Favorite kata

[SaiMaster]

Do you have a favorite form or Kata?

To start off my favorites are the Tekki or Naihanchi katas. They are very deceptive. The forms may seem simple and repetitive to learn but come apart in layers the more you see the more there is to see.

[Saz]

My favourite katas to watch being preformed are Tensho tskui No kata. My favourite Kata to perform myself is Sanchin No Kata, now that I've finally gotten the hang of the breathing :)

[Ozebob]

Hi,

It seems we are in agreement. My favourite kata are Sanchin, Tensho and Naifuanchi. Fairly simple to learn but very difficult to comprehend and demonstrate correctly.

Regards,
Ozebob

[gojutejutsuryu]

Total agreement,
Naihanchi (Naifanchi), is a total paradox. Extremely simple at first glance and yet it gets harder and harder to perform, the more you try and perfect it.
Sanchin Kata was said by the late great "Yamaguchi Gogen" as being the only kata that you really need.
Tensho Kata, another favourite, especially if you slow it down to almost crawling speed. You actually feel the chi in your finger tips and palms. (Tingling and shifting, most people feel it)
Seiyunchin remains the last of my favourites, mainly because it tricks you time and time again.

gojutejutsuryu
(South Africa)

[Telsun]

I love performing Sanchin. People often select this kata as they know that it is the linchpin to Goju ryu karate.

But I really do enjoy it.:D The feeling of strentgh and power that you can expel when fully focused is amazing. My sanchin often lasts much longer than the scheduled amount of moves as I often extend the kata through over concentrating on it. I loose myself in the kata if you know what I mean. It is easy to do because the moves are all so simple. You cannot do this in other katas as they follow a pattern that cannot be extended.

Also the feeling of Sanchin can be felt in your other kata when Sanchin has been developed. That heavy, strong indestructible feeling!!!:cool:

[YODA]

My favourite form is the eight for in our Doce Pares Eskrima system - it's called .....(((Drumroll))) ....... Form 8 :D

[Freeform]

The Tekki kata's (just to agree with everyone ;) ). They look pants to the uninitiated but are quite vicious in application.

Colin

[paul paterson]

Osu,

All the kata's are good and have their good and bad points as do forms, and weapon kata's. However, my favorite kata's to date are Sanchin no kata, Tensho no kata, Yantsu, Seienchin, Seido kata. Yantsu is a kata that has come from the Chinese, it can be done in Tai Chi form as well as a fast and hard form. Then you have Seido kata, this is a real beauty. It gives the student the feeling of how the basic moves, blocks, strikes, and stance work should feel as when moving, attacking and defending. Overall my favorite has to be Tensho. As this kata is strong yet flows like the water. The rolling of the hands and the breathing goes hand in hand with the rooted stance and the shear beauty of the kata is simplicity in itself.

Osu
Paul Paterson
1st Dan Jiyuseishinkai
Section Keeper
Glasgow Zoo.

[lil'fighter]

well........i must say my fave kata is kata pinan yodan, wado style, apart from all the katas i really enjoy this one, because it was classed as a family kata.....anybody heard of Sensei Kerry George ( founder of Ni Chi Ryu), he taught me this kata and he has helped me get where i am now.

Oh well i no its not the same kata as you lot but i must admit this is my fave kata

Lil' fighter
sarahxxx

[Killerbee]

My favorite kata has to be Hangetsu, although the applications are still a bit cyfered to me the dynamic tension which makes way for fast explosive attacks is pretty cool.

[isshinryu kid]

My Favorite katas,ARe seisan, Sanchin,& Nahanchin.;)

[Ohtar]

My favorite katas are Yantsu, Tsuki no and pinan sono go. But I've seen other very impressive kata's (I don't know their name).
So Yantsu is from the Chinese? I didn't know that. Oh, I forget Saiha, that's a fantastic kata too.
Well, I've got difficulties with performing an ibuki (I can make them, but something's wrong. And an ibuki must be an ibuki, and not something that sounds like it) and that's a problem whith Sanchin!
Do you have some advise for learning to make an ibuki? Or is it just practise-practise-practise...?

[Vash Rendar]

My favorite kata to perform would have to be Jion(Shotokan). I like because the moves are simple and powerful, yet interesting.

My favorite kata to see performed would probably be Unsu. It has a large variety of fast paced techniques. Very interesting to watch. :D

[Sam]

my favourite kata is either chinto or naifanchi my favourite kata to watch is seisan(watched my sensei do it the other day, was in awe) the kata i practice the most is kushanku cos its my worst kata

skc

[BlueDragon1981]

Ichi Bondo No Undo
Motosaki
Heian Godan.

I don't think I spelled all those right. Oh well.

We have some chinese forms, some shotokan forms and some forms made from our style. I guess thats what you get when your style is a hybrid. :lol:

[Jamo]

Sanchin Kata was said by the late great "Yamaguchi Gogen" as being the only kata that you really need.

I don't agree with Yamaguchi Sensei's quote (but what do I know compared to him?), but I will admit that Sanchin gives me and my students the most intense workout of all the katas we practice...the sweat flows in streams and rivers. As far as strength conditioning and projection of Ki, you can't find a better kata (at least I haven't)...however, as far as other reasons for kata practice (like learning to move dynamically) I love many others: ****an Ichi & Ni, Rohai, Bassai (or Bassai Dai), Matsukaze, Kururunfa, any of the Gosoku Ryu katas, and the Shudokan Kyoku katas (these have White Crane Kung Fu influences).

Jamo

[kobudo_tob]

Cho-un-no-kon of the Matayoshi Lineage.

