The Importance of Understanding Kata

*This blog post is dedicated to Mikasan-  a martial artist of integrity, a man  I have never met, yet consider a  good friend!

**"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think"-Socrates

The importance of understanding kata-Naihanchi:

The ancients left a blueprint, a roadmap for us to follow if we are wise and willing to put the time in to truly understand what we are practicing.This is a lifelong process of  anguish, tediousness, frustration, discovery and finally understanding.

One of the most important things we all learned from our teacher Mr. Oyata was how to interpret/read
kata.I would have figured out very little if any of this on my own. He felt it was vitally important to do the basic kata until it was ingrained, part of you.
This was your foundation-once this was achieved you could build upon it, move on to the next. evolution/timing. He taught basic kata for many years-in fact, there were many individuals that were only exposed to basic kata, fundamentals and very basic techniques. Many left before he changed timings and began to teach intermediate and advanced kata and techniques. In their own minds, these individuals became convinced they had learned his"Art", everything he had to teach-in reality they had just scratched the  very surface of our teachers martial arts knowledge.

When I started training with Mr. Oyata and the Kansas City black belts in 1990, we were
doing basic Naihanchi Shodan and intermediate Naihanchi Shodan. I had been doing basic since 1986
and he had just introduced intermediate timing to everybody the year before.I had to do basic and intermediate timing as part of my black belt test in 1990.
People were struggling to put moves together to his exacting standards.
We worked exclusively on this kata and timing every night, for weeks/months on end.We were also doing this timing as a group for demonstrations at tournaments. Our teacher felt if you could not do the kata well with this timing, you could not duplicate his techniques/applications-i.e. you were wasting your/his time.

My teacher's kata, weapons and fighting system are highly sophisticated-it was never easy to learn!
Even something that would seem as basic as footwork is highly advanced in comparison to other styles. Footwork is the cornerstone of my teacher' martial art, the hand technique is useless without it.
Neglect it and you have nothing of  real value.

It was around this time I heard my teacher say some interesting things about  Naihanchi Shodan kata motion:

"foot cross in naihanchi have different meaning-sometime I sweep, sometime I hook foot or leg, sometime I move back or forward-but sometime crossing foot just mean foot is moving-that's all-I step, maybe step forward, or step back or out to side.

"hand motion start, hand follow hand, foot follow hand. No can start foot first-this no make sense for defense".

"Aim from middle of body-arms go out from middle, come back to middle, "

The first time I ever saw Mr. Oyata do technique for a grab from behind, it was when we were working on Naihanchi Nidan, basic and intermediate timing. He began to show some different techniques and explained that although the kata were practiced on a straight line, I could still be doing the techniques after twisting/turning and starting a new line facing my opponent who had grabbed me from behind. A giant lightbulb went off in my head upon hearing this-It had never occurred to me that the line could change-I could be fighting any direction, doing these techniques when turning-creating a new line every time I turned,as defending myself dictated.
His previous statement about the crossing foot in Naihanchi made perfect sense-I could be stepping back behind my other foot to turn quickly to counter my opponent grabbing from behind.

Wrap your head around the idea that the kata /technique are abstract-I have to think outside of the box-more of a "what could it be"? than "this is what it looks like" Consider the possibilities when practicing individual kata. What are the unique moves? what are the repetitive moves? Why would I move this direction while doing this?

The lines we practice on, the directions seem to be  a suggestion, a book of good advice.
Remember, those lines  we are fighting on are always changing as the attack or response dictates.
Basic can be a straight line,  advanced may be multi-directional/ eight directions.

The ancients cleverly hid their ideas in the kata, like a riddle. It takes many years of constant practice to truly understand this body motion., the meaning of these movements.
 Naihanchi Nidan is rather complicated-it is a kata of  strange, short movements, precarious balance and backwards technique/fighting. I have seen some horrible versions over the years-my previous kata included. I have worked on this one for years-it's coming along nicely!
Very few people can do this kata well, with power, precision and timing and an understanding of what it means-those that can tend to have exceptional technique.

The most important thing I could share with everybody is the importance Mr. Oyata placed on breaking down kata and working on small pieces/segments. It was maddening-frustrating to only work on 2-3 or 3-4 moves over and over again, but is is exactly how and why our kata got better over time. I still do it when a  particular segment feels weak or funny to me.

I was extremely fortunate to have the experiences I had and the training that I received from a true Master. I am going to continue these posts based on the responses I have received. There is quite a bit of this I am covering in the book I am working on. The book is progressing slowly, the way it needs to. I intend for it to be very good, we shall see.