I just wanted to share my experience working with kata. Some styles have kata, some don't. Some that have kata only have short forms ("one-step kata", some call them). I've trained with and without kata. I don't see them as necessary (in fact, I seriously considered removing them when creating the Shojin-ryu curriculum), but I have found some uses for them. For those who want to shortcut the reading, skip to the bolded section.
Most of my experience with kata has been with short forms. While there were some long forms in the Shotokan I studied decades ago, I wasn't in long enough to really get into them much, and neither instructor put heavy emphasis on them, at least not early in their curriculum. The curriculum I trained in for Nihon Goshin Aikido used short forms ("Classical Techniques", which I now refer to as "Classical forms"), and I find them useful for focusing on specific concepts, taking the "live" part out of the technique (most are static starts) to force the student to focus on specific principles.
When I was developing the curriculum for Shojin-ryu, I made a list of goals I wanted to meet with the curriculum. Some were based on common problems I saw among students, some were to better fit the way I teach, and some were to fit needs I had along the way. One part that came to my mind was that I'd had to miss a lot of classes due to business travel. I'd done what I could when traveling, but there's not much in NGA that is well suited to solo practice. I did a lot of footwork and strikes practice, but most of that is incorporated into the movement and flow of the techniques, and I wanted a way to practice those. So, I had decided to add long forms to NGA in the new curriculum, which I refer to as kata. It took me years to get some kata I felt did what I really wanted. I'd develop one and put it aside for a couple of months, come back and not like it. I eventually got the concepts together the right way and started creating a cohesive set of kata, and am now using them with students.
Here are my results:
The first group of kata are based on the Classical forms. They allow the student to perform the movements of all 10 Classical forms for a "set" (the original NGAA curriculum organization), without stopping, to create a flow and cohesion among them. This also gives a chance to work on weight transfers and transitions not found within the short forms.
Students rather reliably make the same conceptual mistakes in their kata that they make in both the Classical form and in application. Thus, if they aren't taking their partner's structure at the shoulder in application, they leave that part out of the kata, as well. This is handy, because in the kata I know it's not caused by something their partner is doing (too much stiffness, being too compliant, etc.). It's entirely their own work.
The kata require more core muscle usage than the Classical forms. Because there's no partner to drop weight into (as there would be in application and Classical form), the student has to hold their own weight where they normally wouldn't.
Students are practicing more outside class (the original purpose of the kata). I can tell, because they come back better at the kata than they were. I'll be interested in seeing how this translates to new students (those who've gotten them thus far have been with me at least several months). The improvements seem to translate to their applications, as well.
Students are using the kata to warm up before class. This is replacing other stuff they were doing (including one doing his Shotokan kata), or in some cases replacing just standing around waiting for class. Again, more practice is happening.
I'll be starting one student on another type of kata soon (techniques in actual application and adding strikes). I expect some similar improvements off those. I had originally envisioned 10 kata (Classical and application for each of 5 sets), but I don't think I'll end up going that far. I may well stop at 7 (5 Classical, 2 application), since there's a chance I'll add weapons kata later. The kata don't get high emphasis. I do test them, but just to make sure they can do them and are demonstrating movements consistent with the principles of the techniques. If I ever get someone to black belt, I'll get pretty picky about their kata at that point (the only next step is instructor certification).
Most of my experience with kata has been with short forms. While there were some long forms in the Shotokan I studied decades ago, I wasn't in long enough to really get into them much, and neither instructor put heavy emphasis on them, at least not early in their curriculum. The curriculum I trained in for Nihon Goshin Aikido used short forms ("Classical Techniques", which I now refer to as "Classical forms"), and I find them useful for focusing on specific concepts, taking the "live" part out of the technique (most are static starts) to force the student to focus on specific principles.
When I was developing the curriculum for Shojin-ryu, I made a list of goals I wanted to meet with the curriculum. Some were based on common problems I saw among students, some were to better fit the way I teach, and some were to fit needs I had along the way. One part that came to my mind was that I'd had to miss a lot of classes due to business travel. I'd done what I could when traveling, but there's not much in NGA that is well suited to solo practice. I did a lot of footwork and strikes practice, but most of that is incorporated into the movement and flow of the techniques, and I wanted a way to practice those. So, I had decided to add long forms to NGA in the new curriculum, which I refer to as kata. It took me years to get some kata I felt did what I really wanted. I'd develop one and put it aside for a couple of months, come back and not like it. I eventually got the concepts together the right way and started creating a cohesive set of kata, and am now using them with students.
Here are my results:
The first group of kata are based on the Classical forms. They allow the student to perform the movements of all 10 Classical forms for a "set" (the original NGAA curriculum organization), without stopping, to create a flow and cohesion among them. This also gives a chance to work on weight transfers and transitions not found within the short forms.
Students rather reliably make the same conceptual mistakes in their kata that they make in both the Classical form and in application. Thus, if they aren't taking their partner's structure at the shoulder in application, they leave that part out of the kata, as well. This is handy, because in the kata I know it's not caused by something their partner is doing (too much stiffness, being too compliant, etc.). It's entirely their own work.
The kata require more core muscle usage than the Classical forms. Because there's no partner to drop weight into (as there would be in application and Classical form), the student has to hold their own weight where they normally wouldn't.
Students are practicing more outside class (the original purpose of the kata). I can tell, because they come back better at the kata than they were. I'll be interested in seeing how this translates to new students (those who've gotten them thus far have been with me at least several months). The improvements seem to translate to their applications, as well.
Students are using the kata to warm up before class. This is replacing other stuff they were doing (including one doing his Shotokan kata), or in some cases replacing just standing around waiting for class. Again, more practice is happening.
I'll be starting one student on another type of kata soon (techniques in actual application and adding strikes). I expect some similar improvements off those. I had originally envisioned 10 kata (Classical and application for each of 5 sets), but I don't think I'll end up going that far. I may well stop at 7 (5 Classical, 2 application), since there's a chance I'll add weapons kata later. The kata don't get high emphasis. I do test them, but just to make sure they can do them and are demonstrating movements consistent with the principles of the techniques. If I ever get someone to black belt, I'll get pretty picky about their kata at that point (the only next step is instructor certification).
