Does your dojo teach bunkai first or later?

[Withers M.A.A.]

We teach the basic bunkai while the form is being taught. Then, after the techniques have been performed and practiced hundreds of times then the hidden bunkai and/or other techniques are explained.

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

I'm proud to say that in my Dojo, we practise very much Bunkai and we do it in our kata team's also. When I practised karate in Sweden, then they never taught us Bunkai, or did they??? (Well, I didn't notice)

[Withers M.A.A.]

If you don't know what you're doing then what is the sense of doing it?

[aes]

If you don't know what you're doing then what is the sense of doing it?

 

The argument I heard is often when Bunkai is taught with the move the student can fixate on the application and not on doing it correctly. The basic Bunkai helps in the understanding of what you are doing and helps with the learning IMO, but the hidden Bunkai is said to be best taught after the moves are learned in traditional Karate (at least this is what I was told).

 

For example. It is best to know a punch is a punch, or a block is a certain type of block, but lets say the block has a hidden arm break in it. If the student fixated on the arm break the block might be less effective.