tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19390873010682307592024-03-14T02:01:59.335+11:00Continuing Steps in KarateFurther explorations of karate by meMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-47182666181714225292023-02-04T10:09:00.000+11:002023-03-09T13:24:10.693+11:00Kata as part of an oral tradition This way of looking at karate is influenced heavily by Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy (1982) and Lynne Kelly’s Power and Knowledge in Prehistoric Societies (2015) and The Memory Code (2016). What follows is where my thoughts on kata's purpose and structure have gone, based on the issues and concepts these texts cover. Kata were created within the context of oral knowledge Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-20071017430175868582022-05-15T08:32:00.003+10:002022-05-15T08:32:38.794+10:00Random thoughts #2 - kata Kata is not literal; it is indicative.Kata is not comprehensive in its details; it contains the essence.Kata is not linear; but it is cohesive - the different parts of the kata are all inter-related.Kata is not a drill - a drill is not kata; but drills can be incorporated within kata. The trick is knowing which bits of the kata are a drill and which are not.Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-82456748570047552892022-04-22T21:47:00.005+10:002022-04-22T21:47:44.479+10:00Karate and orality - initial thoughts - why kata?Last year, in preparation for a unit on Indigenous Knowledge Systems I was to teach to Year 11 students, I read a book by the Australian academic Lynne Kelly called The Memory Code. While I had already known of the concept of orality and how it relates to the transmission and retention of knowledge in pre-literate/non-literate societies, Lynne Kelly's book thrust it right to the forefront of my Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-77603237297639165342022-03-19T13:32:00.003+11:002022-03-19T13:32:55.213+11:00How close to the original is your kata?How close to the original is your kata, and how would you know?It is a cliche now that when anyone asks a question about altering/varying a part of a kata they are learning, at least some of the responses will be along the lines of "you should do it the way your sensei teaches you", or "kata are the legacy of past masters' combat experiences - to change them is to lose those experiences", or "youMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-1389010236267523472022-03-10T14:36:00.001+11:002022-03-10T14:39:38.334+11:00Fetishising stancesYears ago (30 years ago, now I think about it), I started my martial arts journey in Shotokan karate. And in that, we did a lot of stance work. Static stances, moving into stances, kihon-waza while holding or moving into stances, and focus on the stances in kata.I'm not alone - it has been a continual feature of my online interaction with the greater karate community that stances are Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-76546703193984808742020-05-29T08:22:00.003+10:002022-04-11T07:54:03.000+10:00Why have kata changed?This is a follow-up to my earlier post: What was the original kata?We know that kata have changed - even a cursory glance at youtube will show you the huge variety of ways that any given kata can be performed. This appears to not be just a modern development, as even by looking at books from the 1920s, 1930s, 1950s etc... we can see that there have been changes to kata since then, and even Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-91823775554399158702020-05-23T15:46:00.001+10:002020-05-23T15:49:04.071+10:00Random thoughts #1Just a random thought - it's generally held that when turning, or changing direction in kata, the sequence is head-feet-hands. But, what if the sequence finishes after the turn? What order should it be then? Some places where this does occur, or could occur, are in kururunfa with the west and east open-hand soto ukes; sanseru with the 4-directions technique sequences; and Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-40848761928473307802020-04-29T11:39:00.000+10:002020-04-29T11:39:22.760+10:00Kata are the textbook of karate (?)In the last fortnight, I think I have seen people use a variant of the phrase "kata are the textbook of karate" at least a couple of dozen times. It is a claim that instantly gets a lot of likes on social media and generally has a couple of follow-ups such as "kata contain all the techniques", "kata are the bible of karate" and "everything you need to know comes from the kata". Which Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-17535938484396298652020-04-06T08:30:00.000+10:002020-04-06T08:30:04.541+10:00Kata variations within the dojoThis post is related to, but is not a direct follow-on from the previous post on the original kata.
In my school, and within its parent tradition, many of the kata have different variations. For instance, in the kata Saifa, there are two different starts, two different ways to do the first section and two variants on the turn/sweep/hammerfist that are not only different from each other, Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-50018076778284260422020-03-30T09:28:00.003+11:002022-04-11T07:54:43.543+10:00what was the original kata?How can we know that the kata we are learning is the original form?One of the things that we are told - often unsolicited - is that we should do kata exactly as we have been taught, because 'the old masters knew what they were doing' or 'we will lose the meaning of the kata if we do'. Leaving those two very leading assumptions aside (for now), implied in that is that the kata have been unchangedMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-59845515355540215902020-03-23T08:30:00.000+11:002020-03-23T08:30:05.146+11:00Video Reviews
Every so often I tape myself doing kata so I can review if what I think I'm doing is what I'm actually doing. Here's one I did a couple of weeks ag, and as usual, there were a few things I thought I was doing and wasn't, as well as a couple of things I didn't think I was doing, but was. But, since that was the point of the video, that's ok.
One interesting point about this run-through wasMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-62364446104490488452020-03-16T08:30:00.000+11:002020-03-16T08:30:00.558+11:00Using the word "block" to define uke-wazaI have spent entirely too much time on the internet over the last 20-odd years, and entirely too much of that time on martial arts discussion boards. Starting with e-budo.com back in the late 90s, I must have been either a member or regular lurker of all of the major forums and some of the not-so-major ones too. Now, I still check out a couple of forums regularly (mostly Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-64536122733233441582020-03-08T08:30:00.000+11:002020-03-08T08:30:13.624+11:00Direction of movement in uke-wazaFollowing on from the previous post regarding the dual nature of uke-waza, most beginning and intermediate students find it possible to stop or at least weaken the strength of an attack, although this may not always be consistently possible. What they do find very difficult to do with any reasonable probability of success is also weaken or off-balance the opponent at the same time.
From Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-57388014689960546672020-03-03T09:00:00.000+11:002020-03-03T10:52:44.497+11:00A point about uke-wazeFor the last 7 years I have been attempting to 'translate' Ohtsuka Tadahiko's book "Goju Kensha Karatedo Kyohan", as he is the founder of the particular tradition I am in. As far as I am aware, it has not been translated before into English, so this is the only way I can read it.
I don't speak Japanese, but with a combination of Google Translate, Wiktionary, knowledge of the martial artsMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-59746356136255533322020-02-28T09:00:00.001+11:002023-03-05T17:56:07.787+11:00The worth of a (black) belt - Part 2The purpose of the beltAnd I don’t want to rehash the old, old, old ‘joke’ about it holding up your pants (karate belts hold the top closed in any case).Why award a belt in the first place? What purpose does it have within the eyes of the awardee, their sensei, their dojo, their organisation, and outside their organisation? The individual
The purpose of a black belt, in the eyes of the person Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-55354813742179270292020-02-21T09:00:00.001+11:002020-06-18T16:45:19.413+10:00The worth of a (black) belt - Part 1What’s in a belt? A belt of any other colour would be so neat (with apologies to Shakespeare). It’s the perennial whipping boy of the karate internet - What is a black belt? What does it mean? They don’t deserve theirs! Our gradings are tougher than yours! How did they get their belt? You’re only an x-belt, what do you know? So why not add my 2-bob’s worth to the melting pot of vitriol, opinion Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-70795390461646725642020-02-17T13:44:00.001+11:002020-02-17T13:49:08.406+11:00It's been 9 years since my last post!Sorry about that (not that anyone’s probably reading this anymore). It wasn’t intentional, just life and family and work came between me and writing my thoughts down on this blog. But I’m back now, as fortunately karate didn’t stop for me, even if posting about it did.So what has happened for me in the martial arts since 2011? I have graded three more times: nidan in 2013, sandan in 2015 and Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-67029096500801283382011-12-11T10:28:00.001+11:002011-12-11T10:43:34.420+11:00The death of karate? Who cares?I was introduced to the following article on a couple of internet fora, where people were getting up in arms about the author's contention that karate is weak and watered down: UFC 140: karate is overrated.
The author's contention is that because of McDojos, teaching children and antiquated techniques, karate is weak and past its use-by date. It is deliberately a polemical piece, but Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-68959774788995757942011-11-24T14:29:00.001+11:002011-11-24T14:29:54.592+11:00Sorry for the silence
Recently, I
have found that I am becoming less active in putting material on this blog, and
wish to apologise to my few readers about this.
The two reasons for not putting content on have been the busyness of work and the birth of my third
daughter, which has been hectic to say the least.
Conversely,
the birth of my daughter is also the impetus for me to begin posting
again. In Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-80780187116616128292011-08-23T14:56:00.000+10:002011-08-23T14:56:02.538+10:00Jigsaw Learning
Or, why it's not a bad thing if you don't get it right all at once.
Two years ago, I learned my first bo kata, shuji-no-kon. I learned it in a weekend and took notes and videos and have practised it regularly ever since. These last couple of weeks, we have revisited this kata and in just two run-throughs with my sensei, I picked up two major, fundamental flaws in how I was moving andMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-889862576790361892011-08-17T11:18:00.000+10:002011-09-03T16:27:44.001+10:00Seienchin Part 4
This is now a multi-part series. You can find
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
here
The final movement in each shikodachi step is a two-handed, open-handed soto uke followed by a slow retraction with the lead hand to the hip that is paired with a palm-up nukite to the front (not across the body as is done in a number of other schools). I have been shown two basic interpretations for the Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-80327176969987813622011-08-02T14:40:00.000+10:002011-08-02T14:40:24.497+10:00How good am I?When I started karate I thought after orange belt that I knew a bit and was pretty good.
Then, a couple of years later I got my brown belt and knew everything my school taught. And I thought I knew a lot and was pretty good - especially compared to the me of a few years ago.
Then, I also did some other martial arts and after a while in those I felt like I knew a bit more and was pretty Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-24850706368876550032011-07-31T22:14:00.000+10:002011-07-31T22:14:26.398+10:00Silat Suffian seminar - notes and random musingsI had a silat suffian seminar yesterday with Guru Maul Mornie and was once again deeply impressed by his skill, the depth of thought and care put into the seminar's content and by his art.
What follows are some of my impressions, observations and thoughts on the seminar. I was only able to attend Saturday's class, which was primarily concerned with basic drills that were to form the Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-86220217776217775372011-07-30T09:19:00.000+10:002011-09-03T16:27:25.464+10:00Seienchin Part 3
This is now a multi-part series. You can find
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4 here
Continuing on from Seienchin Part 2, where I had only made it part-way through the first three arm movements in the first step of the kata.
I originally learned as an application for this second movement of Section A, to deflect, grab and throw an incoming kick. It is a good technique, but to my mindMike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1939087301068230759.post-34429288451159011762011-07-20T23:09:00.000+10:002011-09-03T16:26:57.556+10:00Seienchin Part 2
This is now a multi-part series. You can find
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4 here
So, finally, I have found some time to think some more about seienchin. As usual, my reason for doing these posts is to help myself make sense of what is happening in the kata and to explore different possibilities. I am expecting to make mistakes and to pursue leads which go nowhere, but that's what Mike Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16508403156780094058noreply@blogger.com3