Martial Art Subtleties: The Lessons Kata Teach
The kata were created in such a way that they required careful learning, training and much repetition to acquire the skill and learn the...
Returning To Classical Kata With Willie Lim
A true understanding of karate is to found by returning to classical kata. Unlike modern karate, it is forms which hold the key to ancient...
KATA – An Important Part of Martial Arts
Kata is a form of unique obligatory exercises involving a series of hand and foot techniques, of punches and kicks, connected by certain movements,...
KIAI – The Powerful Shout
KIAI - ( Exhale - the strong shout )
KI ( chi ) – inner energy
AI – uniting, joining
Kiai is the consequence of a special...
Willie Lim Kata Training is Outside the System
When I was training in TKD I was young and eager, an like so many others, interested only in the free sparring. In my...
The Martial Artist a Lethal Musician
One cannot learn how to make music without understanding how it functions much like one cannot practice martial arts without understanding martial arts forms...
Kata and Old School Karate
Many of the past masters knew and perfected one, two or a handful of kata. Now many practitioners know (or half know) many kata....
The Function of Kata Training
History
An elaborate code of movements of the arms and hands, and a flowing posturing of the body, "kata", meaning form, model or structure, uses...
Naihanchi’s Mook Jong Drills – Karate’s Hidden Wooden Dummy Techniques
Naihanchi or Tekki kata is one of several traditional Chinese-Okinawan karate katas whose origins have been lost over the centuries. While the Naihanchi kata...
Mike Hancock on Kata Bunkai
For centuries the martial arts have been cloaked in mystery and folk lore. The deadly techniques used by master practitioners of karate were frequently...
The Basics of Bunkai – Part 8
Welcome to the final part of The Basic of Bunkai - Part 8. In this series of articles we've been exploring the basics of...
The Importance of Kata
Over the past several years I've written articles discussing various sides of martial arts training. In my article entitled, “Commercialism vs. Traditionalism” I talked...
Tegumi – Old Style Karate’s Two Person Exercise
Tegumi or Okinawan grappling and wrestling
Just as a great dish needs a recipe or an extensive trip needs a map, so too does the...
The Basics of Bunkai Part 7
This series of articles explores the basics of "bunkai" (kata application). Over the last six parts we've been discussing the fundamentals of this vitally...
The Basics of Bunkai – Part 6
In this series of articles we've been looking at the basics of "bunkai" (kata application). The purpose of these articles is to introduce the...
The Basics of Bunkai: Part 5
In this series of articles we've been looking at the basics of "bunkai" (kata application). The purpose of these articles is to introduce the...
