Why bother with Kata?

You hear this all the time don't you? Kata is nothing like a fight, why bother with Kata? You don't see any Kata moves in the UFC, why bother with Kata? You don't see any fancy Kata moves outside the chip shop on a Saturday night, why bother with Kata? I don't know what those moves really mean, why bother with Kata? Why try and learn something that takes ages to get right? I want to learn to fight NOW, why bother with Kata? I am only learning this Kata to pass the next grade, why bother with Kata? And so on and so on...

Kata is, perhaps, the most miss-understood aspects of the Martial Arts. Some "experts" call it the secrets of fighting, some "experts" say that Kata are weapons only forms with little or no application empty handed, and some "experts" claim to have discovered the "real meanings". Some "experts" who once taught Kata Bunkai now teach MMA instead and have written off Kata. So, what is Kata then?

The simple answer, which sounds like a get out, is this; Kata is what you want it to be! Plain and simple. Look, if ALL you want to do is learn how to fight on the "street"... go pick a few fights... you WILL learn or die trying.

If ALL you want to do is be a MMA Fighter, then go train in that and get in the cage / ring... you WILL learn or get beat up trying.

Those two examples are VERY short lives in the Martial Arts. We used to say that anyone who went from style to style and only stayed a few months at each, was the type of person with no real commitment to learning and usually not talented enough to get a Black Belt.

Today, that person is a "serious" cross trainer taking the best from each Art and making himself a fighter, ready for the cage at a moments notice with the ability to destroy 20 year Black Belt veterans. With the severe decline in the "actual understanding of Karate" in the recent years... that is probably true now!

What does any of this rant actually have to do with Kata?

Quite a lot actually...

You see, that person going from style to style, that our little Karate world used to ridicule so much... is in fact, without knowing it probably, doing EXACTLY what all Martial Artists SHOULD be doing, trying to learn a complete system. He is learning a "complete system" for a cage fight.

As Karateka we should be learning a "complete system" for Self Defense. This, by the way, is VERY different from a cage fight. If that needs explaining, then you have no experience of one or either. OF COURSE, there are transferable skills before you start on that one.

Back to the guy going from style to style... he is doing Kata for Cage Combat, Kata for sport so as to speak. Every time he shadow boxes, every time he does paired up drills, every time he does situational sparring, every time he does open sparring and yes EVERY time he fights.

His BASICS look the same as his drills (Kata) and sparring , which look the same as his fight. He learns one way of doing things. Example; His jab is done the same way in the air, as it is on the pads, as it is in sparring as it is in a fight! Replicate that with each and every technique and you can appreciate why that guy can beat most Black Belts in a very short time period. His training methods and application are simply superior for the job at hand!

As Karateka, we have somehow lost our way. Our basics look little like our kata, which looks NOTHING LIKE our sparring, which just does not resemble our fighting. Where has it all gone wrong?

It's quite simple really, we have "mixed" up our training process, and we have become confused about what we want, what we are trying to achieve, what are our goals?

That MMA guy is VERY CLEAR as to his goals. He then sets about the business of achieving them in the shortest time frame. It is VERY SIMPLE in concept, learn to fight for the cage, get fit, get in and fight!

We Karateka have too many mixed messages going on; Karate is for REAL Self Defense. Karate is for enlightenment. Karate is to achieve a higher level of consciousness. Karate is about "the Way" or the "Do".

Only you really know what you want to achieve from your Karate training! Karate can bring you all of the above and much more if you let it. It CAN bring you the attributes of the MMA Sporting guy. It CAN bring the attributes of the street thug. It CAN bring you the attributes of the "enlightened one".

Again, what does all this have to with Kata? Why bother with Kata?

OK... as a taster for you, here is a massive sweeping statement that should get a few people going; Kata is the BASIS for all MMA Sports fights, ALL Street fights and EVERY aspect of your Martial Arts training!

That's a light the blue touch paper statement right there!