More than one way to skin a kata (part III - Rhythmic Variations)

After trying to warp space, why not trying to warp time too?

In kata a very important concept is rhythm. Since they are the representation of a battle, each kata has its own rhythm: the sequence of moves does not flow at constant speed like a metronome, but each technique is given a proper timing depending on what it actually represents in terms of application to such imaginary battle. Hence there are both fast and slow techniques, and the pause between any two of them can be sometimes as short as possible and sometimes longer. Furthermore, the kata can be typically broken down in smaller subsequences, each of which could be done as a "burst" followed by a pause of a few seconds, standing firm in the last position.

While there is usually an "official" way to do each kata, and that also includes an official rhythm to use as reference, I've see experienced people (especially of black belt rank) choose different rhythms, probably because each person may have a slightly different interpretation of the battle in his imagination. Being still very much a beginner, interpreting things in my personal way is not really my concern yet... but once again, the purpose of these ideas is only to vary the challenges of training, so that while on one hand I focus on learning each kata in the correct way and through repetition iron the kinks and get used to do it without thinking, on the other hand I can occasionally break away from the repetition routine to force my concentration to work in a different way, as if "resetting" the whole learning process. Here are my first few ideas for doing that by changing the rhythm.

#1 - Kiai repositioning

Almost every kata, with few exceptions, features one or more "kiai"-shout at some point. These mark the most decisive and potentially encounter-ending strikes of the sequence, usually the ones done with the greatest power and possibly also speed.

However some of our teachers have already hinted at the idea of making our own decisions on which strikes we mean to be decisive. This does not normally allow to place the "kiai" somewhere else, at least in front of the class... but of course it can be tried when no one's watching.

So here is my first and simplest rhythmic variation idea: to experiment repositioning a kata's "kiai" shouts to a different technique than normally. This actually has effects on the rhythm of the techniques both before and after, such as anticipating or delaying a pause, or creating one when normally there isn't any.

You can find a confirmation that this idea is not completely off from the two basic Gekisai kata in Goju-Ryu style, which are very similar to each other: these two kata have in common a sequence of five techniques on a fixed Zenkutsudachi stance, but while the first kata (Gekisai dai Ichi) has the "kiai" on the 5th technique, the second kata (Gekisai dai Ni) has it on the 3rd technique instead.

#2 - Forced rhythm

Once we have understood the correct rhythm for a kata, a possible challenge is to force the kata into a different rhythm, even if this might be potentially incorrect in the sense that it may fail to represent a reasonable application of its techniques.

It can be as simple as choosing the same forced rhythm for each subsequence, for example "one technique slow, pause, two techniques quick, pause", and stick to this pattern even when the correct way would imply the pauses in different places.

If something more challenging is wanted, the forced rhythm can be applied to the whole sequence rather than "resetting" it at each new subsequence, even if this means that those subsequences cease to be separate. Does this idea sound wrong? If it does, it's because it is... but this is kind of the whole point: doing it with a wrong rhythm is what challenges our ability to take a step back from the "automatic" performance of a kata, and exercise more control over each technique.

#3 - Zeroed rhythm

As a special case of the previous idea, we can try to perform the kata with a completely "flat" rhythm, meaning that every move in the sequence is done with equal speed and timing, with pauses of the same length.

Clearly, this removes a lot of meaning from the kata, and should definitely be done really only once in a while in our practice. But if you try to do this on a kata you know well and have been doing for such a long time that it has become automatic for you, you'll see for yourself how challenging it can actually be when you arrive at a pause point and instead you have to go straight into the next move without delay, even if you're doing all of this slowly!

#4 - Speed dialling

The last idea is about a more "soft forcing" approach: rather than changing the time relationship between techniques each of which is still done at correct speed, we now keep those relationships intact but we increase or decrease the speed of each technique individually.

Personally I've noticed that this actually requires me even a greater concentration effort than all the previous ideas. Perhaps the best approach to make this work, is first of all to recall clearly which techniques are normally slow and which ones are fast. Second, perform the kata start-to-end (at reduced speed overall, using longer pauses) and purposefully slow down all the fast techniques, as slow or even slower than the normally slow ones. Finally, try to speed up (as gradually as necessary) the normally slow techniques while keeping the rest slow. Ideally the final result would be an odd version of the kata where all that was normally slow is now fast and all that was normally fast is now slow. Enjoy!

More than one way to skin a kata (part II - Extracts)

This second part of the series on supplementary kata exercises is grounded in the idea of seeing each kata as if it was a book full of information. Why not taking small elements out of it and making them individual exercises?

