Part One: Shite Kata levels: the Pre learning steps of Karate
As you progress through your Karate training from a fresh enthusiastic white belt to a panting dirty, rough around the edges (but skilled) brown belt ready to test for your Shodan you will have worked through all of the Shite Kata.
Shite Katas represent the required kata for testing to Shodan. They are the “text book” of Karate as it were. Mostly not “fighting” Kata they are more a series of Katas to teach you how to move. Yes you will learn more about self-defense from training in them, but honestly the best things you can learn are good solid Kihon waza and fundamentals that will serve you better in your black belt training, the first steps of understanding real Karate.
Your shite Kata are the five Heians, truly a road map of how to produce power while moving, learning how to turn, stances, arm movements, basic kicking and when used in unison with the Kihon training and Kumite training you are learning the very fabric of what Karate is, you are getting ready by learning these new baby steps of the style and techniques that are Karate.
When a student learns the Heian series they are seen as new to Karate, beginners that are learning a new physical language as it were. We forgive the minor mistakes and we let the students’ progress, teaching them easily with verbal commands and helping them reacquaint themselves with their body and movement. The juniors are really just getting a glimpse of the “how to” of Karate! If they study hard, then the brown belt levels will be easier on them, and if they progress through the next level and keep training the Heians for reference then they will have a great deal of momentum moving into brown belt level training.
In Tekki you are now learning more about power generation when you are not moving, you are training your legs to be stronger and you are building your body with a completely different way of training. When I was coming up in rank we would spend hours doing Tekki, and your 4th Kyu was HELL! You spent literally half the class in Kiba Dachi and if you stood up you were beaten back down with the Shinai!
Truthfully, this is the level that most people walked away from Karate. It was hard and unforgiving back in the day. We pushed each other and Sensei would blast us with conditioning and hard sparring. It is much less difficult now and we see way to many people just cruise through this level not realizing it is a significant jump for a student and really meant to start the process of forging your Karate skills. My thoughts are that we need to slow down the grading at this point and really push students to train even more at this point. With out the solid training at this point the lessons that are meant to be passed to the student are lost and they don’t hit that mile stone of realizing that the Brown belt is a last series of training that is very important.
Speaking of Brown belt, At brown belt we start to learn the Bassai Kata. Bassai is the first real fighting Kata you will learn as a Karate student. This is the forge Kata that will teach you the one thing that is most important in Karate training….spirit/intent! You can have weak Kihon, shoddy Kumite and sub par Kata and still patch together your own Karate if you have Budo Seishin (martial spirit)!
Now I am not suggesting you will get your Shodan if you scream like an idiot and act out the Noh play of some sort while doing a horrible Kata, getting lambasted in Kumite and showing us your best impression of a spaztic ballet dancer being electrocuted while performing flight of the bumble bee for your Kihon waza on testing! What I am saying is that we are all different, and while some 20 year old will do Yoko Kekomi straight up to the rafters, the 50 year old testing will get maybe hip high, but if the 20 year old treats Karate like a gym activity and barely tries and the 50 year old trains like “his hair is on fire” then the 50 year old will get more benefit out of training and also demonstrate proper Budo seishin!
Bassai Dai is the Kata that introduces you to fighting. Its also at this level that you start moving more in Kumite like a real fight. Brown belts used to be full of power, scary to spar with because they had lots of power, and were still learning control. This level showed a wildness to it in their Kumite and their Kata that was filled with spirit and aggression. I hated sparring with brown belts when I was a purple belt because we had a couple of special names given to us by them…the target…and…the victim!
Your Bassai Dai, which means to penetrate or destroy a fortress/opponent, is filled with new ideas of changing directions, opposing tensions and rotations lead by reverse rotations to generate power, speed and dynamic movements. It’s the final step from learning to move, including power and forging the body and now learning to release the said power. Its also the last of the Shite Kata levels.
Some groups use the system of 3rd kyu = Bassai Dai, 2nd kyu= Jion or Empi and 1st kyu= Kanku Dai. But it really limits the level or depth of training in such a dynamic Kata. My thoughts are that you should enter the yearlong training as a Brown belt (3-6 months between testing’s and then often 6 months before shodan testing) and focus on the required skills of those levels with a focus on the Bassai Kata…then work on the black belt level Katas that teach you different things.
That’s my take on Shite Kata and the Kyu levels, my next blog I will talk about the Tokui Katas or specialty/personal Katas and what they bring to the table and selecting your black belt Kata. And my last blog in this series will be on Hasen No Kata (kata series) and how Dingman Sensei taught me to find mine…and I know we use the term differently than some do…but that’s life!
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