There are lots of kata around, from the kata of karate and iaido, to the very formal and seemingly fossilized two-man kata of koryu kenjutsu and jujutsu to the fairly loose kata of standard aikido practice (and yeah, most aikido practice is definitely kata). But what are the most important elements of kata.
It the techniques that everyone sees and focuses one. In karate, the kata are mainly about how to strike and block. In iai they are all about learning to draw quickly and with control. In koryu arts they are about learning the techniques for destoying your opponent. Or are they?
To me, the essence of kata are in how they deal with spacing, timing and the rhythm of the attack. The techniques are pretty much incidental to the primary lessons of the kata.
I agree. It is plumbing the depths of all those variables that let kata remain such a vital part of training years and years after the gross movements are learned.
ReplyDeleteFor aikido kata I'd like to add maintaining a connection between uke and tori in all the twist and turns that some aikido techniques have.
ReplyDeleteI agree that spacing, timing and the rhythm of the attack are key elements, but I think you are forgetting the elements of learning proper body control and training yourself to move in a new way. In recent years I have begun to think that in many cases that the solo iai training elements of iai based ryuha (that is to say, iai ryuha that included both solo and partnered forms) was originally less about using the sword as it was about giving the practitioner an area of practice where they can ignore the intensity of spacing, timing and rhythm of partnered practice and instead focus solely on what your body is doing and refine how you are moving. Of course this can and should also be worked on in partnered work, some ryuha just seem to approach it from a different angle.
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