Martial Development

Martial arts for personal development

How to Discover The Purpose of Your Kata

· 4 Comments

A poem inspired by Billy Collins

Introduction to Kata and Bunkai

Torture devices
Torture devices (Credit: Peter Bechthold)

I ask them to take a kata
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a kata
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the kata’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a kata
waving at the shihan’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the kata to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Coerced confessions are notoriously unreliable. Try seduction instead.

Tags: Philosophy · Training Tips

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Patrick Parker // Apr 19, 2008

    I like that - a lot!

  • 2 Kungfuguy // Apr 20, 2008

    cool torture stuff

  • Ordosclan, The Grumpy Savant of rec.martial-arts // Apr 19, 2008

    […] …Interpretation of function leads to degradation of structure. If a posture can be rooted to a canonical reference, pre-natal or post-natal posture, then that’s the ultimate authority on the subject. Period. […]

  • Learn The Art of Kata Seduction // Apr 25, 2008

    […] Search ← How to Discover The Purpose of Your Kata […]

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