Naihanchi Showdown

[Lucy Rhombus]

So how many of you make up your own kata for fun? One guy in my dojo does "Naihanchi Showdown" and "Naihanchi Get Down" (complete with John Travolta-like disco moves). A young brown belt likes to call Hakutsuru Ichi the "chocolate eating kata," and has revised the meanings of the techniques to make them all about grabbing and snarfing down chocolates.

As for me, today I invented a whole martial art system called "Spazzbudo," where the main kata consists of bouncing up and down spasmodically with a maniacal grin on your face. (And when I went to sit down after performing -- and screwing up -- on a bo kata in front of the class, the guy next to me whispered, "Was than an example of spazzbudo?")

(Of course, we never do these things in front of sensei.)

C'mon, spill...I know you all do it when no one is looking!

(Edited to add, yes, I'm 34. Why do you ask?)

 

[Touch Of Death]

I make up my own Kata all the time. I work gave yard with one or two other people, and if I'm not dancing to the music, I'm doing spontaneous Kenpo. No wonder I never seem to get any work done. I didn't ask your age but since you brought it up and I'm 33, how does it feel? Wait, don't tell me. I want it to be a suprise.

 

[Shuri-te]

Way back in 1978 (I am dating myself), I was at a training camp in upstate NY, that was taught by Teruo Hayashi, a senior Japanese master of Shito Ryu. One night we all went out to a bar with dance floor (probably called a disco back then, yes a disco). While many of the macho guys hung out on bar stools, a bunch of the women students went dancing.

One of them started kata movements to the music, and we just didn't know how this formal Japanese karate master would react. He gave a big smile and they all started adding lots of karate movements, some they had just learned into their dance movements.

Hayashi laughed long and loud. He loved it. I don't think he had ever seen anything like it.

But you know, adding self-defense movements to dance goes way back. Nagamine says that Okinawan dance is filled with karate-like movements.

I say, boogie down.

 

[tonbo]

I can't reasonably count the number of times that I have been so wrapped up in a kata that I have lost track of where I was. Well, at that point, there is nothing to do but punt, so......time to make stuff up and make it look convincing!!

Periodically, in class, we will do "musical kata alley" drills, where we line the class up in two rows, facing each other, forming an alley. Then we crank up the tunes, and students take turns "walking" the alley while making up their own kata. Great fun.

Spazzbudo? Is that what that's called? Sheeesh. I've been a senior student of that for *years*...

Oh, and since nobody asked my age either......I'm the ripe old age of 35. Well, *physically*, anyway. Mentally, I have my days......

Peace--

 

[Rick Tsubota]

In Okinawa we have many karate styles that are closely related to Okinawan dance.
Motobu Ryu is supposed to be connected to the Meikata dance in some way but nobody really knows exactly how. If you look at Okinawan dance and Okinawan karate kata you can see the connection. Some old masters said the dance were a way to pass on their technique in secret. It makes sense because if you don't know what it is it just looks like dance, but when you know the meaning it is powerful. I think you should know about fighting and technique very well before you make up a new kata. Other wise it's just playing.

 

[tonbo]

I think you should know about fighting and technique very well before you make up a new kata. Other wise it's just playing.

This is true; however, I think that "playing" is pretty much what we're talking about, here.

I wouldn't even presume to come up with my own kata and teach it to others just on a whim. For my Black test, I had to come up with 10 techniques and be able to do them on both sides. Once I had passed those off with my instructor, I then had to string them together to form a kata. This was under review of someone that could point out my mistakes or misinterpretations, and could keep my feet planted in what would work and what wouldn't. On my own? Forget it.

Playing, however, is entirely another matter. I have come up with plenty of kata that would work well in movies, or would look good to the total newbie (but would cause endless laughter to a real practitioner). Playing is good.....it allows us to blow off steam while still being creative.

I think that purpose behind what you are doing is the key. If you are not a master of a given style, and you are just arbitrarily coming up with katas for your style, there could be big problems. However, I got the impression that this thread was about goofiness in katas, like just playing around, and that in and of itself should be okay. It *is* okay to have fun, after all.....

Lemme know if you think I am way off base, here, and I'll go from there.

Peace--

 

[Lucy Rhombus]

Oh, yes -- I was definitely talking about coming up with silly, goofy kata that you make up for a laugh. No one would mistake "naihanchi get down!" for a real kata.

 

[grimfang]

sorry wrong post will try again

 

[tshadowchaser]

Maybe once or twice a year I'll hae a student do an attack technique/sequence or a defensive one. I then have the next student do something off the last technique of the fist one. We will repeat these 2 techs a few times then a third student will add someting. When the whole class has contributed we refine what we have (maybe adding a connecting move or a kick /punch to pull it togeather) we then practice the whole thing as a form for that night.
The next night I take it apart piece by peice showing the how and why it would work and/or not work in a fight and why the "form" is good structualy or not in the content of what they know at that time.
Its a fun drill for the class and I\we did do one a while bak that I practice as a leg drill BUT it will never be part of what is expected to be learned.