What Katas do you know?

[Lord Yasai]

The forms I currently know (in the order I learned them) are:

1 Pinan

2 Pinan

1 Kata

3 Pinan

2 Kata

4 Pinan

Two Man Fist Set (Northern)

Two Man Fist Set (Southern)

Stature of the Crane

[quinteros1963]

We also learn several non goju katas. My instructor has incuded these into our system. I believe they are shorin ryu kata. His instructor spent time in Okinowa studying Naha Te, Shorin and Goju ryu, which has some influence on our system.

Hi quinteros1963There are many of them which I've never heard of, and I practice Goju Ryu too...

These ones I haven't heard of:

Seiha

Taikyo

Kho Sho

Sho Kyu

Anaku

The rest of course I have heard of them, I know them and in fact practice them a lot.

[quinteros1963]

saifa

seiha

sanchin

taikyo dai

kho sho

gekisai dai

gekisai di ni

sho kyu

anaku

I need to add Seienchin to the list now as well

Weapons kata:

Bo set 1

Bo oru

Sai yuan ho

[neempies]

Jion

Bassai dai

Kanku dai

unsu

empi

chinte

goju shi ho sho

nijushi ho

jitte

[Shotokan-kez]

I'm just starting to learn new kata's now i have my second dan. I am concentrating on Kanku-Sho for now i really like it.

[Killer Miller]

I always like Kanku-sho. Great Kata...

- Killer -

I'm just starting to learn new kata's now i have my second dan. I am concentrating on Kanku-Sho for now i really like it.

[wouldbemaster]

It has been very interesting to read about the various kata/forms that people study and your idea's on the purpose of kata.

When examining kata it is interesting to see what the various kata teach you, what their main focus is. It becomes obvious that they are not purely a repeat of a fight that took place, what would be the point in remembering this as fights are different, but instead helping you to remember key principles, or focus in on one or two principles or movement and power etc the Pinan katas are a classic example in the context of power and stance with Nidan strongly about utilising and moving into a forward stance, Shodan about reverse movement of hips in shuto for example and the use of half facing cat stance and Sandan about absorbing through the use of front facing cat stance.

What have others found regarding fundamentals. Why study a particular kata what does each kata tell us/teach us/get us to focus on?

[Sensei_Suzy]

Karate kata I've learned so far:

Kihon Ippon

Kihon Nipon

Nihon Sanbon

Fukyu Dai Ichi

Fukyu No Kata

Naihanchi Shodan

Naihanchi Nidan

Naihanchi Sandan

Pinan Shodan

Pinan Nidan

Pinan Sandan

Pinan Yondan

Pinan Godan

Passai Sho

Kusanku Sho

Chinto

Passai Dai

Kusanku Dai

Gojushiho (one of my newer projects but quickly becoming my favorite)

That is the order in which they are taught at my particular school.

[Kruczek]

Kihon Katas (1-7)

Pinan Nidan

Pinan Shodan

Pinan Sandan

Pinan Yondan

Pinan Godan

Nahanchi Shodan

Nahanchi Nidan

Nahanchi Sandan

Okan

Pasai Sho

Pasai Dai

Jion

Kusanku Sho

Kusanku Dai

Gojushiho

Gojushiho Dai Ni

Nijushiho

Hakatsuru

[Kempohands]

Well I've learned a whole lot of forms/katas in my kempo training, though they all have English names (except for a couple of the kung-fu forms we've integrated into the system), so I'll leave those out as I'm not sure which traditional karate katas they come from.

I just started training in a traditional karate system while away at school and have so far learned:

Taikyoku Shodan

Heian Nidan

Heian Godan

Hanto-no Inochi Kumi Awase (created by the founder of Tatsu-do Karate, specific to his particular system, so far as I know)