What makes a good Kata

What makes a good Kata

                What makes a good Kata? Kata, for those that are not sure are the cornerstone of demonstrating or presenting Karate understanding. Kata should be a way of showing others your ability, yes…but more so your understanding of your personal application of Karate. Watching someone do Kata you should get a good idea of how they would be to face in Kumite and also how and why they train in Karate.

                A good Karate has many components to it, and we develop these as we move up in rank and experience in Karate. Things like rhythm, timing, breathing, expansion and relaxation, power, proper form and techniques, Following the Embusen, efficient and proper movement as well as showing spirit and creating a feeling of a real fight.

                Okay, when I review someone’s Kata the first things I look for obviously is good basics. Do they use the right basics and are they effective enough for their level. If they are doing good basics and properly then it’s a pass. No front stances that kind of look side-stance-ish or weak back stances with feet facing the wrong way ext. Do they punch the right level or even on target. This is first off. I am a stickler for stance to, if the toes should be in(together) on the stance and theirs is not…it’s a fail! If they need to be in a solid side stance and they take up Shiko dachi….Fail!  By Fail I mean no points for that movement.  If a Kata has 21 moves (Like Heian Shodan) and 20 of the stances are good and one is bad…not to worry, but if 10 are bad…yah, you have an issue.

                Are they performing the upper body movement’s right. Do they look the right way; are they using the body right? Let’s say they are doing a rising block and the body is square…Fail. Or they punch but they don’t use the hip or they forget Hikite….Fail! you need to have good Kihon waza in your Kata or you won’t make it to the next one.

                Once that is down I look at spirit….do they make it look like a real fight, or at the least make it look like they are able to use something of the Kata in a real fight! I hate the grandstanding sporty crap so if it looks to flashy when the correct way is not flashy…it’s a fail. Kiai all you want, if it’s a screech from the throat and the whole thing looks silly, then it’s a no. Kata is part of a traditional art of fighting, not a sporty “earn points and medals” kind of thing. Yes, sport and competition has its place, don’t get me wrong….but the day I approve a Kata that is just flashy because it is supposed to look like it will garner more points is the day I hand in my black belt and start playing chess!

                One must create the feel of a real fight. Not in an overly dramatic way but in a way that you know the person is battling an opponent. I have seen tournament competitors…you know the screamers that will just yell and be way to dramatic…don’t go that way. You need to show solid Kihon and also show that you would use it in a fight the same way. Down blocking with power and hip dynamics, solid stance, staring into the imaginary eyes of an attacker!

                How do we learn to do this though, Well it’s a process! I remember learning Kata both in a group, one on one and by myself out of books. Each time the same process was done and it has not changed ever for me. I know some people learn differently but I am sure you will get through the four steps of learning the Kata like I did. Picture me in a club learning a new Kata from Sensei Dingman, in a group or on one of those days when I got one on one training, or outside doing Kata in a park or my back yard and my favorite…doing Kata in my basement when I was a kid. I went through the four steps and often only make it through the first on my own. It takes a long time to progress through the levels of learning and often you will do this with only a few of the Kata.

 

                Level One: The Dance! This level is when you learn the steps and the moves, but you don’t really “Know” the Kata. Its like when you learn how to dance, its not really ingrained in you. You have not memorized it and you can do the movements…but most you are just mimicking. I was never a great mimic because of my dyslexia, instead I had the “Show me….let me do it…correct me…repeat” kind of learning focus and it worked for me, and it’s also how I teach. A lot of how I teach has to do with how I learn, but I also know others learn differently.

                The Level of Dancing is simply that. You learn the movements and try to memorize them like a dance routine. The moves often mean little to you other than as a kind of brief understanding of what the Kata actually looks like. You may understand Embusen is important and you try to stick to it, but most of the moves are rehearsed and you have just the most basic understanding that you are in a fight when doing this.

                This is also the “Sport Karate” Demonstration level for some. You memorize the moves, you get the basic concepts wired in and then you polish it like a trophy! Your Kata means little but you work on the performance art aspect of it and often its impressive, but you take NOTHING from it, except how to screech and that basic movements are run together in a specific order.

 

                Level Two of learning is the “Bunkai awareness” level of Kata learning is not just being told the application but realizing the application of the Kata and exploration of the Bunkai and Oyo of the Kata. Its more of a level in which you figure out you are fighting and you start to picture the moves being applied as you do them. My favorite move for this is the Tsukami Uke in Bassai Dai. Most students who are doing this have NO idea what they are doing and they show the technique in a variety of ways. Some do the move reletivly well and “Fake it” past examinations ext, but others come up with the strangest hand movements I have ever Seen. One of the students I teach (Note many do this but I am just going to talk about one) does a “Goose neck” version of this or “duck hands” the hands look as though the hands are dropping down on something.  This shows me that he has no idea what the heck he is doing here and that he is still very much in the first phase of this Kata.

                The second phase of training sometimes takes years to get to and sometimes you never really make it to this phase, you end up kind of dancing through the moves and you never really learn what it is you are doing. Some people figure out little things but they never really make that leap to seeing the person attacking them and then the moves being applied to save their own lives.

