Kata

Traditional Kata
(Taikyoku)

New Age Kata

OUR FORMS, OUR KATAS

H O N O R T H R O U G H T H E M A R T I A L A R T S

It sometimes seems to martial artists that some of the moves in katas are rather unwise to execute on the street in a real-life fighting situation. For example, the common front stance used in so many of the forms leaves the student very balanced, but unable to move quickly. So why are there these stances in katas when they are impractical when employed in real-life fighting?

To answer that, the student must understand a bit of martial art history. For many years in Japanese and Korean history, the practice of martial arts was forbidden. Back then, if someone was caught practicing martial arts, he was jailed or even killed. Did this stop people from practicing? Not entirely. Martial art training was done in secret. What they then did was disguise their practice right there in the open fields. Viewers could see the people doing these moves and would not be aware that they were training their martial art skills. Thus, kata or form was born. By doing their kata repeatedly, they were exercising their muscles, working on their mind-body coordination, flow and timing, balance, and executing some of the strikes. So kata was useful in aiding their martial arts skills.

Over the years, practitioners of martial arts have tried not to change the traditional katas, but over the years they have been altered somewhat.

Many high-ranking martial art instructors today believe that katas have no use in martial arts training because they do not aid the student in fighting. What they may fail to understand is that though fighting is an important part of martial arts, it is not the ONLY part, and all martial art training need not be directed solely to the enhancement of fighting. In this line of thinking, perhaps sparring has no use in martial arts because it does not enhance the art of kata!

Kata aids the student in his development of mind-body coordination, grace of movement, balance, and sense of flow . . . which will help the student's growth as a martial artist.