In last month’s blog, I discussed four stages on practicing
hyung as defined by Iain Abernethy, 7th Dan with the British Combat Association and British Combat Karate
Association (Reference 1). The
four stages are listed below as a reminder:
1. Solo practice
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
In the September blog, I focused on stage 2 – study the functional
application of the movements. In this month’s blog, I will discuss ways to move
into and practice stages 3 and 4.
Stage 3: Begin to
include variations of those techniques in your training
In stage 2, you established various applications for a
single technique. So, to begin to include then in your training, take a variation
one at a time and incorporate it into your basics and hyung during solo practice
(i.e., against air, bags, etc.).
For example, you may have discovered that low block can
actually be used as a strike from a cross hand grab to damage the grab. So, for the next several weeks while you practice
low blocks (during basics, hyung against bags, etc.), you imagine that exact
scenario. You should continue to
practice this variation until it becomes second nature to imagine that
scenario. Once that occurs, move onto
another variation that you discovered in Stage 2 related to low block, and
continue the process stated above until you have exhausted all the variations.
If you were to do this for every technique/transition in
basics and hyung, you can imagine why Gichin Funakoshi, Founder or Shotokan
Karate said, “In the past, it was expected that about three years were required
to learn a single kata, and usually even an expert of considerable skill would
only know three, or at most five, kata.”
Stage 4: Practice
applying the techniques, variations and principles of the kata in live practice
In our club, live practice takes the form of self-defense
and sparring. I would start with
self-defense to incorporate a variation of each technique at a time into your
repertoire until it becomes automatic.
As in Stage 3, incorporating each variation in your self-defense
practice can take months.
Once you have practiced a variation in self-defense and it becomes
a natural reaction, you will want to incorporate that variation in
sparring. To do this, you may first want
to start with a partner and pre-stage a situation or two where that particular
technique would be used. Practice that
situation over and over again until it becomes a natural response. Afterwards,
go into free form sparring. Notice when
that situation comes up and consciously incorporate the variation. If you do not, just let that moment go and
stay focused on the match. After the
match take notice if you executed that variation or not. If you did not because the scenario did not
present itself, then wait until the next partner or practice and focus again on
that variation. If you realize you had
several opportunities and you chose another technique or variation, then more time
is probably needed in self-defense or the sparring “pre-stage” step.
Gichin Funakoshi has been quoted as saying “It must be emphasized that sparring does not exist apart
from kata, but for the practice of kata.”
The meaning of this is sparring is a means to understand what the
techniques within the hyung are for and in what situation they can be effective.
Over time, if you follow these four stages, you should find
not only does your hyung improve but because you now have a larger repertoire
of techniques, your self-defense/ sparring is more effective.
Regards,
Kelly
“Generations of experience have shown that it usually requires 3 years to learn the basics and 7 years to acquire a fundamental proficiency of kata.” ~ Shoshin Nagamine (1907-1997), Founder of Okinawan Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate
References:
