My father is thinking of starting doing aikido, but only if there are no katas involved. Could anyone let me know if there are katas in aikido or not?
There are katas but that's not a bad thing. There is no way you could learn aikido if it wasen't for them. The stance and the steps are very very important (a lot more than other MA's). They are not a big part of your training though.
Tell your dad to go to the dojo and see for himself. What many call kata in aikido are nothing like many karateka would describe it. Each dojo is different. -bambeer
The style of aikido I did had kata...but they weren't what people imagine as kata. It was more practicing how to enter and turn, etc. Very hard to describe...where are the knowledgeable aikidoka? They could do a better job. But generally speaking, what your dad probably imagines as "kata" didn't exist in my style of aikido.
I think it depends on the school. Why not have him go and watch a few classes and talk to the instructor(s) about it? He could try some different schools, if your city has more than one.
If that's his attitude, I respectfully suggest that he pick a different martial art. I can't imagine him enjoying aikido with that state of mind. But ya, what Owt said.
Well thats a rather presumptuous thing to say... I wouldnt discourage any one from trying aikido. Whats the worst that can happen, they dont like it? With that aside.... In my school we use katas for training general body movements, but they are really short, usually one steppers. I think a good anaology would be, aiki katas are like taking a practice swing with a golf club, unlike karate katas which are like playing a game of golf with no ball, club, or golf course.
Do I do Kata as part of my Aikido training... yes and no. I'm not sure I'd call what we do in my class kata... having also studied Shotokan karate I honestly don't see a lot of similarities. In Karate Kata was a combination of techniques... in aikido what few things could be called kata are design to teach the basic movements of single techniques. Shumatsu Dosa Ichi, Shumatsu Dosa Ni... these fore example are used extensivly in my class to teach those trying to move from white to yellw the basic movements that lie behind your Katate Mochi Shihonage techniques (One Wrist Grasp All Direction Pin). You can almost make a comparison to simply walking through a technique solo for the sake of practice. I may be wrong and I'm sure this all changes depending on the style of Aikido or even the classes within each style. But the above is my experiences in studying Yoshinkan Aikido.
I don't want to sound like a jerk but Katate mochi shihonage is actually: wrist grab 4 direction throw. Shiho is 4 direction while nage is throw. Like Chris said, you can solo practice but you do need a solid foundation first. Cheers, bambeer
Entering and turning= irimi tenkan. We teach 4 types of standard omote irimi techniques for beginners to solo practice but its always followed up by partner practice since entering alone cannot teach mai-ai, timing etc. Irirmi tenkan is also first practiced as a solo exercise for the first time. Even with two people its still called kata since its a predetermined attack and response executed in a specific "form", thus kata. In regards to the first poster, your father will find that any koryu or gendai budo is primarily kata based, thats just the way its been done in japan for many, many years. Randori and jiyuwaza (IMHO) should be part of any good aikido dojo and can only help, but until you understand the principle behind the form, free full resistance training will only confuse a new person. -bambeer
Where I practice our techniques are practiced as forms with specific attacks for each form. I wouldn't call these katas however we do have weapons katas for the tanto, jo and bokken.
The only kata that I've heard referred to in my dojo is the 31 Jo Kata. I'm sure there is one for Ken, but I don't know yet.
Hmm, ya, weapon katas. Duh, why didn't I remember that? For some reason I was fixated on empty-hand katas. It's my experience that different traditions teach different jo and ken "katas." At my school we have several weapon katas both with partners and solo. They vary widely in the number of movements.
well strangly enough the drills we do in my aikido class arent refered as kata by Sensei it s jsut drills. But he did make up more or less a logical progression throiugh the first five or so techinques. it was ratehr intersting to do the techinuqes in a fluid series. Dont know if ny other dojo does that hwever......
We occasionaly string a few techniques together. But they're not fixed katas and they're pretty much a one off event.
Kata Yes, people define kata very differently! I once had quite a skilled kung-fu practitioner come to practice Daito-ryu with me. He seemed a bit skeptical in the beginning when I explained that the bulk of the training is kata. But after the training he looked a bit confused and said that we hadn't done any kata at all. I answered that the whole of the past hour had been kata (e.g. ippon dori, gyaku ude dori etc.) He was taken aback and then said "Oh, but in kung-fu we call those 'applications', not kata!" Nick England
