Another Friday and my students have made one week closer to their goal. Some anyway. If you are serious, every week you should re-evaluate your progress and see how far you’ve come and what you learned the past week. Did I solve my problems with my kata. In shotokan karate there is a series of katas that most traditional shotokan karate schools expect you to learn. The kata which that many schools require for black belt is Kanku Dai. There are 67 moves in this kata. Yes it takes time to learn the pattern, the combinations and the pace and intensity of each move. Funny thing is that when you begin to learn this kata, you realize, hey that combination is in our first kata, hey that combination is in our 4th kata and so on. Hmmmm, could this possibly mean that the mystical, mythical, omniscient, omnipresent and just danged good masters of old actually thought that the basics we learned as white belts should be in a black belt kata. Can’t be, I feel a disturbance in the force!!!!.
Yes, unfortunately basics are important. Repetition is important. As in practice, correct repetition is excruciatingly important. Want to be good? Be good at basics. Want to be Great? Be Great at BASICS.
Nuff said. My head hurts from thinking up this stuff!
Written by,
Sensei Perry S. Culver Jr. 6th degree Black Belt in Shotokan Karate / 1st Degree Black Belt in Syu Sin Do
Culver Karate Club
