Mark Bishop(2) martial arts author and researcher, recounts that Shinpan Shiroma, a student of Anko Itosu, often admitted to not knowing the technical functions of some movements of kata, merely explaining that they were for show.
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Itosu was in his 70’s when he finalized the Pinan kata and began teaching them within his school syllabus. He developed a syllabus where many basic exercises and forms were simplified and organized into a curriculum suitable for the mass instruction of students.
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Therefore it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that due to this shift in karate methods, and its inclusion in the school system, the original highly effective, efficient and deadly art was in fact watered down and bore no relation to the art that came before.
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Funakoshi wrote in ‘Karate-Do My Way of Life’; “Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too. The karate that high school students practise today is not the same karate that was practised even are recently as ten years ago, and it is a long way indeed from the karate I learned when I was a child in Okinawa”.(1)
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A martial art isn’t just a collection of techniques. It’s a way of moving and using your body. And if you are to do this with any kind of authenticity you must understand what you are doing and why.
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Many instructors learn by watching their own teachers, and even those with a long history in the martial arts, sometimes they just don’t know…… And this is okay, as long as you admit it and don’t teach it as the “real thing”.
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Teaching – regardless of subject, topic, skillset, or discipline, is difficult. One major mistake you see way too often is that students are being chosen to teach because of their ability to perform. That is in no way indicative of their ability to pass things on to others and with the necessary understanding.
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Being able to do something doesn’t necessarily mean you intellectually understand what you’re doing. In my opinion that’s a necessary requisite if you’re going to teach. But understanding what you’re doing doesn’t necessarily mean you can communicate it well either. That too is essential for teaching.
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The martial arts are extremely wide as well as deep in scope – they are complex and hard to fully grasp, let alone teach. And today there is an ever-greater desire for a more pragmatic approach, with more and more instructors seeking information that will help them shift to a more pragmatic perspective.
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If your training is predominately focused towards counters against stepping punches, using blocks, and kicks etc. which are delivered from six feet away, you’re not practicing pragmatic karate. So, understand that your karate has some practices that are dysfunctional, developed during its rapid expansion in Japan and don’t seem to make very much combative sense….. and be honest, teach it as such. 
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(1) Gichin Funakoshi quote from: “Karate-do: my way of life”. (2) Reference Mark Bishop, ‘Okinawan Karate’, 1989.
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