The Uselessness of Kata

[baronbvp]

Maybe you should take up boxing, Bushido.

[bushido_man96]

Maybe you should take up boxing, Bushido.

I would love to, but there is no boxing gym nearby. I would have to drive about 3 hours to get to one. That isn't all that feasible for me, but I wish I could do it.

[baronbvp]

Bummer. Is there nothing you can do in your area other than TKD that would be easier on your knees?

[bushido_man96]

Not really. I am beginning to spend more time on my Combat Hapkido. There is a small group of us going over the material, and one of the guys has been to several of the seminars, and he and I are kind of setting up different curiculums together.

We are hoping that the group of us can go test for our Black Belts together, and can then begin implementing Combat Hapkido into our school more.

[Adonis]

Not really. At some point some one made the kata. Well why did the make it. For a refrence point to place the bunkai in it. You got to be exposed to the concepts and work the bunkai to effectively interpret the kata. Do you need kata to learn bunkai not really, just an imagination.

Either way, each to there own. If you like doing Kata great keep doing it, if you like to just train the bunkai that is fine also. If you like doing both awesome.

In the end, it doesn't matter as long as you enjoy what you love to do.

[NightOwl]

Kata are relaxing to do if you are by yourself, but I wouldn't make it a primary focus of my training. As I mentioned a ways back, kyudo is Japaneses archery. It is very beautiful and takes a lot of focus, with a good portion of time spent in perfecting walking up to take the shot and properly holding the bow. However hitting the target in kyudo isn't really a big part of the goal, whereas the (now dead) original Japanese archery martial art called kyujitsu focused on firing arrows in combat. Is kyudo worthless? Nope, but if you trained in primarily just kyudo and then went to an archery tournament, you'd have a lot more trouble than someone used to focusing on hitting a mark. Likewise in the world of kata: it provides a chance to slow down and focus on fine honing some things, but it is harder to adapt than regular training in a more realistic setting.

[baronbvp]

Likewise in the world of kata: it provides a chance to slow down and focus on fine honing some things, but it is harder to adapt than regular training in a more realistic setting.

Many of us have limited time to train. I'm 45 and just don't have enough quality MA class training time left to "waste" it on kata. That's why I left shorin-ryu for Muay Thai. I need to spend my time sparring. When I don't want the contact any more, kata will keep me happy as I stay stretched and focus on the art of the form. Until then, I spend my time learning to fight better instead of imagining bunkai applications hidden within the kata.

[NightOwl]

This subject was slightly touched on in a different thread about Shotokan in MMA. Shotokan has plenty of good strikes in it, but if you are looking at constant combat readiness and peak training that is needed to get into the UFC, you gotta deemphasize the forms and focus on application. There are just so many forms in many MAs, that you could spend most of your time only working on them and not much else. But if you want a more efficient and practical way of doing things, you gotta try things out in the real world. Perhaps it is sort of like learning to fly by mostly just using a simulator and studying aerodynamic theory, than actually putting in flying time....maybe

[baronbvp]

Now that's an analogy!

[bushido_man96]

But if you want a more efficient and practical way of doing things, you gotta try things out in the real world.

The ability to do what you have described above through the competitive venues of the MMA has probably become one of the best outcomes of things like the UFC and Pride. You can go into the MMA ring with minimal rules, and try what you want to see the results. This was especially true of the early UFCs, and the evolution that has come from this fighting genre has been amazing to watch.