KATA FOLLOWS FUNCTION: cryptography

“Visualization during kata is important.  But your imagination must be based on your experience in kumite. The relationship between the two is very important. It can’t be fantasy. The point of kata is to learn how to apply the movements in reality, how to train the body to adapt to situations in a flexible way.”Mitsusuke Harada in “The Warriors Path”

Harada Sensei, one of the few direct students of Funakoshi Sensei still alive makes his opinion clear in the above quote: kata applications flow from fighting.  I believe it to be unfortunate that he uses the word “kumite” in this quote because, for the vast majority of karateka worldwide, kumite infers a sporting event rather than fighting.  On the other hand, his organization, the Shotokai, has not supported sport karate in the past and in this particular reference, Harada Sensei is probably suggesting “fighting” rather than sport kumite.  It cannot be emphasized enough: kata applications are reactions to a real attack; their form must represent a pragmatic response that controls and terminates the onslaught as quickly as possible.

There are two basic methods of kata analysis: posture analysis and sequence analysis.  Posture analysis entails the consideration of each kata posture and all the possible applications for that posture. The karateka would then combine and recombine the various kata techniques to create a nearly infinite number of defence responses. The first point Tony Annesi makes in his kata primer “Cracking the Kata Code” is that techniques within a kata (or a kata series such as the Heian or Tekki series) may be re-arranged in any order to create a usable application combination. The karateka needs to look at kata as entire fighting systems with consistent themes rather than just a bunch of disparate techniques thrown together.

Sequence analysis attempts to reduce the  number of attackers visualized in each kata encounter to an absolute minimum, preferring to dedicate large portions of each kata to a flowing, logical response to one attacker.  Schmeisser Sensei, in his excellent book “Bunkai: The Secrets of Karate Kata” (see also “Channan: The Heart of the Heians”) demonstrates this approach very well utilizing the Tekki (Naihanchi) kata series, reducing his potential attackers to really just two or three (depending on how you count). Within his text he interprets some of the sequences as “plan B” movements that would apply closely related movements to an attacker with either an alternative attack or alternative attack vector.  In my opinion, neither posture or sequence analysis may be used to the exclusion of the other; the karate posture limits the possible applications while the sequence suggests a logical flow.

Both methods of analysis requires that the student step outside of strict karate “punch and kick” applications.  We need to keep in mind that the majority of the kata originated in a time before there was a strict divergence of the martial arts into styles. Within a historical context striking arts, grappling arts and weapons training were all trained together. The techniques within the different arts represented the reality of the existence of the other arts. It was assumed that the student would use any and all methods at his disposal to defend himself against any possible attack. The traditional kata reflect this reality; we cannot be fixated on ‘punch and kick” or “grab and throw” because they are all found within the kata.  In fact, I have always been told that many of the weapons kata were merely modifications of empty hand kata altered to fit the weapon used.  I have one reference (Classical Fighting Arts #36) that shows Uechi Ryu Sensei Shinyu Gushi performing “Mee No Jiffa” , a weapons kata designed for the long, rather sharp top-knot pin used by Okinawan nobility to secure their hair (and poke unsuspecting criminals it seems). I may be wrong, but “Mee No Kata” has a nearly identical embusen and techniques as the Shotokan kata “Kanku Sho”.  If one kata did flow from the other, no one is talking. 

It is really only over the last fifty to one hundred years that there has been such a pronounced separation between the combative arts. For example, today we consider aikido and judo to be distinctly separate grappling arts, yet both arts spring from the original jujutsu and both most definitely had striking as a integral part of their original system.  Ueshiba Morihei, originator of aikido, was often quoted as saying that “atemi is 99% of aikido”. Certainly we do not see atemi (striking) during aikido demonstrations, but Ellis Amdur, author of “Duelling with O-sensei” believes that an aikidoka should be able to perform an effective atemi-waza at any point within a classical aikido throw or control.  Without the potential of atemi-waza within the aikido technique, the aikido is unlikely to be effective in a real confrontation.  The same could be said about karate: without the potential for a throw or control within the context of a karate contest, it is unlikely that the karate would be effective in real combat.

Let’s look closely at the various stances for possible applications to combat:

1. Kiba-dachi: as already discussed, this stance has strong lateral stability and a low center of gravity.  The strong axis of the stance is linear from side to side: this implies lateral defence.  On the other hand, the stance allows the karateka to drop his center of gravity straight down without any loss of stability or posture alignment by merely flexing  the knee and hip joints: this would suggest that the opponent may have been thrown and lies prostrate on the floor below you. 

Kata that demonstrate this element well may be Heian Godan and Bassai Dai, with the sequence of block-crescent kick then step down into kiba-dachi and elbow strike to palm.  In application this sequence may run something like this: intercept an incoming attack and immediately kick to groin, abdomen, or one of the legs.  Assuming the kick slows the enemy down and hopefully bends his head down slightly, the elbow strike will become an attack to the head or neck. If, as you stepped down into kiba-dachi you managed to step down with your lead-leg behind or to the outside of the opponent’s lead-leg, the elbow-strike, combined with a firm pull of the attacker’s arm with the hikite hand, becomes an effective throw.   

Applying this application in Bassai-Dai also infers an application of the three “augmented downward blocks” immediately following the elbow strike/throw. The opponent is on the ground below you and your “downward block” is actually a head punch, while the “augmenting hand”  would be holding onto the arm of the aggressor while you hit him.  I think the term in MMA for this approach is “ground and pound”, is it not?

2. Zenkutsu-dachi: this stance has a strong axis from front to back (slightly diagonal, but shifts depending on the relative inner thigh connection)  This stance suggests a strong offense or defense to the front.  This is clearly an “offensive” stance, but we should not assume that we are always striking when applying this stance.  Many of the techniques within the kata, especially the two handed techniques such as juji-uke may imply an aikido like projection or control.  I can actually see applications such as shiho-nage or an over the shoulder arm-bar in many of the kata where we turn 180 degrees and step into front stance with both our hands drawing over our head and forward. Two examples of kata that have what I see as aikido type projections are Gankaku (kote gaeshe and shiho nage) and Kanku-Dai (shoulder arm bar or shiho nage).

3. Kokutsu-dachi: this stance, slightly lower than zenkutsu-dachi and with most of the weight carried over the rear leg, appears to be mostly defensive in nature.  The axis remains strong front to back, while the heavy loading of the rear leg with the relatively reduced weighting of the front leg may suggest a defensive position poised for a very rapid and powerful counter-attack by merely shifting into front stance.  This could be compared to a boxer’s “weave” to slip a punch: you drop back onto the rear leg to create distance and avoid an attack, simultaneously loading the rear leg to drive into the attack.  On the other hand, an alternative application must be considered: the “dropping” of the center of gravity and the relative stability  of the stance may imply that you have grabbed the opponent and are pulling him in while applying some sort of control technique. Note closely that many of the kata apply kokutsu-dachi with either an open hand block (implying grabbing of the enemy) or an augmented block (often implies a control of an attacker’s limb). 

If you combine the two above sections and look at Gankaku kata closely, you may see a good example of both aikido projection in front stance with joint control in back stance.  Consider the movement from Gankaku where, from front stance downward juji-uke, you turn 180 degrees, apply a second downward juji-uke in front stance and then turn again to perform a double handed downward block in kokutsu-dachi.  My application here is: turn to intercept an incoming stabbing attack at the half-way (transition point) and step out into downward juji-uke: this would be a aikido kote-gaeshe or wrist throw. The next technique, applied forcefully against a bent and controlled enemy, would involve grabbing his hair and turning 180 dgrees, projecting his upper body to the floor while continuing to control the stabbing arm with you second hand.  Performed this way either the opponent ends up on the ground or his twisted wrist gives way.

