What Kata's are and are not!

[Guest]

akja - go ahead and do Kata if you want to. Many of the arts, like you say, have/had them. But do try to see the correlation between those that still practice them, and those that are effective.

Why not buy a horse and cart instead of a car? Most vehicles were like that once. Why not live in a mud hit instead of a house, as most did that once too. And I'm not even getting into pigs bladder condomms. Etc.etc. etc.

Kata is out of date. There are far better training methods that a totally predetermined and relativley lengthy sequence of movements in which there are supposed hidden meanings.

Let me know when you see a basketball player running down the court pretending to be bouncing a ball. I will call those nice men in white coats.......

[akja]

Originally posted by Bri Thai
akja - go ahead and do Kata if you want to. Many of the arts, like you say, have/had them. But do try to see the correlation between those that still practice them, and those that are effective.

Why not buy a horse and cart instead of a car? Most vehicles were like that once. Why not live in a mud hit instead of a house, as most did that once too. And I'm not even getting into pigs bladder condomms. Etc.etc. etc.

Kata is out of date. There are far better training methods that a totally predetermined and relativley lengthy sequence of movements in which there are supposed hidden meanings.

Let me know when you see a basketball player running down the court pretending to be bouncing a ball. I will call those nice men in white coats.......

Yes, I would say there are far better ways of training. But kata isn't useless. What I've read is that most people beleive that the movement in a kata is exactly how it is performed in application. Which it isn't.

It does not mean that because in a kata you block and punch like this and in a real fight that is all that you know. Kata is just another form of practice. One tool in a toolbox, maybe less effective than some of the tools, maybe not.

When we get in fight, we don't know how we will react until we actually fight. Its absurd to have the mentality that if I get into a fight that it will look like "something traditional."

I can almost guarantee you that 2000 years ago the fights the did not look traditional back then either. It was life or death. Finish him off and move on. The traditional methods are just training methods to learn. If you learn to execute a technique, that is the result.

Now the newer training methods. Of course we work harder. And speaking from a person who works 8 hours a day.

How many hours a day can we train like this? How many days a week can we train like that? And until what age can we continue to train like this?

These are all factors that need to be considered. Its about personal growth. Most professional fighters will become couch potatos. They might get fat and smoke cigars. This is what I've seen. Its all around us.

After working an 8 hour day and you can train 3 days for 3 hours. Then your on track, but its still not enough.

Every example I used is a fighters perpective. I keep hearing from you guys about horses and cars and apples and oranges. That tells me where its all coming from. Too many people have their blinders on.

There are better training methods that "we" both know exist. I'm a realist and I train hard. The differance between us is that I'm open minded.

Show me a martial artist that isn't open minded and I'll show a martial artist thats stopped learning!

[rooke]

Forms

Forms were put into martial arts, when people were fighting for life and death reasons with weapons and sometimes without. Observe Bagua, which was used by Emperor's Guards! Observe Hsing I which was used by the military. Observe Okinawan Karate which was used by peasants against armed and armored samurais.
There are numerous training drills in kali where a pattern with a training partner is repeated over and over. This is a type of form. Its used by virtually EVERY escrimador around.

Forms are being taken OUT of martial arts, by people who've never been in a life and death fight, and base their experience on grappling matches or a bar-room brawl, because the 3 years they took in 5 different styles makes them feel they know more than people who spent lifetimes refining their art.

Rooke

[akja]

I stand corrected

I stand corrected.

Rooke understands the martial arts too!

[ryanhall]

This has gone as far as I am willing to let it go. Points are being reiterated to a ridiculous extent, and nobody is convincing anybody of anything. The end.