is kata worth the time

[G95champ]

It's amazing how much brain wash you guys have gotten from your sensei's.

 

If katas make the best fighters then why is it boxers,muay thai kickboxers,pankration,shooto fighters always win fights.

 

You think Mike Tyson or Hollyfield practice katas?Of course not yet Mike Tyson used to be a very good fighter and Hollyfield is a great fighter too.Neither of them practice kata.

 

Simple. I posted this a few mins ago in another post to you. Karate don't teach you to fight. If you walk into a karate dojo and say hey I want to learn to fight. You will be asked to go home and come back when you are serious about training. As to where Thai, Boxiing, BJJ, etc is all about learning to fight.

[Kyle-san]

Simple. I posted this a few mins ago in another post to you. Karate don't teach you to fight. If you walk into a karate dojo and say hey I want to learn to fight. You will be asked to go home and come back when you are serious about training. As to where Thai, Boxiing, BJJ, etc is all about learning to fight.

 

An excellent and very true point.

[ramymensa]

 

Actually you can do martial arts without kata,no offense but katas are a waist of time.

 

Ya the master in Okinawa don't spar because they're too old too,but the students do.

 

The karate masters don't sparr because in a great number they are DEAD. A nidan in karate should know something about Itosu, Azato, Motobu, Miyagi (not the idiot from Karate Kid), Matsumara and so on. They didn't sparr but did endless kata sessions. They had few katas depending on the style they used (in Okinawa they had named them first in connection with their home town: Tomari-Te, Shuri-Te, Naha-Te and so on .. hope you know Te means hand ) ... Afterwards they would go and even fight in the streets as Motobu did (and got expelled from some dojos because he forgot something ... Karate ni sen te nashi ... there's no first attack in karata ... remember Ninju Kun and Funakoshi ) Well the guys were great. Some would participate in fighting contests and beat the crap out of the others ... of course traditional MA in useless ... and kata sucks

 

Why?

 

Because some instructors really suck and can't teach right this stuff. Because we have McDojos and don't train how we should train. Because we care about those damn belts and do katas like a ballet ... well not everybody ...

 

Those who stick to their training and take katas seriously are remarkable.

 

And of course it's simple ... you don't like katas ... take another style ... Muay Thai Fighter did this. It's OK. Sometimes in your way you need to change direction. But to mock what was important for you for 12 years it's a little childish. Maybe BB's here in Romania are different ... They all talk fondly of their style ... few moved on, but still respect their first style. In a way it's like a first love. A real gentleman or lady would talk nice of his/her first love (guess ... )

 

And to end my BIG post ... we've discussed this previously. In contless threads. Guess the new members should really read well before making double threads

[craknek]

Our TKD instructor wants us to practice our forms.. but not devote our time to it. He would want us to do some forms, but he would rather us hit a bag or spar against a lively person. Katas and forms are very important to some, but not to all. Me, personally can see the benefit of sparring more so then Katas. For one, when you spar against a real person, you are apply real techniques, and you can see first hand whether it works or not. If it doesnt, then you know you have to work on it, and try again. Our instructor will let us know, after we spar, that we have to work on thsi kick or that kick, that we have to twist our hips more, or put more shoulder into it, or that when a roundhouse comes, and we block it to follow up with this or that etc etc. I would also rather hit a bag. When I hit the bags, I can feel if i think i got enough snap into that punch, I can feel if I got enough turn in my kicks, not to mention when someone watches me hit the bags, they can critic my style. When I am at home, I practice alot on my striking techniques (this is from previous MA, not my current TKD that I am taking now). And to top it all off, after every training session, at home or at the instructors, I always stretch and then mediatate. I mediatate to even out my energy in my body. So, to me, katas, just wouldnt work for me. But as I said, everyone is affected differently by the MA's, thats why they are so fulfilling to people =).

 

Now, I do spend a considerable amount of time practicing blocking techniques. I even go as far as to have my friend throw punches and kicks at me, slowly at first... and as time goes on, the faster he would kick or throw.. to condition my mind to re-act.

 

Nick D.

[hobz]

Some of you talk as if you train to be able to Fight and Injure someone, I thought the whole idea was for self defense? not to go out and pick a fight with someone. Sport Karate, is in no way the same as Karate.