[Sho-ju]

Any of the Tekki kata. If you know the bunkai it's a great stand up grappling kata.

[kobudo_tob]

Oh, and you can add Tsuken-Aka-Cho-No-Eiku-De to my post. Pretty smooth.......

[Knight_Errant]

My favourite kata: the list of drills presented in the book 'SAS self defence'

[47Ronin]

Uechi's Sanchin kata.

[Matt_Bernius]

I've got a couple Kata's on my list to learn in the future. On is Sanchin. I've seen a couple flavors of it that I really like.

The other is USA Goju's Golden Crane Kata (I don't know the Japaneses name of it). It's beautiful. You can easily extrapilate the Chinese influence on it. But it still has a Japanese flair to it. Plus it's got a ton of Dim Mak/Internal Martial Art activity going on in it. Plus it's animal influenced. What's not to love about that?

- Matt

[gojuman]

Originally posted by Matt_Bernius
I've got a couple Kata's on my list to learn in the future. On is Sanchin. I've seen a couple flavors of it that I really like.

The other is USA Goju's Golden Crane Kata (I don't know the Japaneses name of it). It's beautiful. You can easily extrapilate the Chinese influence on it. But it still has a Japanese flair to it. Plus it's got a ton of Dim Mak/Internal Martial Art activity going on in it. Plus it's animal influenced. What's not to love about that?

- Matt

This USA GOJU kata you speak of is probably Genkaku te. The translation that I have learned for this has been "Crane on a Rock", but I think it must be the same kata. We also perform Genkaku Sai, which is virtualy the same kata but with sai instead of empty hand.
Genkaku Te and Sai are wonderful kata to work balance, grace and flow.

[Matt_Bernius]

Interesting... I'll have to ask my Gujo Guru to show me that Sai variation the next time I see him. The Genkaku te Kata, if were talking about the same one is just beautiful. It flows like "Like Butta." Plus it contains about a bazillion and one lessons worth of material.

- Matt

[kerling]

My favorite kata is Jion. It's very good with my style off karate hard and strong.

For watching Unsu rocks big time.

The ones I want to master tekki katas. They are much harder then they appear try rotating your hips and applying power but still have a good stance. Very difficult.

Regards Kerling.
ps. seen some very cool goju katas witch I cant name.

[Coyote]

I quite like watching Matsukaze (some styles call it ****an)-- at least in our style. I pretty much hate performing it, though, because I hate holding that one-legged crane stance (the picture in my avatar is from performing Matsukaze for my Shodan test).

To do, I like Jitte for its pure, unbridled power, and Sanchin Sho (as we call it) for its precision.

[xubis]

Heian yondan or godan

[BigBadBob]

For doing I like the Pinan katas, particularly Yondan. I find that you can keep on learning from them through your whole Karate career.

For watching, I like Bo kata

[kerling]

Xubis:

Heian yondan is a very difficult kata with slow mothments.

I have seen sensei Ochi perform it and it was cool. His kochudazi double block is realy hard and effective. Believe me I have felt the block.

I think godan gets to much credit because it's easeer to feel like did a good performance from it. But I seldomly see a good heyan godan.

Regards Kerling

[mattsylvester]

Heian Godan and Naihanchi are really good. Do San is my favourite pattern from TKD as it's so, so nasty with regard to applications.

[Kenshi]

you got it all wrong. my favourite kata is bassi dai

[Radok]

Passai dai is my least favorite kata. Chinto and kushanku katas are the bomb.

[Dirk Dagger]

Definitely Kanku Dai! It means "looking up the sky" and of course, every shotokan karateka needs to "strengthen his fortress" so Basai Dai is also my fave. Osu!

[Dark Blade]

Zanshin! or Zanchin....whatever it is!

[qbushido]

I've become a big fan of saifa as of late, seems like a good kata for people to learn some outside of the normal body mechanics.

[Paul Herbert]

Gankaku (Crane standing on a rock)
This kata has everything in it's application - a real fighting feel to it's movements

[kerling]

Kgirl

Do you train Sanchin much?

You are but fith kyu?

Not that I'm saying that you shouldn't but I think it a rather difficult kata. And the movements are not your common kata movements.

Regards Kerling

[Dinesh]

Mines are Seisan and Chinto

[Saz]

Originally posted by kerling
Kgirl

Do you train Sanchin much?

You are but fith kyu?

Not that I'm saying that you shouldn't but I think it a rather difficult kata. And the movements are not your common kata movements.


I train Sanchin a lot. It is a 5th Kyu Kata, on the 5th Kyu syllabus and I've been learning it since I was a 8th Kyu. Our sensei teaches us kata early so we have plenty of time to get good at them. I'm starting to learn a kata for 2nd Kyu at the moment. Grade/Belt level is irrelevant to your skill level, IMO. If you can do it, you can do it.

One thing to bear in mind is that kata's in different styles are often mixed up at different grades. For example, some of our Shodan Kyokushin kata's are lifted from Goju Ryu, but in Goju, they are low grade Kata's. Sanchin varies from style to style too.

I wouldn't call Sanchin difficult, not by a long way. The movements may not seem like regular kata movements, but they are... blocks and punches. I had a very hard time learning it at first, but once I took some time on my own to break down the movements and learn it, I can do it easily enough. I don't fully understand Sanchin yet, that will take a while, but the actual physical movements I can do.

[samuri-man]

mine is penan godan it's soooooooooo coooooooooooooooollllll

[munkiejunkie]

you brought a thread up from the dead, sam

[samuri-man]

i don't get it ?????? munk