I'm going to make some examples here taken directly from our style's kata, even tho I am aware that they won't make sense to anyone who doesn't know to what I am referring to exactly.

#1 - Stance transitions

In many ways, stances are the true foundations of good karate technique. While in sparring or fighting you are not moving around in formal stances, they are definitely going to be used as part of both attack and defense techniques. Perhaps without being fully aware of it, you often enter a stance as a reaction to the opponent's attack, and you also normally end your counterattack in a stance as well.

But it is already a very hard work to learn one single stance properly, and particularly frustrating when you notice that you have stopped thinking about proper stance for a while and you have now moved backwards instead of improving. With each stance being difficult to "nail", it clearly gets even harder to move from one to the other making sure that they are both correct, and that the transition between the two does not leave you dangerously without balance.

Every kata goes through many stance transitions, thus it provides a lot of excellent suggestions for practicing these: just choose one stance you feel particularly weak at, find it inside a kata you are familiar with, then take either the technique which leads to that chosen stance from a previous stance, or the technique that from that chosen stance leads to the next. You now have extracted a very short and simple exercise to repeat over an over with total focus on that stance transition.

A special case of this can be a "pivoting" exercise, where you take two or more stances that follow each other while one foot of yours remains in the same spot on the ground all the time. An example can be found in the three beginning moves of the Gekisai kata, where the left foot never lifts or shifts, only rotates in its spot, while the body goes through three different stances as it turns left, move forward and then backward.

Another interesting extract I've been practicing myself, is the fast consecutive forward-backward steps in shikodachi stance from the kata Seiyunchin. It is very difficult to walk on a straight line in this stance (in fact it is even pretty hard just standing still, it's the stance most demanding to your legs muscles!). This two-moves sequence from the kata seems to be truly useful if repeated on both sides while following a straight line painted on the floor to keep your direction of movement under check all the time.

#2 - Stance verification

A somewhat different idea compared to the previous, in this case I want to focus on a more specific challenge common to all stances, which is that of getting the right distance and angle between your feet.

There are some occurrences in kata where you have to turn a certain angle starting from a certain stance and ending into a mirror image of the same stance (i.e. same stance but done on the other side), without lifting or shifting your feet. An example with the sanchindachi stance is found in the kata Sepai which contains a swift turn 90 degrees in this stance, followed by a slow turn back. Another example is found in Shisochin kata, where there is a 135 degrees turn between two mirrored zenkutsudachi.

The point here is that when you are turning like that on the balls of your feet (i.e. without lifting nor shifting them) and both the starting and the ending stances should be correct, then if you didn't have just the right distance and angle between your feet in the starting stance, either the direction you're facing after the transition will be incorrect, or your ending stance will be very visibly wrong: the distance between the feet will still be right, but the ending stance will be too wide sideways and too short frontally, or otherwise too narrow sideways and too long frontally. By repeating the transition right and left, you can each time adjust your feet slightly until the ending stance looks and feels the same as the starting stance.

#3 - Kihon Ido and Kihon Kumite samples

As a continuation to the previous points, in a kata you can find slightly longer sequences of moving techniques that can be extracted and practiced individually as Kihon Ido or together with a training buddy as Kihon Kumite, with the latter taking inspiration from the bunkai or coming up with original ideas.

In particular, it might be useful to look for sequences containing unusual and rarely used techniques, that you normally never practice as such, and by extracting that sequence you can have a small exercise to dedicate some training time to that technique. This especially includes those which are so much based on subtle movements and footwork that cannot be practiced alone but only in the context of a sequence.

More than one way to skin a kata (part I - Geometry Unearthed)

Who would win on a fight, Chuck Norris or Euclid? Let's find out, but no worries, you don't need to undust your old calculus books for this.

As explained in the previous post, this article will be the first of a series on possible ways to study a kata beyond its basic, traditional form and its bunkai and other applications. The general purpose of these additional exercises is to shift our focus to different specific aspects or details of the kata we are currently studying, so that when we go back to performing the kata in the regular and correct way, we might have more confidence thanks to some extra insight gained.

The first group of ideas collected here is all about modifying the "geometry" of the chosen kata as a whole, start to finish. The techniques (stances, attacks, defenses) stay the same as in the normal form. Presumably you can practice all the following variations with your chosen degree of speed and power, but some of these variations might prove puzzling especially if you are actually already good at the regular performance of your current kata to the point of normally doing it almost automatically: hence you might want to always start as slow as possible.