4.Kosa-dachi: cross legged stance, which appear in many kata, can be very confusing to most karateka.  Kosa-dachi hardly appears to a worthwhile combat stance; practically all your weight is distributed on one leg, with the second leg perched behind on the ball, merely stabilizing the stance.  This stance is unstable and yet does not really contribute to mobility. It’s a conundrum. On the other hand, if you look at the kata movement immediately following or proceeding most kosa-dachi postures you may notice a rotation in place. Kosa-dachi should be considered a transitional position that would not actually be held at all, but would indicate a body movement crucial to the combat application.

 An example of a kata application that may apply here would be the first move in Bassai Dai: drive forward onto the right leg with a long step, land in kosa-dachi with an “augmented block”.  Here I will give my own opinion of just one application, among many. 

Bassai Dai, as I understand the translation, means “storming the fortress-long” (or “breaking the siege” etc. etc.). I have always been led to believe this means that you are fighting from a position of relative weakness, trying to overcome some superior force.  In my mind I see two attackers and you are in the weak position of being pinned between them. Musashi, in Go Rin No Sho, recommends that a fighter faced with multiple opponents must maneuver to place them on one side so he need only fight on one front.  In Bassai you have the more aggressive fighter to your front, but his wing-man is directly behind you. The aggressor reaches out with his right hand to restrain you, grabbing your right hand. Your reaction is to trap his hand on your wrist with your left hand, kick (or knee) forcefully into his gedan region (hopefully groin) and lunge forward into him, applying a modified nikkyo technique to his trapped right arm and perhaps striking him with your right fist as you land (in kosa-dachi).  The lunge forward (after the strike to the groin) takes you away from the attacker to your rear, off-balances the attacker to the front by doing the unexpected (Most opponents would resist the arm grab and try to pull away; you, on the other hand, trapped the grab and lunged into the attacker.). The kosa-dachi now becomes intrinsic to the application: this is critical but transitory position, after which… you will grab the opponent you just hit and drive him in the other direction, into his buddy standing behind you.  In this situation the kosa-dachi is the set up to the projection of the opponent in the opposite direction, thus “stacking” your attackers to one side, allowing you a single front. 

 The emphasis here is that the kosa-dachi is merely a transitional stance allowing for a rapid turn-in-place with a powerful drive into the new direction.  One point of note: if you look at any of the popular Aikido manuals, many of the step-and-turn movements on “entry” are in fact kosa-dachi; the only difference between karate and the aikido version is that the aikido movement is clearly transitional, never portrayed as a individual stance. 

Some writers also suggest that the “crossed leg” stance of kosa-dachi may represent a leg trap.  I personally have trouble seeing this as an effective technique but only because I have never seen it applied this way.  On the other hand, I could see is as part of a “trip” used in a fighting combination.

5. Neko-Ashi-dachi: this stance is practically self explanatory.  I include it here merely as a good example of where henka techniques are inferred.  As previously stated, many of the Chinese kata forms have implied techniques that are not performed but merely accepted as logical sequel flowing from a specific posture.  The weighting of Neko-Ashi Dachi obviously favours a front leg kick, and therefor any time you see Neko-ashi-dachi you can assume that a kick may be part of any application for that posture.  You may also look for joint control applications, sweeps or take-downs included  with or bracketing the Neko-ashi dachi: the kick would either be a softener prior to a control/take down or it would be a finisher to an opponent already appropriately subdued.

6. Kneeling positions (ie: from Empi or Gankaku) these would imply that the opponent is downed and you are finishing him on the ground.  Look for some sort of throw or joint control either before or included into the kneeling movement.  From Empi, combined with the introductory salutation position (“yoi”), I see an arm bar followed by a dropping hammer-fist joint attack to the opponent who made the mistake of grabbing your right wrist with his left arm. Other authors have suggested that you are dropping suddenly to throw an opponent who has grabbed you from behind over your shoulder. I have tried this and it could work. 

 I see a similar movement hidden in Gankaku: the movement is right Manji-uke spinning into left Manji-uke, then dropping into kneeling Juji-uke.  What I see is a) block a round punch to your head as you punch his belly then b) spin so your back is spooned against the enemy with your left arm grabbing his head as your right elbow folds him by smacking his left ribs or kidney then c) immediately drop onto one knee as you launch him over your shoulder.  This application would take some fancy foot work, but I am sure it would work if you applied the appropriate atemi-waza to soften the opponent.

Further applications may be implied by the steps, turns and unique movements found in many of the kata.  Consider first any stepping actions, even just the simple step-forward in zenkutsu-dachi that we see in Heian Shodan. 

 Any stepping action may be modified to include a kick, a sweep, a trip, or a throw.  Just about all of us have accidentally up-ended our training partners while doing simple step sparring when we clash knees as we step forward; this could be considered a very successful attack if we had intended to trip them by slamming our attacking knee into their retreating leg. 

 Any turn in any kata should be considered an implied throw.  Judo has a technique called O-soto-geri (great, outside reap) which basically involves throwing the opponent over a hip or leg as you turn 180 0r 270 degrees.   The obvious example of this would be the big turns found in Heian Shodan, but certainly many others come to mind. 

Angle changes in the embusen, while they may indeed imply a new attacker from that direction, may also imply “tai sabaki”. The angles may be suggesting that you should alter your attack vector and come at the opponent who faces you at an angle. This point rang home when I read Pearlman’s text “The Book of Martial Power”: he had several sections dedicated to the value of attacking the enemy’s guard from an angle.  Mr. Pearlman’s favoured angles were somewhere between 22.5 degrees and 45 degrees, which pretty much conform with the typical angle adjustments seen in the Shotokan kata embusens. I know that 22.5 degrees seems like a pretty strange number to throw out, but that is one-half of 45 and represents how little you must move to avoid the enemy’s direct attack line but still maintain your own direct attack line to his center.  One of the most common ”bad habits” students make using Tai Sabaki is to move too much, thus destroying their own chance at pay-back. The angle issue is well addressed by both Kane and Wilder (“The Way of Kata”) and Abernethy (“Bunkai Jutsu”); you need to reconsider the angles in every kata with this concept in mind. The enemy is not necessarily at an angle, but you may want to be.

Jumps are always a favoured question by the new students.  Of course, the clear application of any jump is that you are avoiding the razor sharp edge of a lethal katana or the twirling dervish of a well handled bo staff….Do I sound convincing?  Sincerely, how about we just dispense with the whole jumping to avoid a weapon business altogether. I am not even all that good with a bo staff and I can guarantee you that I can swing that stick fast enough to hit any jumper twice before they hit ground.  Jumping is a damn poor way to fight: once you are in the air, you are committed to only one possible vector and the enemy merely needs to aim his next attack at your landing point. The exception to this may be the jump in “Meikyo”, which includes as part of the jump an attack from above as you drop out of the air: this application in not an avoidance of attack but an attack of its own.

The jumps imply a throw of the enemy, the suggestion being that if you can throw your own body mass into the air, there is a good chance you could do the same thing to an opponent.  Look at any of the jumps; there is usually a pretty good “softening” attack prior to the throw.  Heian Godan has a crescent kick-elbow strike just prior to the “throw”, while the landing involves a downward juji-uke on bent knee.  This looks pretty much like two softeners, a throw, and a grab n’ punch of a downed enemy to me.  Empi has a groin strike followed by a groin and throat grab to soften the enemy, followed by a jump.  I am not sure how the landing in back stance with knife hand block works into this, but the jump is clearly a code for a shoulder lift and throw of an appropriately softened opponent. 

