You would think that learning a set form, (Kata), would be a straightforward thing to do? The instructor shows the class the moves and the students in due course remembers those moves and copies them as shown. Sounds all simple enough? Sadly however not everyone can master all the various things required in the martial arts and set forms are for sure up there among the top ten list of things that many fail on.
The set form requires a number of skills that includes a good memory to remember all the moves and various physical skills in addition. Not everyone can get a black belt if they lack such skills and often students leave when they know they are unable to do a set form fully or their skill level is clearly not good enough for a grading test. In that situation some students leave their current club and turn to martial art styles that does not include such set forms, like kickboxing or sport competition events for example, while some will leave and sadly never try again at all. However all is not lost if you have a good teacher and follow some simple to remember rules on how to learn such a thing. Learning all the moves and strikes all in one go often never works. Doing it that way will always result in low quality techniques and all the moves performed like a robot. Bad technical mistakes and bad habits will also be clear to see by an instructor who knows his job. So the very first stage is to only master the first 3 or 4 moves over and over again with total focus on getting every move and technique mastered in full. Mastered being the most vital part of it all. Every single kick, punch and block should be of the highest standard and moving from one stance to another should always be performed in a fast, fluid and flowing way. Anything less and you will end up looking like a robot moving around. It is worth noting that when first learning those first 3 or 4 moves it can be done slowly, but by the end of no more than one month they must be powerful and somewhat lightning fast. Powerful, technically accurate and fast or you are not yet ready to move on to the next stage. Breathing correctly is also important when doing a set form. Breathe naturally and only make more effort at breathing out on completion of a powerful punch, block or kick. That is all that is needed really. The so-called Karate Shout really is not needed at all unless done to impress an audience while on stage of course. And for sure never hold your breath while performing a set form. That will make you tense up needlessly and it will also make you rigid and exhausted within seconds. A very bad habit that many people do in the martial arts. So there you have it, burn those moves and technical methods into your mind and make sure you are the best as you can be with those first 3 or 4 moves before adding the next 3 or 4 moves to the set form sequence. Check and double check all the techniques before adding more moves to the list and ensure you are moving from one position to the next is a fast, fluid flowing way all the time without hesitation or dead time. Unless no movement is required within the set form at various points of course. It is also a good idea to imagine someone standing in front of you and imagining that you are moving and blocking, or striking that imaginary person throughout. The one final thing that must be avoided at all costs is trying to learn, or copy, moves from a book or a video. That is a total, and often misleading, waste of time. There is only one true way to master such a difficult discipline and that is to have a good instructor standing over you, and if need be shouting at you, to get things done right and trying your hardest to match your instructors demonstration standards and the required speed at all times. And finally if you know in your own mind that the set form you are trying to master is not good enough, but the instructor still passes you to the next grade level anyway, then walk away. Chances are you are wasting your time and effort on what is often called these days a McDojo teacher. >Let's Do The Martial Art Dance< Comments are closed.
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