#1 - Embusen

From my current understanding of the term, the "Embusen" of a kata is the imaginary shape that you trace on the ground as you move and turn around to perform the kata from start to finish. If you had a pocket full of flour sewn to your karate gi, with a hole in it so that the flour would slowly spill to the ground, at the end of the kata you might literally see the shape of the embusen written in flour on the floor.

The first idea is to completely ignore or "remove" all the upper-body techniques of the kata, and just perform the stances, the steps and the kicks. Basically your legs should be doing everything in the kata normally, while your arms should be doing nothing except relaxing in whatever comfortable position you prefer and perhaps help a bit with balance if needed.

The purpose of this variation is to allow you to check your stances more carefully and to improve your embusen in terms of correct distances and angles.

#2 - No embusen

The second idea is the opposite of the previous.

This time we stand in a relaxed practice position with parallel feet at shoulder width (heikodachi) and perform only upper-body techniques of the kata, always remaining in the same spot with feet neither turning nor lifting.

There are a couple of non-obvious things to keep in mind while doing so:

- While your feet stand still on the ground all the time, your torso also remains forward-facing but your head should instead turn around to follow the direction of each technique properly: for example, if there is a block or attack towards your left side but with your body facing forward (as in the first shikodachi technique of Gekisai dai Ichi kata) you should really look left and perform the technique towards the same side, but if the whole body would turn to the left before the technique (as in the first sanchindachi technique of the same kata) then you should still face forward. In other words, your body in this exercise always faces forward, and it is your head and arms which adapt to the direction required to maintain the same relative angle with the body.

- Even tho you are ignoring the leg techniques, you may still "hint" at them with hips movements. This way you can mentally follow the complete sequence of the kata almost as if you weren't skipping any move. (Alternatively, I suppose you can also perform the kicks if you want, but from the heikodachi stance it might not always be possible).

I am not sure what could be the purpose of this variation, but it does challenge you especially on the not so basic kata. The difficulty of this exercise lies exactly in the points above, particularly the first i.e. redirecting your upper-body techniques to keep their proper relative angle with the lower body which the latter is "blocked" facing forward and not allowed to change the stance.

#3 - Linearization / folding

This variation is based on a simple idea: folding the entire embusen of the kata into a straight line, so that you perform all the techniques of the sequence moving only either forward or backward, but without ever turning around (unless when a technique requires a 360 degrees turn).

Let me tell you this straight: it is not as easy as it sounds. You might need your teacher's help to figure out how to linearize certain moves. Generally speaking tho, the linearization should not require to change the stance or the attack/defense technique itself, but it will certainly require to change how to transition between different stances.

This idea can actually be seen as a preparatory or complementary exercise to learning the bunkai of the kata, at least the one-on-one version of it where you need to direct all the techniques towards an opponent in front of you.

#4 - Mirror image

I have to thank sensei Paul Walker (www.shotokansensei.com) for this idea, since I have learned about it from his instructional videos.

The idea is very simple: to perform an exact mirror image of the kata, where right becomes left and left becomes right.

Performing a mirrored kata is generally very disorienting, probably more if you are already pretty trained in doing it correctly at full speed. It forces you to think carefully about next move every time, hence you will very likely discover that you cannot do it at your best dynamics (power, rhythm, breathing) but that you have to go back to home base and do it very slowly, one step at a time, just like you did when you were completely new to the kata. You might also find that your embusen ends up a little "skewed" as a result, forcing you to be more careful on distancing and angles.

Quite clearly the main purpose of this exercise is in the concentration effort. Another possible benefit is that for an asymmetrical kata it allows to practice all techniques to the other side as well.

#5 - Reverse execution

Another idea from sensei Walker's instructional videos is to try and perform the entire sequence backward, from the last technique to the first.

This is possibly even more difficult than a mirror image, because in many cases the sequences of techniques don't even work or make sense anymore, but you should still strive to perform them in reverse order and remember that with all these complementary exercises the purpose is simply in the effort required, not in their usability or applicability to a real fight scenario.

Just to make it clear, when I say "backward" I mean the following:

- start the kata from the last technique, then the second-last and so on, and end the kata with what is normally the first technique
- do all footwork backward, so that a normally forward-moving attack becomes a backward-moving attack and a backward-moving defense becomes a forward-moving defense
- ideally at the end of the kata you should have traced the same embusen as usual on the ground, but from the end point back to the starting point
- on the other hand the techniques themselves are not backwards, you are not "rewinding" your movements like on a VCR! a strike is still a strike, not a punch or kick pulling back

Once again an obvious purpose of this variation is to practice your ability to concentrate, but this time there will be a lot of extra work needed to adapt all the techniques to a reversed footwork, so that they more or less look like a strike could still hit and a defense could still block or deflect. There will be a lot of thinking required, and this will certainly make for a different kind of exercise!