For jumps, my favourite application thus far is the jump in Unsu (I know that the jump does not appear in the original Shito version of Unsu; too bad that I only know Shotokan).  What I see here is something like this: an opponent behind me grabs my left shoulder with his right  hand, intent on spinning me around and hitting me with his left fist.  Instead of resisting him, I spin into him quickly,  my left hand immediately disengaging his grip and establishing  a good grab of my own on his right arm. I continue my rotation, driving my right knee up into his abdomen and my right elbow into his throat or chest. I now basically jump into the air, purposefully pulling and rolling him underneath me as I rotate. The net result is him pulled down on his back and me landing front first on top of him down on the floor, my right knee driving hard into his groin while my right elbow drives into his throat.  You may laugh at this, but I tried it last year on one of my students; it worked perfectly and I came very close to seriously hurting him. Having proved it to be an effective application, I have not attempted a repeat performance.

You also need to look at hand positions from each posture and, most importantly, the transitional movements that got them to that position. As a general rule of thumb, in every kata technique, both in the finished form and in transition, both hands are doing something. No movement, however trivial in appearance is wasted or meaningless. Here are some ideas to play with:

1. Hikite should always be taken by it’s true translation: pulling hand.  Always assume that the hikite has something near and dear to the opponent grasped as it pulls back to your hip. This movement will often off-balance the opponent, especially if you correctly apply the twisting motion as you draw it to your hip.  The pull and punch aspect of the action cannot be overlooked either: why not accelerate the enemy towards your punch as your punch accelerates toward him.

2. The classic “cup and saucer” position demonstrated in kata such as Heian Nidan, Heian Yondan and repeatedly in the Tekki series absolutely implies some sort of grabbing joint control. Applying this approach to these movement makes the following sequences in both H2 an H4 much clearer: enemy grabs you, you off-balance him by yanking his arm across your body as you shift off his power line (tai sabaki), then go into attack mode with kicks, back-fist strikes and elbow strikes.  Other positions similar to the “cup and saucer” might be telling you to “grab and hit” in the same spirit as the time honoured “hockey punch”. For examples of this you may want to look at Tekki Shodan with it’s fist under elbow postion, or Heian Yondan with the elbow strikes to the palm.  On the other hand I have seen one other application for “fist under elbow” that made sense and I had never even thought of: you are blocking a face punch with the upper arm while you punch the opponent in the ribs with the lower hand.  That idea comes from Sun Family Tai Chi Chuan if you can believe it.

3. The above approach may also be applied to the “salutation” positions demonstrated in Jion, Jitte, Jiin, Bassai Dai and Sho, Empi, and even Tekki Shodan.  While each kata suggests a different defence technique, they all may be suggesting that you are using both hands to deal with some sort of grab by the enemy.  I know that many authors will claim the salutations are just that: historical martial arts tradition with no meaning, but the applications that flow out of these salutations make such clear sense that I just cannot believe that they are meaningless tradition. 

4. Any time that you grab yourself with one hand while performing a technique with the other is suggesting that you are actually grabbing or trapping the opponent.  Augmented blocks suggest some sort of joint manipulation along the lines of a modified ikkyo or nikkyo. Of course, you may also be dealing with a “hidden technique here” ; you may be blocking an attack and  delivering a nearly simultaneous punch behind that block as implied by the augmenting hand.

5.Widely separated arms such as seen in haiwan uke in Heian Nidan or Yondan, or manji uke seen in Heian Godan, Jion, of Gankaku (among many others) suggest either a control or separation of the enemies arms or a simultaneous block and attack.  An excellent example of this comes from Elmar Schmeisser; haiwan uke from H2 becomes a rising block against a wild round-house punch to the face coupled with a punishing hammer fist to the opponent’s face as you step in. With this thought in mind, Manji-uke then clearly could be a flowing block to a head attack while the lead hand pounds the gedan area of the enemy.

6. Open hand techniques suggest a block and grab, also know as “sticky-hands” in Chinese martial arts.  Applying this to the knife hand blocs seen throughout many of the katas, out of every pair of knife hand blocks, the first becomes a control of the enemy, while the second becomes an attack.  Conversely, any closed hand technique, while it may indeed be a punch, could also be considered a firm grab.  The key here is that you need to see what is there and also what MIGHT be there.

Open hand strikes can be effective, but you REALLY need to consider where they are being applied to: techniques such as “nukite” seen in H2 would, by necessity, be applied to soft spots such as throat, groin, and eyes.  If the demonstrated target in the kata is the chest (H2), do not ask how you are supposed to pierce a chest wall with just your outstretched fingers, it is much better to ask how the opponent’s throat of eyes got down to that level.  There may indeed have been men capable of piercing a chest with their nukite at one time, but I would bet those old guys could barely use their hands for much else. There undoubtedly would be massive amounts of bone and joint damage (read that arthritis) involved in training your bare hands to pierce the human rib cage.

7. Transition positions are crucial.  Consider again the very versatile knife hand block discussed above. There is a theory that as a student progresses the blocks and strikes tend to morph from closed hand techniques to open hand techniques; while the closed hand techniques are safer for untrained fingers and hands, they are not as versatile for the seasoned martial artist. The knife hand block itself is a case-in-point: the actual block itself is an effective strike when applied to critical points such as the neck (carotid artery and carotid sinus: one good way to cause momentary loss of consciousness and possibly death) while the intermediate “coil” of the block at the half way point is an effective deflection technique for both attacks and guard hands.  In bunkai analysis the transition points of every block, punch, kick, or step have to be evaluated for potential applications. The transitions are almost always the key to the effective application.

8. Techniques performed slowly imply one of three things: a) they are complex and therefor would be difficult under fight stress, so you need to practice them perfectly (any joint manipulation) or b) they really would be done slowly in a real fight (many “parting blocks” might actually be choke holds) or c)  someone artsy thought the “slow” looked cool.  I really rather doubt the last suggestion is valid.

So all this brings us to “sequence analysis”, which may be either explained in ad nauseum detail or it may be just generally outlined, allowing the student to fill in the blanks.  In my opinion the greatest value of kata lies in it’s vague versatility; with this in mind I believe a general idea of the sequence analysis is more valuable than a detailed instruction manual. Details create constriction, and constriction is the parent of mediocrity.  Here are some of the general guidelines as I know them:

1) All sequences must demonstrate the elements of proper “Ri-ai”: pragmatic, principled combat sequences against realistic physical attacks.

2) All sequences will represent defences against one attack from one attacker.  We should not train to counter “typical” or “potential” combinations for two reasons.  Primarily we need to understand that training to defend against a combination infers that we have some sort of prescient ability to predict the actions of an unknown assailant.  The second reason we need not train against combinations is that this would be contrary to our primary principles of defence: early interception/ suppression- domination- incapacitation.  We need not consider the second technique in any combination because our strategy demands that we smother the attack from at the first stages of the first technique.  In the same vein: defenses that would be applied blindly or merely instinctively should be questioned: again we should not assume karate instills  some sort of extra-sensory perception.

3. Discard all the labels for techniques. Remember that a block could be a lock, might be a blow, should be a throw.  The corollary to this point is that the transitional “preparation” postures for each technique become very important.  With respect to blocks, the “set” position for any block often becomes the real interception, while the block itself becomes an attack.

4. Tai Sabaki is often demonstrated within kata.  Any change of direction may indicate either a movement off the direct attack line or a physical unbalancing and redirection of the incoming attacker. The key here again is to move in a way such that the first attack is completely ineffectual and a second attack is practically impossible.

5. Sequences typically start with an intercepting block and end with a decisive take down or finishing blow. Look for kata sequences of three to four movements that would inflict progressively more damage to the opponent and would likely render him incapacitated by the last technique. The final decisive technique may be indicated by a big turn (throw) of a dropping into a low stance (joint control/ manipulation to inflict pain compliance)

6. While any kata may deal with the possibility of multiple attackers, each sequence will deal with only one attacker.  Kata bunkai will never demonstrate defence against simultaneous attacks. Kata bunkai may demonstrate correct strategy to deal with multiple aggressors surrounding you.

