Do you have a "tokui" (specialty) Kata?

[Chunmonchek]

So it sounds to me that you are saying every kata is as important as every other kata, but at certain times only certain kata are taught, and not everyone taught the same kata equally. Am I understanding you correctly?

Yes, all kata are important, some more so at certain levels of development.

Kata are generally taught in progression, like math...but like math, some may skip ahead, and some must stay on a subject longer than most. Also, kata may be taught out of sequence to address certain specific needs.

Everyone, if they train long enough, learn the same kata...to their level of understanding and ability. After learning a kata, it's the individual's responsibility to train, analyze, break-down and cultivate from such kata.

In order to understand training Okinawan Goju Kata, like some southern Chinese martial arts, kata is the center and essence of the art.

By training Okinawan Goju kata correctly you learn more than sequence and general application. Each kata teaches and cultivates certain principals and strategies, martial movements, internal and external body mechanics, physical, mental and emotional attributes.

And although each kata is an individual form on its own, training other kata enhance the performance and understanding of each. Some kata contain the counters to other kata. Some kata are meant to be trained with others.

I don't know if I'm getting the gist accross, as this is an area that words may fail to convey the story.

[bushido_man96]

I do believe what you are saying is felt strongly about kata in Goju. However, kata training wasn't always that way, and I don't think there are some kata that counter others. I think if you dig enough, you can probably find something to that effect, but I don't really think some where developed for that purpose. There are lots of speculation as to what the katas were originally meant to be for when looking into applications, but I think it can be a stretch as to say what it originally did.

[ShotokanMaster]

All kata are important in a Martial Artist life but if you're asking me my specialty is heian shodan for right now because I'm a orange belt why because since I started doing Heian Shodan in a karate tournament I keep getting 1st place I never had 2nd or 3rd always 1st I've been 4 times 1st place in a karate Tournament in kata and when i get to black belt i wanna do bassai dai or empi and win grand champion

[Tempest]

Katame no Kata for me.

I really love the applications found in groundwork.

[sensei8]

Wankan for me.

Unsu use to be side by side with Wankan until my age/right knee finally caught up to me.

[FangPwnsAll7]

No, I currently don't. I only know 6 forms though. I'm sure I will find one soon.

[Dark Shogun]

I like saifa and kurunfa.

[Lupin1]

I don't have one yet. A few years ago I was really good at our second kata, which I did for a competition when I was 10. I worked that thing for hours as a kid. I used to practice it on my trampoline thinking it would make me more stable and balanced (it actually helped-- 10-year-old ideas aren't always bad) and when I re-started karate as an adult, I found my muscle memory for that one was extremely strong and a lot of the movements in it became my intuitive go-to moves the few times I've actually needed to use my martial arts (a lot of turning away at angles to block or shifting into cat stances to put yourself on the outside of the attack rather than the usual "plow through the middle" defenses). So it still has a lot of my preferences in it, but now that I've learned half a dozen kata on top of the few I had as a kid, I'm not as attached to that one and I haven't quite found one to replace it yet.

[Shizentai]

Mine was kanku sho for a while, but lately I really like bassai sho.

I also like gojushiho sho, but I don't really have it quite down yet.

sho sho sho...

[lowereastside]

Many have a specialty kata - And there is nothing wrong with this. I look at Katas/Forms in terms of not only movements - but getting your body to respond in a certain way. In most kung fu systems - You must first get the stance - the whole body stance. Then ask yourself - what is this Form/Kata trying to cultivate. On the surface some will say - they are developing kicks - blocks - strikes - stance and so forth. And lets not forget applications - and for some systems this is enough - but not for others. I don't have a specialty Kata/Form - But that's me. One must look beyond - the physical moves. And sometimes you can't - it is what it is. When I studied karate - it was basically block- kick-punch -. But this is not true with all karate. Having a specialty kata kinda limits oneselve. In the kung fu style that I practice - the 1st Form teaches not only the applications but 1-The Body Structure (ex. Stance....)

2-The different energies 3-The Breath. The concept of Eat , Swallow , Sink , Rise , Spit from both External/Internal. The second Form and third Form and fourth Form teach different concepts - It's like building a house - 1st you have the foundation then you put up the walls - then the individual rooms then the details and so on.... For me all the Forms have equal value. I hope I'm making some sense of this.