More than one way to skin a kata (Introduction)

I cannot deny that I just love kata. I've previously written my early feelings and understanding of the manyfold importance of kata in karate-do: each kata is like an entire book full of ideas and wisdom, to the point that I dare say that you can see the ensemble of all kata of your karate style as a whole encyclopaedia. After all, kata were the traditional method for passing karate knowledge down to the next generation of students, since a description of karate in written form is practically impossible, and even pictures don't help that much. Of course videos get much closer to achieving such purpose, but that was obviously not an option in the past. The point being, that it should come as no surprise that each kata contains a lot of information, and all of them taken together become the bearers of the essence of your style.

I admit that every time a teacher of ours has a lesson on a kata that I've never seen before, my immediate concern is to memorize the sequence of moves, so that I won't forget them next time we practice it again together (which for a non-basic kata might mean many months later). I don't think this is a wrong approach per se, but clearly "adding up" more kata to your list does not make you proficient at any of them. Certainly, you can't judge a karateka by the number of kata he "knows", especially since there is quite a wide range of meaning here for the verb "knowing"! There are in fact several accounts on the karate masters of the past teaching only one kata at a time to their students, and not introducing the next one until years have been spent on perfecting the previous.

Whether you still decide or not to keep practicing more kata than you should be concerned about (at least for the above purpose of not forgetting them completely), the best thing to do is probably to focus our practice on one at a time, and try to study it throughly, the best we can. This is generally very feasible and natural in Goju-Ryu since the style officially only has 12 kata, and typically only one new kata is required for the next belt test.

But what can we do to expand the practice of a specific kata, to turn it upside-down and inside-out? The following series of blog articles will deal with this question: in how many different ways we can vary the practice of a kata, in order to improve our understanding of its principles and execution of its techniques.

It stands still the fact, that all the ideas in the following posts are optional, complementary to what is otherwise the truly important thing: the regular practice of the kata in its standard form as presented by your teachers, its relative bunkai and other applications of its techniques. But I hope nevertheless that my additional ideas can prove useful or at least fun to try out for a change.

Senpai and Kōhai

The summer season has ended, and most of the people are back to training. My first post of the new karate year deals with a topic I've been thinking about for quite a long time indeed: how to be a good training partner, more specifically in one-on-one exercises. Note however that here I am not going to consider sparring, which is a very different type of practice and definitely worth many considerations of its own. Still there's quite a range of two-people exercises in karate that I have in mind in this discussion, such as:

- attack/defense techniques, where the two practitioners take turns in striking and responding
- escape techniques, with the attacker starting from a grabbing or grappling position
- kihon kumite, with both doing a longer sequence of techniques
- bunkai, an even longer sequence of techniques adapted from a kata, and their counterparts

In a class, you can't always choose who your partner in training will be. Every day it's someone else, and we also rotate a lot during each session, so at different times you will find yourself partnered up with someone either more experienced, less experienced or about as experienced as you are. What I think I've learned so far is that in each case you should really adopt a different mindset.

Training with someone more experienced

This is probably what everyone is looking for most of the time, because it simply provides you the best chance of improvement. For example, in our yesterday's training we were in odd numbers and I had to team up with the master for practicing bunkai, and he brought the exercise gradually up to a speed and power level that I didn't even imagine was possible for me to try at my stage of learning. But I was forced to push myself up to match the pace, out of my comfort zone, and it gave me a feeling of a real karate training like no other!

Anyone more experienced has been there and done that for you already, can provide suggestions and set the pace of the exercise to match your personal level and characteristics. When you are on the less experienced side, the most important thing is trust, and the bigger the experience gap, the more trust you should put in your partner's instructions and feedback.

Another good point to keep in mind is that you usually don't need to pull your punches. You finally have the opportunity to go full throttle (if the exercise itself allows so) and do it at your very best, because the more experienced partner can control the exercise with ease and nobody gets hurt.

Training with someone equally experienced

Apparently this should be the most obvious choice, in fact when training on your own with some friends it is quite normal to team up with others at the same level; this way everyone is going to benefit the same from the training. But there is a risk to watch for: that of both underestimating each others' capabilities, and settling for a pace, speed and power which are too much within the comfort zone.