7.  Keep in mind that kata are “training sequences”. As such, if we see repetitive sequences within a kata we are seeing one of three things:a) repetition for emphasis of an important strategy or technique. This would include training both left and right sides of the body b) alternative uses for a specific technique: for example a block used as a block or an attack or c) alternative forms of the technique against various attacks.  For example in Heian Shodan the first downward block to the left may represent a simple intercepting block and counter-strike, while the second downward block, combined with the hammer-fist strike, may represent a sort of “Plan B” to be used if your block is intercepted and trapped.  Bill Burgar has an excellent approach in his application of Gojushiho Sho: with the repetitive sequences throughout the kata he tries to find an alternative application for each sequence either by altering the potential attack or by altering the response.

Under the topic of “training”, some of the repetitive sequences may represent emphasis of an important concept by repeating, but only demonstrate the “finishing blow” once.  For example in the three rising blocks found in Heian Shodan, Itosu may have been training the concept of intercept with an rising block then attack with a rising block ( training the principles of a)alternative uses for a technique,b) training both left and right, and c) early interception of an attack), yet he only included the final finishing throw and punch after the last set of blocks (the big turn, then step in punch to the head of the downed enemy)

8. Some of the sequences may appear overly long. This may represent what Mr. Burgar terms “redundancy”. Going back to primary principles: intercept-dominate-incapacitate, our assumption would be that every technique we use, including the first block, has the potential of ending the conflict. (Kane and Wilder consider this to be the primary goal of all applications).  Of course we cannot really expect this to be the true case.  Many techniques are likely to fail and thus we need a back-up plan.  Most importantly with regards to redundancy: each successive technique must flow naturally with minimal re-adjustment of position. We need to maintain our momentum throughout the defense sequence.

9. Sequences must have three basic qualities: they will unbalance the enemy with each technique, they will lead the mind of the opponent, giving him neither time nor urge to alter his attack strategy, and finally they will maximize the predictability of outcome for each technique.  This predictability of outcome is important for the successful application of any bunkai because, for the most part, all the follow up techniques in any sequence are dependant on those results.  Going back to my statements that most “real fights” are decided by head attacks, then we would likely want to set up most of our sequences to have the penultimate technique be a solid head shot, then finish the enemy with a throw to the ground.

As an example, let’s look at Schmeisser’s interpretation of Heian Nidan, the third sequence: you start standing sideways to the attacker, weight supported on the left leg, the right leg slightly ahead, poised ready to kick sideways, towards the “back” of the embusen.  The hands are held in the classic “cup and saucer” position on the left hip, the eye-line is sideways over the right shoulder.  The sequence unfolds from here: you simultaneously kick to the right with your right leg as you snap out a right back-fist strike, You complete this sequence with a step down into  left kokutsu dachi, with left shuto uke, facing the front of the embusen again.  Now, apply our posture analysis: the “cup and saucer” position implies that you have the attackers limb (presumably he grabbed you) trapped and pulled across your body, extending and locking the arm, bending and off-balancing the opponent.  The kick would be applied low, preferably groin or thigh height, while the back fist strike would be face level now that the enemy is bent. Now, before we call this done, we take the “set” position for the knife hand block: our left elbow swings forward to touch the inside of our right elbow.  In this scenario the enemy’s head would be just about there, so the “set” position for the shuto uke becomes a nasty little elbow to the bridge of the nose.  Finally, the step down into kokutsu dachi simultaneously flashing out the shuto-uke as I turn 180 degrees would likely snap the enemy’s head around a bit, possibly dislocating his neck or just finishing him with an insurmountable accumulation of injuries.  In this scenario all our applications flowed naturally from technique to technique, utilized the transitional positions, and took advantage of the predictable reactions of the enemy. I believe it demonstrates proper Ri-ai.

10)  Broaden your view of the individual techniques: if you cannot fathom the application of a specific technique, look at the techniques that bracket it on either side, making sure to include the transitional positions.  Do not feel constrained by either the standard embusen or rhythm.  Remember that the embusen might be suggesting a tai sabaki strategy rather than an actual response to an attacker along the demonstration embusen. Furthermore, the traditional rhythm of the kata is more about the performance value of the kata than it is about the bunkai applications. If we include the potential applications of the transitional positions, then the rhythm of any kata would be altered when used as bunkai.

This chapter has been pretty exhausting. It covers vast amounts of information that can be found in far more complete form in other texts (see the Reference guide).  All of my references, while often having dramatically different applications for the same kata, all espouse the same basic principles of kata applications analysis.  There really are guidelines to this code and they really do work if you apply them correctly.  As a general rule of thumb, if you are having to really alter the kata dramatically to get the application to work, then you have either the wrong application or you have the wrong attack.  When I first started looking at bunkai seriously, I had two immediate reactions: delight at how simple and logical most of the applications were when I got them right and disappointment that so many of the traditionally accepted bunkai were hopelessly flawed by any meassure of Ri-ai.

My next section will depart from the rest of the text in that it will flow completely from my imagination.  I want to “create” a kata, applying the “rules” as I have listed them.  I will start with imagining a series of attacks and then I will try to come up with a series of defences that conform to our rules.  I am specifically not trying to create a new demonstration kata; this is merely just another training drill that is best discarded when it has served it’s purpose the same way  second grade penmanship exercises would thrown away at the end of the school year.

KATA FOLLOWS FUNCTION: Form follows function

” It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, Of all things physical and metaphysical, Of all things human and all things super-human, Of all true manifestations of the head, Of the heart, of the soul, That the life is recognizable in its expression. That form ever follows function. This is the law.”  Louis Sullivan, American architectural innovator of the late 19th century

Finally, after many pages of preparation, we have reached the point where we actually start addressing “bunkai”.  The term “bunkai” as it is commonly used in the western dojo means “learning applications”.  Typical of western culture, we have failed to learn the full translation of that word and have settled on the very simplistic definition of “applications”.  The true translation of the word “bunkai” actually infers a process of analysis of any subject by detailed dissection or dis-assembly of the whole.  In fact, bunkai could include all the possible study methods of kata that we have already discussed. On the other hand, kata bunkai most definitely includes potential applications of individual techniques or sequences found within the kata.

Of primary importance when considering kata bunkai is the concept of Ri-ai.  Ri-ai, as defined by Donn Draeger in “Japanese Swordsmanship”, represents the blending of all elements of performance and intent to create a meaningful combative action sequence.  Within the context of kata bunkai, this would suggest that the techniques, sequence and embusen would be applied against a realistic attack in a realistic way to give an appropriate result.  We have already touched base on this topic in the last chapter: against a street-real attack the defender must intercept/ suppress-dominate- incapacitate using techniques that could be applied under severe acute combat stress.

The title of this thesis is “Kata Follows Function”, which, it should be obvious by now, is a play on the old quote “form follows function”.  The phrase “form follows function” originated from the studio of the sculptor Horatio Greenough, but was popularized by the master architect Louis Sullivan.  The basic premise is that the form of any building should flow from it’s designated function rather than popular style. The buildings that were designed during this period were typically spare, with minimal ornamentation and maximal utility. Frank Lloyd Wright was probably the most famous of the students of Sullivan. I really like this term when I apply it to kata and kata bunkai. Kata should represent a pragmatic response to an attack.  The emphasis here is that the actual techniques and combinations in kata flow from a real attack and should demonstrate Ri-ai rather than merely demonstrating a jumble of unrelated, illogical karate techniques that “look cool” together.  This attitude and approach can be used directly for the creation of personal kata that might be used in modern “open” karate competitions (not my cup of tea, but to each his own) and indirectly for the interpretation of the traditional kata: if the imagined applications do not stand up under realistic conditions, you need to reconsider you application.

