Mastering Creative Freedom.

If something seems off, then fix it, rework it, or throw it out the window. You will not be struck by lightning if you think for yourself.
I don't like Kihon Ido 1- 10, they are redundant and really do nothing in regards to imparting tactical and strategic knowledge, in my view they do not even train effective mechanics properly.
I get enough Kihon Ido by breaking Kata down and digging deep at this, I don't need some other drill taking up space that is better used on other things.

I know Sensei Charlie is out there somewhere, I can hear the sound of his fist hitting his palm in anticipation of knocking my head off for speaking such blasphemy, but that is the truth of how I feel on that.
They are okay to fill up class time, if punching air in rigid lines is your thing, but other than that, they are one of those things that I find to be a complete waste of time - this is after doing them for years.
I feel the same way about what we in Toguchi/Rosberry-ha call Dai Nihon Karate-do Tenno Kata, gone, byebye, seeya.
Again, Kata fills this purpose on so many different levels, and I am not just talking solo-Kata here, nor cooperative training.

I agree with Zinn Sensei on these fronts, that these older drills leave something to be desired, even Kiso Kumite on some levels, and the present mode of Renzoku Bunkai, but there are still some value in these.
Personally I like the idea of Yakusoku Kumite a bit more, so we do more of these and we spend a lot of time picking things apart, seeing what makes them tick, my Dojo is more like a lab than a Temple where everything is sacred.
Achieving 'Gnosis' means 'to know' something deeply, by directly experiencing it. You cannot know if your mechanics are correct enough to work until you try them on a non-cooperative partner, even still, you cannot know if they work on the actual level of confrontation until you are forced to use them.
Too many set drills in addition to Kata and the fundamentals tends to overload the student, it does not show them what they need to know, in most cases developing some very bad habits, and it most assuredly leaves no opening for thinking outside the box.
When an art has no room for creativity or creative exploration it is no longer an art, it is a pointless system, and over-systemization is what is stunting the growth of many Karateka.

Even in set things like Kata there has to be room, leeway, otherwise what you have is cookie-cutter-Karate, one size does not fit all.
Certainly there are universalities to posture and breathing, but beyond this we are missing the individual that is standing there and, again, there is no room to 'know' anything on any level, just rehearse and regurgitate once every couple of months for a Kyu grading in front of a stuffy-looking testing board.
(I've always liked the testing boards that tried to look stuffy on purpose, just to see how the student would react - you see some interesting fumbles, but more importantly, you see the truth come out on the spot).

Musashi won his duels by experience, not system, not even really skill - perhaps he developed skill later on, but his was a mind of strategy and strategy dictated what he did in the moment by the formation of tactics.
Would he use a sword today? Two bokken? Rip a wooden fence-post from the ground and skilfully beat his opponent with it? I don't think these would have been very 'technical' or 'pretty' fights to watch by our standards.
When we think of Samurai we think of 'standard' cuts, the nice clean draw, the clean cut, return to scabbard, or we think of the blocky/bulky movements of Kendo in which you never really complete an action.
In the first example you have form over function, in the second, you have a little of function over form, but in a very controlled manner, very technical, very systemized, stylistic - certainly in Shiai there is a little wiggle room, but not much.
You do not have the creative freedom to drop your sword and toss your opponent out of the ring, or going to the ring-side, picking up a chair and beating them with it should you happen to forget your Shinai.
Not only that, both cases are very formal - again, form-al. Is that the notion that form-is-all? Play on words? Perhaps...

No, we might actually find ourselves repulsed to see what took place so long ago, when the wild-man roamed around cutting people to ribbons before he was called a 'sword saint.'
Even those who followed traditional schools, in my view, would not have been so refined in a life-or-death duel, you do what you have to, and if you don't have creative freedom then you are surely dead, as Musashi, the master of creative freedom, proved time and again.

It is not written in some fancy cirriculum, not contained on a colorful patch with organization logos, and it is most assuredly not 'rigid' and 'blocky,' if that makes any sense.
This sortof hearkens back to what Shinzen Sensei said about not becoming a technician. There is, indeed, value in technical knowledge, in knowing deeply, but not being ruled by it, lead by it, attached to anything imparticular, if you are, you are dead.
You don't want to end up facing Musashi in a confrontation, you want to BE Musashi. Not even that, you want to be better than Musashi, you want to be yourself (I'm sure you get the picture).