Both persons getting out of their respective comfort zones at the same time may not be as easy as it sounds, because in such case both will probably be making mistakes that can decrease the effectiveness of the exercise. Furthermore, the two may be good at different things, one may be faster and the other stronger, meaning their comfort zones "shapes" are different.

My opinion is that the key for making it work is variation: make sure you stay long enough on each exercise and try to "dial" its different aspects so that both people are challenged enough, if not simultaneously at least at different times.

Training with someone less experienced

In this case I believe being earnest and responsible is paramount. In a way, when I practice an exercise with someone less experienced (not a very frequent case for me, since I'm only at the second-lowest rank!) I try to keep in mind that it is always the less experienced person at the center of the exercise: he is more important than me, and my responsibility is to provide him an appropriate level of challenge. It's essential to realize that both trivial and impossible challenges don't really make someone improve, because if too easy means no effort, on the other hand too hard means to easily get stuck doing it wrong all the times just to desperately try to keep up.

So rather than making an exercise too difficult for your partner just because you can, you should be willing to give up your own chance of benefit for this round: after all it's your duty to help the less experienced just like the more experienced do it for you when you're on the other end. But no regrets, because even if doing this exercise well within your comfort zone may not bring much direct improvement to you, teaching it will! Teaching something is always the best chance for better understanding: the need to observe your partner's difficulties and correct his mistakes raises your own awareness on how things should be done correctly and you'll have fresh ideas to try out to solve your own problems with the same exercise later on.

One more thing I have learned (from being on the less experienced side most of the times, that is) is that providing feedback is very important, but you should make sure to focus on clear, technical comments. Expressions of encouragement ("you're good!") or disappointments ("you need to do better...") are the kind of comments that cause only distracting feelings while practicing, so they should be left for after the training. But during the exercise itself, the less experienced person truly needs directions: if something is wrong, tell him what to change; if something is weak (power, speed, aim, flow of motion, spirit...), point it out so that he can focus more on that aspect; and if something is just right, let him know plain and simple, so that he is confident on being on the right track!

Goodbye white, hello yellow

It's been more than a month since my first belt test, and I've been thinking in retrospect about what it meant to me to wear the white belt.

In a word: humility. The white belt for me was a constant reminder that I knew nothing, and that I should approach each lesson with an open mind and complete trust. This is not always easy, because even beginners have their own opinions on fighting and martial arts, some legitimate from previous first-hand experiences, others less legitimate and generated more from imagination than experience.

Personally I was in a potentially dangerous position from the fact that a long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I've been already studying karate. Even tho it really was a long time ago (more than 20 years!), my old teacher must have been very good because I remembered quite a lot. This caused me sometimes to want to start doing things in a certain way which I assumed was "right", and be told to do them differently. The truth is that there certainly isn't one only "right" way of doing, all others being "wrong", but rather there are different "right" ways in different contexts and tactics emphasized by each style. Sometimes I really had to "reprogram" myself into some positions or movements, especially if they happen in the background, because then you don't have much time to think about how you're doing them (an example of this was "hikite" i.e. the way the fist is retracted backwards along the body before delivering a punch, which is done in significantly different ways across karate styles).

I was actually lucky that the style I practiced back then (Shotokan) was different than our current style (Goju-ryu). This made it easier for me to ignore my previous knowledge without ever be tempted to unfairly question my old teacher. Each karate style has its own very good reasons for different technical choices, but what if you had been practicing the same style and the new teacher's instructions conflicted with those of the old teacher? If you forsake your previous sensei's teachings easily, does it mean you would just so easily dismiss what you're committing to today?

As a sort of legacy with my past, and also to show respect to my old teacher, I've decided not to buy a brand new yellow belt and instead wear the same one I've worn as a child (I went only that far, back then), which fortunately had never left my parents' house. It's also a way to tell myself that I've never really quitted karate, but just took a break from practicing (admittedly, a pretty long break) and that karate has always been a part of my life, lurking round the corner to lure me back on the tatami floor one day.

So now it's time to move on to the next stage, and the biggest challenge will be to maintain the same state of humility and humbleness. From now on there will be someone of lower rank that will come over looking for answers and suggestions. Not to mention that having now new things to learn doesn't mean I'm done with learning those of the previous rank. In fact I like saying that the difference between white and yellow is that while I still know nothing, additionally I am now aware of it. All of a sudden, this only very slightly darker belt feels much heavier than the other.

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