My Beatiful Jewelry Box of Katas

If there was ever a time made for Kata, it is 2020.

I was flailing through seiuchin last night, reminding my feet and elbows their place in the universe and it reminded me of how I learn a kata.

I learn a kata like an intricate necklace, each cluster of jeweled settings of sequences attached by links into a beautiful and functional loop, with Yoi / Yame as the clasp that holds together the beginning and the end.

The weakest part, for me, has always been the transition links. The link would break and then I couldn't get to the next setting of moves, then I couldn't practice it and all the move jewels would fall out of the settings, I would lose them and all I'd be left with was the small dangly bit of chain stuck to

the Yoi clasp. And I just couldn't wear that so it would be discarded too. 

So. I concentrate on learning the transitions first. I stumble over the settings, I don't worry to much about the height of the kick or the position of my elbow, then I solder those transition links in, then paint them with super glue and flex seal. That one turn of the foot that sets up the next sequence. The shift of the weight. The turn of the head. All the way till I reach Yame and complete the loop.

Then I practice the kata focusing ONLY on the transitions. It is the ugliest thing you have ever seen. It has driven every Karate instructor I've learned under to distraction. I'd brush off or half ass the beautiful jewels of the kata to carefully put myself into position for a single functional move over and over. It probably looked like I was deliberately defacing the kata. Like trying to listen to someone who is putting emphasis on random and nonsensical syllables as they sing a favorite song, shockingly offkey.

Then I go back and carefully set each stone, straighten each bent setting and polish the piece by running it over and over and over. Because I know it. Because it runs as an unbroken, logical chain. I know exactly where I am in the piece. I know where I'm going. I know where I have been. I can infer the next move because I know where my feet need to be. It isn't something that I need to clutch and hang onto, it is something beautiful that I wear without effort. A beautiful necklace of kata.

It has been over a year since I really worked on seiuchin. But it was still there. Link by link.