 So what if I told you that boxing actually has kata now I can feel the comment section already heating up Oh, and guess what MMA has it to ring that bell. Let's do this Art of one dojo aims to honor the legacy of the Martial Arts in this effort We have released our forefather series featuring newly remastered portraits and philosophies of some of history's most iconic grandmasters Visit us at art of one dojo calm and help us continue to build the martial arts community and to commemorate those who laid the foundation before us The topic of kata is often a contentious battleground between contemporary martial artists and traditional martial artists kata is very much prevalent in traditional martial arts as part of the curriculum while modern competitive schools and MMA enthusiasts Brush it off as play dance dribble when we did our origin of American Kempo episode a comment was made of the quated shadowbox in the kata And boy did that light up our discussions So today I'm going to challenge the perception of kata's significance in the modern landscape of the martial arts first We're going to set the definition and boundaries of what we're referring to as kata Then we're going to look at some examples and finally show how all the supplies to all arts and disciplines even MMA So to be blunt kata does have a purpose and a place in martial arts It might not have a place in your specific training But I'm willing to bet it does so without some of you even realizing it kata are sequences of pre-choreograph motions performed by a solo Practitioner the word kata itself means for now There are three general classifications the kata. There's kata used for demonstration Which is often used to market schools and wow a crowd Then there's kata use in tournaments which demonstrate specific technical criteria for competition And then there's true kata taught as part of a self-defense curriculum Yes kata is part of self-defense instruction and application and this is the aspect We're going to be focusing on so what is the kata a kata is a sequential analysis of moves that pertain to a central theme That often explores a broad stroke of that theme the ideas and concepts presented in these sequences Directly correlate to extractable information that can be applied to self-defense Now before we talk about how this applies to boxing. Let's look at some examples of this Okinawan kata have a lot of thematic central ideas Shishu-chan kata focuses on directionality in attacking in four different angles So you can is a kata that centers on grabbing and pulling an opponent Then we've got Japanese kata such as those found in shodokan And they often use the forms to introduce new techniques and new power principles to students American Kempo forms are split into different categories, but typically they introduce and they set definitions for specific motions Or they show grafting of techniques that are grouped together based on categorized attacks. In some traditional combat jiu-jitsu There's what's called tai sabaki or body movement Now we use those movements to demonstrate the different paths We can step to for defense and each form focuses on different counter moves such as punches kicks throws submissions So what is a kata? It's basically this Just a textbook Imagine that you are learning law and you have a set of textbooks now one particular chapter may focus on a historical case Now the chances of you encountering circumstances laws broken objections made and rulings given of this exact case are Almost zero percent. However from those case studies, you can see defensive arguments You could use contextual based circumstances and how they're presented You can see reactions from imposing counsel and you can learn a deeper understanding of how the law and legal process works Ideas that you can extract from these case studies so that you can apply them in your own trials a Kata is a textbook that features a case study, but imagined hundreds of years ago Students didn't have textbooks instead their reference manuals were sequentially memorized motions that included thematic material for practice It is believed in many original Okinawan kata that these were actually a collection of two person sparring drills and fighting combinations You know attacks the defensive drills, but then the attacker portion was removed so that a student could practice the defensive portion on their own Studying the motions analyzing the relationship between them and formulating their own case studies that can be applied in combat This is why there is often so much effort in bunkai or the study of these forms There is a lot of meat to pick off of these bones. So now how did that apply to boxing? Is shadow boxing the form of kata? Well, in my opinion. Yes, you know It does fulfill much of what a kata does They are a sequence of related motions that a practitioner repeats in order to study and improve that precision and the Execution of each technique applied. The difference is shadow boxing isn't typically pre-choreographed It's usually spontaneous and organic. So you could sort of look at it as a sort of fluid or free-form kata However, there are a lot of drills boxers use to learn and practice motions Imagine a drill in which a beginning boxer learns the basic punches, you know first a jab then the cross then expanded into hooks And eventually into longer combinations The student can now learn these sequences and practice them at home on their own Repeat the actions until they get comfortable and more precise with the motions. That's essentially a kata Central concept of fundamental punches practice in a sequence and solo practice for the purpose of defining and refining those techniques This is a kata in every definition of the word It's just a textbook emotion nothing more than a reference manual So then we can now apply the same logic to MMA which actually lent itself more to this model MMA has a much wider combination of disciplines and a larger repertoire of techniques If you have a series of counters and takedown moves as part of your curriculum that you practice and you run through them on your Own in a sequence. That's a kata in every way shape or form. That is a kata I think where a lot of people get hung up on the notion of kata being nothing more than the dances Well one there are forms that are just for show and demonstration They have little use outside of a tournament and or just put on a little bit of razzle-dazzle Two we also have a lot of kata from the traditional arts where the meaning and analysis movements or bunkai have been lost to time And they may exist in different different versions across different arts across the world So when it comes down to it if we can look at it as a technical instruction manual or a textbook written in motion And I think a lot of us can agree that the kata is just like anything else in the martial arts It's a tool. It's not a good tool. It's not a bad tool It's just another learning instrument and it's most effective when you understand how you can extract information presented in it Now we cover this a little bit deeper in regards Okinawa kata in our history of Gojiriyu episode and Sensei Toguchi who set out to establish the secret rules of kata Which I think is highly relevant to today's discussion and how kata relates to the martial arts of today's modern landscape