The Kata Solo - More Mind Than Body

As previously mentioned, I know two katas; pinan ninan and pinan shodan. My performance is far from perfect, which irritates me, a lot. I cannot seem to make my body consistently repeat a series of movements precisely. If the moves are close to correct, then the power is missing. Alternatively, I get the power in, but the feet aren't in the correct stance, or a wrist is angled incorrectly. Sometimes I actually forget the moves because I was concentrating too hard on my stance! It all seems to come down to the stance i.e., the position of your feet, body weight distribution, direction of pressure you exert with your legs and hip position. Without this everything else falls to bits. It makes sense - in Shukokai standard stance, the back leg must be a fixed distance behind the front with the foot angled at 45 degrees so that the hips are at the diagonal to the front foot which is facing forwards. Outwards pressure is applied to the legs so that the feet grip the floor. This allow maximum force to be generated when striking with the foot or hand moving forward. Each time, one move leads onto the next, the stance must be correct. If not, the next move works less well or you loose balance. This is all obvious to an experienced eye, meaning that I can only detect half my mistakes!

Sometimes we'll spend a session dedicated to kata. During these a single person or a couple of the same grade are singled out for a solo performance. This happened to me for the first time the other day. It's quite different from performing in the anonymity of the group. At my stage - stage zero - it's not really done to improve technique. Frankly, where would the instructor start? In fact, the higher the grade, the more severe the correction - they can take it. It seems to me that the real reason for doing this, is to teach performance under pressure. Clearly combat is not relaxed and a person may understandably become stressed if they have to fight for real. I become stressed in a fake fight. This strength of mind is a feature of karate. The mind and body must be controlled and work together. It seems that karate is a long journey, what a shame I left it so long to start.