Kata Blocks

[mal103]

There seems to be a few themes going on here, if you are looking at the basic applications of Kata out of interest to pass your next grade then that's fine, if you are delving a lot deeper into the many applications within Kata then you may find the following statement true:

"there are no blocks in Kata" Think about Bassai Dai, why would you turn and perform 2 blocks and then turn again? Surely you would be better twisting their arm or striking the side of their head or throwing them.

A lot of them start with holding a fist or hand/fist at your hip - this means to a lot of people that you have already grabbed someone and got them in an arm/wrist lock, the following movement(s) are to respond or punish the attacker. I think all 5 Heian/Pinan Kata start with attacks or arm twists, some applications are blocks though.

I prefer "Respond" translation rather than block. Think about Soto - outside to inner block, there is a potential jab to the throat with the Hikite hand, also blocking a punch with the "blocking" hand as it goes up and out to the side before sweeping across. If the Hikite (pulling) hand has got hold of something then your Soto is going to contact the upper arm or face.

Also the Hikite hand of Age uke is often seen as the blocking/grabbing/pulling hand, the responce is then an upper fore-arm smash to the upper arm, armpit or neck/face.

By all means they should be drilled as blocks but shown as more.

On the point of first attack, a verbal attack, threats or intent should all be considered the start of the attack, so unless you can flee you are right in striking first. Different responces to different situations and also in proportion to the threat/attack. If someone has grabbed you then why wait to be hit? The same man that coined the principle of not attacking first also said that he who strikes first will probably win the battle.

All my opinions by the way from my experience and research. It depends on what you want out of Karate to how hard you search inside it.

[Harkon72]

Solid Post! Kata Bunkai is in the eye of the practitioner, it is as deep or shallow as you want it to be. Even the simplest Kata can offer depth to termination in the hands of an experienced Karateka. That's why we love them so much, that's why it is Do.

[infinitehand]

Right on. There are no blocks in Karate. If something is thrown at you, or a rock flies up and hits your windshield while driving you flinch, throw your hands up etc. so why would we train to extend ourselves out to meet an attack, and why do most schools practices this was at an exaggerated distance? Because they don't know better. It's not their fault they just arent shown or their teacher never knew because he wasn't shown. And for some reason they have a "my way is the only way" mentality and refuse to look inside what they are doing because they were taught "that's just how it's done".

The hands are always working together and the hand that goes out almost ways comes back with something in it.

But, you can block that way if you want to.

[infinitehand]

OH YEAH! Why do we turn and block first.

Well it's not because we're being attacked on the leftby bad guy 1 and bad guy 2 is waiting patiently behind so you can turn and block him.

If my hands are moving or I'm stepping that means I've already done something. If I turn to the left its because I put the attacker there.