Willie Lim: The Rebel Master of Kata Bunkai
Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine recently spoke to Master Willie Lim, a pioneer of the art in New Zealand and a revolutionary in the...
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...
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....
Creativity, Culture, Power Plays and the Dao Of Movement
There are many fields of creativity in the realm of physical movement, but how serious are people in even attempting to reach the very...
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 Other Way of Sanchin Kata
Many karate systems teach the Sanchin kata as an external training method to strength-condition practitioners with a series of breath-controlled tensions. This mainstream understanding...
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...
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...
Kata: Lock or a Key
In this article I'd like to briefly discuss some of the ways in which we can view kata, and how, if we adopt a...
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...
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 Pinan / Heian Kata Series as a Fighting System: Part 3
Welcome to part three of this series of articles. In the first part of this series we looked at the background of the Pinan...
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...
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...
Tegumi – Karate’s Forgotten Range
It is believed that the native wrestling art of Tegumi, along with the Kempo systems brought to Okinawa by the Chinese, were forerunners of...
Kata: Why Bother
There are many differing views on the value of kata. Kata is regarded by some to be the very 'soul' of the martial arts....
