There are three pillars to studying traditional Karate: Kihon, Kumite and Kata. They teach different aspects of the art and so complement each other, but each one of us will have its favourites. For me, it is Kata, which is where we can most readily identify the differences between fighting styles. In a sense, the different Kata make up the soul of Karate (or of Shotokan, or any other traditional Asian martial art).

That said, if Kata is so important, is there a better way to perform it? Should we all try to emulate what sports Karateka do in competitions? Should we instead try to execute each technique with perfect form, but perhaps less strength? Or else, the whole Kata with perfect fluency, but perhaps less form definition? Or take each step and movement with strength and speed, but in isolation from the next or the previous one?

At the start, it seems so simple to do a Kata. We simply learn it from our teacher and try to reproduce the movements. But gradually we find there is so much more to it, and that Kata is, like Karate, a subject of never-ending study. One can easily dedicate a lifetime to the study of Kata without reaching a full and deep understanding of all of them.

Over the years, I've learned with Sensei Terry some different ways of executing a Kata. Each one with a different focus to develop a different attribute. This is so that, overall, by practising in many different ways, we can improve in different aspects, and achieve a more global understanding of the Kata, and control of our own body and mind.

I will divide these methods in two groups: the first one focuses on the modes of execution, emphasising different rhythms or speed, but keeping the Kata content exactly as prescribed by tradition; the second focuses on variants to Kata content, adding or replacing techniques, or even modifying their ordering, in order to introduce challenges (mostly mental) to the experienced Karateka. Because the two groups focus on independent aspects, it is of course possible to combine them to achieve even more variety. For example, perform an inverted Kata in water mode.

Kata Elemental Modes:

One of the paradigms Sensei Terry likes to use, when addressing Kata, is inspired by Sensei Rick Hotton, and is the execution of Kata in Earth, Water and Fire mode. Each comes with a different emphasis.

Earth: solid execution of techniques, with mainly staccato rhythm. The Karate-ka should take any step as an opportunity to examine the correctness of the technique, and pay attention to all the minutiae of movement. The techniques should be strong and powerful.

Water: very fluid execution, with barely any pause at all. This is not the normal rhythm of demonstration, and the separation between segments is almost eliminated, allowing the Karate-ka to constantly flow from one step to the next. The body should be relaxed, and techniques don't need to be very powerful. But the Karate-ka should still pay attention to correct body movement, for example hip rotation, core engagement and proper stepping.

Fire: a mix of the previous two modes. The aim is to demonstrate the Kata in the most excellent and complete way possible, with power and speed, proper rhythm (the rhythm that naturally emphasizes the segments, between the staccato of Earth mode and the fluidity of Water mode). The karate-ka should aim at the technical exactitude of Earth mode and the relaxation of Water mode. This is achieved by tensing the muscles only at the moment the technique is executed, and relaxing immediately after. From relaxation comes speed, and also a strong contribution to power.

Hopefully, the technical correctness would have become second nature after enough practice in earth mode, so that the Karate-ka does not have to consciously pay attention to each movement, and can instead focus on rhythm and relaxation.

Tai-Chi: this is my own exaggeration of Water mode to create a meditation-focused Kata. The aim is to execute the Kata exceedingly slowly, but with isochronous rhythm, that is, there is no contrast of speed between techniques. These are delivered almost powerlessly, and without Kiai. The focus is on constancy and fluidity, on constant shifting from one position to the next, in order to learn how to bring the hands in action together. There is some intentional exaggeration here to achieve an effect like a slowed-down wing-chun, where the Karate-ka constantly shifts his/her position to make it difficult for the opponent to settle on a defense. The consequence of this is that often the stances and techniques are not fully defined before moving to the next one (for example, in sequences of 3 shuto-uke, or 3 age-uke). Where possible, where the hands are close together (for example, crossing arms for an age-uke or chambering for a shuto-uke) I try to make them stick, that is I emphasise their closeness and slide one against the other.

As a further variation of this mode, I like to string together as many Kata as possible without interruption, as if they were one all-encompassing Kata. The five Heian Kata are particularly well suited for this.

Kata Variations:

There are also some interesting variations that we can do with Kata. I list here some I've seen. None of these have anything to do with the Elemental paradigm above. Converserly, each one can be combined with all of them. In fact, whereas the elemental modes are more or les mutually exclusive, these variations can be freely combined with as many modes as possible in one go.

Mirror:

This is an old standard. It consists of changing the techniques of the Kata from left to right. Kata usually give preference to one side, which can make the Karate-ka gain muscle memory for application to one side but not the other. This mode helps the Karate-ka train both sides equally.

Basically, where a technique is delivered with the right hand, it would be delivered with the left. Where a turn is done to the left side, it would now be done to the right. Movements forwards and backwards are not changed.

Inversion:

This is another standard mode, but instead of shifting the sides, it reverses the order of the techniques. In this mode, the Kata starts in the last technique and goes back to the beginning. It is mentally challenging, and frequently done only with the simplest Kata. For an extra challenge, it can be combined with the mirror mode.

Tai-sabaki:

This is a variation designed to increase the ability to evade the opponent by body movement. It consists of changing the turns so that they become more realistic. Many turns in Kata move towards the opponent, even using a back-spin. Instead, blocks (including those in turns) are always made moving away from the opponent.

This is a deviation from Bunkai interpretations where blocks can be seen as aggressive techniques, like locks or limb breaks. Instead, in this mode, we narrowly interpret blocks as actual parries or deflections, and so we change the steps to move defensively, that is, whenever we perform a block, we move backwards.

For example, in Heian Shodan, the series of age-uke moves backwards instead of forwards. The first 90-degree turn to the left becomes a 270-degree turn to the right with front-spin. Some creativity is required in this mode, for the Karate-ka to find the correct movement that is as short as possible, ends up facing in the same direction, and never closer to the opponent.

In this mode, the final position may be radically different from the default Kata.

Extra kicks:

This mode is also more frequent with simple Kata, especially those that favour hands techniques. It consists of adding a kick before every block. If a block is executed in a turn to the side, the added kick will be a yokogeri (kekomi or keage); if to the back (eg beginning of Bassai-Dai) the kick will be an ushiro-geri; if to the front, the kick will be a mae-geri or even a mawashi-geri (mae-geri and keage are often practiced in Shotokan Kata, but Kihon standards like kekomi, mawashi-geri and ushiro-geri are not).

Combining this mode with Tai-sabaki will be extra difficult, as all of the kicks will have to be applied defensively, towards a backwards direction.

Alex Pinto