Before we start looking at applications analysis (let’s call that bunkai for simplicity sake), lets look at the traditional teaching methods of bunkai.  The first level of instruction of bunkai is the simple, kihon application where a block is simply a block and a punch is simply a punch.  At this level the student is taught the application as the literal label definition of the kata technique.   The point of this training technique is to basically train kihon as kihon, but under moderate combat stress. Kanazawa sensei stated “kyu grades should be taught simple bunkai to develop a feeling for the kata. If they just practice the cold movements from the kata, then the feeling will not be right.”  My own sensei, Rick Jorgensen, a seventh dan under Nishiyama sensei, emphasizes this approach, and I, for the most part have come to believe that this is the best approach for most karateka under brown belt level. 

 The point I must emphasize here is that “simple” applications need not mean “easy” applications.  I come back to the drill that I have mentioned numerous times: the application of the first downward block in Heian Shodan against an unannounced lunging attack to the left side of the body.  This drill should be very difficult: the attacker should be truly attempting to hit the receiver and the receiver should be truly trying to intercept the attack in it’s very early stages. Done correctly the “block” will be a pre-emptive attack which absolutely deflates and breaks the attacker’s momentum.  The block should not be applied to a fully extended attack but against a half-completed (or less) attack.  This action is very early sen timing or nearly sen-sen-no-sen timing. I have seen many seasoned kudansha be challenged by this drill; it’s merely a matter of finding the appropriate opponent to push them to their limits.   The point of my sensei (and now MY point as well) is that you need to train the students to have great timing with good technique first before you start to teach them intricate applications that require both dexterity and timing.  With timing any defense can be applied and it will work, without good timing no application, no matter how well trained it is , will be possible.  For the self-defense oriented group that would really like to inject some “street” defenses into the mix, feel free to put a rubber training knife into the opponent’s hand and shorten up the attack into a shifting-in slash or stab: the early, pre-emptive nature of the defense then becomes absolutely critical.  

Of course, teaching the detailed action of each technique is important; many of the transitional positions are pivotal in applying the grappling and joint manipulation applications taught at the next level of bunkai.  On the other hand, teaching the final position of each technique such as a downward block has it’s benefits too. Consider the common natural reaction of anyone under attack: we flinch and usually throw an arm into the path of the incoming weapon.  Tony Blauer,  a Canadian combatives expert involved in training both military and police in unarmed defense, trains his students to use their natural tendency to flinch as part of his defense system. It is Mr. Blauer’s opinion that many of the well know kata postures such as the first moves of Heian Nidan (Pinan Shodan) and Heian Yondan are just variations of a natural head cover.  The only difference from natural reflex and Mr. Blauer’s approach is that the defender moves into the attack, intercepting and smothering the opponent’s momentum early. If one looks critically at the kata, you hopefully will notice that most of the “blocks” are done while advancing rather than retreating: there is a theme here.  The masters of old were emphasizing that we need to “smother’ each attack at it’s inception by early interception.  There is also another point that should be made here: most of the applications well tend to be variations or manipulations of our own reflex reactions.  This point, that bunkai should work with or complement natural reflex reaction can be considered one of the important keystones of kata applications. 

 The one major drawback of the first level of kata applications instruction, is that the students have a tendency to develop “label disease”  Label disease is the myopic insistence that the only possible application of a technique is the named application: a block must block and a punch must punch.  Even the most inexperienced neophyte must be told that every kata technique has a multiplicity of applications and that part of their training responsibility it to discover all the applications of kata techniques.  One of the great beauties of kata (and possibly one of the great weaknesses of kata) is the plasticity and vagueness of the art form: kata can be everything and nothing to combat training, depending on how you approach them.

Once the student has mastered the basic applications and understands the importance of timing, the second level of kata training discards the named “labels” for techniques and starts to explore all the potential uses for the kata techniques.  In his book “Cracking the Kata Code”, Tony Annesi repeatedly reminds us that “a block is a lock is a blow is a throw”.  Besides being fun to say, this is clearly an exhortation to looking at ALL the possible applications and variations of our basic techniques.  If you wish to really look at this subject (and I mean REALLY look) I strongly suggest that you read and re-read Rick Clark’s book “75 Down Blocks”.  This pioneer maverick took a block that appears in absolutely every unarmed self-defense system in some form and he found literally 75 different ways to apply that one block. Mr. Clark really did find a block, lock, blow and throw within that simple action, along with many other applications few of us would even consider. 

 Now, in my classes, this level of application is very specific: the key elements of the kata technique and embusen may not be altered at all, merely the timing and true application. Going back to the first move of Heian Shodan: envision an attacker from the front who grabs your right hand with his left hand.  Having trapped your dominant hand, his predictable next move will be a head shot with his right hand  Your defense will be to drop (flinch away from the punch) extend your right hand slightly down and twist it against the grip of his thumb. As you do this swing left, chamber your left hand by swinging it quickly up to your right ear, passing through the center line and…. under his grabbing arm, peeling his grabbing arm off your right hand. Grab the wrist of the offending left arm as you roll it through the downward block chamber position (snapping your right hand back to the hikite position as you apply the release, thus aiding the release process and “loading” your reverse punch). Snap the downward block out as you drive into a front stance to the left.  This action, while peeling the enemy’s hand off your wrist, also will snap-rotate the enemy off line to the left, mis-aligning his right hand punch and hyper-extending his grabbing left arm, unbalancing him and leaving his left rib cage and left back exposed to your reverse-punch.  In this example I have at no point altered the traditional technique or embusen of the kata, but I have used a “block” as both a release technique and unbalancing method to pre-empt the attack while destroying the defenses of the opponent.  You can play with variations of this approach (there is likely close to uhmmm….. 75 variations), and each one of them would be properly called “oyo” of the technique or examples of alternative applications.  Here is a second important point for applications analysis: do not allow yourself to be blinded by labels: see all the possible “oyo”.

The next level of kata applications training would be “henka” techniques.  I have found any number of interpretations for this term, but the translation is “hidden” or alternative techniques.  Here is where the translation of the term should be discarded for the “spirit” of the term.  My opinion (and I hope I have this correct) is that the applications used as “henka” techniques would be applications that are related to or flow from the traditional kata but do not necessarily appear in the traditional kata.  The most common variations, and it is very debatable, would be the embusen. 

The embusen is always a point of conflict. Kane and WIlder suggest that the embusen is not suggesting how the defender is actually moving, but how he is “entering” the fight in relation to his attacker.  These authors suggest that in kata that have a turn to the left (or right) as the first movement, the message is not telling you that your attacker is to your left, but it is saying that your entry be at ninety degrees to the attacker. Kane and Wilder suggest that in every kata the attacker is always in front of you; the logic being is that common sense (and maybe Ri-ai) demands that you would always face a potential threat.  The example I used above with the grip-release followed by joint manipulation would turn the enemy off his attack line and make your entry ninety degrees to that line. Another example of embusen alterations would be Schmeisser’s bunkai analysis of Tekki Shodan (Naihanchi, Nifuanchi).  Sensei Schmeisser interprets the first cross step movement as a turn-in-place to avoid and intercept an incoming soccer kick. Most traditional Shotokan dojos teach the first move of Tekki Shodan to be an interception of an attack from the right.  Schmeisser has altered the embusen from the traditional interpretation of the Shotokan school, but he has not necessarily altered the embusen from the potential applications under the demands of Ri-ai.  I do not consider his interpretation to be “henka” in the least. 

 The debatable point here is “do embusen changes truly represent enough alteration of the kata to make it henka?” My reply to that would be sometimes yes and sometimes no, but it depends on the spirit of the change.  I believe it would be henka if the timing/ strategy of the kata is altered.  An example of this would be to have the first move of Heian Shodan become “step back to the right as you downward block to the left” rather than the traditional embusen movement of “step in left as you block left”.  The henka alteration here represents a shift from early sen timing to go-no-sen timing and therefor a complete change of strategy (it still demonstrates proper Ri-ai though). The key point here, I believe, is to not get fooled by the embusen: look for the underlying strategy rather than just the movement. 

