not think it would cause this much. and it has changed to something completele difrent.

 

anyway I would like to finalise my view.

 

1) kata may well have great hiden moves, that you can only get by "understanding the kata, if so I ask why does someone not translate explain these moves, there is not need to be cryptic in the day and age.

 

2)If you want to learn to fight, dont practice a martial art as it is, simply learn to fight. There is not magical art, that makes you imortal.

 

3)If you have been doing Karate as a way to fight and nothing else, give it up and learn to fight.

 

4)If doing karate give you something else then by all means enjoy and continue practising it.

 

5) If you want to learn to fight, do things like thai boxing/valetudo but dont limit yourself to any number of arts/techniques.

 

excuse the spelling.

 

 

[KickChick]

All in all .... you have to view "kata" as a training tool in the martial arts. There are many training ideologies that one may feel are useless and yet in all actuality they are not! That is how I personally feel.

 

Kata training offers a link to tradition and helps students bring a sense of dignity and honor back into their lives.

 

In Tae Kwon do, the main problem that arises when instructors teach only fighting techniques is that students forget the basic spirit of TKD which is to seek peace first, and use force only as a last resort. By stressing defensive techniques, patterns help promote the proper attitude in students. The study of patterns also helps students realize a sense of inner achievement, instead of outer victory. Since only a few students ever achieve outer victory which is the winning of trophies at tournaments, for example...the majority of students are, in effect, being left out of the loop. Patterns give them a way back into the loop.

 

I like what 1970 Black Belt Instructor of the Year Ki Whang Kim mean't when he said "Forms are the very soul of karate. They are what make karate an art.'" Kata help salvage fighting techniques (and the philosophy behind them) that are essential if martial "arts" is to remain, in any real sense, a martial art, or even an "art" at all.

 

Along the way, the study of forms also offers students stability and gives them a lifelong challenge to improve themselves. And it is in things that last for a lifetime that you can find the most meaning.

 

 

[--]

Understandably, streaming video files were not available to Naha-Te masters. They needed some way to preserve the art. Back then, the application of the art was a serious issue, and death could come at any time. Therefore, the masters taught their students kata, so that even if the master died, his students could go on teaching themselves through the kata. Today, this isn't much of a problem, but then again, neither is self-defense. Very few people are ever going to have to apply Karate in real life. So Karate takes on a new meaning: philosophical training. Here, beyond merely fighting, it is necessary to preserve the aura of tradition and discipline surrounding the art, and kata is, as they say, the soul of it all.

 

But I stress again that kata is useful to you ONLY when you understand what it's meant for. Not when someone tells you, but when you understand.