Make Kata Work For You

Life is full of variety, and so is kata.

Each kata has its own unique personality: from the forceful yet simple brutality of Heian Shodan to the intricacies and intimate fighting nature of Tekki Sandan.  And like a good friend, each kata can be treated differently, depending on the goals of knowledge being sought.  Relaxed and gentle, like cool spring day, the focus can then be on breathing through each movement - finding the flow of power through the dance of the breath and body dynamics.   Without abandon, crashing through each technique like your life depended on it working, Nearly ready to collapse as if you just ran the 400 meters in the best time of your life.

Notice I described Heian Shodan, first kata learned in most likely all Shotokan syllabus, as forceful and brutal.  One tenet I subscribe to is that each movement throughout each kata has real life purpose: whether to attack, or to prepare for attack.  Another tenet of mine is that each combination of "mini-katas" found within each kata must finish a self defense scenario.  It's these frames of mind, plus a myriad of other mindful practice scenarios that allow one to make kata practice one's own.  That's how I view kata.

Like nearly all endeavors in life, kata practice is more mind than matter.  Surely an hour or so working through various combinations of kata will make you sweat buckets, but the intent must always rule.  What is the frame of mind while preparing and performing each kata.  If your mind is on the pint of Guinness you'll be enjoying later, then kata at that time is next to meaningless in my opinion. I'm not saying you should be the warrior every time, but have a learning purpose for each performance.  I think of each performance of a particular kata as a building block for that kata. You want to build a strong tower, so each block must be strong: if the intent desired was learned then that block is as strong as it needs to be.

That's all for now...