Martial Arts Professional Magazine

Part 6 of a Six-Part Series on Using Kata (or Form) For Martial Arts Development

My series of columns has presented what kata or form practice can do for you and your students; but we all know that many, if not most, don’t experience the good effect I have been describing, as a result of well thought out and executed practice.

Why not? What is preventing a student from realizing these benefits?

Here are four of the most common mistakes that keep you on the track of failure, rather than success, during your kata or form practice.

1. If you are more concerned about how your face looks than how your hand or foot hits, then you are going in the wrong direction.

You will not develop real power and authority in your striking, if you are just playacting. I think any serious student who is well intentioned and is on the right path will eventually discover some great things about hitting. You had a vision of how you thought a Black Belt should be able to hit; however, the sure result of this mistake is to never reach it.

2. If your breathing counters everything we know about fighting…then discovery is not on your horizon.

If your breathing counters everything that we know about fighting, then, perhaps, you are training incorrectly. In other words, really great fighters move smoothly and hit without hesitation and with great accuracy and speed of combinations. Try this experiment: Breath hard during every movement and punch (or kick) three times very fast. Now, try it again, but this time just let your breath be natural. No huffing, puffing or grunting. As fast as you can. What do you discover with this exercise? Hard breath during every move slows you down. That doesn’t mean you never have a hard breath; it just means that you don’t always have hard breath. If you do, then you are limiting your exploration into hitting power.

Breathing hard during every move is for the most basic beginner who holds his or her breath. I don’t think you need that anymore. Move to more advanced technique.

3. If your feet are pounding on the floor, then you will never learn to “ground”.

If your feet are making a stomping sound every time you step, then your weight is falling out of control in a forward direction. You are bouncing up and down like a porpoise. If you are struck in the middle of this move, then you are easily knocked to the ground. If you finish the move, then you are easily swept or manipulated because you are not in control of your body. You should move smoothly, like a Samurai with a sword, not like hitting with a sledgehammer to ring a bell at the county fair.

4. If your eyes are closed, wandering or blinking, then they are betraying the fact that your mind is wandering, instead of doing active meditation.

You can lie on your back, close your eyes and work your way through a kata. This is passive meditation. It has some limited value, but it is not kata or form practice. That takes ACTIVE mediation, based on hitting, throwing or subduing another human being. You have to look at them. You have to be assertive and dominate.

No one who is looking around, blinking or has his eyes closed can possibly be practicing being assertive and dominate. When you punch or kick someone hard enough to incapacitate them (read knock them down, you cannot look around the room. You must be looking at your partner with great focus…before, during and after the conclusion of the technique.

Train like this in your kata and form and you might discover some great things.