What is your tournament kata?

[student_karateka]

Right now mine is pinan shodan but I will probably switch to Bassai Dai next.

Here is me doing pinan shodan last saturday:

What is your tournament kata and kyu/don rank?

[Wastelander]

I don't do tournaments, but if I did, my go-to kata would probably be Tawada Passai. Here is a video of me running it last May, while I was feeling very ill:

[wagnerk]

Ok... Haven't participated in any tournaments in quite a few years now, but in the last one I did do around 2002 (I think that was the year), it was Enpi - came 2nd nationally

[Zaine]

It's been a long time since I've competed, and even then the organization that hosted the tournaments didn't have katas so there were none. If I were to go to a competition now with a kata it would probably be Chinto.

[Nevinyrral]

If I had to chose I would go with jion

[student_karateka]

Thanks all for your replies.

Thanks Wastelander for posting that video. It's really an interesting kata. Do you know its history or origins since to my uneducated eye some elements resemble kung fu?

Out of all the kata mentioned, the only one I have heard of is Enpi which is on my list for my next belt test (2nd kyu). So I was wondering if those who mentioned other kata could dig up a youtube vid that YOU would see as representative of what you do.

I have between now and March to select and train a tournament kata. My choices are basically almost final, down to

1. Stick with pinan shodan, which I've been successful with so far

2. Another kata. I'm thinking Bassai Dai or Enpi or maybe Sanchen. My sensei told me he thinks Sanchen would be a good kata for me so I might give Sanchen a whirl at tournaments.

Thanks all for your feedback!

OSS!

[ninjanurse]

If we're talking strictly karate kata here-Kanku Dai. Otherwise,

I favor Sipjin these days although Hansu is a close second.

[Wastelander]

Thanks Wastelander for posting that video. It's really an interesting kata. Do you know its history or origins since to my uneducated eye some elements resemble kung fu?

That version of Passai (you would probably call it Bassai) only exists within the Shorin-Ryu passed down by Chibana Chosin. He learned it from the Tawada family, who had passed it down within their family after learning it from Bushi Matsumura. Chibana showed it to his teacher--Itosu Anko--who told him to preserve it in his curriculum and call it Passai Dai. Originally, Chibana had learned the same Passai Sho and Passai Dai from Itosu that Funakoshi and his other students did. When he brought in Tawada Passai, he dropped Itosu's Passai Sho and changed the name of Itosu's Passai Dai to Passai Sho. Because of this switch, you would recognize our Passai Sho as being very similar to most styles' Passai/Bassai Dai.

[student_karateka]

Very interesting!

Itosu was one of Funakoshi's teachers, right? I'm not super well-versed in the history of Okinawan styles besides the basics.

[Wastelander]

Very interesting!

Itosu was one of Funakoshi's teachers, right? I'm not super well-versed in the history of Okinawan styles besides the basics.

Yes, Itosu was one of Funakoshi's teachers, along with Azato.