Performing the Katas by Iain Abernethy

[Black Belt Jedi]

I like reading this article. It gives beginners and experts in any Martial Art that does kata improve their skills.

http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/article/performing-katas

 

[Jason Striker II]

Abernethy Sensei's work is well-regarded by the majority of Karate community. IMO also, a very good source of Bunkai material.

 

[seasoned]

I like reading this article. It gives beginners and experts in any Martial Art that does kata improve their skills.

http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/article/performing-katas

Yes

Abernethy Sensei's work is well-regarded by the majority of Karate community. IMO also, a very good source of Bunkai material.

And yes again...................

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I credit Abernethy Sensei for reshaping my opinions on the value of kata within an art. Whereas many arts, sadly, relegate forms to nothing more than a class-filler or something to 'do' to reach the next colored belt, Abernethy Sensei demonstrates the value that even a single kata can provide an art. Indeed, look at his work on the Pinan/Heian katas as an example. Taking just Pinan Shodan, there is enough information contained within this single kata to provide any Karateka months, even years of practical training.

For those that have read his articles on Pinan Shodan, or seen his video, look at the opening movement of that kata. He demonstrates it as an effective shoulder lock, and take down. This in and of itself opens up a plethora of balance displacement principles as well as lock variations. He goes further and demonstrates how the principle is also effective on the ground. Again, opening up a plethora of principles for practical training. Just this opening movement could provided weeks worth, if not months worth of indepth training.

 

[Tez3]

If you ever get a chance to do one of his seminars go even if you have to walk all the way across a continent and sell the family to do so! You'll find he's a very good instructor and also a really nice guy with a good line in funny stories that illustrate what he's teaching. One of my favourite people.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

I've got his Pinan/Heian video and he comes across as a good fellow. I like his approach and teaching style as well. He is informative, yet also encouraging in looking into applications for yourself. I like that. The 'my way is the only way' gets old and puts a crimp in delving into the art. His approach puts you on the right path but then gives you freedom to see the sites as well along the way.

 

[K-man]

I credit Abernethy Sensei for reshaping my opinions on the value of kata within an art. Whereas many arts, sadly, relegate forms to nothing more than a class-filler or something to 'do' to reach the next colored belt, Abernethy Sensei demonstrates the value that even a single kata can provide an art.

I credit Iain Abernethy among a select few who turned my karate around from ordinary everyday boring to dynamic and exciting. I would love to have the opportunity to train with him. :asian:

 

[rickster]

I like reading this article. It gives beginners and experts in any Martial Art that does kata improve their skills.

http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/article/performing-katas

I also liked his article about high kicking

 

[72ronin]

I credit Iain Abernethy among a select few who turned my karate around from ordinary everyday boring to dynamic and exciting. :asian:

Similar experience here. I can remember thinking something like "why isnt this standard practice", well, at some stage at least. Same with P McCarthy's work.
Kata and Kumite were seemingly so detatched from each other that the two had absolutely no crossover in my experience, Sparring was basicaly kickboxing and the kata were never looked at in any great depth beyond block/punch etc.
How we ever filtered karate down to that is beyond me!

And i could find old footage of the Japanese (Shotokan im talking of) passing kata over as block/punch too, so we dont have to take all the blame lol. I sometimes think of it like, "if one doesnt have the capacity to dig deeper then so be it" Like a natural progression within the undertaking. The problem is that somewhere along the line the standard of kihon kata kumite (as seperate entities) became the whole product, so here we are apparently looking outside the box kind of thing to find what was there the whole time!
That is, in my personal experience with Karate anyway.

 

[K-man]

Similar experience here. I can remember thinking something like "why isnt this standard practice", well, at some stage at least. Same with P McCarthy's work.
Kata and Kumite were seemingly so detatched from each other that the two had absolutely no crossover in my experience, Sparring was basicaly kickboxing and the kata were never looked at in any great depth beyond block/punch etc.
How we ever filtered karate down to that is beyond me!

