Whats the point now?

[hobbitbob]

If you think you know "everything" in Karate, you have proof you have learned nothing. In life, the ending point is our own death. If Karate is a "Way of life," then can there be any other ending point? Hamster, you sound quite young. Give yourself,and your Karate time to grow. You will be pleased and ever challenged with the results.

[IAMA_chick]

what is a kata? b/c i don't take karate. is it a form? just wondering

[hobbitbob]

YOu would know them as Hyung.

[FlailingLimbs]

.....Damn, I'm going to get started on those 10,000 reps.

 

...right after I finish this bag of potato chips, a shower, Everybody Loves Raymond...

[monkeygirl]

Hyung/Kata/Poomse/Form are all the same thing. That confused me for awhile, too.

 

Here's my current confusion: does your style of karate do nothing other than kata? I know almost every kata there is to know in my style, but I would never consider myself to be finished with TKD. There's a lot more to MA than kata alone...fighting, self defense, etc. Also, like G95champ said, it's gonna take years to master all the katas.

 

No matter what the style, martial arts are a never-ending journey. Even when you think you're at your best, you can always do better. There will always be somebody who's just a little bit better than you are, and that pushes you to improve. In other words: no, I wouldn't quit simply because I could do every kata. That's like having somebody stop playing guitar because they've learned all the chords.

[SaiFightsMS]

In my shotokan dojo the philosophy was 1/3 kihon, 1/3 kata and 1/3 kumite.

 

Meaning our in class training time should be spent 1/3 of it doing drills. The next third doing kata. And a third sparring.

[hobbitbob]

In Seibukan we spend a great deal of time in advanced classes doing Bunkai/Oyo training. If we were to only do techniques from Sesan, we would probably never do the same set of techniqes twice. I think "knowing all" of any style is impossible. Monkeygirl, when you say you know every form in your branch of TKD, what you are really saying is that you can repeat the outer shape of them, not that you really understand them.

[karate_woman]

I will continue with karate, but will probably increase my training in jiu jitsu as well.

[shotochem]

Has anyone here seen a video tape of themselves as a whitebelt?

 

 

Compare that with now

 

There is always more to learn and there is always room for improvement.

[monkeygirl]

Monkeygirl, when you say you know every form in your branch of TKD, what you are really saying is that you can repeat the outer shape of them, not that you really understand them.

 

Oops, forgot to clarify that.

 

What I meant by "knowing" is that I know how to do them. Of course, this doesn't mean I've mastered them or fully understood all of them, but I DO know them well enough to do them very well.

 

On a seperate note:

 

Just as knowing and understanding are two different ideas, understanding and mastering are also two different ideas.

 

For example: let's say, hypothetically, it's pretty safe to say I understand Chon-Ji (I say hypothetically, because if I try to claim that I actually do, I'll probably be quickly disproven ). I know the purpose for all of the movements, as well as the many miniscule facets of the kata. However, being aware of this and performing it is very different. I would have to break myself out of old habits of just going through the movements of the kata, and form new habits of doing the kata like I actually understand what I'm doing.