Kata is probably the single most important thing in traditional karate-do.  Not only does it hold the majority of the individual techniques of a given style, but it also holds methods of movement, power-manifestation, tension and relese, contraction and expansion, strategy, calistetics, and a variety of less dominant but nonetheless important skills.  It does not contain ALL the skills of karate, but contains more of them than its associated training methods: KIHON (basics), KERI (kicking), and KUMITE (sparring). One does not fight as if one were in a kata.  Kata is training much as one might weight-train for sports.  The lessons learned in kata are applied in the various types of sparring drills (which, by the way, are also training, not fighting.) Some of the lessons learned in kata are not directly applicable to fiighting, strangly enough.  But they can be applied to the improvement of character; lessons like overcoming one's own shortcomings, for example: laziness, self-satisfaction, and lack of self application. Kata must be performed as precisely as possible both for reasons of applied technique efficiency and to present a difficult challenge for the human spirit to overcome.  Which method of performing a kata is less imortant than having a SPECIFIC PRESCRIBED method so that the student can not easily say, "A downblock is a downblock.  What I've done will work, so it is good enough."  What one does must work, to be sure, but it may not be good enough! BUNKAI or applied technique is a very important part of kata which requires an analytical mind willing both to stay within a framework (the KATACHI or form) of the individual movements, and at the same time modify or recombine techniques to get various applications.
			Takeshin Karate-do Kata
		Heian Shodan - Peace or Peaceful Mind Number One Heian Nidan - Peace or Peaceful Mind Number Two Heian Sandan - Peace or Peaceful Mind Number Three Heian Yondan - Peace or Peaceful Mind Number Four Heian Godan - Peace or Peaceful Mind Number Five Kanku-Dai - Viewing the Sky, Greater Version Bassai-Dai - Breaking Through a Fortress, Greater Version Tekki Shodan - Iron Horse Number One Tekki Nidan - Iron Horse Number Two Tekki Sandan - Iron Horse Number Three
				Home