Karate Kata or Karate Dance?

Zero purpose for martial art.

There's nothing that would be practical from her 'made-up' kata. That type of form is generally created by the student as a visually impressive routine prior to a tournament. There is almost always nothing reminiscent of the actual martial art in these routines, and they more or less resemble a dance or gymnastics routine.

I've seen videos of this girl before. She has won many awards with this type of routine. I will say that this is not martial arts, but I don't slam her for doing something she likes, and doing it to the degree of winning an award.

It by all means, hurts the appeal of Karate, and is why people see martial arts as nothing worth their time and effort.

My assumption for the purpose of these musical dance routines, are to bring interest from those still ignorant of what martial arts are really about, and to entertain the families of the students, as well as impressing the good qualities the students possess because of their 'training'.

It's why I steer very clear of any tournaments.

Hi there Some really outstanding answers from callsign, Scandal and koroko! Its the 3 different towns in owinawa that had stlye differences that has a whole make up the karate kata spectrum particulary the larger forms. Other small kata depending on the styles were added much later as is the case with wado. The names were also changed in some styles to remove the chinese feel of them when they were introduced to Japan in the 1920's. Remember in the old days the Japanese and the Chinese didnt see eye to eye. Okinawa was and acception to the rule because is was a trading island that sat between the two cultures. As already said the Heain or pinans are basically elements of kushanku broken town and taught in the early stages as a prep for the bigger kata. The movements all relate to technical elements of fighting, re-enactments or imitation. It is aledged that they were put together in a larger string to hide the fact that it was actual fighting because the Japanese didnt like the okinawan people learning how to fight when they invaded? In relation to Japanese arts such as the koryu ones practiced by samurai after the 1500's the arts were seriously frownd upon so they were changed to appear to be more gentlemanly. Hence a shift from the jutsu to the do way of thinking. Sadly this introduced a lot of rot in the forms and the way they were and are still practiced today. Best wishes idai

Well, I can't read Japanese. I wish I could. I did watch the video. This video shows to me that this by no means is a true representation of karate. This young lady is very flexible. She has good balance. But what purpose would it serve to kick that high. What applications are concealed in this "kata"?

Many will see this that have no idea what karate really is and believe this is karate. Many of those people will be impressed. Some may join a class because they want to be like her. The problem lies that these people will or might not be equipped to really defend themselves if the ever need. This type of training may give a person a false sense of hope.

It looks good to an untrained eye, but it missed the pupose of martial arts training (kata).

Kata Dance

Dance has a long history of being part if martial arts. Even as late as after WWII the practice of karate was prohibited so people practiced kata by incorporating it into dance.

The bottom line is people get resourceful when not allowed to do something

Wow. I wish I could do that. I envy anyone who can throw a side kick with half the agility that she did. It's a nice video, and clearly, she's able to move her body to the extreme ranges of human flexibility. So that's a start. Whether or not she can defend herself is another matter which could be interpolated by watching her spar and perform self-defense techniques.

But I stop at not calling it martial arts. It may not be traditional, and what she's doing is clearly the evolution of martial arts these days. And I hesitate to label it as ineffective, since she clearly demonstrated many elements that traditional forms require us to do: balance, rhythm, precision. And in many ways, she even demonstrated better than many others in their execution of traditional forms. Of course, there are other elements of traditional forms that I did not see here, like power or application. But for whatever reason, the XMA artists out there chose not to incorporate these aspects into their forms. I don't condemn or condone what they do, I only observe that they are focusing on a few of the many aspects of forms.

Does it hurt the appeal of Karate? Not exactly: it does draw the interest. But when those who succumb to the razzle dazzle and then seek out a (traditional) school and don't find it, then they think the traditional school is missing something. Therefore, it has the potential to backfire, and ultimately becomes detrimental to traditional arts. Nevertheless, I like watching these people take it to the extremes, whether it is traditional or contemporary. Remember: MMA is another evolution in martial arts that rankles with many traditionalists. This is just another direction from traditionalism, that's all.

Purpose? Yes, there's a purpose - and I like it. It's just that it's more granular than traditional forms. This means that these kinds of martial artists have to work harder in those other areas to compensate for what the forms don't do.

my japanese was never that good, and im very rust now adays.

i only watched about 10 secs of the video.. that's all i could take. i dont think she would last 5 secs in a fight. and how tall is the person she was suppose to be fighting 8 feet. kata moves are suppose to be practical and with someone your own height

kata is suppose to be combat not dancing.

as for the comment kata has no music, i disagree. Master Gichen Funakoshi wrote a sing for kanku dai. i once heard it song by Sensie Ozawa while we performed the kata. there is a youtube video of it ill have to find.

there is a big difference between the traditional song sung and the crap they do today with there bs kata.

I have seen creative kata, with and without weapons, set to music. Most of the ones I saw live still contained mostly real, forceful, movements and strikes. However, I don't view them as hard core martial arts. Some of the people I know that do them are hard core martial artists, upper level black belts. They view the creation and performance of a custom kata as an exercise in putting together a series of martial arts moves and executing them at a preset pace. It forces them to think and act in a different way. I respect that and them, knowing that this is just an adjunct to years of traditional training.

My computer does not read Japanese and neither do I but I watched the video. Very impressive her strength, flexibility and agility. A rare combination I am sure she worked very hard at. While strength, flexibility and agility are important and give you an advantage in a fight when you are young I would still bet my money on an old master who has internalized his art (even an external art such as karate). That skill in the martial art which defines a martial art as an art clearly and totally eludes her but it is the one that fascinates me much more than the showmanship of that girls flexibility, agility and strength.

There is no music involved in kata as far as I'm concerned. The sort of dance choreography could be good for timing if done properly, but I don't see any purpose to it. Kata without the music, at least in Hapkido, is to teach proper movement and how to incorporate techniques into a fight. The music is just a distraction from the point of kata.