Kata

A place to share ideas, concerns, questions, and thoughts about women and the martial arts.

Moderator: Available

Post Reply
dmsdc
Posts: 270
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2000 6:01 am
Location: Washington, DC
Contact:

Kata

Post by dmsdc »

This is a post of mine from another forum I'm on. I'd be interested to hear your ideas.
Dana

To anthropomorphize kata, I would say that kata is the kind of person who would say "AND" much more often that he would say "OR." For example:

Kata says "You can train your body for strength AND you can train your body to know where to strike"
Kata says "You can train your body to know where to stike AND you can train yourself to know what you are striking when you strike there."
Kata says "You can train yourself to know what you are striking when you strike there AND you can train yourself to know why that particular method works"

Kata rarely says "You can train your body OR you can train your mind"

I see Kata as a never ending series of AND. I can do this, AND I can do this, AND I can do this.
THIS can be: a strike, a joint lock, a Vital Point strike, a blunt technique, a throw...

If I try a joint-lock with one movement of the kata 100,000 times and it doesn't work, then maybe it is time to throw out the idea that at that particular moment, I'm not doing a joint lock.

AND that very same movement will likely work very well as a Vital Point strike. I suspect the inverse to be true as well. The nice thing about most martial arts though, is that you have that depth to each movement. Each individual movement MIGHT represent a strike AND a lock AND a throw AND whatever. And I belive that sometimes because of our different bodies and different ways of thinking that a movement in a kata that works very well as a strike for you may work better as a throw for me.
User avatar
gmattson
Site Admin
Posts: 6069
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 1998 6:01 am
Location: Lake Mary, Florida
Contact:

Kata

Post by gmattson »

I wonder if practicing any series of movements might accomplish the same thing. We humans have the remarkable ability to adapt available tools (movements)for the job at hand.

Interesting post..

------------------
GEM
Post Reply

Return to “Women and the Martial Arts”