[BKJ1216]

Some of you talk as if you train to be able to Fight and Injure someone, I thought the whole idea was for self defense? not to go out and pick a fight with someone. Sport Karate, is in no way the same as Karate.

I think that's most of the problem. The Muay Thai fighters have the mentality that everything is about fighting, the karate fighters well I don't know about them that's why I'm going to learn karate.

 

BTW what the hell is a mcdojo? I've heard this term being thrown around a lot and don't know what it means.

 

Oh and I heard someone talking how when you do kata you practice the muscles used to do the techniques, so maybe that could be a valuable reason for kata.

 

Oh yeah how do you tell if your studying at a "mcdojo"?

[MuayThai Fighter]

Some of you talk as if you train to be able to Fight and Injure someone, I thought the whole idea was for self defense? not to go out and pick a fight with someone. Sport Karate, is in no way the same as Karate.

I think that's most of the problem. The Muay Thai fighters have the mentality that everything is about fighting, the karate fighters well I don't know about them that's why I'm going to learn karate.

 

BTW what the hell is a mcdojo? I've heard this term being thrown around a lot and don't know what it means.

 

Oh and I heard someone talking how when you do kata you practice the muscles used to do the techniques, so maybe that could be a valuable reason for kata.

 

Oh yeah how do you tell if your studying at a "mcdojo"?

 

We don't have the mentality that everything is about fighting,when we practice fighting we are practicing for self-defense,not to go pick fights with people,but to fight until you win should you be put into a real situation.

 

Practicing fighting for self-defense will get you alot further then practicing little fancy ballet type techniques in the air.

[BKJ1216]

Some of you talk as if you train to be able to Fight and Injure someone, I thought the whole idea was for self defense? not to go out and pick a fight with someone. Sport Karate, is in no way the same as Karate.

I think that's most of the problem. The Muay Thai fighters have the mentality that everything is about fighting, the karate fighters well I don't know about them that's why I'm going to learn karate.

 

BTW what the hell is a mcdojo? I've heard this term being thrown around a lot and don't know what it means.

 

Oh and I heard someone talking how when you do kata you practice the muscles used to do the techniques, so maybe that could be a valuable reason for kata.

 

Oh yeah how do you tell if your studying at a "mcdojo"?

 

We don't have the mentality that everything is about fighting,when we practice fighting we are practicing for self-defense,not to go pick fights with people,but to fight until you win should you be put into a real situation.

 

Practicing fighting for self-defense will get you alot further then practicing little fancy ballet type techniques in the air.

that's why there is sparring, btw when you do kata I've always thought that you are suposed to visulize an opponet.

[ninjanurse]

Whew!!! Is it getting hot in here?

 

It is important to revere your ancestors and pass down the art as it was taught to you or the art that you love may die out. Please respect those that respect tradition and are striving to keep their chosen art pure. Kata has MANY applications the most recently mentioned being development of muscle memory. Muscle memory allows you to free your mind and react without thinking-a true skill of self-defense and important in any "street fight" (or sparring match for that matter).

 

[craknek]

Listen, just because I opt to rigid training and some body conditioning, just because I would rather full contact spar, does not mean I am training to kill someone, or hurt people. That is like tellinmg a football player, that because he would rather go into the gym and do some power lifting instead of learning techniques, would rather go out and injure someone, when all he is doing is trying to better himself.

 

When I train, and when the instructor trains, we make sure that our goal has 2 objectives. The first objective is to make sure we know how to fight, for tournaments, competitions, etc etc. Now, if you wish to do katas, maybe that will help y ou win forms and what have you at tournaments, but we train to win the full contact portion of it, nothing wrong with that, doesnt mean I want to hurt someone. Just like my instructor told me when I looked at all his trophies, he said that all those trophies are there because he had to physically show and beat someone to get that trophy and thats what I want to do also.

 

The second objective is for real world use. I am not sure if Katas are going to help in a real world situation where you get in a fight, with 1 guy, 2 guys, 3 guys etc. We train to be strong and powerful so that we can handle ourselves in real situations. We spar all the time, to see if our techniques really do work on a real person, etc.

 

So again, to sum it up, as I said, Katas are a benefit to some, but not all, I personally could care less about forms or katas. Please, do not associate that we want to maim and kill people.

 

Nick D.