Kata Stress

Mixed Martial Arts dominates the landscape, the mentality. It has since become the sole yardstick. In turn, Traditional Martial Arts is now viewed as a kind of relic of self-delusion ...silly old ways, which is unfortunate, to say the least. The very term 'Mixed Martial Arts' is in fact a misnomer (less mixed, more specialized) but that’s a whole other can of worms. Today is Kata.

Fighters, trainers and octagon enthusiasts in general tend to laugh at Kata. At best, they shrug it off as mere performance art. At worst, it is deemed a foolish exercise in aesthetics and bad habitual muscle memory; not simply a waste of time, but something that encourages fantasy. "Kata don’t win fights," they say. "It has no place in the ring or on the streets!"

Kata is not a fighting discipline. It is a mind discipline. The purpose of Kata is not to confine oneself in a perfect sphere of rehearsed techniques. Rather, in part and in essence, the purpose of learning Kata is to unlearn it. Variation and improvisation are meaningless without form. Kata is form. It is also the art of concentration, the discipline of discipline itself. Kata is deeply philosophical in that it establishes principles of movement and technique. This can range from a single theory or an entire library of ideas, yet the assumption that it further removes one from the realities of functional techniques is incorrect—incorrect because such is a misunderstanding of the very intent.

Kata is not meant to replicate real fighting, but to stimulate it, as in practice it allows one to execute full force, as opposed to the pulls and limitations inherent in sparing. It is not so much an attempt to visualize all that your opponent may or may not do as it is a process of building confidence in the visualization of your own movements and responses. Kata is also deeply personal. It is a means of self-examination, even down to an emotional and psychological level.

However, if nothing else, Kata is just plain hard. Below is karateka Rika Usami at the 21^st WKF World Championships in 2012 during her final rounds of Female Individual Kata. What begins impressively enough as a courtly display of automated gestures quickly ignites into a passionate act of self-expression -- a roar of personal empowerment -- and one of the most extraordinary feats of pinpoint mind-body coordination one could ever witness.

Her countenance during which is not merely all business or 'game face', but a burning resolution to vanquish that which cannot be seen; the seemingly incalculable; the near infinite possibilities of failure at every step, shift, turn, leap, extension etc. Afterwards, note her contrasting state of intense emotional release. This is a girl who, for a lifetime within a few minutes, pushed herself to the brink of flawless Kata mastery. Rock the fuck on.