Ill throw my two cents in here. These are random thoughts on all the posts here so far but for me it comes down to this. Traditional karate training does not prepare you for real life encounters where you need self defense. When I say traditional, I mean the JKA-style "3K" training which consists of kihon (line drilling), Kata (solo re-enactments of prescribed movements), and kumite (rule bound, mutual confrontations). Those last two training methodologies are very important to discuss here. But I wanted to make my opinion known first about this type of training. Since many "styles of Te" were brought into the Okinawan school systems first and then went into the Japanese colleges, they was designed to meet the needs of a physical education program and were never intended to be used as a fighting art/discipline. Even Motobu Choki called Funakoshi's karate "imposter Karate" due to its lack of realistic elements. My thought is that Funakoshis goal was to bring in a PE program and didnt care about actual fighting as he was a pacifist. His 5 Dan levels referring to the five levels of Zen Buddist mastery. I digress. Again looking at the Shotokan dojo kun, no where does it mention actually using the art as a tool for self defense. Seek the perfection of character, not technique, refrain from violent behavior, etc. His Niju Kun however are a different story and they were written first. In those, we know he understood real life confrontations. We can look at several but hopefully this post will open up further dialogue.
Ok over to the rule bound kumite practice. When there is a referee and a time clock things are very different. Most traditional karateka practice sparring against another "trained" person. Trained in the same rule bound practices that is. And most oftentimes it is only one person at a time. We step into a ring with clear boundaries. So we can all see and agree that this is not how we would encounter most real life self defense situations with the exception of the bar encounter where, as gentelmen, we ask our adversary to politely "step outside". So how do we address this?? Here is what I do.
1. Practice "elevator/closet" sparring. This is where you confine the opponents into a very tight space where oi zuki almost cannot be used. Very close quarter combat.
2. Practice "multiple attacker" sparring This is where you use your environment to help defend yourself. You may use a wall, corner, vehicle, dumpster to defend your back. Watch someone throw full force into your face when they can bust their hands on the concrete behind you with a small slip.
3. Practice "take away" sparring. This is where the opponent has a weapon and you must neutralize it. I use mostly wooden blades so if you get stabbed it hurts like Heck. You must either disarm or disable.
4. Grapple, grapple, grapple. Cant have any excuses for not doing this in a dojo of any sort IF you say you are teaching self defense. If your school is for esoteric practices of the martial arts fine but its a no no to tell people you will be teaching them self defense and never get on your back. What percentage of fights end up there???? Right and why dont you practice being down there???? Its better to know what to do should you find yourself there, then find yourself there and not know what to do. All of the kata I work with (Shotokan syllabus) contain techniques that work equally effective on the ground.
Oh yeah, dont forget No Gi training. Bodies are slippery and try to hold on to a sweaty dude who is trying to punish you. Big mistake of you ONLY do gi training.
So thats how I address the kumite in my dojo with my personal students. On to kata practice.
First things first. We all know now that the prescribed "Best Karate" Shotokan series books and the copycats do not contain accurate interpretations of the kata movements. This is well documented and one of the reasons we have this forum
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With that being said, kata practice is done in all JKA style dojos and other schools where it is a part of their curriculum. Here is the problem. Even though we practice kata, we almost always practice it as a solo exercise, when in fact they were developed in exactly the opposite manner. Kata was the end result of the self defense practices that were taught. I have taken on a personal challenge to recreate the Heian/Pinan kata into a complete two person continuous drills where both persons can practice actual self defense scenarios with a stimulus/response type training principle. I strive to do this after years of studying the two man drills of Koryu Uchinadi under Patrick McCarthy, my instructor. Last May I began to teach this way. Training with me I have a young lady who had training in a Korean style that did not practice Heian/pinan derived kata. She studied as a young person and stopped over 15 years ago. So she had no idea what Heian Shodan looked like EVER. After a two hour lesson we ended the session and went to eat and shower etc. Later that night we were out enjoying a few adult beverages when one of the black belts asked her to "re create" the two man drill by herself and see how much she remembered. She was able to do about 3/4 of heian shodan (at least that is what it looked like to the naked eye). I knew she was recreating the self defense scenarios she had learned that afternoon. Experiment = success. All the shotokan people were amazed that could be done. It was due to the type of training I have immersed myself in.
Why did Funakoshi say it took him 3 years to learn one kata????? It because it took him that long to study it in depth. I believe him. Just as we unpeel an onion I am still exploring that first Heian kata and looking at all the possibilities contained. I have a basic framework for all the Heian kata and I have a formula I am using but there are just so many things we can do to make them functional.
The point in all this is that without knowing why we are doing those movements (no contextual premise) we are just doing another dance move. And if we do not train in that fashion, there is no way we can ever hope to use the kata to help us develop our self defense arsenal.
Ill end it here but will be glad to debate. Hope to light a few candles.
Paul Lopresti