Specialty kata

[SaiFightsMS]

It is a tradition in many types of karate for students to pick a kata to specialize in as they become more advanced students.

 

Do you have a specialty kata?

 

Which one is it?

 

I have two that I spend a lot of extra time working with as a sort of specialty. One is tekki shodan, (I know many hate it), and hangetsu.

[Neil]

In Okiniwa even today teachers will only teach a student 2 or possibly 3 Katas. One for strengh and one for fluidity.

 

When my teacher wanted to learn the 12 katas of Goju Ryu had to go all over Okiniwa and Malaysia. The applications a particular kata certainly do suit different people. In Goju Ryu Saifa is definatley a desendent from White Crane and is suited to a much smaller and agile person. But a kata like Saiichin is definatley a Tiger kata and is suited to a much bigger person. Also there maybe different interpretations of the same kata and some interpretaions may be taught to different people. My teacher is teaching a kata to the brown belts in the class who are great big blokes but has taught his 2nd Dan grade who is a very small female the kata differently, with some parts differant stances and sometimes doing a chudan instead of a jodan and so on.

 

Steve Morris in Horsham easily the most devastations and feared people out there has 3rd Dans who only know 2 or 3 katas! Usually Sanchin, Saifa, and Gekisai Daichi. It is definatley about quality and not quanitiy, but in this modern Karate-Do world which genrally makes up 90% of the Karate out there have the all to familiar grading every 3 months routine, so you end up being a black belt in 3 years with 20 or so katas under your belt with not a single one understood, your just left with shapes.

 

I think I would have to have many more years of training before I would ever know what kata would suit me, but I do like the applications from the kata Gekisai Daiichi. I love the simple fourarm attcks and the tearing techniques in it.

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

Well, mine is Jion (wado-ryu), Pinan Shodan (shito-ryu), Rohai (shito-ryu)

[tenkamusou]

in my dojo, my sensei teaches all the katas gradually... i know almoust all of the kata... and then i choose one to practice...

 

i'm doing Seisan a lot, but I used to train Empi and i'm learnin Nipaipo...

[karatekid1975]

We don't have "specialty kata" per say. But my favorites are Pyung ahn e dan (Tang Soo Do) and Taegeuk sah jang (TKD).

[Beer-monster]

Naihanchi, the bunkai is simple effective. The close combat karate kata

[karatekid1975]

I can't wait to learn Naihanchi! It does look awsome. I have to wait till BB to learn it, though

[Karateka_latino]

The Late Okinawan Karate master Choki Motubo who was a great Karate fighter who always proved his skills in Real Fights said that the only Kata you ever need to be a good Fighter is Naihanchi.

[hobbitbob]

Probably Jion and Chinto.

[monkeygirl]

You'll have to excuse my highly Americanized spelling of these kata names; I never see them written down. I'm going for phonetic spellings

 

I've probably spent the most time working on K-Beck, simply because it's the 1st dan kata, and I've had my black belt longer than any other belt.

 

It's not my favorite though. There's a tie for that :

 

Pinyon 5 (red belt--3rd kyu)

 

Chung-Mu (1st brown--1st kyu)

 

I love them because they're complex, difficult, flashy and powerful. Pinyon 5 starts off slow, with power moves, then switches into a high-speed series of movements. A lot of people tend to make this kata look sloppy, so I take extra pride in doing it correctly with proper form and sharp movements.

 

Chung-Mu is a nice, advanced kata. It's best done with a lot of attitude and a really ticked off expression on your face, like this: