Practicing hyung has many benefits both physically
(coordination, balance, power, endurance) and mentally (discipline, body
awareness, etc.). For some, learning
hyung is their favorite part of practicing the art form. For others, it may be their least favorite
part and they do not spend much time practicing.
For me, practicing and studying (yes, studying) the hyung
provides the most insights and understanding of the principles and tactics of
the art form. Hyung provide lessons and
a level of understanding (if you study them) that you may or may not learn by
just practicing them mechanically.
This analysis of the forms to undercover its principles and
applications are called bunkai in Japanese.
Iain Abernethy is a 7th Dan
with the British Combat Association and British Combat Karate Association and
is considered one of UK’s leading experts of karate bunkai. He describes practicing hyung (kata in
Japanese) in four stages (Reference 1):
2. Study the functional application of the movements of the kata (bunkai).
3. Begin to include variations of those techniques in your training.
4. Practice applying the techniques, variations and principles of the kata in live practice
For many students, stage 1 is what they spend their time
on. Students go through the mechanical
techniques and practice the movements over and over. And this is important in perfecting the
mechanics. However, I think for some students,
it is only until they move to stage 2 do they really learn to like practicing a
hyung. For me, this is the heart of the
hyung and students should spend a large majority of time on this once they are
comfortable with the mechanics. This is
where I discover not only applications and tactics but in learning the
principles of what makes techniques work and the relationships of various
techniques to one another. It also gives
me an intention and purpose in my techniques which is the critical step in
becoming more effective during sparring and self-defense.
So, you may ask, how does one go about studying a hyung
(stage 2). There are actually a variety
of ways of and I have used them all.
To get started, I recommend taking one hyung at a time and
one technique / movement. transition at a time.
Everything within the hyung has a meaning or application (even though
some of them may not be very obvious), even turns and transition, so these too
should be studied in detail. After
examining one at a time, you may move on to link several movements/techniques to
see what applications/principles you can uncover. So, once you pick your technique/ movement/
transition, then the following are different ways to uncover the tactics and principles:
2. Explore with a partner. Practice with a partner to understand and explore their potential applications. When practicing with a partner, in order to determine the effectiveness of techniques, it is important that partners respond to the techniques with realistic and predictable responses.
3. While working with a partner, verbally share new ideas, and many times other interpretations of the application(s) may also be uncovered through the collaboration.
4. Review concepts in books. There are several good books out there that explore bunkai. References 2 and 3 below are just two of them.
5. Watch videos of instructors exploring bunkai. There are several instructors who post videos exploring bunkai. I suggest reviewing Okinawan Shorin-Ryu, Japanese Shotokan Karate, and/or Tang Soo Do instructors that are demonstrating bunkai from, as these styles as they are closest to our forms.
6. Watch other students during self-defense or sparring and notice the various hyung techniques in their movements (consciously or unconsciously)
While studying hyung, it is also important to try to
understand why applications works. In
doing so, it may unlock other principles or applications for those particular
techniques or similar techniques.
In a future blog(s), I will describe ways to move into and
practice stages 3 and 4.
Regards,
Kelly
“Karate has more than
twenty kata. Like textbooks to a student
or tactical exercises to a solider, kata are the most important element of
karate.” ~ Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957), founder of Shotokan Karate
References:
1. http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/article/four-stages-kata-practise,
retrieved 9/1/2018
2. Bunkai-Jutsu
by Iain Abernethy
3.
The Way of Kata: A Comprehensive Guide for
Deciphering Martial Applications by Lawrence Kane
