Formlessness And The Dao Of Movement
The Dao of movement may imply different things to different people, ease of movement, many different stances, continuity, the art of improvised movement, etc.
All...
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...
Bunkai: The Meaning Behind Kata
Okay! Bunkai (分解), literally meaning “analysis” or “disassembly,” is a term used in Japanese martial arts referring to process of analyzing kata and extracting...
Nage No Kata And Katame No Kata Part 1
Kata? Not in this dojo. We only do fight'n Judo here. It's bad enough you have to learn some of it just before ya...
The Pinan / Heian Kata Series as a Fighting System: Part 2
In the first part of this series we examined how the Pinan / Heian katas represents a complete fighting system that contains techniques for...
Old Karate is About Interpreting Kata
I prefer "old karate." I mean this in three different ways.
When I first used the phrase, I had been training for about ten years....
The Basics of Bunkai – Part 1
Kata (formal forms) were regarded as the cornerstone of martial arts training by the past masters. However, many modern karate practitioners question the value...
Taisabaki No Kata – The Body Movements of Form
By Dr. William Durbin ~ It has been acknowledged by most authorities, at least those who actually train in traditional martial arts, that Kata is...
The Pinan / Heian Series as a Fighting System: Part 1
The Pinan / Heian series are often the first katas taught in the majority of modern dojos. This can lead to the Pinan /...
The Torso Method Exercises Transform One’s Taiji
The last of a series of exercises developed by Jou Tsung Hwa at the Taiji Farm, the aim of these subtle, precise, and intensive...
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...
A Brief History of Kata
If you are interested in the effective and realistic use of the combative methods recorded within kata, it is important that you have some...
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...
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...
The Four Stages of Kata Practice
Practically all karateka practice kata; however, most only practice the initial stage and therefore they do not develop a rounded and more complete understanding...
Kata Training: Practice Kata Correctly
This translation originally appeared in Vol. 29, No. 1 of the Hiroshima University of Economics Journal of Humanities, Social and Natural Sciences.
Translator's Introduction
Over the...
