kata

Firstly for a bit of context, my sensei comes from ITKF and he is well aware about the bukai of the kata, the story of karate, tradition and he is also well-aware about MMA and other martial arts. Now, for our gradings teachers from the JKA come and check our kata, the feedback is provided via a...

This is an attempt to redirect a thread that got sidetracked to just a hikite discussion. Although hikite is part of it, a lot more is involved in answering this question and worthy of a new thread. The answer I think is yes and no. "No" to the original intent of the kata. It is generally...

This is the kata Unsa, from my very local style, Wado Ki Kai, which essentially exists only in central California. Based on the name alone, there is clearly some relation to the much more common kata "Unsu" which is actually also a (separate) kata in our style. Unsa is for purple belts, and Unsu...

I have been doing Karate for 7 years (currently in WKF Shotokan, 1st kyu brown belt, training in Canada). My sensei keeps telling me to relax my upper body and use my legs/hips for power. However, no matter how much I consciously try to do this, he keeps telling me I am too tense. I have been...

Teaching Karate without traditional Katas, but replacing them with modern/revised techniques, restructuring the belt ranking system and requirements. I am assuming, like previous masters before us, that I can create a different form of Karate. For example: Takeshi Azuma, the founder of Kudo...

Inspired by Bullsherdog. We hear a lot about TMA being full.of impractical, flowery, unrealistic and straight BS techniques and methods. For this thread I'd like to try to list them and the problems with them and yes, if anyone can actually use said bs techniques the defence of them would...

Hi everyone, My name is Moshe, I've started practicing Karate with a teacher two month ago. I have a test on Kata Kihon in few weeks, which is pretty easy but I do not understand one thing - how do you determine the direction you turn. I will explain: The first move in the kata is downward...

This is somewhat belated - a discovery I made on Monday before my POUND class, of all the places. Bear with me.... @gpseymour has been putting me through my paces with the weapons kata he devised, including the rattan stick kata with both single and double-stick. To improve my versatility with...

Hey, I'm wondering if any of you who use long forms (more than a couple of steps) have figured out a good way to document them. What I've been doing is good for technical reference for me, but isn't really useful to someone trying to follow along. Even I am not successful at using it as a...

I just wanted to share my experience working with kata. Some styles have kata, some don't. Some that have kata only have short forms ("one-step kata", some call them). I've trained with and without kata. I don't see them as necessary (in fact, I seriously considered removing them when creating...