Kata & Bunkai are Constructs

 

 

Written by Guss Wilkinson 2007

 

I would like to clarify the relationship between Kata and Bunkai (the applications within kata) and their place in a participant’s martial learning and what this actually means.

 

As I have covered before, the training of basic techniques (strikes, blocks, stances, locks, strangles, throws and holds) is an evolutionary process. These techniques are designed to optimise power to effort ratios (most effect for least effort).

 

Mastery of basic technique through practice, research and modification are essential to building the solid foundation for an effective learning and development process. In other words, sub optimal basics will put enormous constraints on what you are able to achieve. Practising basics is boring, and it requires enormous self discipline to actually set aside the time required to continually hone them to the necessary degree – and beyond. Difficulty in getting techniques to work can almost always be attributed to faulty or substandard basics.

 

Training kata by itself is a great way of fine tuning basics, fluidity of transition between basic moves, co-ordination of combination, consistency of performance, concentration and whole mind engagement with what you are doing on a second by second basis. If you find your mind wondering off while performing kata, or you are thinking ahead of the move that you are currently doing (preparing yourself for the move that comes next) then you have not reached a whole mind engagement – you still have serious work to do.

 

Many people regard kata to be a type of meditation in movement – I do not wholly agree with this unless you take meditation to mean mental focus.

 

The set bunkai we teach (even though we have modified or replaced them with what we consider to be better techniques) are still only template techniques – they still need to be practiced, questioned and modified by each individual to suit their own height, weight and other physical attributes in order to become personalised and internalised.

 

The main relationship between kata and bunkai functions to build a personal library of combinations of techniques, to serve as a platform for honing coordination and as an effective means of memorising your entire collection – remembering what needs to be practiced. Without kata, how can you remember the 200, or so, combinations of techniques?

 

Bunkai are always trained in contrived scenarios, mostly initiated from long stances - there will never be an occasion where that would actually occur in a defence situation. The whole point is of this type of practice is to provide a reliable, safe and predictable means of repeating and perfecting each and every technique.

 

This is why I say that bunkai and kata are constructs – they are artificial. The bunkai and the kata in themselves are not the end product, they are irrelevant. It is the process that an individual goes through that is important.

 

 The process itself leads to an ability (in a defence situation) to use a set of circumstances at any given second of a physical conflict to semi-subconsciously stimulate an appropriate action. Those actions will be improvised!! They won’t be drawn from a specific bunkai.

 

It is like holding a conversation. Your response in a conversation is an improvised articulation based on what you want to convey at that point. You don’t take whole phrases from texts that you have memorised as response in a conversation (unless, of course, you are a politician).

 

Reading books regularly helps to build your vocabulary just as training kata and bunkai will build your repertoire. Reading very well written books will help you to articulate more effectively and will force you to read between the lines.

 

Katas are like very well written books – there is much to learn in between the lines.

 

A fight is like a physical conversation – your skills will determine whether or not you get the last word in and how quickly it occurs.

 

Sparring, then, is an exercise to help you achieve all this despite being scared and nervous – it teaches you to manipulate the conversation and to react to the unexpected, nothing more.