Chinese styles such as Tai Chi Chuan have many “henka” movements and these actually form a large portion of their kata applications training.  Many posture positions are actually meant to imply an attack that is not actually performed.  I can give a few examples of this “code”, but there are many.  Any technique performed in “cat stance” (neko ashi dachi) implies a front leg kick, usually to the groin.  Any sequence that completes with a block but has the other hand poised in a striking position, such as Tai Chi’s “single whip” infers that the “single whip” hand would naturally strike nearly simultaneously with the block.  Any posture that completes with both hands going in disparate directions suggests a simultaneous block and attack (sen timing).  Any posture with two hands together may imply a grab or joint lock, but if one hand is “hiding” behind the other it may represent what is called a “hidden hand technique”. 

 An example of a hidden hand technique in karate could be the augmented blocks seen in Heian Nidan (Pinan Shodan), Heian Yondan, or Heian Godan.  In all of these kata there is at least one posture ( H4 has three movements like this) that finishes with an inside to outside augmented block. In performance the augmenting hand ends up with the meaty palm proximal to the little finger wedged against the inside forearm of the blocking arm, palm facing upwards, elbow  braced against your abdomen.  Traditionally we call this position an “augmented block”, but consider this: if you are using early sen timing as the stepping in action suggests, in what situation are you actually going to need to “augment” those blocks? How big is the guy you are fighting and really how poor is your timing?  You should never need to augment any block if you are applying correct timing.  On the other hand, what else could that augmenting hand imply?  Perhaps the creator of the kata is suggesting the time-honored and kumite-proved strategy of using a pre-emptive block to either intercept  a lead-hand technique or move a lead-hand guard and then have a powerful reverse punch sneak in behind that block. If you actually try this strategy in kumite, you will find that you will have to have the reverse punch already in motion as the “block” moves the guard out of the way if you want to be successful.  The reverse punch hidden behind the block would be the “henka” technique here.  Of course, anyone with any grappling experience will see an arm bar hidden within the augmented block, but this would not be “henka” as it does not require any modification of the kata to be applied: it would be ”oyo”. 

One key issue here is that “henka” truly represent “added on techniques” that should be explored only once the student has a firm grasp on the traditional, existing techniques.  Henka applications should never be used to explain any sequence for which you cannot imagine a viable oyo: if you cannot find an appropriate applications for the kata as it stands, then you need to reconsider the attack against which you are defending.  Often incomprehensible kata passages become patently clear if you alter the attack technique or direction; it is rarely necessary to substantially alter the kata itself.

Some authors would suggest that there is yet another level of kata study: “kakushite”.  As I understand this term it means “secret techniques”.  Historically, these secret techniques were taught by the master to only a select few, trusted students.  The martial arts are filled with stories of “kakushite” which were only passed on to the “one” who was chosen to succeed the master, often transmitted once the master was nearly on his death bed.  In his Internet articles John Vengel refers to the Chinese “gates” system through which the student slowly learned all the various “secrets” of the system as they entered each subsequent higher level of “gate”.  The gate system was prevalent in any number of schools: Musashi actually refers to this system in the fourth book of Go Rin No Sho (Book of the Wind, as in “hot air”). Musashi derided any school that operated under a “gate’ system and repeatedly said that there are no real secrets. 

 Modern day authors such as Tony Annesi repeat this admonition: there are no secrets.  In ” The Principles of Advanced Budo” Annesi makes many excellent points (some of which fit my specific definition of “principles” and many of which fit my definition of “details”) but one of his best points is that there really are no true secrets in martial arts.  Martial arts hide everything in the open and it is the duty of the student to see the ”secrets” which are clearly there.  Truthfully: all humans have about the same abilities and about the same limitations, and this little pearl of common sense dictates that there really cannot be anything hidden.  Anything discovered or invented by one person can be found and contemplated by another.  To me, this is a very important point: far too many students train complacently, considering their chosen sensei to be the only true source of instruction and expecting their sensei to spoon feed the “secrets” to them with absolutely no effort on their own part.  Over the many years I have trained I can do nothing but credit my various instructors. Each has done a superb job in their own way to help me find “The Way” of karate, but some of the best instruction can be found in what they did not tell me.  Self-discovery of the kakushite is perhaps the most important quality to be found in kata bunkai.  If you question this approach consider the opinion of Kanazawa sensei: while kyu grades should learn and apply the simple bunkai of kata, students Shodan level and above should be able to find proper oyo applications independent of their instructor. Dan ranked karateka should look for guidance from their instructor but not wait for be shown everything.

I want to quickly list some of the points made here for quick reference:

1.Every application should demonstrate Ri-ai as defined by Donn Draeger. It should demonstrate a meaningful combative sequence.

2.Simple applications should be taught at beginner levels, but the emphasis should be on the application of timing with excellent technique.  Timing is of paramount importance.

3. Applications should work with and complement our own instinctive reactions such as “the flinch”.

4. Do not become infected with “label disease”: look for all the possible applications of every technique both by itself and in combination with the rest of the kata.

5. The embusen may impart both directionality and strategy. Perhaps the attacker really is “to the left” or “to the right”, but perhaps the kata is merely telling you how to approach the attacker who is standing right in front of you.

6. Look for both implied technique and hidden techniques. They do not necessarily appear in the kata and they should not form the foundation of the basic kata applications, but they should not be ignored ever. Never use “henka” to explain yourself out of an inappropriate application; it is better to reconsider the nature of the potential attack.

7. There are no such thing as “secrets”. All secrets are merely oyo or henka that you have yet to discover.  It is the responsibility of the dedicated karateka to independently study and find these oyo and henka.

And now, after much ado about nearly nothing, it comes time to start looking at the code of kata and how we may be able to decipher or “reverse engineer” kata.

KATA FOLLOWS FUNCTION:Predator and Prey

Pareto Principle: Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of Italy’s wealth was owned by 20% of the population. He then carried out surveys on a variety of other countries and found to his surprise that a similar distribution applied.   The 1992 United Nations Development Program Report showed the distribution of global income to be very uneven, with the richest 20% of the world’s population controlling 82.7% of the world’s income.

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, may be applied to a variety of mundane matters.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2008

Let’s just step back to Rosenbaum’s opinion (and the opinion of just about everyone else that is involved in the martial arts)  that karate originally developed as a  mostly unarmed civilian self-defense system. I am just going to make the assumption that this is the truth; it fits with everything I know and have experienced in karate, and it also feeds into the entire rest of my thesis. It would hardly do to contradict myself and invalidate my thesis so early in the process. I leave it to other, more capable martial artists than I to completely invalidate my text.

Anyway, if karate was develped as simple self-defense for the average citizen, what exactly would it be defending against?  Karate most likely would be defense against common street attacks by untrained or poorly trained thugs with criminal intent.  Patrick McCarthy originally coined the term “Habitual Acts of Physical Violence” (HAPV) which has since evolved into “Habitual Acts of Violence”  (HAOV), a more inclusive term that covers non-contact acts of violence such as invasion of personal space to threaten and intimidate.  If one considers that there are really just a limited number of ways that the human body may move and there are a very few instinctive attacks, we may be able to assemble a very specific list of techniques that a person can expect to encounter if they are assaulted.  This list would be the “HAOV” to which Mr. McCarthy refers. And here also is where “Pareto’s Principle” comes into play.

As referred to in the lead-in quote, Pareto’s 80-20 rule may be applied to many different “mundane” subjects. Karate would be one of those “mundane subjects” (or is that “arcane”?).  The concept goes something like this: “If only 20% of the possible attack techniques are likely to be used in 80% of physical confrontations, then it is very likely that self-defense training should dedicate 80% of it’s training time learning how to defend against that specific 20%. Furthermore, the karateka should dedicate 80% of his time to training the 20% of his own techniques that are likely to be effective in physical confrontation.”.  You can thank Rick Clark, author of “75 Down Blocks” for that simple but confusing subject.  Basically, what it says is train those few techniques that really work most of the time and learn to apply them against those few techniques that you are likely to encounter.  Furthermore, the same principle could be applied to kata applications assessment: when considering possible applications for any kata, the first assumption made must be that the incoming attack will of the common street variety rather than some exotic karate technique.  Certainly, in my experience, all the kata applications I know work best against street assaults such as round-house punches and football kicks.  How about we look at some of the potential attacks.

