A few weeks ago I started a survey on Funakoshi’s quote saying that he had learned the Kata Tekki / Naihanchi for 10 years. What did he might learn? Finally I come to draw my conclusions, based on your answers and share these with you. The survey showed a high participation and also a great willingness to discuss this topic on the web. I hope my following article also meets your interest.
The question of whether Master Funakoshi had actually trained this Kata over a period of 10 years, or made it´s content to the subject of his studies will never be fully cleared. I’ve always asked myself the question how it could have been sufficiently interesting for the learner to remain in the karate-do with such a reduced content over such a long period of time.
The possible answeres in the survey are correspondingly possible topics or contents, which I could imagine being contents for Funakoshi from my perspective. Your answers show that a high proportion of the voters agree that Funakoshi’s Tekki-based karate education did not just only have a purely technical approach, but rather also had been very practical-oriented.
In addition to the technical qualities such as technique, timing and breathing, many of you have stated that they also believe, it was a learning goal to implement the contents of these kata in numerous partner training forms, whether with locks, throws, blocking or defensive movements, punches and Kicks, applications of the content against several attackers and proofing the effectiveness on the pad. Some do even believe that the contents of the Kata were also used in ground combat.
What does that mean for us? Is it useful for us practicing Karate today to know and train all offered katas? Or is there actually a little more to i? Would it perhaps be more helpful for us as students to find a trainer or teacher who is familiar with Kata, to figure out which Kata fits into ones own karate and practice those few katas for a long time in depth?
My conclusion:
Selective learning is not a mistake in Kata, but a good decision. Instead of having the goal of pursuing as many kata as possible, we should reduce the scope and limit ourselves to a few combat systems (Kata) and concentrate on understanding this content. Your answers in the survey show a certain expectation as to what Kata could teach us. Therefore my request:
Let’s go for it! Learning, understanding and applying Kata, because Kata gives our martial-art soul. As a technical guide, it is not only the roots, but also carries the know-how into the future.
In 2016, I announced that the Kata will be given a bigger place in the future in karatepraxis-seminars. Your answers in this survey encourage me. We are going to offer our existing Kata-Effective-Bunkai courses intensified in order to share the feeling of how precious kata can be and to show the various possibilities of application. On the next level there will be the Kata Bunkai Expert courses. Those will focus on advanced students and the complex learning and teaching system of this form. Participation in these courses is only possible after prior registration and for a maximum of 20 participants. More information are soon to come on this website.
Karatepraxis is a modern tradition.
Please also become a member of the Karatepraxis.com Facebook group and subscribe to the same YouTube channel. You can get information about Koshinkan Karate on Koshinkan.de, at Facebook via ‘Koshinkan Deutschland’ and also by contacting me of course.
