When practicing your kata, start with a different kata every time.
The best way to do this is to print the names of the kata that you know onto cards and make these cards part of your normal training program. You can also use a pack of playing cards or number some pieces of card 1, 2, 3, 4 etc up to the number of kata you can perform. If you only know the first kata, that is fine, just keep practicing it while you learn another one.
Now shuffle the cards placing them face down in your training area and then turn them over one at a time and do the kata that corresponds to the name or number as it appears, e.g. 5 (Heian Godan), 2 (Heian Nidan), 6 (Tekki Shodan) and so on.
Another good way to train is to start each of your kata facing in a different direction and every so often during your practice. you should start a kata on a different angle. Both starting your kata facing different directions as well as occasionally starting them on angles is a good mental exercise as well as training you to be able to perform in different settings to what you are normally used to. You should still return to your original starting position irrespective of the direction you are facing or the angle you are on when starting your kata.
There are a number of benefits that directly relate to the practice of kata. Some of these benefits are:
- Self defence lessons
- Learning and remembering your kata
- Reinforcing basics
- Physical fitness
- Improving your concentration and focus
- Improving your coordination
- Relaxation and enjoyment
When practicing kata your opponent must be real in your mind.
You must block his attacks strongly and you must destroy him with your counter attack. This is the only way to get true self defence value from kata.
Rote learning of kata teaches the pattern and the basic movements that are required to perform the kata. Continued repetition refines your techniques.
Kata is full of basic techniques. Applying basics in a self defensive situation needs to just happen. The only way it can “just happen” is to teach the subconscious what to do in times of stress. The only way to do that effectively is through repetition of the basic techniques.
To build cardio vascular fitness you only need to practice your kata. Practice kata, three hard with full speed and power and then one soft to catch your breath and relax. By performing the kata softly I mean performing the kata with little or no power but still performing the kata technically correct.
Concentration and focus is improved by your having to remember and correctly perform the kata. Only practice can achieve this.
Your coordination is improved by your brain having to continually make you use both sides of your body to perform intricate movements which become more and more complex with each kata we learn.
You should enjoy performing kata. Do not see the performance of a kata as a task so much, but rather an opportunity to immerse yourself in the deeper meaning of the kata from a meditation perspective. You become the kata and the kata becomes you in your performance.
You will get to a point in your pursuit of Karate-Do where you move beyond the physical in the performance of your kata. Seeing the beauty within the kata is a personal progression where mind and body become truly one, and the performance of the kata is art in itself.