Rick Clark gives a pretty decent list of possible attacks in his little book “75 Down Blocks”. The list is distilled from several sources, the majority of which were police reports of violence encountered during arrests.  Of course, police officers likely encounter far more and  different types of violence than the average citizen: let’s face it, every day police encounter a whole different lower form of the human species than the average citizen. Still, there are only a few, predictable ways the human body may move, therefor it does not pay to get too focused on all the potential attacks you may encounter.  The four most common assaults you may expect (only four??) are 1. a grab, 2.  a push, 3. a punch and 4. a kick.  Each of these attacks also have sub-groups, but defenses against those sub-groups will likely be variations of a single theme. For example, if the assailant grabs you, it will be one of three techniques: a same-side grab, a cross-side grab, or a double grab. Furthermore, there are only a few, likely targets the enemy will grab: your hand, somewhere on your arm, your lapel, your throat or your hair.  On the same subject, there are likely only three specific follow ups to these grabs: forceful abduction or control, a strike, or a choke. The strikes you may expect in these follow-ups (or certainly as a primary attack) are just three: round-house punch/ hook to the head, upper-cut to the head or body, and perhaps, rarely, a straight punch to the head or body.  As far as kicking goes, the majority of the kicks are going to be front football type kick to the predictable targets below the belt. You may run into the odd guy that attempts a round-house kick and certainly a knee strike should always be expected if you get too close.  Steve Collins, creator or the R.E.A.C.T self-defense system adds attacks such as tackles, head butts, and head locks, while Bill Burgar asks us to consider bear hugs, grabs from behind, and  simple invasion of personal space.  All told, this is a very limited list, and not a karate style step-in punch or spinning back kick in the bunch.

As an aside here, we really should address the basic point of all this: self-defense. Self-defense “gurus” such as Peyton Quinn, Steve Collins and Tony Annesi (among many others) have repeatedly stated the obvious: the best defense to any attack is avoidance.  Of course, avoidance assumes recognition of the circumstances. I would suspect that anyone with any common sense would know that dark alleys and skid-row shooting galleries are best avoided, but many of us are at a loss to notice when we are actually about to get bitten by the shark.  In his published articles, Peyton Quinn often recounts his rough beginnings as a road-house bouncer: his primary failing was in timing rather than technique. He, as most of us do, failed to recognize the impending shit storm in it’s earliest stages, when a limited confrontation (hopefully just verbal jousting) was still possible. Tony Annesi suggests that there are two basic confrontations you may encounter: the sudden attack or blitz attack, or the combat attack or duel. The sudden attack would be the most common, but of course, what is “sudden” to some may be  “predictable” to others. It really depends on how observant you may be.  Muggers typically select their victims: they observe, watch for signs of weakness or perhaps test the waters with some simple probing.  Quinn calls this “the interview”; it may consist of a few choice threats or just a simple passing “bump” to see how the intended reacts.  Undue attention from a stranger and his “posse” may be the first warning of an attack or perhaps merely the presence of a stranger loitering “out of place” may be a sign of trouble. Often, what seemed to be a sudden attack to us was really an assault that was pre-planned and packaged before we even came on the seen.  Dave Doncaster, a police instructor with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used to tell of a team of muggers that haunted the bars of a small, mid western Canadian city. This pair would actually go out “trawling” for victims; one of the pair would engage the victim with a threatening verbal barrage while the other would blind-side him with a sucker punch. The two gentlemen were never convicted and their crime spree only came to an end when one of the men died while imprisoned for unrelated crimes. The point made here is that these guys planned well ahead for an attack their victims thought of as suddenly coming out of nowhere.

Steve Collins, in his text outlining his R.E.A.C.T system, gives us a few of the visual ques to watch for when confronted with an aggressive individual. In the early stages of a confrontation, the aggressor may have a flushed face, accost you with foul or threatening language and become progressively more physical. Try to ignore the words and watch the body language; people lie but actions never do.  Ragged, rapid and shallow breathing may suggest indecisive moments as he contemplates an attack, while taking an upright, chest forward stance may indicate posturing for a dominant effect.  As the situation escalates, the individual may become more animated and start to invade your space. Often the attacker can be seen clenching and relaxing his fists as he builds himself up to attack.  Once this fever pitch is reached, you need to prepare and watch for the “calm before the storm”, because the signs of imminent attack are near.  Once the moments of indecision are passed, the assailant may become pale, drop his voice to a tight lipped murmur and focus down his gaze, intent on his victim.  Typically there will be a drop into a “stance”, however subtle; it may just be a slight shift of a foot into a right or left lead.  Often, just before the first blow is thrown, the offensive banter stops altogether and you may see a indrawn breath. At this moment the opponent may actually turn away from you, hiding his face, only looking around at that last moment to find a target.  All this may occur over just a few seconds, but if you remain calm and observant, you might have that slight advantage you need.

Once the attack is started, the untrained street fighter does not “spar”: usually the attack will be a blitz attack with the first blows aimed at the head. Most attacks will start at far shorter distances than commonly found in “dojo sparring”; often well within grabbing or grappling range. You are very unlikely  to  run into any traditional martial arts techniques; most of the attacks will run to sloppy but continuous attacks, usually raining down upon the head by preference. Most of the fights will only last a few seconds, ending with the downing or submission of one participant. Sadly enough, the winner is most often whomever threw the first punch. Oh, and forget rules; real fights don’t have rules.

So, lets just recap the previous few paragraphs quickly and then ask ourselves how that applies to kata.  Attackers will use a limited, predictable number of very basic attacks.   Muggers choose their victims, often through predator hunting practices which reveal the “natural born victims”.  Learning to watch for these predator behaviours and the typical body language indication imminent attack can help you avoid or at least suppress any potential attack.  Attackers usually enter their onslaught from a close distance with a rapid-fire blitz attack, often initially attacking the head. There is rarely any form of sparring behaviour and unless you manage a successful defense immediately the fight will likely be over in seconds.  So… how does this apply to kata? 

 All applications of kata are going to be based only on the behaviour of the attacker: they are about doing what you have to do, not what you want to do.  Here are some basic precepts that will flow directly from typical attack behaviour: 1. applications will likely be medium to short distance 2. first application of the kata must be an early interception and suppression of the first attacking technique.3. Often that first “defense” will be against either a grab (prior to a dirty little head shot) or against a dirty little head shot 4. body movement will help suppress any possible second attack by either moving off the primary attack line or unbalancing the attacker. 5. after the first suppressing technique, every move will represent continued dominance of the attacker, resulting in his inability to continue any attack.  There is never any “sparring” in kata. This sequence of intercept/suppress-dominate-disable should be represented in every possible kata application. Finally, based on the 80-20 rule as it applies to our own defenses, we can expect to see variations of a very few basic technique applied repeatedly throughout the kata against similar types of attacks.

Having touched briefly on the psychology and actions of any potential attacker, we need to look at the psychology and reactions of any potential defender, for they too are going to influence kata applications. Your natural physiological reaction to the stress of an attack will definitely affect your physical capabilities during that attack.  Any realistic kata application will have to work under the duress of acute stress and the physical limitations it may put upon your body.  The term that has been coined for this sudden physiological shift is “the adrenaline dump” .

