I watched a 95-year-old Okinawan Uechi-ryu master recently performing Sanseiryu, Shintoku Takara, and it stayed with me longer than I expected. Not because of anything dramatic, but because of how little seemed to be happening on the surface. There was no urgency, no obvious effort, and none of the exaggerated movement that people often associate with…
Tag: Kata
The Signal and the Noise: Finding Quiet Power
In a previous article I wrote about the exaggerated movement you see in kata, the overuse of the shoulders and torso – that’s noise. If that’s the noise, then this is the signal. To understand the difference, you have to look at how weight is being used. Most people focus on what they can see…
When Power Becomes Performance
Do you watch a kata and, at first glance, it looks impressive – snappy, powerful – but something about the function just feels wrong? The techniques look powerful, but only because the body is being overused to make them look that way. Big shoulder rotation. Excessive upper body movement. A visible “back and forth” to…
When Something Changes in Your Training
After decades in the martial arts, something changes. You’re no longer just repeating what you were taught. Is spending decades in the martial arts – learning and teaching across several styles – enough to shape your own method? I wonder why this is frowned upon. Much of it likely comes from the McDojo culture, where…
Karate, it’s like a classic car
Karate is like a classic car. We don’t need it, and perhaps it’s not even fit for purpose anymore. There are other “cars” that have better fuel consumption, more comfortable seats, and all the modern features we’ve come to expect. But we still love them anyway, because they make us feel something that the modern…
Self-defense – what are we really training for?
Self-defense – the ability to protect yourself when it matters. We train for it for years, and for some of us, decades. But for what? One moment? Maybe a moment that never even comes. Does that make it any less important, or does it mean we should just treat training as something for fitness and…
There Is No ‘Ready’ Moment
I received a comment recently about the opening of kata – the yoi position – and how it might represent awareness. The point where you recognize something isn’t right and prepare yourself. I understand why people see it that way. But it rests on something that doesn’t really hold up when you look at it…
Pre-Emption and Kata: What Comes Before the Movement
There’s a question that came up after I wrote about kata not showing the setup. What about pre-emption? If it’s often better to act first – to move before the attacker commits – then where does that fit? Because kata doesn’t show that either. And that’s the point. Kata doesn’t try to show the moment of…
Reflections on Kata: Why Kata Does Not Show the Setup
I’ve been watching this for years. Someone takes a piece of kata and immediately tries to turn it into a neat sequence. This is the attack, this is the defense, this is what comes next. It all lines up nicely, and on the surface it makes sense. But the more you look at it, the…
Reflections on Kata: The Syllabus in the Shadows
I’ve been thinking lately about how much time we spend polishing the outside of the vessel without ever looking at what’s inside. After over fifty years on the mat, I’ve performed thousands of repetitions of the same kata. In the beginning, it was about the physical – the crispness of the technique, the power in…
One of the strangest claims still repeated in karate is that throws do not belong in the art. And yet the historical record says otherwise. Gichin Funakoshi himself documented throwing methods, and senior figures have long acknowledged their place. The issue is not whether throws existed in karate. The issue is why so many modern…
Was Itosu Preserving Karate – Or Changing It?
I’ve been looking at Anko Itosu’s 1908 letter again. It’s one of those documents people often cite. But if you look past the standard translations, I’m not sure the letter says what people think it says. Itosu was in a difficult position. He wanted karate in the school system, which meant he had to make…