Recently I wrote about the “Kata – Kumite Disconnect.” In that article I observed: “a lot of karate kumite looks like kickboxing – it does not look like what we do in kata…”
And I asked: “What is the relationship between kata, kumite matches and combatives? We cannot assume these are separate realms, or that they are the same…”
And I noted the implication of these questions to the investigation of kata bunkai:
“…you cannot penetrate the meaning of the kata assuming that the conventions of kumite matches are the only legitimate combative methods, or the only ones we will encounter…”.
Our investigation into the meaning of the kata has yielded good results. Beyond discovering practical bunkai, it has changed the way we train with kumite, and the way we prepare for practical defense.
I want to point out another disconnect – between Kata and Yakusoku kumite.
This disconnect has been made evident by our discovery of numerous practical bunkai in the kata. These discoveries have yielded increased proficiency in body mechanics, energy, and combative application. They also make clear the techniques and the tactics taught in the kata.
This has led to the replacement of Yakusoku kumite with two-person training in sequences derived directly from kata bunkai.
We train these first by learning both the attack and defense sides of each bunkai, and then by using them, under increasing pressure, to develop technical proficiency with each one.
This is an important development. Here is what led to it:
When I started in Matsubayashi ryu 40 years ago, and throughout my years of training, I have operated on the assumption that the kata were completely sound; that they had been preserved precisely; that they formed a sound foundation for learning skillful movement and defensive combatives.
Because I was sure of this, I investigated how to optimize the movement sequences in kata for speed, balance, energy transfer and tactical effectiveness. I investigated them for bunkai applications, using the kata movements, without changing them at all.
The exploration has delivered great results. My initial assumptions have been proven correct. There is no need to change the kata to get good bunkai.
It took a long time to prove it.
Forty years ago, there was little valid bunkai known. (I investigate why this was so in my article on “the Karate Revolution”, coming soon.)
Instead of valid bunkai there were artificial bunkai that offered little or no combative skill training. Some still say there are no practical bunkai applications in the kyu rank kata.
We have proven that there are bunkai applications throughout the kyu rank kata.
The Yakusoku kumite were developed to fill a gap in karate training that no longer exists.
The old, sub-optimal bunkai I am referring to include punching from three feet away, giving the defender time to turn around, see the opponent, block the distant arm, and then punching the air in front of them;
Hooking blocks – passing under the incoming punch, hooking around the outside of the attacker’s arm, and pushing it to the side;
Defending against an attacker who is walking backwards while punching toward you multiple times;
Finishing a kata direction by “blocking” and then assuming that for some reason the opponent was defeated or ran away;
Justifying this by saying that the kata were just block-punch exercises with no fighting application, (which itself is an incoherent claim);
And making up implausible explanations for complex techniques that were not understood.
After many years of practice, the kata have been revealing their lessons very well. The process continues.
There is evidence of this process of discovery in many places online, including the MBRKataAnalysis site and our YouTube channel: @mountainkarate.
It takes time and persistence to figure those interpretations out.
They are not secret or difficult. Anyone can use them, once someone shows them to you. To discover them yourself it helps to have some hands-on experience outside of the dojo.
It also helps if you have experience in reviewing hundreds or thousands of violent encounters.
And it helps if you have some familiarity with a spectrum of martial arts techniques accessed from beyond the narrow confines of a style-centric in-group, its hierarchy of authority, its limitations, and its exclusive reliance on internal approval for technical validation.
Anyone can do this kind of kata bunkai analysis, with fruitful results. Thousands of people are. We are glad to be a part of this international group effort.
Now on to the issue of the Yakusoku kumite, and what our bunkai insights reveal about them:
From the beginning of my training, I also assumed that the Yakusoku kumite were teaching reliable, useful skills.
In contrast to the kata, the Yakusoku kumite were not.
The Yakusoku kumite seem to habituate us to tactics which we do not want to use, and which never appear in the kata, like stepping straight back when you are under attack from the front, by an opponent who is moving forward and striking. The kata never train us to do that.
(When we do step back under attack, as in Rohai, we are not walking back, and we are not under attack by an opponent stepping toward us or striking from the front. In Rohai we are standing on one foot, executing a knee strike, while the opponent has two hands on us or is attempting to put them on us. In response we stepped to the back foot, unbalancing him as we split his arms for our counterattack.)
The value of the Yakusoku kumite was to teach timing and distance. They were developed at a time when reliable bunkai was not part of the curriculum.
Now we have better ways to train those skills.
We rely precisely on all the kata that we have learned and practiced over the years, and incorporate all the training methods for individual and two-person conditioning, shi-mē, hojo undo, makiwara, and more which we always have.
Instead of Yakusoku kumite we use bunkai training: there are hundreds of existing yakusoku kumite’s within the kata. We can train with all of them.
We learn both the attack and defense sides of each bunkai, and then, under pressure, we develop technical proficiency with each one.
We add dynamic kumite training – based on the kata, and conventions of other martial arts that our opponents may use to attack us – including defending against grappling, seizing, striking, boxing, ground-fighting-style take down attempts, and more.
This approach trains timing, distance, tactics and targeting – all based in the kata – so that all karate training is unified, and proceeds in a technically and tactically consistent way, from kihon to kata to bunkai to jyu-kumite.
***
Post Copyright © 2023, 2025 Jeffrey Brooks
***
read True Karate Dō
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”
— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series
True Karate Dō is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover and Kindle Edition