                The neat thing is when you have a student who sees the applications in one Kata and then starts chaining the realizations together and finally figuring out what it is that they are looking at in all the Kata, its like a circuit of light bulbs that goes on and you see them progressing backwards through Kata and seeing what they missed. I once taught a class on Jion and I don’t know what it was that I said but a student came up to me and said “I caught what you said about the Stepping in Age Uke to Gyaku zuki and how the hips have to be used ‘this way’, Damn if I did not see that in Heian Shodan as well and many of the other Kata”.  It was a true light bulb movement. The applications of body dynamics to affect Kihon Waza is universal, you just need to see that.

                Sometimes its as simple as having partners do the movements on each other and other times its as detailed as working one on one with someone and not just applying the move but having them apply it on you. The moment you start to realize that this is not just about dance and you are actually doing movements that you apply in a real situation…you are at level two…and this is a darn hard level to actually get to.

                One final thing, when you get to this moment and leap to level two you need to realize you have to have mastered the movements, memorized the moves and then you can do them as if you are in a real fight. You now don’t count in your head, think ahead six steps to figure out what direction you are turning…you are doing the Kata and applying the moves to a real partner…well real in your head.

 

                If Kata learning was an onion the next level would be a very fine distinction point from level two, but a very important one. In Japanese it’s called Tatakai no Toreningu. It’s “FIGHT TRAINING”!  You cannot use a Kata to learn to fight without learning first the movements (level one), then the applications (level two) and working on making those to levels as solid as possible. Once you know the “Dance moves” and what you are doing with them now it’s time to apply them in a mental combat situation. The Kata now takes on a life of its own and you do it and see the opponent and in the place of just applying a series of moves you are now actually battling your opponents. This level is a short step from level two, but a very dramatic one.

                When I teach people or test them and I see that “eye of the tiger” kind of moment when the student starts the Kata and you know it’s not a performance, it’s a battle…you know they “Got it” and they are at level three. This level can be faked, but there are some tell-tale signs that the person is faking it to make a display. The outward emotion is far overdone and dramatic for one. The real purpose of this level is to make the fight real to the person doing the Kata. The Effort is real and the idea of an attacker moving in and executing an attack becomes fairly real to the person doing the Kata.

                For most students this never happens however. The instructor is almost always to blame as they push sport or they don’t have the right ideas themselves on how to feel a Kata transition from level one to level three smoothly, they can’t bring a student to this level as most of the time they have never been their themselves. This is also the highest that most students ever will attain in the mastery of a Kata. It’s also kind of funny because if you don’t maintain the practice of that Kata you lose it and slip back to level two or even one. However this level is a very high level of training and one that most students should aim for.

 

                The last level is what I call Ido Meiso, or “moving meditation” it’s going beyond all of the other levels and doing the Kata without thinking, not because you are fighting an opponent or learning an application, it’s hard to describe and I have only felt it a few times in my life. You move through the Kata as if you are an observer and not a participant. The body takes over and does what it needs to do to complete each technique, Time seems to slow to a crawl and you get wrapped up in the Kata, it has no end, no beginning and the middle part will last forever! You are kind of stuck watching each movement and it seems to last a longer time than it actually does.

                Ido Meiso Kata practice is not done like Tai Chi or anything, it is full speed and with complete movements, but for some reason you are wrapped up in the Kata completely. I once experienced this on one of my Sunday work outs down town. I went in and warmed up with the Heians and stretched. I began working on Kanku Dai and ran through the drills I do for the Kata, I do drills for any Kata I am about to practice to get ready for the form of the Kata. I began the Kata and it seemed like it took me all day to get through that Kata….when it took me about two minutes. I was not exhausted physically but it felt like I had been doing the Kata for hours. You know it’s not real and yet you seem to have been lost in the Kata to the point that you don’t realize that time is NOT flying buy, but your ability to govern the amount of time you are doing the Kata has flown out the window.

                I have felt it several times since but that first time was kind of trippy, you just get to that point, and I don’t think any instructor can help you do that. It’s a matter of practice and repeating study, going and letting your mind sink into the moment. At that moment I was convinced my body was Kanku Dai, I was able to not just use the moves in a fight or apply them on a partner, it was a living breathing thing and I was just part of it. I ended practice and while I felt like I had lost time I also felt relaxed and totally prepared to use my Karate if I needed to.

 

                So, as a student or instructor how does one put this together and move from phase one to four? Well I have bad news and good news. First off there is no book, video or even instructor who can walk you to the last phase, it’s just repetition and training. Now the good news….kind of like Dominoes if you have the right motivation and instruction you will roll from phase one to two smoothly and then three is just around the corner and again, a good instructor will guide you along the way. Again, the bad news is this does not take place overnight and the further bad news…it isn’t easy! The student will do 99% of the work and the instructor really just guides once you pass the first phase.

                To get better at Kata you need to practice….to be great you need even more practice!