And i could find old footage of the Japanese (Shotokan im talking of) passing kata over as block/punch too, so we dont have to take all the blame lol. I sometimes think of it like, "if one doesnt have the capacity to dig deeper then so be it" Like a natural progression within the undertaking. The problem is that somewhere along the line the standard of kihon kata kumite (as seperate entities) became the whole product, so here we are apparently looking outside the box kind of thing to find what was there the whole time!
That is, in my personal experience with Karate anyway.

I attended one of Patrick's seminars recently and enjoyed it very much.

What style karate do you practise? :asian:

 

[72ronin]

Shotokan (Shindo Karate Assoc.) - hosted Iain Abernethy a couple years ago.

 

[chinto]

Kata is where its at folks, in the Traditional Karate Kata of Okinawa there are at least 5 techniques hidden in each movement of the kata! so Go and LOOK for them. there are Throws, Locks, Brakes, sweeps, strikes and anything else you can think of hidden in there! Grappling was and is part of Okinawan Karate! So are Strikes, Locks, sweeps, brakes and strikes! Its all in there. its a complete system designed with survival in real combat against armed and unarmed attackers!

 

[Kong Soo Do]

Kata is where its at folks, in the Traditional Karate Kata of Okinawa there are at least 5 techniques hidden in each movement of the kata! so Go and LOOK for them. there are Throws, Locks, Brakes, sweeps, strikes and anything else you can think of hidden in there! Grappling was and is part of Okinawan Karate! So are Strikes, Locks, sweeps, brakes and strikes! Its all in there. its a complete system designed with survival in real combat against armed and unarmed attackers!

+1

Unfortunately, far too many arts that have their roots in Okinawan Karate have either moved away from this, or never taught it in the first place. It is the students of these arts that I feel sorry for the most as it has robbed them of that which is truly the essense of the art. There are some instructors though that have gone the extra mile to learn these applications and apply them to the forms that they teach. I applaud them for the effort. Those are the instructors, imho, who truly have their students best interest at heart (speaking from a SD perspective).

As I mentioned recently in a TKD thread, TKD forms can/and do have these applications built in since they are derived from older Okinwan kata. Therefore, TKD (and other arts that came from Okinawan Karate) can enjoy locks, throws, balance displacement etc as well. This would tend to move away from the cookie-cutter approach to forms and thus churning out belt after belt as quickly as possible in an attempt to inflate an organizations total numbers, but, it would make for a much better martial artist in the long run. Again, imho, that is a better bottom line than total numbers.

 

[rickster]

Could one say thee are Katas in MMA, Boxing, Wrestling, Football, Baseball, etc.?

 

[Kong Soo Do]

Could you give me a better idea of what you're looking for in response? Thank you.

 

[rickster]

Could you give me a better idea of what you're looking for in response? Thank you.

Are you directing this to me?

 

[Chris Parker]

Could one say thee are Katas in MMA, Boxing, Wrestling, Football, Baseball, etc.?

No. Not in this sense.

 

[seasoned]

Could one say thee are Katas in MMA, Boxing, Wrestling, Football, Baseball, etc.?

You could say this if memorization was the only goal. Martial arts kata go much deeper, learning patterns that can be adapted to many varied techniques.

 

[Master Dan]

Abernethy Sensei's work is well-regarded by the majority of Karate community. IMO also, a very good source of Bunkai material.

He is also well respected by those in the know in Taekwondo related to Bunkai interpretation of our own forms. Very nice man easy to talk with DVD's are worth having

 

[Kong Soo Do]

He is also well respected by those in the know in Taekwondo related to Bunkai interpretation of our own forms. Very nice man easy to talk with DVD's are worth having

Very true. Stuart Anslow and Simon O'Neill have both written books based upon this bunkai/hoshin interpretation methodology. Although there are many in the TKD community that resist this methodology, it is a valid avenue of delving much deeper into the art of TKD (or any art based off of Okinawan karate). It is a growing community within those arts as more and more students desire more 'meat' in their training beyond just the cookie-cutter 'learn a form-get a new belt' method of training.