Is kata and bunkai a waste of time?

[kidswarrior]

An important benefit of forms practice:
Have you ever seen an MMA fighter doing his thing at the age of 50 or beyond? It might be possible, but it can't happen very often.

And why would any of us who are 50 or 60 even want to? :mst:

There are, however, countless MA students practicing forms at 50, 60, and beyond. You won't be getting into a ring at age 60, but you can still do forms.

And win SD confrontations. Like the formidable Ark Wong said, if it isn't over in three moves (not three rounds ), step back and see what you're doing wrong.

 

[chinto]

I agree with chinto: it's all there. But... and it's a big one... you aren't going to benefit from it unless (i) you learn to read the kata in a way that lets you see the hard, practical combat applications that were intended (and maybe some good ones that weren't) and (ii) you train these applications in a dedicated way. That doesn't mean rote practice of the kata so that you have a beautifully choreographed martial dance at the end. It means, you make shrewd deductions about what martial moves the movements in the kata are instructing you to carry out, and you find a training partner who will carry out attack initiations on you that that sequence of moves you discovered was designed to counter. And your training partner had better be trying fairly hard to make contact with you. A compliant training partner is doing you no favors.

Think of the kata, or similar patterns in other MAs, as something like the score of a concerto by a great composer. The beauty of the piece is there, and the information on how to get it and make it visible. But you need to do two things in order to get there: first, you need to learn to read music. Second, once you understand the notes you're supposed to play, you need to practice your part as though you were involved in a real performance, every time you practice. A kata is the 'score' of a set of effective self defense scenarios, but the same requirements have to be met as with the musical score, if you want to derive the benefit of the kata. There's no other way to do it.

I agree! you must learn to see what possibility's are there. to think in terms of grabs and grapples, as well as punch and kicks.. in terms of locks and throws, and in terms of brakes and even lethal techniques that are there. some obvious, and some not so much so!