Bunkai and Tuite

[CDraper]

We start learning Bunkai right after learning a kata. We sometimes have entire classes dedicated to Bunkai for various kata. Granted Bunkai complexity changes as you advance.

[thunderman]

“Once a kata has been learned, it must be practiced repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a form in Karate is useless.” – Gichin Funakoshi

There is the man himself saying that it is "useless" to practice kata without being able to apply it.

Therefore I still find it strange that a lot of places teach kata, dare I say it.. in a useless manner.

[mal103]

“Therefore I still find it strange that a lot of places teach kata, dare I say it.. in a useless manner.

Welcome to the forum, a lot of Dojo's I have been in are like this, they are mis-selling Karate and a lot of students are either happy with it or leave Karate to go and train an effective method, a few like myself seek out a better Dojo.

The best Sensei (doesn't mean the highest rank or longest served) will drill parts of the Kata in their Kumite and unlock - or see - the real use of the movements. I was taught by someone who thought everything was a block for long distance attacks that wouldn't have even reached you, a "classic" way of thinking that has been passed on too many times.

I've since re-learnt some proper Bunkai and continually explore new ways of applying them. Without this element Karate is incomplete.

[RAM18]

The word Bunkai directly translates in to the word analysis. No harm in analysing your kata. We learn a bit of bunkai but there is plenty of examples out there.

One of the foremost experts in Bunkai is well worth a read:

http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/