Look, I’m a kata guy. I love doing a karate workout where I focus primarily on form. I can still work up a sweat, work on my foundations and manage to sharpen my skills and strength. People tend to frown on kata, claiming it holds little to no value in actual combat. Fair enough, but is it an integral part of getting there. And this’ll make more sense shortly. Most people, in general, enjoy kumite a lot more. No, I don’t mean the fake tournament that was depicted in the movie Bloodsport. I mean actual kumite, which is done in karate. Perhaps as a safe starting point, I should explain the two.
Kata, or form, is a pre-arranged pattern of movements, techniques and stances that are repeated in sequence. The idea behind kata is that it is the foundation, focusing mainly on stance, precision and the delivery of strikes and blocks. The movements will sometimes be exaggerated or done beyond what one might do in practice. This is based on the “give ‘em an inch” concept, where doing it to a certain extent in form will guarantee one’s ability to perform it to the required level in actual combat. Kata are often viewed as something ceremonial and often used for demonstration purposes.
Kumite, or sparring, is usually where one brings the techniques and methods developed through kata into practice. The combat here is normally simulated, although some styles do engage in full contact sparring. In my style, we often did both, with focus on the control of techniques and the depth and power in which we used them. One can practice kumite with one or more opponents and it can be used to sharpen one’s skills in ways that can’t be achieved in kata. An easy comparison would be a boxer who only does shadow boxing and never strikes a bag. The form may be good but without the development of striking an actual target, proper skill will never be achieved.
No matter one’s preference, both are needed to train and develop properly. many see kata as useless. This stems from the belief that the choreographed and pre-arranged movements of kata do nothing to prepare a practitioner for actual combat. But if one tries to do kumite without first learning kata, the foundation won’t be there and the techniques will be sloppy, incorrect and many cases, dangerous. If one only does kata and never engages in kumite, proper strength, control and development will never occur and one may be ineffective if one ever needs to defend oneself.
All aspects of karate involve a balance of moving parts and different aspects. You can’t do only one and ignore the rest and still believe you are doing true karate. It’s hard to compete a puzzle if you do so with missing pieces. Of course, that’s the beautiful part of the puzzle that is karate; if done properly, you’ll never be quite done. And as Sensei always used to tell me, karate is a puzzle with a million pieces. The goal isn’t to finish but to go home with one more piece, every day. ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 