How much bunkai training do you do?

[mid life crisis]

We do some informal bunkai at my school after class mostly the more advanced students explaining and showing the less advanced.

[RichardHangHong]

In my school I have one night a week dedicated to kata where we go through both the technical/asthetics of a kata and the bunkai in as much detail as is possible in the 2 hours we have. Gives us time to learn the standard applications as well as getting creative so we can put our own interpretations into them too.

Does anyone else have a class(s) that are dedicated to kata/bunkai or otherwise?

[RichardHangHong]

Of course I have also seen people bunkai a kata to death....which is tedious.

How do you mean Holland? I've spent hours going through just two or three moves of a kata and coming up with all sorts of applications and I come out of it knowing there's still more that I've missed out. Especially when you take into account the different methods of bunkai that can be applied (Bunkai, Henka-Waza, Oyo, Okuden-Waza) and the categories within them (Jintai Kyusho, Tegumi, Kansetsu-Waza, Ne-Waza, Atemi and Heiho).

• The further you go, the further you see,
   
  the further you see, the further you go

[cathal]

This may sound silly, but can you give me a description of the method of how you do it? I could practice with my wife and my brother.

No problem bushido_man96.

You basically perform your kata but rather than being alone you have a few people with you that attack. Rather than sparring you will be only going through the kata so it is very much like a choreographed fight scene. In doing this you will appreciate why a technique is being applied at a certain time, and even have different attacks and blocks when you go through it, which teaches you to be adaptive to the situation. After going through the bunkai several times you will realize you've got a much deeper understanding of the kata and of course its practical applications.

[bushido_man96]

This may sound silly, but can you give me a description of the method of how you do it? I could practice with my wife and my brother.

No problem bushido_man96.

You basically perform your kata but rather than being alone you have a few people with you that attack. Rather than sparring you will be only going through the kata so it is very much like a choreographed fight scene. In doing this you will appreciate why a technique is being applied at a certain time, and even have different attacks and blocks when you go through it, which teaches you to be adaptive to the situation. After going through the bunkai several times you will realize you've got a much deeper understanding of the kata and of course its practical applications.

Thank you very much!!

[cathal]

Thank you very much!!

You're welcome.

[bushido_man96]

When you do the bunkai, do you have preset attacks, or do you make up attacks at random? How much do you modify things? Do you change attack levels, how the block works, or even change some techniques alltogether? Do you start with techniques from the forms, and then add some to finish? Let me know.

[cathal]

When learning the kata we have preset attacks. As you become familiar with the kata you develop your own bunkai techniques, different applications etc. So when you present it to the class you do it twice: the first one you learned and the second your interpretation.

A third is usually performed much later, where none of the attacks are the same in the previous two versions. This forces us to be creative and to adapt.

[ps1]

Richard Gregory,

To answer your first question: Bunkai consumes about 75% of my kata practice.

To answer your second question: I perfer to teach many of the techniques and combinations of the Kata before I teach it as Kata. This way I can refer the student back to that training. It seems to help them remember it. I guess that there are arguments for all the times you mentioned however.

ParkerLineage,

I would say that you are not correct in thinking that your system is the only one that drills bunkai extensively.

Thanks,

PS1

[parkerlineage]

We have more than 130 something bunkai, and I would say a good 75% of those are not found in our kata. I wouldn't say different from all styles (althought, rereading my original post, I may have come across that way accidentaly), but many, yes?