Reducing kata to its essence


I read a lot of people excusing themselves of practicing kata while they are not in the dojo (at home, traveling, in hotels...) because they do not have enough space to practice a whole kata.

That, of course, is just a excuse for not practicing.

See:

As you can see, I do a loooong kata in a very reduced space. Yes, my performance is poor, rushed and uninterested, I can see that, but stay with me.
The key to practice kata in a less-than-ideal environment is to change it. Yes, you can change kata. A modified kata is better than no kata.
Read that again.

So, how to do it?
Many kata have a repetition of the same technique 3 times. So you need to do the full step and the 3 techniques? No, you don't. Three techniques in kata are there for a reason. Study the reason and just mod your kata to fit your space.
Change the directions. It doesn't matter. No, it doesn't. You are not trying to perform the whole perfect kata, you are just trying to get some training.
Be imaginative!
Turn around, skip steps, go back and forth, use the angles... make it fit!

I could have chosen Suparimpei or Gojushiho (that I also practice on that corner) but Jion is (was) my tournament kata so, why not?

You can see I used my gi for the video. You do not need to use yours. I never use it at home. No, the Karate kami will not get angry with you. It will only get angry if you fail to train.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A rainbow of choices

Image
Let's talk about something really trivial now: What colour should the embroidery of my belt be? First, let's start with the most common one: golden brown (金茶, in Japanese): This is a belt that was gifted to me so the content of the embroidery is kind of unusual but the picture will show the colour I am talking about. Beautiful and classic, right? So, what other colours are acceptable? By far, the two next more common colours are red and white: (red one is mine too) All the other colours have really few adepts but I have seen a blue one, a green one and a pink one: (it is pinker in person) You also can choose a metallic gold or silver threat: Considering getting a silver one soon... if not pink! And you can choose to get kanji and/or katakana (or hiragana) embroidered, but also common letters: Or you can just go crazy and get a multicolour multifont belt, like this one: Cool, uh? And what about rank strip
Read more

Saifa bunkai

Image
Today I share with you this bit of Saifa . This bunkai was shared to me by Omoto Kancho, head of Yuzenkai. I had a karateka laying around with the perfect old-school Japanese top-knot, so I used him to illustrate this technique. This part: Apparently, the same technique exists in Shotokan (and Shuri lineage, I guess) kata, so it's time to do some research! Here is the whole kata for you: @practicalkarateagain in Facebook
Read more

My Karate style

Image
What is my Karate style? I guess one needs to know if he/she can feel identified with the contents of this blog. If my methods and theories are aligned with those of his/her Dojo. Fair enough. What is my Karate style? That is a fair question with a complicated answer. My first Art was Judo, which I started to learn when I was six years old. Even though I never stopped training I did it in a discontinuous manner, never caring too much about it. I never thought it could be used in a fight, until recently. After that I joined a Shotokan Karate class, not by choice (I wanted to learn Kick boxing) but because it was the only kicking-and-punching option available at that time, until I broadened my martial circle of friends and became involved in full contact styles. Many years and a few dans later I was forced to move my residence to China, having Kyokushin as my only choice for the first years after I landed. After that I met many people involved in a variety of arts who were
Read more