Why do so many top martial arts, as for example Shotokan Karate, focus so strongly on kata, pre-set sparring exercises, and a little punches-pulled sparring?
The simple answer is that kata develop muscle memory and submerge proper responses below the consciousness level. In a high-level fight you don’t have time to think what to do—you have to react “on instinct” and your instinct comes from (among other things) doing katas. Pre-set sparring does the same—develops muscle memory and makes proper reactions “instinctive”.
And sparring is “punches-pulled” because concussions, internal bleeding, and broken bones are bad for keeping and attracting students :-)
One other thing is that martial arts are quite different. The major relevant distinction here is between external and internal martial arts. Crudely speaking, external arts (e.g. taekwondo) focus on fairly straightforward application of physical force. Internal arts (e.g. tai chi) usually use less obvious and more complicated whole-body techniques but also stress the general energy/health aspect. It is often said that internal-arts masters live longer than external-arts masters.
Oh, and suburban-mall martial arts studios are generally a bad joke.
The simple answer is that kata develop muscle memory and submerge proper responses below the consciousness level. [...] And sparring is “punches-pulled” because concussions, internal bleeding, and broken bones are bad for keeping and attracting students :-)
That’s accurate, but I’d like to note that an earlier focus on sparring will drill in working responses just as well or better. The problem is that they’re usually not the optimal responses, and it’s harder to train out an existing response than it is to train one in from nothing.
There’s a quick-versus-good tradeoff here. If you start unstructured sparring early, your students will be able to adapt to serious self-defense correspondingly earlier; military-derived or highly self-defense oriented styles, like sambo and krav maga, usually take this approach. On the other hand, if your early focus is on kata, set self-defense techniques, and proper form, then your students won’t be ready for serious self-defense for much longer—possibly not until the early dan ranks—but in theory they’ll be better fighters after serious study. This approach is more common to traditional systems, especially those predating the Second World War.
Which one’s better depends on what your goals are.
Yes, very much so. This is another thing the correlates well with the external vs. internal martial arts difference. External arts usually pick quick and internal arts usually pick good.
In Tai Chi, for example, you start by doing the form v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and it may take people years to get to the point where they can do the form quickly and correctly.
The simple answer is that kata develop muscle memory and submerge proper responses below the consciousness level. In a high-level fight you don’t have time to think what to do—you have to react “on instinct” and your instinct comes from (among other things) doing katas. Pre-set sparring does the same—develops muscle memory and makes proper reactions “instinctive”.
And sparring is “punches-pulled” because concussions, internal bleeding, and broken bones are bad for keeping and attracting students :-)
One other thing is that martial arts are quite different. The major relevant distinction here is between external and internal martial arts. Crudely speaking, external arts (e.g. taekwondo) focus on fairly straightforward application of physical force. Internal arts (e.g. tai chi) usually use less obvious and more complicated whole-body techniques but also stress the general energy/health aspect. It is often said that internal-arts masters live longer than external-arts masters.
Oh, and suburban-mall martial arts studios are generally a bad joke.
That’s accurate, but I’d like to note that an earlier focus on sparring will drill in working responses just as well or better. The problem is that they’re usually not the optimal responses, and it’s harder to train out an existing response than it is to train one in from nothing.
There’s a quick-versus-good tradeoff here. If you start unstructured sparring early, your students will be able to adapt to serious self-defense correspondingly earlier; military-derived or highly self-defense oriented styles, like sambo and krav maga, usually take this approach. On the other hand, if your early focus is on kata, set self-defense techniques, and proper form, then your students won’t be ready for serious self-defense for much longer—possibly not until the early dan ranks—but in theory they’ll be better fighters after serious study. This approach is more common to traditional systems, especially those predating the Second World War.
Which one’s better depends on what your goals are.
Yes, very much so. This is another thing the correlates well with the external vs. internal martial arts difference. External arts usually pick quick and internal arts usually pick good.
In Tai Chi, for example, you start by doing the form v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and it may take people years to get to the point where they can do the form quickly and correctly.