Kata works as combative training if you understand your intention and the precise intention of the opponent you are stopping.
We do bunkai because we need to know what we are doing.
Once you know, the body mechanics you need and the energy flow that will result become evident. Then you will be able to perform each technique with meaning, and each sequence with purpose.
But bunkai is only part of the story.
Bunkai is kata analysis. Kata synthesis is essential too. That means putting our bunkai understanding to work as a seamless, continuous whole from yoi to ya-me, as we practice each kata. Which is a more difficult challenge than it may at first appear to be.
To do the moves on auto-pilot, to just go from posture to posture, is okay as athletic training.
But to know and perform each fighting application, with complete mental and physical understanding, and to maintain complete attention on what you are attempting to achieve, and doing that for each move in connection to the preceding and subsequent moves throughout the kata, is difficult.
Forty seconds of that intense purpose, exertion and concentration, is not customary. It cannot be done at first.
To train that way for a 90-minute training period, from beginning to end, without explanation, breaks, distractions, or anything but intense, purposeful action in a flow state, is a good level of challenge for advanced training. It is sometimes overlooked.
As we advance in technical proficiency and physical conditioning, synthesis becomes as critical for training as analysis.
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Post copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks
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