The second of the three Ks, kata, means “form”. In karate and other striking arts like various types of Kung Fu, forms are a series of stylized prearranged movements done versus an imaginary opponent. Different practitioners will vary in the amount of value they place on kata (and thus the amount of time they spend on it), but it’s generally considered necessary to spend at least some time learning forms in most traditional martial arts. This is a good example of a well-performed karate kata:
One of the benefits of kata commonly cited is that it builds muscle memory for your karate techniques so that you can use them under the stress of a real fight without conscious thought. This would be logical if one practiced techniques in kata the same manner they applied them in real-time sparring (much like how boxers shadowbox), however, anyone can easily see that the techniques are performed using the same stylized form as kihon which means it is those specific motions which are being ingrained, not the technique one wants to actually use while sparring. In my own early karate days, we started out with one or two months of kata and kihon in a basics class, then moved to the regular class where more time was spent on fighting drills and sparring (though always devoting at least some time to kata and kihon). It was always painful to watch the new people who had just graduated from basics class sparring for the first time, getting beaten up while trying to use their robotic kata movements. Before long they would learn to fight correctly, but you’d never see them attempt something like ude uke again.
Another supposed benefit is that kata contains the hidden grappling that makes karate a complete art. This is bordering on fantasy and most of this hidden grappling nonsense only began to become popular after the explosion of MMA when casual fans of martial arts realized the importance of grappling. Many martial arts businessmen felt the need to claim their art was all-inclusive rather than just admitting they could teach half of the important skills and a person would have to cross-train if they wanted everything, because no one martial art has it all. Yes, there are some locks and throws included in kata, but isolated techniques do not form a coherent system of grappling any more than learning two punches and a kick in isolation means one has learned karate; it’s the “inbetween stuff” (which includes footwork, transitions, how techniques are set up and important positions achieved against a free-thinking and moving opponent, and a sense of timing) that makes techniques work and this can only be learned in partnered practice under the guidance of a qualified coach, whether it’s striking or grappling. Furthermore, even if karate kata had us practicing realistic instead of stylized movements, it is a totally ludicrous idea that one could practice grappling techniques alone and in the air. Boxers shadowbox, but wrestlers do not “shadow-wrestle”. Grappling techniques require another body to practice on.
Still, some people find it interesting to drill bunkai (application of kata movements) or explore the kata movements themselves attempting to recreate an application. Playing karate archeologist can be an interesting intellectual pursuit and there is nothing wrong with it, so long as one keeps the practical value of the activity in perspective. If one wants to learn grappling, there is no possible debate that it is a much more direct route to success to train under a qualified coach in an established grappling art than to fiddle around with kata, especially if one doesn’t have a proper base in a grappling art to help them make sense of the mechanics of any possible techniques that might be there—it’s even worse than trying to learn from a video or book. Furthermore, the grappling techniques of arts like judo and wrestling have been tested for hundreds of years (thousands in the case of wrestling) which makes them more well-refined, because with a large international population practicing and competing, improvements are constantly being made. This is akin to the difference between a solo inventor laboring in his garage workshop versus a multi-national corporation with a large team of scientists and limitless funding, both working towards the same discovery.
Kata does improve one’s balance, their leg strength if they do low stances, and hip mechanics. These are all good benefits, though none of these things require kata to achieve and can be acquired through exercises and drills that are either more relevant to practical application or more specific to building those physical attributes. The best that can really be said for karate-style kata is that it is a collection of techniques the original creator thought was important. Kata was possibly a useful device, in the days before dvds, for recording techniques to be preserved and passed on within a system. At the time these techniques needed no interpretation, they were drilled regularly as two-man sets and the movements were plainly understood. Kata has changed tremendously over the years, however, both intentionally and unintentionally. Funakoshi and others made drastic changes to kata and modern forms competitors take many artistic licenses. Even when one attempts to preserve the past exactly, transmitting movements from teacher to student to their student and so on becomes a gradual game of telephone. No matter how meticulous the practice, some minor nuances begin to change and these things snowball over time as students become teachers, which is yet another reason why one shoudn’t take bunkai too seriously. Many of the forms are shared between various styles of karate and one only needs to observe the same kata performed by two traditional-minded practitioners of different styles to know this is true. Here are two such examples of the same kata:
Now, I do not think traditional kata in karate needs to be totally forsaken in the same way I argued kihon needs to be drastically revamped, but many schools could stand to deemphasize it a bit, spending more time on sparring drills and jiyu-kumite. Even the schools and individuals who choose to spend a lot of time on kata would benefit greatly, in terms of kata, by learning less of them. Gichin Funaskoshi, who was quite the kata collector, recommended that karateka find kata that work for them and then focus on practicing those kata. Learning 2-3 new kata per grading, and nearly 20 or more by the time one has reached shodan, is simply far too many and students are only learning the forms on a superficial level before it’s time to learn new forms. In terms of Shotokan, I think reducing the curriculum to the five heian and tekki shodan would be more than sufficient pre-black belt, at which point the student should choose which advanced kata speaks to them to learn. Better still, I think would be three kata, pre-shodan: one for beginners, one for intermediate, and one for advanced.
Personally, I think the best thing I took away from kata was the idea of trying to perform something perfectly, every movement in its place, practicing the same thing over and over continually making minor improvements. I can apply this mentality and the same critical eye to other things, such as drills and padwork. One doesn’t really develop this mentality if they’re approaching forms like cramming for a college exam. Nowadays, I won’t even teach forms during regular class time and, unless someone is grading for shodan, I’ll only show people if they specifically ask for it. I still feel there is plenty of the 2nd K to go around though. What we think of as a kata in karate (a prearranged solo pattern) are actually quite different than what is called kata in various jujutsu and kenjustu ryu, which are much older and more traditional arts than any form of karate. Observe:
And then there is judo (which is far more modern, yet still older than any surviving form of karate) and its nage no kata:
To these arts kata is a two-man set and, despite koryu jujtusu and kenjutsu being among the most traditional of the traditional martial arts, it looks, more or less, how one actually applies the technique. I see no real difference between this and a compliant drill used to learn a technique (which pretty much every martial art will start with) before practicing it in free drills and later sparring. Furthermore, I don’t think this has less artistic value, even without the ritualized squaring-off. Real technique, when done well, is very pretty to watch. Frankly, I think karate kata should be more like this, distilling the most essential and fundamental techniques into two man sets for practice. In fact, chances are your school or gym has some drills very much like that, drills you practice regularly to improve your most essential techniques, in which case, I say you are practicing kata.
