Kata in the bigger picture #1: Bassai Dai.

During my training since last summer, I have questioned the relevance of each individual kata in the grand scheme of the martial art. Any black belt will at this point surely be screaming at their computer screen that all kata teach us each technique and that is why in Shotokan we practice 26 (+ Kihon). Having trained with Sensei Iain Abernethy and his approach to bunkai, I considered the perspective that any single kata is sufficient in teaching a karate ka to defend them self. Which brought me to the thinking that each kata must have a purpose in the bigger picture of perfecting oneself and technique.

So why kata?

In this series of blog, I am intentionally not focusing on bunkai and other aspects of the martial art. Although I agree with Sensei Abernethy in the importance of bunkai, as well as Jesse Enkamp, who outlines the inability to split it from the kata itself in his Bunkai Blueprint (a very good read), my focus here is on the perfection of technique which I would argue, is equally important.

On the assumption that sufficient practice of the 5 Heian kata (as well as kihon) give a karate ka the means to be competent in the martial art, I began to question whether the other 21 "black belt kata" add something specific to the bigger picture of one's own training, as well as the bunkai and techniques.

For me, this hypothesis started with Bassai Dai, thus the title of this blog.

Having done the kata X-amount of times since about 2004 the one thing that always screamed out to me was the hip twists from the initial 8 movements, and how to do them correctly. By changing from completely off-square to on-square followed by on-square to off (movements 2-5 in the video) as well as the twisting from natural stance (movements 8-13), I began to think more about hip movement in order to perform the kata correctly, which made me question everything about my front stance. 

Long story short (without getting into the details of this thought process), my conclusion is that this kata teaches a black belt how to twist and use hips correctly to generate power.

But how do I add 'more hip'? 

For years I found that just twisting my upper body over and over again to the correct place was not generating an increase in power due to my body not working as one unit or entity. I only felt like I could do this once I made a change to my stance.

Contrary to typical JKA Shotokan, I started to adapt my stance transitions by pivoting on the toes/ball of the foot opposed to the heel (click here for how), similar to Wado Ryu/Shito-Ryu styles, after training with Sensei Luca Valdesi & Jesse Enkamp. This in turn allowed me to relax my leg muscles in stances and not have the heel of my back leg rooted to the floor, which made my back leg rigid. I found that this relaxation allowed quicker and easier movements, and more hip to be applied to techniques because of the position of weight on my toes. Although there are other particulars in making an effective stance (which I am not going to include here), practicing Bassai Dai with this in mind has helped me to move quicker and develop the use of my hips throughout my karate techniques.

I am aware this is not the only way to create better hip use, or the only foci that Bassai Dai teaches.
Please share your ideas/thoughts/comments below.

What do you think?