When we think of studying a Kata, most obviously we think about memorising the steps, maybe the rhythm, and practising it enough times that we can reproduce it... a bit like a gymnastics routine. It is only after some thought, and maybe some years and experience with other Kata, that we begin to think beyond the physical exercise and start worrying about its meaning. Why do we perform the Kata? How can we apply it to self-defence? And why is the Kata organized the way it is?

I don't know the answers to these questions. Most of the content of Shotokan Kata remains a mystery, hinting at deep knowledge hidden under the surface, but hard to obtain for certain. One tool that I use to help me in the personal search to understand more about a Kata is to divide it into segments. I don't have a hard and fast rule to what constitutes a segment, and choose them more or less by intuitition. Because Kata are not mathematical objects, and can vary a lot, I prefer to keep an open mind to how I divide them. There are some rules of thumb I use, though:

• a segment is a sequence that I see repeated in more than one Kata, or almost the same with little variations;

• a segment is a sequence that is repeated in the Kata. Sometimes, a single segment includes the repetition. Sometimes, it feels more natural to consider each repetition a different segment (or occurrence of the segment).

• A segment can have a well-defined theme, or else be very heterogeneous, but stand between other well-defined segments.

I have two main uses for segments: to help me in memorisation and to help me in focusing their bunkai. I believe that, mostly, a segment should represent one lesson of the Kata with respect to a given attack (or several attacks of the same kind).

So, given this introduction, I thought it would be natural to start exploring the Kata of Shotokan (or maybe, less ambitiously, of the Heian set) by looking at the structure of the first Kata in the syllabus, Taikyoku Shodan, identifying the segments and talking a little about them and how the Kata is constructed.

Kata structure:

Taikyoku Shodan is a very simple Kata. It has one of the simplest embusen of the syllabus (perhaps only the Tekki Kata have a simpler one), and only two noteworthy segments, repeated a few times. It has a structure that appears a few more times in the Heian Set, with a main segment linking the starting point with a far point on the same line, and then a return to the origin. At both the start and the end, and at the far point, the Kata can have a segment in a perpendicular direction. I call this structure an A-B-A travel with baselines. Taikyoku Shodan is the clearest case of this structure: it begins with a segment perpendicular to the main travel, the baseline, around the starting position (point A). This segment is repeated in the middle of the Kata, around the far point (point B) and then at the end, after returning to the starting position again.

Segment 1: Gedan-barai Oi-Zuki Mirrored Baseline:

This segment is mirrored, meaning that it repeats the same techniques first on the left and then on the right. Each repetition is very simple: a 90-degree turn simultaneous with a block, immediately followed by a strike, which I call the Turn-block-and-strike pattern. This same structure appears many, many times in other Kata, although the exact segment as it is present here, with Gedan-barai and Oi-zuki, is perhaps only present in Heian Shodan.

This segment shows how to alternate between hanmi and shomen, and to practice flowing from a block into a strike.

Segment 2: Oi-zuki triple step:

Shotokan Kata frequently feature sets of 3 related steps, either all the same (repeated on both sides) or with some variations. The second segment of Taikyoku Shodan is a paradigmatic example, with the same technique repeated three times: an oi-zuki step on zenkutsu-dachi. I call this pattern a 3-Fold Repetition.

This particular step is not often seen in other Shotokan Kata, except obviously in Heian Shodan.

Other notes:

The transitions between segments are not simple. Despite this being the first Kata, it includes 180-degree and 270-degree turns that are very confusing for beginners. But they are a key aspect of learning to move in Karate, and changing direction to evade an attack.