One of the most important things when practicing and performing your kata/form is that you make sure it looks good and that you are doing them properly. Your kata is your martial art and it signifies what you practice and what you learn. So ensuring that your kata looks good will simultaneously show that your martial art looks good. Of course their a gazillion different things that someone can tell you to do that “they” believe will make you look good to “their” standards. Although this might be true, there are three tips that most or if not all sensei’s and teachers will say to you. They are being square, stances and power.
Being Square
One of the most important functions of making your form look the best it can be is the use of being square. When I mean being square I mean in whatever way you are facing during your kata, make sure that your shoulders are parallel to the wall that you are facing. Another concept of helping you stay square is idea of “making your heart faces the way you are attacking”.
So when you are punching to the left and you are in a front stance make sure your heart is facing and pointed towards the left wall in which you are facing. This should make your shoulders square. Another technique which can help you if you can’t figure out if you are square is to put your hands out when in your stance and make sure that your hands are parallel with the wall. This will readjust and align your shoulders to become square.
Stances
Another key point in your kata is your stances. Your stances MUST be perfect…or close to perfect. One thing that martial arts does deal a lot with, whether you can see it or not, is mathematics and geometry. When you are standing in ready position in which your hands are slightly bent in towards the middle and your feet are shoulder with apart making your center of gravity straight down the middle. Now if you enter into a fighting stance, you should be shoulder with apart and shoulder with backwards.
In doing so, if you had for legs they would create a perfect square and hence having your center of gravity exactly in the middle. Now if you go into a front stance where a majority of the weight is on the front foot and less in the back you should be shoulder with and twice the shoulder with back so that you would create almost a perfect rectangle. So when you are performing your kata/form make sure that your stances are correct. If you are not balanced properly and your legs are too close or too far apart you will be unbalanced and not effective.
Power
One thing that I like and can agree with on the concept of power is that you should always practice as if you were in a real fight. You get out what you put in and if you practice poorly you will get out poorly when you need it. Every sensei and master has their philosophy and concept on power, but I like Bruce Lee’s concept of power in a punch. Bruce Lee says that a majority of your power comes from the last 15-20% of the punch. So the first 85-50% of the punch, when thrown, is mostly speed and accuracy.
If done right you will be able to get quicker, less energy consumed, and still the same amount of power you would receive then a regular punch thrown. So this can apply to a kata very well. How? Well, when you apply this idea and concept you will get quick and powerful punches in which the judges will admire. You will waste less energy and still have the power and quickness that you desire. So when practicing your kata/form make sure that all your power comes in at the last 15-20% of your punch and everything leading up to that should be speed and accuracy.
Overall, when you consider looking at how you can improve your kata or form with a few quick steps, consider these tips and involve them in your routine and see if you are able to get the results and expectations that you wanted. Nothing is more important then practice (and good practice too) to ensure growth and strength in your kata or form. So practice on your strength, stances and being square and improve your kata immediately. For extra “pop” and “snap” to your forms make sure you get a good karate uniform too.
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