There is a void at the center of modern “traditional” karate that should be filled before it is too late. It can be. But many practitioners are not aware that something is missing. They cannot conceive of a solution because they do not know a problem exists. If it is fixed we will recover a vastly superior approach to professional use of force training and to personal self-defense.
The essence of the problem is that many practitioners do not know the meaning of the moves they are practicing. As a result, the movements themselves are drained of efficiency and effectiveness.
They make things up out of imagination and conjecture. They gloss over the lack of knowledge. They believe they will become effective fighters by repeating postures and gestures whose applications they do not know, but which will somehow be useful in the heat of a conflict. This is magical thinking. It does not work.
My experience in law enforcement, including as a law enforcement defensive tactics instructor, use of force instructor and firearms instructor, and teaching thousands of people combative skills, has made this clear to me and to the group of practitioners around the world with whom I work, train, and share research.
Karate was devised for combatives. Practicing had additional effects.
The health benefits of vigorous, skillful movement, consistently practiced, was clear. Some people prioritized it over other aspects of training in karate.
Inner development – the cultivation of will, diligence, courage and focus – also were evident and valued. Some practitioners prioritized this as their primary purpose in training. In military training now, around the world, empty hand martial arts taught to most personnel are used for this purpose. The field manuals say this explicitly.
In karate, the health benefits and inner development are built on combative training methods. Combative effectiveness is why karate was passed on from generation to generation, up to the end of the 19th century.
(See “Lost Bunkai and the Karate Revolution” for more on the historical conditions that obscured the combative utility of karate in the 20th century, and the great work being done to recover it.)
Modern “traditional” karate has been mocked and criticized by public figures and their followers, reflecting the shallow, diluted way it has been handed down. But what they saw is not “karate”, although that is what it is called. It is a pale imitation of the art.
Professionals in use of force disciplines need practical, effective training to do their jobs. That was true centuries ago in east Asia where our arts were propagated, and it is just as true here and now. In law enforcement, the military, contracting and security these skills are required. Trends in popular martial arts culture, and the training conventions that come from them, are worth examining. There are limitations we can identify and overcome, using real karate.
(See Fight on Your Feet or Wrestle on Your Knees for more on this.)
There are several challenges in making professional training effective, which all trainers and all systems have to meet:
1. To keep it real,
2. Avoid setbacks from injuries,
3. Provide mental and physical conditioning to meet the pressure of operating environments, and
4. A means of maintaining and refining the technical skills they need.
Real karate offers the optimal way to train professionals to be effective on the job, and to train individuals for personal defense. It has not been well-understood. There is an opportunity here which should not be overlooked.
The conventional approach in professional use of force training, which I learned and taught, and which almost everyone uses:
Create a curriculum centered on a relatively small series of individual techniques, with discrete steps to be memorized for each technique, introduced and demonstrated by the instructors, practiced several times by the trainees with a partner, referred to by name for demonstration, rehearsed and tested on the final day of the training. Since these are perishable skills, and not amenable to memorizing, most of the techniques and their use soon fade from memory. As a rule they are not readily accessible for spontaneous response under operating pressure on the job.
Many professionals who train with kata have never been taught how to use kata for practical combative training. Kata is perfectly suited to be a critical component, intentionally designed to optimize combative training.
(More on this in “Kata Kumite Disconnect”.)
The missing link in conventional professional use of force training (and in personal self-defense) is a way to practice at full power, with enough repetition to perfect muscle memory and spontaneous access to the technique under pressure. Kata provides this. But only if you know what every move means, and only if you have worked every move with an opponent, many times, at speed and power, to learn not just the meaning as an idea, but by cultivating the detailed body positioning, body dynamics of approach, contact and execution, the precise timing, distance, intention, powers, opportunities and vulnerabilities of every move. Then when you train them in kata you will know, in your body, what you are doing.
(More on this in “Science Discovers Okinawan Secret”)
Kata is part of a total solution when used in concert with other training methods. It covers or supports all four points listed above. That is why the kata were created. They are not martial arts dances. They are not just “traditional.” They are not magic rituals. Or convenient testing conventions. Or reenactments of key moments from famous fights.
They are combative training tools. As with any tool, it is not enough to own it and keep it in your tool box. You have to know how and when to use it.
Which brings us to the main omission in the transmission of karate. The omission that has harmed the reputation of karate, and which has deprived even dedicated, strong practitioners, access to the depths of their art. The omission we have begun to fix. To the benefit of professionals and individuals who rely on their skill in the use of force to protect themselves and others.
Many people around the world, our friends and many others, are involved in this process. Some of our solutions are posted at @mountainkarate, our YouTube channel. These are kata application demos, performed mainly by new practitioners. They are not posted to show martial mastery. They are posted to show the meaning of some of the moves that new practitioners learn, and which most practitioners – new and experienced – have not been taught. The response to these videos, has been very enthusiastic among practitioners eager to bring their art to life.
The set of applications we posted cover the ones described in the book True Karate Dō. There are many more which, as part of our ongoing research, we study, practice, and prepare for use.
Convincing professionals that kata training offers them a huge advantage is no challenge once they grasp that the shallow, repetitive, meaningless, lifeless kata movement sequences they have observed in their childhood experience of karate is not the approach to karate kata that they have access to now.
Some people find this view offensive. They see all this not as valuable new information which they are welcome to use, but as a challenge to their approach and a critique of their understanding.
This new information is intended to be useful to every sincere karate practitioner, and accessible at no cost to everyone who wants to go deeper in their training and really enjoy the benefits – in health, inner development, and combative effectiveness – that genuine karate has to offer.
The opportunity in the use of kata – properly developed and understood – for more effective professional training, is huge. This is news. But it would not have been 100 years ago.
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Post and photo copyright © 2025 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate Dojo, in the mountains of western NC.
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“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
Awesome post, sensei. Perfectly put.