I like that mentality. At least on paper.
A little backstory...
I was getting ready to test for nidan when I got an offer for a graduate assistantship about 5 hours away. Long story short, life got in the way and almost 15 years later I started training again in a very similar style. Interesting thing is I remembered practically all my material; I just needed to polish it up a bit. Stuff like sometimes I’d have the wrong foot forward, I’d skip a step, etc. I started over at white belt, and have tested for every rank, minus two very early on (9th kyu and 7th kyu). I’ve been offered to test for 1st kyu in a few weeks.
Getting back to my point:
I see the higher ranks doing kata I know that are above my current rank. I’ve seen this since day one. Rather than spending any significant time working on the kata that I’m not responsible for, I work on the ones that I am responsible for (we’re responsible for everything below our current grade too). Very early on in my return, I was doing higher grade kata in and out of class simply because I was only responsible for 3-4 very basic kata. After that, I rarely did kata outside my rank. Why? What’s the point in doing something more advanced when I can still improve on what I’m currently supposed to be doing?
I think taking time away from your current stuff to work on stuff above your grade short changes your current stuff. Why spend a lot of time doing a kata that’s got a ton of complex stuff when you haven’t nearly mastered the basic stances and turns of lower level stuff?
If I was a teacher and I saw, say a 5th kyu, copying a shodan doing a shodan kata or the like, I wouldn’t be able to not say “improve what you’re supposed to know before you start trying to learn stuff above your rank.” It wouldn’t be because the higher stuff is sacred or I’d be trying to withhold information, it would be because I’d want the student to be the best he/she can possibly be at what they should know before they move on. I wouldn’t want a boxing student to start throwing insane punching combos before their jab was truly functional and effective. I wouldn’t want them trying to learn a crazy footwork drill if they’re still tripping over their own feet when they do basic forward, backward, and side stepping.
The advanced stuff is more fun. People don’t sign up with dreams of repeating the basics over and over again. The sign up to one day do the stuff Bruce Lee did. They sign up to one day do what Mike Tyson did. That stuff will come in due time. And if all one is really interested in is doing some flashy advanced kata such as perhaps Unsu, then skip the lessons altogether, watch it on YouTube, and keep practicing it to your heart’s content. After a while, it’ll probably look good to the untrained eye if you’re athletic enough. But it’ll be like practicing a single sentence that you don’t know the meaning of in a foreign language - your accent will be way off, you’ll have no idea what it means, and you’ll have no idea what’s being said and how to respond if someone says something back to you.
I guess what I’m getting at is what’s the rush, and why try stuff over your head if you haven’t relatively perfected stuff at your level. There’s no point to n me practicing Seiunchin at this point in my training. Tsuki-No kata can still use a good amount of work. It’s “good enough” right now, but good enough isn’t good enough for me.
The interesting thing is at a special training, we only do about 1 low level kata. the rest of the kata are high level kata.
The hanshi has the class line up with two rows of shihan in the center, from shomen to the back of the class.
At this training, there were about 15 shihan. Then the kyu ranks line up to the outside on either side. we had about 18 kyu ranks, only two were brown belts. then then black belts 1st-4th lined up.
outside the kyu ranks, and on the very outside we had Renshi, and Godan or higher.
so for kyus we had Shihans and 8th dans right next to us on one side, and lower Bbs on the other.
Now we did Unsu... "Cloud Hands" kata 10 or 12 times. the first 5 or so with a very slow cadence
i saw white belts struggling for a bit. but after the seventh iteration, it was at the normal tempo for that kata. and because we train with "notice, think and do". method... the white belts had seen their mistakes and were performing the correct moment.
By the 10th or 12th iteration they had a grip on the kata. they could own it.... and then it would become, for then, a kata to begin to polish, and put back on the shelf.
In the 4 days of the special training. We had 6 sessions that were 3 to 5 hours in length. lets call it 24 hours average.
we did two bo kata, Tan Ru, and To Ru.
we did 5 kata. and one of them, Kasatsu, we did as part of our warm ups. (only doing them twice in the four days.)
Ananko
Ananku
Seidenko (we only did this for one day)
Unsu
So in a session, we may do many sets of Ananko, alternating with sets of Unsu.
So we spent a very large amount of time working on a limited set of kata. This was an intensive training.
The only higher intensive is the 7 day long "summer training" in Germany. usually 500 or more people go to that.
i had struck up a number of freindships with people there. There was one whitebelt there who, like me, this was his first special training. I asked him are you learning anything?
He said i learned a new kata today. i said which one.
he said "Unsu".
I asked him if he would want to show me?
He said he would do it best, if, i did the count and he focused on the movements. His Japanese counting made him nervous.
i said sure.
So, i counted and he did the Kata.
And he was not highly polished, but each technique, and movement/stance was there at the right time.
So, this approach works, but this isnt intended as a replacement for your regular training throughout the week at a dojo.
the amount of very high level instructors at the special trainings is off the charts. but then... Hanshi only comes to the US twice a year... and if your an 8th Dan Shihan, this will be the only person higher up then you who can teach you....
its also gathering of others at your level who you can review other stuff with outside of the sessions.
there were a lot of renshi, and other BBs that came to the house we rented, and they were doing sai, tonfa, and nunchaku kata review in the backyard.
