Engine design and Kata Training

Kata training gets a lot of bad press by folks that don't understand it. Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate stated that "if you don't put yourself in the Kata, then you'll only be moving around like a dancer with no purpose."

Funakoshi Sensei was a very smart man.

There's a three principle approach to Kata training in three Japanese words, Shu, Ha and Ri.

Shu is the first phase of training. This phase a person is "polishing" or practicing the movements exactly over and over again. Muscle memory type stuff.

The Ha phase is where you break those movements down and completely take them apart. It's like a student learning to build a car engine (Shu) over and over again, and then in the Ha phase, the student rips the engine apart over and over, looking at different ways to put the engine back in ways that would make it more effective.

The Ri phase is one of understanding why the engine was designed like it was and why it is applicable to your use. Also, there's an appreciation of why the designers of the engine did things they way they did. It's doesn't mean that you can't design your own engine at this phase, it means that you have appreciation and respect for the designers that came before you that taught you about engine design through your study.

Good training,
Joe