Realistic Bunkai

[ZeroFizz]

I do a traditional style, and i find most of the kata bunkai that i get taught is very impractical, and unusable in a street situation. Do you think that this type of obviously incorrect bunkai, is damaging to the student, given that karate was designed, to be used, to defend yourself from an untrained attacker.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

I'd like to say that because bunkai are applications that they should be APPLICABLE. This simply just makes sense to me. Bunkai, unlike many other things in MAs, from what i have seen is flexible and often times in the eye of the beholder. In kempo we have a set bunkai that they teach us as we learn the form. In tang soo do, they do not teach us the bunkai, we must learn it on our own if we are smart enough to realize there is no bunkai given to us.

So, bunkai should make sense because i think it's key to learning truly how to fight in our world today. It's not the be all end all, but i think it aids the learning to fight process tremendously.

[ZeroFizz]

kata is karate and bunkai is the fighting techniques of the style so the bunkai must work in the street, for my money.

[NewEnglands_KyoSa]

exactly. bunkai, at the very least, must make sense.

[tori]

There is so much different bunkai that you can do for traditional kata. I discover new ones all the time. I am sure you are learning self defense in your classes that you can use to help with learning bunkai. With your kata, just break down the movements and experiment with it. Anything goes, including awesome takedowns.

[bushido_man96]

What you may need to address is the way you approach the bunkai training. The bunkai will not translate verbatim from the form, from what I have seen. You add movement, and an opponent that is resisting, and things change up a bit.

Get a willing partner, and spend some time working on different ways of training the bunkai, and see where that leads you.

[Dobbersky]

Zerofizz

I notice from you styles list you practice (practiced) GoKan Ryu, Shorin Ryu and Krav Maga. I see this as an excellent basis to start from.

Krav Maga is VERY street orientated so this is a good place to begin, I have done a few Krav Maga Courses and read many books/watched DVD's on it. What you’ll find, once you are experienced is that 98% of the techniques you practice in Krav Maga, you will find within the Kata you practice in your karate.

Forget about 'hidden' moves etc. look at what is in front of you. You will notice you will react instinctively to any 'attack' without even thinking about it.

Bunkai is a 'way' all on its own.

If you want more Bunkai ask you Sensei, if your Sensei is unable to help you, change styles to one that fits the bill.

Ashihara, Enshin and Kyokushin have a lot of Bunkai within their Syllabus, There are no Ashihara Dojo's in Yorkshire, but I am aware of a Enshin European Champ who is looking at opening a Dojo. Kyokushin I'd surf the web. If these are too hard for you, look at Wado Ryu; depending on the instructor, there are a lot of Bunkai applications

Hope this helps

Osu

[Zanshin]

Zerofizz

Forget about 'hidden' moves etc. look at what is in front of you. You will notice you will react instinctively to any 'attack' without even thinking about it.

Bunkai is a 'way' all on its own.

Actually, thats a very good way of putting it Dobbersky. I think there are a lot of "misconceptions" in Karate as to what "Bunkai" is. Not surprising really when you try to understand it for what is supposed to be.

My understanding (at present) is that Bunkai is part of a process that allows you to execute Kata better, NOT necessarily the end result of practicing kata.

Paraphrasing from Otsuka's book:

"Enter into Kata, then withdraw from Kata" - meaning you should not become "stuck". You should "withdraw" from the kata to allow yourself to develop forms with no limits.

Different schools use varying methods to achieve the same results. One of the readings for the Kanji for "Bunkai" means to "disassemble", and it fits in as part of a three stage process.

1. Kaisetsu - This is a "physical explanation" of a movement in kata against an opponent in its classical form, IE exactly how the technique is performed in the Kata without deviation.

2. Kaishaku - This is the process of "interpreting" how the technique could be utilised in a less structured approach.

3. Bunkai - The process of "disassembling" the individual movements / techniques, so that they can then be applied (in full or part) in a totally free thinking way.

You can not expect to understand bunkai if you have not gone through the preceding processes of "explanation" and "interpretation".

I think what many people refer to today as Bunkai is actually "Kaisetsu" or a physical explanation.

But getting back to Dobbersky's comment... forget about trying to find the "hidden moves" because there is a risk that in doing so you will become “stuck”. Learn to react instinctively. How do you do that? No short answers really, its on going training, with the right mindset.

Z

[ShoriKid]

If your looking at the literal movements, they may not work out the way you think they should. When that low block stops a kick and you step up and punch him before turning from him, it doesn't feel right. When your slipping his punch and hammering a kidney and then knee bumping him in the thigh or pivoted on him to after that smash and hit the spine etc, that feels better.

As has been mentioned, there are several levels of bunkai that are used. And there are multiple applications of the same movement, depending largely on the philosophy of the style and the person training in it. Ask questions of your seniors and the instructor to see what they think the movements are used for. Not the whole kata at once, just two or three movements from a kata at a time. Make sure you really know the kata and can do it comfortably and without hitches before you really start digging past the basics of bunkai.

[BJJShotoshe]

my school is affiliated with Kissaki-Kai and Vice Morris and they have very realistic bunkai you should try t style out if you want realistic!!! they have a website just type it in the yahoo bar and it will show up!