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...
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...
The Basics of Bunkai – Part 4
Welcome to the fourth part of the basics of bunkai series. "Bunkai" refers to the analysis and the practical application of the techniques of...
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....
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 3
In this series of articles we are exploring the basics of bunkai or kata application. The aim of these articles is to open up...
The Wall of Silence: Vital Points in Kata
Prior to WW II there were several publications which discussed vital points and how they could be used to knock out or kill a...
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: 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...
Nunti Bo: The bo with the sai on the end
In Isshin-ryu we have three bo (long staff) kata. About 20 years ago I was pondering a particular characteristic of one of them. Let...
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...
Quest For The Truth – The Origin of Tang Soo Do’s Kata
This article is in response to John Hancock's article, Quest For The Truth : The Origin Of Tang Soo Do's Forms
By Brad Dennison ~...
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...
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...
The Basics of Bunkai – Part 2
In this second article, we'll be looking at the basic application (bunkai) for the knife-hand block or "shuto-uke". As we established in The Basics...
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...
