A Bunkai revolution?

[bushido_man96]

Trying to create your own bunkai for particular moves without a teacher or mentor guidance is sure to create a bigger problem.

I think that this depends on your level of understanding of the art. Somewhere, someone started this whole thing, and who knows if he had someone teach it to him? Maybe they worked as a group to come up with it. It is hard to tell. However, through proper experimentation, and using practical approaches to ways that you can be attacked, and thus formulate practical defenses, could be a great way to learn what works and what does not.

What someone else teaches you may not work for you, so you may need to explore what does and doesn't work for you.

[savedbygrace]

Bunkai is one of the most prominent areas of Karate that I have been exposed to since I joined the KarateForums a little over a year ago. It may be hard for some of you to believe, but I had never heard of the term before I joined here. Fear not, however! Once I learned of the existence of bunkai, I endeavored to find out more about it. I have, and really haven't been disappointed.

What I have learned has been mostly through the readings of Iain Abernethey, who seems to be the leading proponent of what he refers to as "Applied Karate." I have also stumbled upon some other stylists who seem to fall into this category as well, inlcuding Stuart Paul Anslow, who has done similar research in the art of Taekwon-Do, which I have found to be very helpful, being a TKD guy myself.

It appears that there are some practitioners of Isshin Kempo that are in the same mode as the two men listed above. Apparently, there were some practitioners who decided to delve deeper into the forms of the style, in order to extract the self-defense interpretations of the style. William S. Russel was one who began exploring his art in this way (he founded Isshin Kempo in 1970), and seems to be a forerunner to the work that Abernethey and Anslow did for their styles.

Do you think that delving into such intricate levels of bunkai is beginning to re-emerge in many to the "traditional" arts of which forms are a major part of the curriculum? Is the bunkai a legitimate translation of the forms we study, or is it a more recent product of extensive analysation of katas, saying, "oh, yeah, this could be this, and it could work"???

What is everyone's opinion on this? Either way, I think that bunkai is a good thing. I don't think it is detrimental in anyway to training. It is good to let the creative juices mix it up from time to time.

My instructor is very big into bunkai. On our tests we have to give the bunkai for certain moves in our katas. You never know what area of the kata you will asked about, so we have to know the bunkai for all the moves. Its alot to remember sometimes, esp. with certain moves possible being a solution for different situations but Im glad he teaches us to understand that aspect of it. I have learned a great deal from it.

[bushido_man96]

My instructor is very big into bunkai. On our tests we have to give the bunkai for certain moves in our katas. You never know what area of the kata you will asked about, so we have to know the bunkai for all the moves. Its alot to remember sometimes, esp. with certain moves possible being a solution for different situations but Im glad he teaches us to understand that aspect of it. I have learned a great deal from it.

This is where I think we have to be careful when it comes to bunkai, and self-defense training in general. If you get overloaded with solutions, then you can get trapped into trying to think of which one you should do, whereas if you know fewer, and can apply them to different moves across the board, it can serve you better, because they will be easier to recall.

[ninjanurse]

We were looking for answers but only coming up with more questions.

Ah, you have discovered the secret!

[savedbygrace]

My instructor is very big into bunkai. On our tests we have to give the bunkai for certain moves in our katas. You never know what area of the kata you will asked about, so we have to know the bunkai for all the moves. Its alot to remember sometimes, esp. with certain moves possible being a solution for different situations but Im glad he teaches us to understand that aspect of it. I have learned a great deal from it.

This is where I think we have to be careful when it comes to bunkai, and self-defense training in general. If you get overloaded with solutions, then you can get trapped into trying to think of which one you should do, whereas if you know fewer, and can apply them to different moves across the board, it can serve you better, because they will be easier to recall.

I agree 100%

[cross]

My instructor is very big into bunkai. On our tests we have to give the bunkai for certain moves in our katas. You never know what area of the kata you will asked about, so we have to know the bunkai for all the moves. Its alot to remember sometimes, esp. with certain moves possible being a solution for different situations but Im glad he teaches us to understand that aspect of it. I have learned a great deal from it.

This is where I think we have to be careful when it comes to bunkai, and self-defense training in general. If you get overloaded with solutions, then you can get trapped into trying to think of which one you should do, whereas if you know fewer, and can apply them to different moves across the board, it can serve you better, because they will be easier to recall.

Definetly. One of the associated problems with bunkai is the reliance on one move flowing into another based on your opponents reaction to the previous. If the opponents reaction is different to the one your expecting, the next move wont work and all of a sudden that combo you practiced over and over in class doesnt have the desired effect. Bunkai often doesnt lead to responses appropriate to body positioning etc. It may be the correct response to the initial attack, but doesnt take into account the possible responses from that point on.

[Zanshin]

At most of the Wado Ryu dojos that I have trained at, Bunkai has not been at the top of the agenda as far as Kata is concerned.

In fact in many cases it has almost deliberately been avoided.

For years I wondered why this was, but didn’t really question it, as just learning the Kata was hard enough for me

The penny started to drop one day however, when my Sensei explained that we practiced Kata for "good form" - correct movement, stability, balance, timing, co-ordination, awareness etc.

Personally I think if there are secrets in Kata they are the core principles of Karate, rather than individual techniques and how to apply them to specific individual scenarios.

[Mike Flanagan]

IMO kata without bunkai is a relatively pointless exercise. What good is a kata if you can't apply it?

Of course nowadays many people have jumped on the bunkai bandwagon. Some people have come up with brilliant interpretations of kata, others are ludicrous, and of course there is very shade inbetween.

When you look at any suggested bunkai I think there are vital clues you can spot which will help you decide whether the application has any real validity:

1. Is it straightforward and to the point? I rarely find any applications that involves 4 or consecutive movements to be of value. Usually 1 or 2 should be sufficient.

2. Does practising the kata actually help ingrain the necessary skills to help you successfully carry out the application?

3. Does it require specific responses from the attacker (eg. he blocks and responds with a particular technique)?

4. Does it require the attacker to use a ritualised karate/martial type of attack?

Personally I measure all bunkai I see against what I consider to be the core principles of combat. It it fails on the majority of those then its not a technique I want to use, no matter how like the kata it may appear to be.

Mike

[Zanshin]

IMO kata without bunkai is a relatively pointless exercise. What good is a kata if you can't apply it?

Indeed, don't get me wrong you must be able to apply what you learn from kata and it must have purpose, it's just how you interpret it!

Whether it is specific techniques, or educating your body to move correctly. Both have a purpose - to survive in a fight.

Same end, different means perhaps?

[bushido_man96]

Very good post, Mike. Those are some great guidelines to go by.