The Art of Kata Application

                           

I’ve been thinking that a discussion of the elements involved in the analysis of kata application may make for an interesting discussion.  This discussion will not examine a larger potential issue, how to mix and match techniques from a single kata, or from multiple kata, to find other application answers.

As the arts have been passed, except as our instructors shared or didn’t share applications, there are no concrete rules in most cases that must be followed The only exception is in the actual direct teaching of an instructor or group of instructors. In such cases, if you remain their student you have the answers you need.

The first consideration may seem simple, that one has to know the material, but it is extremely important. Knowing the material is much more than just moving through space. It is having true knowledge in the material to have faith in it.

Many individuals working a specific technique application find when facing the pressure of an attack, even with a technique series they’ve been doing for years don’t have the faith to follow through with the technique they were just shown, an application that will work, and instead do something else. A reasonable choice for sheer survival, yet short cuts won’t build skill in the long run.

It’s not the technique doesn’t work, especially when the instructor just showed it to them, and explained what to do in detail. But you have to believe that you can actually drop somebody with it too.  That faith is a critical element in technique analysis. If you write a technique off as ‘useless’, you’ll live up to that prediction.

So let’s assume you truly have faith in the technique, one which your instructor or lineage did not explain the application potential. What general components might one look at in the analysis process.

I think the first is defining the sequence that you are using. When you’re taught a kata the sections were drawn for you by your instructor.  For general discussion I’ll use the opening section of Isshinryu Karate’s Seisan Kata.

1 Bow feet closed.

2 Step to ready stance with both hands performing a double down block stopping before each knee

3 Step forward into the left front stance as you execute a left front block, while your right hand chambers.

4 Then retract your left hand to chamber and throw a right reverse punch.

5 Step forward into the right front stance, retract the right hand to chamber and throw a left reverse punch.

8 Step forward into the left front stance as you execute a left front block, while your right hand chambers.

 

I’ll discard bow motion applications, leaving them for another time.  This is a personal thing I’m not into bows.

The most common usage would be seen as no’s 3 and 4 done together, step in block and reverse punch.  In fact I’m going to use this as the base application in other points I’ll be examining.

But, there is a much wider range of answers. The answer could be 2, or 2 and 3, or 2, 3 and 4, or 2 through 6 using the large picture of the motions involved. But complete techniques can be found in the fractals of the motions involved. The sub components of a technique may be complete techniques or all the sub components within a technique may be a complete series in their own right.

Another avenue to explore is the role of timing and breathing in the series of execution. These aspects can change the technique potential in many ways.

Then the direction your technique motion addresses an attack must be considered.  That section of Seisan I’ve previously mentioned, 3 and 4, is most often shown against a lunging punch, and you’re replying straight on, which gives one set of answers. Another answer is to change the angle of insertion into the attack, say cross the line of attack by 20 degrees, giving a separate set of answers.

The motion of striking must be considered. What looks like chambering and striking contain various components when combined with say changing the angle of attack. Is that reverse punch just a strike into the chest, from some angles of insertion it could strike ito the chest several times as it ends striking into the triceps of that attackers arm.  The kata motion may give one option, but high and low strike potential coming from that same motion can be logically explored. The retracting hand also has vast striking, slicing potential into an opponent.

The full use of the body, upper and lower, must be maintained. Often the act of moving hides lower body applications, kicks, knee strikes, stomps, checks, sweeps, reaps. The act of moving can be used as a shearing plane of force in addition to karate’s percussive aspects. Techniques dropping to the floor may be throws. Techniques rising into the air may hide more than just kicks, after all when you go up you come down.

 

The direction of kata technique can be reversed providing more options. At times stepping back can be more than just defensive, getting away from an attacks pressure, it can create a void the target moves into, creating an opening to attack/counter-attack.  This strongly means breaking kata from just one way of potential, and instead exploring all its implications.  In fact with replacement stepping you can do a kata with all it’s movement staying in one place.

The technique of no movement must be explored.  You can do a complete kata without taking a step, and without sacrificing any of the above principles.

Even more abstract is the fact kata technique could be seen as the opening, then intermediate and even closing response to an attack, not necessarily the entire picture.

Kata provide many layers of technique execution. Say a side block/strike. Are you blocking across with one answer, or are you going out and drawing back as you execute the sucking block, provides a separate answer. Both have uses.

The method of execution incorporating many force multipliers must be taken into account.  Examples would be the role of chambering, the use of the knee release, the alignment of the body especially where one hand touches the arm of execution, and the use of the eyes in conjunction with the rest, all can be tools to increase the effect of a technique.

There is no fast rule to how these issues are incorporated in the study of kata application potential.  In fact they are likely layered in over long study, not everything at once.  As your understanding deepens, the potential to see more aspects increases too.