Kane and Wilder, in their excellent text “The Way of Kata” pretty much outlines the physiological response to imminent threat.  Perception of threat starts a chain reaction throughout the body starting at the little crocodile brain at the base of our Cerebrum.  Under acute stress, the amygdala, sitting a few centimeters behind the eyeballs, sends out signals to activate a series of hormonal responses. The metabolic rate is increased as both the thyroid and adrenal glands are kicked into action, releasing cortisone, thyroxine and, most importantly, adrenaline (epinephrine).   The epinephrine has a multiplicity of effects, all designed to put the body into “fight or flight”mode.  The pupils dilate, which allows more light into the eye but will interfere with our ability to focus on details.  Going back to our earlier discussion on how our eyes work, this is actually a good thing: focusing slows us down by using the relatively insensitive cones grouped around the ocular fovea rather than the highly sensitive (especially to movement) rods predominating on the periphery of the ocular retina.  We need to lose our focus, both actually and intellectually; remember we do not want to “think” here because thinking while fighting is a slow thing.  Down in the lungs the epinephrine causes bronchodilation, opening the airways and allowing increased airflow, while in the peripheral circulatory system it causes vasoconstriction, closing down superficial blood vessels and diverting blood centrally to the muscles and immediately vital organs: the heart and lungs. Organs that are not immediately necessary are temporarily shut down: blood is diverted away from the kidneys, digestive tract, and spleen. Bodily wastes may be voided (urine and feces) as all extra weight is jettisoned.  Throughout this process the heart rate is climbing in response to the epinephrine dump. At this point the body is fully prepared to either fight or flee; the muscles filled with blood, the lungs exchanging oxygen at peak efficiency, blood sugar (glucose) has elevated acutely, and the central blood pressure has topped out.  On the other hand, our mental acuity and manual dexterity has dropped dramatically. 

 Kane and Wilder provide a very complete chart, but it will suffice to say that as the “adrenaline dump” proceeds and your heart rate climbs you will progressively lose fine muscle control until only gross, large muscle mass movements become effective.   As the stress increases, tracked by ever climbing heart rate, sensory perception fades: hearing deteriorates, tunnel vision occurs, and logical, tactical thought becomes a challenge.  Once we reach maximum heart rate, we have ceased to be capable of any complex thoughts; we are running on pure animal instinct. And here is the take-home pearl: the only dependable skills left once you have reached true combat mode are those skills that you have completely internalized to the point of near instinctive action.  Furthermore, even the best fighter is going to find the complex techniques such as joint manipulations or pain-compliance techniques to be nearly impossible to successfully apply: he just won’t have the fine muscle control.  Clearly, any realistic applications found in a kata are going to have to take the predictable physical limitations of the “adrenaline dump” into account.

Take two basic truths into account when reading this next section.  In the kumite section we already discussed the nature of brain activity and the fact that when we are “fighting” or sparring we do not necessarily want to be actively thinking: we want to be observing and reacting.  On the other hand, above I said that under acute stress we do not actually ”think” well at all: we react instinctively.  If we want to perform well under combat conditions, we need to train enough that we are indeed capable of performing a finite number of effective techniques with limited intellectual input.  We need to operate in “crocodile mode”.  Two of my references dealt with this subject in two different methods, both of which deserve some coverage. Bill Burgar, in “Five Years, One Kata” discusses an OODA loop, which stands for Observe- Orient- Decide- Act.   Basically he is suggesting that in every scenario you will have to perceive the threat, orient yourself to that threat and consider the possible responses,  decide on the appropriate response and act. The action and any possible outcome will feed you back into another OODA loop as the situation progresses. Clearly, the more involved the OODA loop may be with multiple options and outcomes, the slower the process becomes.  In a conflict situation you need to simplify the action-reaction process  so decision making is quick and possible outcomes are predictable. Considering potential kata applications, this would suggest that any technique should produce a predictable response in the opponent and any follow up technique should naturally flow from that response.  We want our OODA loops to naturally flow so we need not “think” while fighting.

Kane and Wilder approach the issue from a slightly different direction: the decision tree.  As a veterinarian I frequently use this sort of analytical process and actually have entire text books filled with decision trees.  The actual term for the process is Bayesian Medical Diagnostic Algorithms.  The basic premise is that for a given set of symptoms the practitioner can create a series of decision pathways based on the sequential results of a series of diagnostic tests. This pathway, with a very high degree of probability,  will almost always yield the correct diagnoses and as an added bonus, tends to be the most thorough process in the medical-legal context.  Unfortunately the algorithmic process tends to be slow, often to the point of nonsensical process simply for the sake of process.  As an example, a patient with a severe lameness hardly needs to go through a detailed work-up to completely characterize the lameness if a broken bone is clearly protruding through the skin.  Obviously, in an acute, emergent situation the decision tree needs to be pruned down to an absolute minimum.  Kane and Wilder call it the creation of a “decision stick”; the martial artist needs to formulate just a very few basic responses to any assault, train them so they are instinctive, and stick to that formula.  Bill Burgar suggests the same idea when he talks about the “log jam” theory of combat: under stress if the fighter has too many possible responses, he is likely to contemplate and thus hesitate rather than operate.  This all comes back to my statements (which are based on the thoughts of many other authors: there really is nothing new under this sun) in the kumite section: the only intent in any fight or kumite match is to take and maintain complete dominance of the opponent, regardless of your personal strategy.  This may mean striking first or it may mean using pre-emptive blocking to destabilize the opponent, suppress further attack, and render him incapable of any attack as quickly as possible.  “The Way of Kata” (among others) suggests that, in a perfect world, the first interception ( I will not call it a “block”) should be applied so efficiently that further effective assault is impossible.

So, very quickly, let’s just list the elements of kata that we have covered in this section. This list will be the first of several that may help us ferret out potential kata applications:

1. kata applications will likely be against just a few common techniques that might be used by an untrained thug. A simple list of these are a grab, a push, a strike and a kick. Most primary attacks are to the head. Most decisive attacks are to the head.

2. 80% of fights will only involve less than 20% of likely attacks.  80% of Kata applications will likely demonstrate defenses against that likely 20% of attacks.

3. most assaults commence, occur and finish at medium to short distance. Kata applications should be against medium to short range street-style attacks.

4.  most assaults are over within a few seconds and involve rapid-fire blitz style attack. Kata applications should demonstrate early suppression of any assault where each technique either disrupts, unbalances, or injures the attacker, making his “blitz” attack lose momentum or completely fail. 

5. there is no sparring in real fighting, there should be no sparring in kata.  Intercept/suppress-dominate-incapacitate.

6. fine motor skills and intellectual capabilities deteriorate under acute combat stress. Kata applications should not require fine motor skills or complex thoughts.  Most kata applications will be variations of a few simple themes, allowing repetitive training of skill sets and hopefully instinctive application under stress.  As an aside: anything that will require detailed motor movements or complex thoughts may be demonstrated as a slow movement within a kata.

7. Considering the OODA loop, in a real fight you cannot take the time to apply complex decision making processes.  Kata applications should produce a predictable reaction in the opponent (ie; a powerful head strike will usually cause the opponent’s head to snap back and his stance to rise up, often leaving his body open for a follow up shot) and any follow up technique should be designed to go with that predictable reaction.  Keep the OODA loops to a minimum by creating predictable reactions in the enemy.

8. decision algorithms have to be practically eliminated in real fighting.  Only by early suppression of the blitz attack can we cut the “decision tree” to a simple “decision stick”.  While we can predict reactions from our own attacks, we cannot predict primary actions by our opponent, therefor we need to be por-active from the very first technique and suppress all further techniques by complete dominance from that point.

This completes this section: we have actually covered quite a distance and I have not even named a single kata nor discussed a single technique yet.  I am not sure a person can get any more style neutral than that.  Please keep in mind that, while I do not directly cite any one author, I give credit to all authors on this subject. There really are no “new” ideas with regards to fighting, just new ways of describing those ideas.