I agree that Karate needs the 3 Ks (Kihon, Kata, and Kumite), but Kata is not JUST those formal mandancing patterns. Kata can also mean the 2-man variety which I feel is more valuable and relevant to MA in pretty much every way.
I'll tell you what officially made me stop ever doing kata except one in a blue moon on a whim, when my Judo school moved into a slightly less ghetto locale all of my instructors, the gendai jjj that the instructors x-train sharing space with us, we had an in-house seminar (for lack of a better term), which our teacher's teachers there. Ernie Cates did a demo of a guard pass into scarf-hold. The technique demoed wasn't so much the big deal (though it helped my scarfhold for sure which definitely helped me in general), it was that he told people to do it slow and repetitiously and bitched about people using uchi-komis as a warmup instead of as KATA (meaning focus on perfecting the form, doing every single nuance perfectly).
I already looked at line drills as improv kata, what then is the difference between a sparring drill and a 2 man kata? Japanese Sword 2-man katas look like fighting to me (and are still beautiful), why shouldn't striking katas be the same? What is the difference between pad drills & uchi komi/nage komi in judo? You should look at your form in sparring & pad drills with the same critical eye you judge kata with. The only difference is, the standards of good form have different criteria.
P.S. Fox, I don't see one why not doing kata has anything to do with someone a "tough guy". It's like, I have to prove I'm part of the not-a-meathead MA sect by giving you the secret Masonic mandance of Bassai Dai (Japanese for "Truffle Shuffle").
I'll tell you what officially made me stop ever doing kata except one in a blue moon on a whim, when my Judo school moved into a slightly less ghetto locale all of my instructors, the gendai jjj that the instructors x-train sharing space with us, we had an in-house seminar (for lack of a better term), which our teacher's teachers there. Ernie Cates did a demo of a guard pass into scarf-hold. The technique demoed wasn't so much the big deal (though it helped my scarfhold for sure which definitely helped me in general), it was that he told people to do it slow and repetitiously and bitched about people using uchi-komis as a warmup instead of as KATA (meaning focus on perfecting the form, doing every single nuance perfectly).
I already looked at line drills as improv kata, what then is the difference between a sparring drill and a 2 man kata? Japanese Sword 2-man katas look like fighting to me (and are still beautiful), why shouldn't striking katas be the same? What is the difference between pad drills & uchi komi/nage komi in judo? You should look at your form in sparring & pad drills with the same critical eye you judge kata with. The only difference is, the standards of good form have different criteria.
P.S. Fox, I don't see one why not doing kata has anything to do with someone a "tough guy". It's like, I have to prove I'm part of the not-a-meathead MA sect by giving you the secret Masonic mandance of Bassai Dai (Japanese for "Truffle Shuffle").
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