http://www.karatebyjesse.com/42-secrets-of-inoue-yoshimi-kata-coach/ for those who don't know, inoue is basically one of, if not the most well known ****o-ryu sensei alive today, and is one of the rare people who successfully balance competition and non-competition karate (if you watch him move, and there is plenty of footage of him, he is CLEARLY not a sport guy himself, but he has still managed to produce some of the most dominant kata athletes in modern karate).
Seriously though, nice article. Thanks for sharing Edit Number 10 - "Don't lift your knee for kicking." No. Just... no.
Am I allowed to disagree with the first point made? Open your mouth? Recipe for a busted jaw surely? I prefer the maxim "Chin down, hands up, clench your jaw and don't fall over".
No Fighting is practicing for fighting, Kata is practicing for kata. One is using attacks on a resisting opponent, and the other is a series of techniques and body positions done one after the other in succession. You might as well say painting by numbers is practice for surgery.
That depends on the person and their knowledge of the kata. It's one form of solo support practice just like shadow boxing and bagwork are forms of solo support practice. It's often training precisely the movements and postures required.
It most certainly is ALL of those things, and you should know. But I think what I meant to say and stumbled upon was that Kata is not practice for fighting, it is a practice that can benefit your fighting. I think of Scenario training, full contact sparring and pressure testing, and of course actually getting in fights as practice for fighting. Im not impugning Kata by the way, they take skill, focus, and for some of them alot of physical fitness, all good things for fighting, but not practice of fighting itself.
I understand what you mean, but from my perspective you get good a fighting by practicing the right stuff. If you only do the things you mention above you end up with sloppier less effective technique (and a less effective physical platform). Slow correct training is underated practice for fighting. Ying yang - the effective person has both.
you would have a fit if you saw me kick. unless it's a roundhouse, my foot goes more or less in a straight line to where i want to hit (or that's the idea, anyway, spacetime and neurons willing)
also i knew this would get some fun reactions i'll ask jesse later, but i very much doubt "open your mouth" refers to literally gaping when you fight (and yeah, i'm pretty sure it's more for the kata competitors, who basically look for sheer speed above most other things. it's worth noting that inoue's later trainees, such as rika usami, do things like added extraneous movement, that he himself doesn't do when demonstrating general things, so he probably has a fairly extensive repertoire of kata competition tips and tricks).
oh and on 14 i'm going to have to challenge john to a deathmatch, because a protracted shoulderblade is sound biomechanics for punching (shoulder goes to where the punch is going), whereas anything else is not
