I took a typing class when I was a teen. I remember so many of my classmates telling that typing was a waste because the type writers were obsolete. Then came Chat rooms and discussion boards. Now social media..
After 30 years of using them heavily for work, I've not finally reached your level: I now mostly use them to correspond and play games.
My HS typing class (later than your, apparently - they'd invented electricity) also included some of the standard business correspondence formatting.
Yeah. That'd just be weird.
Interestingly, that doesn't sound quite like how I learned to type in typing class (also on selectric typewriters, FWIW). We learned the home row first... and spent the first week (not months) typing repetitive, non-sensical combinations of words. After that, new letters were introduced that built on this foundation, and we started typing words. Every week we had timed tests that were graded for speed and accuracy.
I've tried to block out that class. The teacher was horrible...lol It was also 35 years ago. The "advanced class" could use electric ones that actually had a "corrective tape" built in. We had the old mechanical (Pica and Elite font...yes, I had to look up what the two things were called) typewriters.Interestingly, that doesn't sound quite like how I learned to type in typing class (also on selectric typewriters, FWIW). We learned the home row first... and spent the first week (not months) typing repetitive, non-sensical combinations of words. After that, new letters were introduced that built on this foundation, and we started typing words. Every week we had timed tests that were graded for speed and accuracy.
It was, in retrospect, a very results oriented way to learn. More like combat sports for typing than a traditional approach.
Amazing! Those are some fast fingers. I'll bet you can do the 7 second death touch in just 4.5 seconds! Count Dante would be proud of you.
Kind of like a kata in some respects.
You really think? i don’t see it. I mean, more than a very superficial, tenuous analogy.
i skipped a lot of school (and ended ip in night and summer school as a result). I was not a scholar in high school. But I tried never to miss typing class. I enjoyed it, for whatever reason.
The best analog I can see is the random-seeming letter combinations - those would be putting together groups of letters like a kata can put together groups of moves. The typing exercise was probably designed to let you learn to quickly put together groups of letters that are common. I could see that being analogous to some kata. Very similar in some ways to pad practice, which I think is analogous to what many kata were meant to be, in my opinion.
No, I get that. But unless the idea is that kata is just for beginners, it doesn’t work. TBH, I’ve never really understood the kata as an alphabet analogy at all. I mean, most people stop practicing the alphabet somewhere between 3 and 5 years old.
I learned the same type of typewriters. White was the only correction tool and ribbons were the only ink.
I don't personally understand the deep focus on long kata. The kata I know best are short 2-man kata. They are sort of a "pure" version of a single technique, set up in a way that forces specific practice of certain principles. It works well enough in that approach. Even in that context, it seems to get too much focus for my understanding - leading instructors to spend energy trying to keep variations very close to the kata.
That should have been "White-Out"
Think of Kata like a song.
I like a form that move 1 set up move 2, move 2 set up move 3, ... move n-1 set up move n. Thise kind of forms are so difficult to find.
And they practice spelling words and making sentences with those letters thru middle school. In high school they construct compound sentences and use adjectives and adverbs, then in college, they get into prose, rhyme, composition, theme and once basics are learned, creative writing. A kata should not just be seen as an alphabet, but a series of paragraphs (commonly 6-25) making up a chapter.
These are the compound sentences or paragraphs that are linked together to form a full kata.
Some of the themes a particular kata may concentrate on include: Evasion by body motion or stepping w/counter, physical conditioning, grabbing and throwing down, grabbing and breaking, defending against grabs, simultaneous defense/offense, and attacking with two weapons at once - concepts of application, and possible variations. This is all in addition to various blocks, kicks and strikes, footwork, and transitions between combos. The list goes on. These things can be practiced and transmitted to others via kata.
Yes, most kata seem to be more of an encyclopedia of techniques, rather than fighting concepts. Here's a couple that may be a bit closer.
