Possibly because Katas aren’t a very good framework for practice? Most functional martial arts that work in e.g. the UFC will suggest at the very least practicing with a partner, and gradually working up to live resistance. Martials arts that emphasize katas over live resistance tend to not be great at self-defense.
My guess is there’s something similar going on with rationality. Any sort of kata that doesn’t have a heavy component of “gradually working up to interacting with the real world” probably won’t be very effective.
While it’s true that live resistance is an essential component, it’s important to note that effective martial arts do katas as well under different names. In wrestling, it’s “drilling”. In boxing, it’s hitting the bag or pads.
The main difference between Katas and Drilling (at least most of the time) is that Katas are usually long chains of moves, and drills are a repetitive practice of a single, short move.
Another difference is drills are more often practiced with another person rather than on the air (even hitting a bag is still better than hitting air).
Krav Maga style defenses are in the middle, they don’t have you do lots of moves out chained together of context in the air, but are also not just one move, they’re usually ~5 moves intended for a specific situation practiced on another person with slight resistance.
The gap isn’t nearly so clear cut. In wrestling, we’d do solo drills of shots/sprawls/sit outs/etc every day, and sometimes combine them into chains like sit out->granby->stand up-> shot. The karate guys next to us did their partner katas all the time.
The difference is that when karate dude hits air, it looks like a joke. For all you can tell watching it, not only has this dude never been in a real fight, neither have any of his instructors or his instructors instructors. When Mike Tyson hits air, it’s terrifying, and you can tell just from watching it that this guy is very in touch with what is required for knocking out skilled opponents. It’s more about whether the connection with the ultimate test is still there and informing how the katas are done than whether you’re doing it alone or for multiple moves in a row or anything.
Possibly because Katas aren’t a very good framework for practice? Most functional martial arts that work in e.g. the UFC will suggest at the very least practicing with a partner, and gradually working up to live resistance. Martials arts that emphasize katas over live resistance tend to not be great at self-defense.
My guess is there’s something similar going on with rationality. Any sort of kata that doesn’t have a heavy component of “gradually working up to interacting with the real world” probably won’t be very effective.
While it’s true that live resistance is an essential component, it’s important to note that effective martial arts do katas as well under different names. In wrestling, it’s “drilling”. In boxing, it’s hitting the bag or pads.
The main difference between Katas and Drilling (at least most of the time) is that Katas are usually long chains of moves, and drills are a repetitive practice of a single, short move.
Another difference is drills are more often practiced with another person rather than on the air (even hitting a bag is still better than hitting air).
Krav Maga style defenses are in the middle, they don’t have you do lots of moves out chained together of context in the air, but are also not just one move, they’re usually ~5 moves intended for a specific situation practiced on another person with slight resistance.
The gap isn’t nearly so clear cut. In wrestling, we’d do solo drills of shots/sprawls/sit outs/etc every day, and sometimes combine them into chains like sit out->granby->stand up-> shot. The karate guys next to us did their partner katas all the time.
The difference is that when karate dude hits air, it looks like a joke. For all you can tell watching it, not only has this dude never been in a real fight, neither have any of his instructors or his instructors instructors. When Mike Tyson hits air, it’s terrifying, and you can tell just from watching it that this guy is very in touch with what is required for knocking out skilled opponents. It’s more about whether the connection with the ultimate test is still there and informing how the katas are done than whether you’re doing it alone or for multiple moves in a row or anything.
So katas are more ‘exercise’ than mastery?
Well, they’re mastery of a different thing. They’re great for entertainment and cool looking demonstrations.