Karate Bunkai and the Modern World

Kata

Kata (型 or 形) (literally: "form") is a Japanese word describing detailed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. Karate katas are executed as a specified series of approximately 4 to 40 moves, with stepping and turning, while attempting to maintain perfect form. The practitioner is counseled to visualize the enemy attacks and their responses. A karateka "read" a kata in order to explain the imagined events. There are perhaps 100 kata across the various forms of karate, each with many minor variations.
-Extracted from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_kata)

Personal intepretations of kata will be one of exercise, much like those practising Taichi, Wushu, Aikido, Silat etc etc

Katas are actual combat responses, albeit trained ones, to simulated attacks. We practise them through bunkai.

Trained responses to an attack is just like asking a short order cook to prepare "Steam Promfet"... repeat the tried and tested method of cooking the dish.. Perfect everytime! YAY!

...but wait..

What if the fish is NOT Pomfret?... er.... cook the same way?.... well maybe in cooking, you might get away with it... but in martial arts... NO WAY.

No one punch in the same way.
No one reacts in the same way.
No one moves with the same speed.
No one strikes with the same power.
...blah blah blah..you get the idea.

Kata gives you a story to recite by heart.
Bunkai gives you a script to perform.
Kumite puts you in the producer/director/lead actor seat.

We learn kata by heart to perfect our kihon (basic/fundamental) techniques, without which nothing will ever come to fruitation because we cannot even punch or block to save our lives.. true or not? Different katas give us a chance to practice different combination of kihon punches, kicks, blocks but most importantly you will notice about kata is the often neglected aspect...tenshin.

Wait..I did not forget about stances. Without good proper and strong stances, you should not even ben practising that level of kata. We have different katas that caters to different levels of training, so make sure you pick your choice of training katas that suits you and not over-expose yourself to too advance kata without proper training and waste time.. YAR. WASTE TIME.

Occasionally I will be asked to sit in for a judge in a kata competition, and the first thing I will notice about a competitor is the eyes when they approach the mat to begin their routine. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul... TRUE. I used to be able to stare down my opponents in the ring.. nowadays I just kinda squint at them.. hee hee *ahem..

Tenshin is the movement of the karate as he/she react to combat situations. Unfortunately, some aspects of karate is lost when different styles of karate emphasize on competition. See my above gripe about not having proper training in stances.

Try thinking like this, a skeet shooter and an air-rifle specialist. Skeet shooters react instinctively to targets being shot into the air, taking into account wind and velocity of the clay targets, they pull their trigger. The air-rifle specialist shoots in a controlled environment, zero wind and no outside distractions. Just the countdown and the number of shots they have to take. Put both together in a controlled competition and guess who is the better shooter? Now throw them in a war situation with just an M-16, guess who is likely to have more kills?

Another analogy, in a boxing match-boxers wear padded gloves and mouth guards, karate tournaments-karatekas wear padded fistguards, shin guards, foot guards, mouth guards. We fight in weight classes, below 65KG, below 75KG, 75KG and above, finally throw in a MMA/Muay Thai trained fighter-no guards . Now throw all 3 types of competitors into a bar brawl, who will come out alive?

Boxers will likely break their fists soon enough after a few punch (OH! You are a boxer and you disagree with me? Have you tried to make full contact with your boxer jabs and hooks WITHOUT GLOVES on HUMAN BONES!? Try first then comment on this article HOR!?)... *ahem...
Karate exponents will fare better due to bone conditioning but will not survive most probably not used to having different weights, types and class of fighters who can TAKE your karate kicks and punches, WHILE DISHING them out to you. Survive longer... but not for long either.
MMA/Muay Thai fighters are most likely to survive due to the fact that they fight and trained with all weight class and multi-type combat styles...beer bottle attacks..er...hmm... but they may not survived because some MMA fighters like ground grappling.. YAY!! Try having a roll in the hay on the ground during a bar fight brawl and you will find boots in your HEAD AND FACE while you trying to submit your single opponent...

Don't think I just type based on textbook analogies, I have been in bar brawls... I know karate, but I just split the scene... guess what, I survived... lol better fate then I can say for those who remained...

Ever seen hornets taking on bees? I have seen National Geographic Channel where a documentary was televised about 10 hornets, 10! taking on a colony of 3000 bees!

C'mon the sheer number of bee stings would have killed the hornets (Yar I know I forgot the species of bees liao, but they have stings one), but the hornets just killed the entire colony. Yar massacred. 300 to 1 odds. hmm...

I don't condone violence. Really I don't. I prefer looking girls and their figures, personally I am a shoulders, butt and legs man. But sometimes a man needs to do what a man needs to do (something like that lar, macho crap)..I will have to stand up for myself if I really need to. And I will.

PS: The reason why my blog is getting updated regularly these few days is because I am down with some crappy virus. So I cannot gym, train, run, ...you get the idea.. so I sit in front of my computer all day long...like as if I don't already.. wahahaha

Rob outz~