Peter Boylan has a lot of good discussion on his blog concerning the importance of Kata. I recommend reading blog for it contains a great deal of wisdom on kata. Peter is a friend of mine and a practice of several koryu budo systems and has devoted himself to a very detailed study of many things that I simply lack the attention span and patience to study.
I spent a weekend with Peter last year and was very impressed with his application and understanding of martial arts and the application of classical systems. I saw many parallels to the things that are important in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu such as posture, space, and timing.
Anyway, having spent many of my earlier years learning kata (which I hated!), and then moving to aikido where I thought that there was no kata at all since we are so dynamic in practice, then to BJJ, which again, is another art which would appear to be all randori and no kata, it seemed to me to be a waste of time.
In the last year though as I started to mature in my rank as a purple belt in BJJ and a new student to Judo, I kinda hit a wall in my training where I really ceased to grow and get better.
Fortunately, I have spent much time with some very good instructors this past year from several different practices. Mike Sigman, Toby Threadgill, Rigan Machado, Johnny Ramirez, Kazeka Muniz, and Minoro Aukuzawa. Now that is a diverse and eclectic group of individuals! Some are non-traditionalist, some are koryu, and a few of these guys are top BJJers.
One thing that was common among all of them was slowing things down and learning the basics very, very good. Some called what they do exercises, some drills, and some kata. However, there were common things among all of them.
Conditioning, proprioception, muscle memory, and posture are probably the most common things that were stressed. No of them said anything about speed, doing things faster, or harder. Most of it was about proper body dynamics, kinesiology, and being at the right place and the right time with the right response.
In all the methodologies we learned, it involved a cooperative practice or Kata.
I think why kata takes such a bad rap sometimes is that either instructors or students don’t understand the assimilation process and how to transition it to the next level of usability. Sometimes it is not so direct. I have been doing alot of reading on the Alexander Technique and how it works with our brain and body. Interesting stuff, which in my opinion, offers some good insights on how our brains work. It certainly explains why we would do kata and how kata works to “re-wire” our brain/body connection.
That however, is another post since this is such a complicated topic!
Cage Potato
