“Kata is not real aikido” by Patrick Parker

“Kata takes a bad rap, in many ways undeserved. I’ve heard it said, but haven’t seen the source, that Ueshiba said that there is no kata in aikido because kata is basically not aiki-like - not real aikido. Tomiki, on the other hand, structured his aikido teaching around a set of kata.
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It occurred to me last night that kata is actually harder than randori or shiai because tori has to call his shots, just like calling your shots in pool. When you define ahead of time what technique is going to happen, if you throw some other technique (even if it is fantastic and aiki-like) then your kata was a failure - you missed your called shot.”

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Posted by Aikido Journal on Sep 16th, 2009: Recommended link (post a comment)