Concepts and Principles.

Conceptually Karate is very straight forward, but we have over complicated things beyond the point of making any sense at all.

There was a saying, ‘Kata are like a box of Legos,’ always liked that saying because it rings true in every way for me. 

If things are broken down and stylized responses abandoned then things begin to make sense. What does a basic ‘punch’ tell us? These are not like boxing punches, the punch goes on a long trajectory and one hand comes back to chamber... Pushing and Pulling seems to be the underlying lesson, not necessarily a ‘punch.’

Forget what it looks like or presents itself as or what we are told it is supposed to be, look at the underlying principle itself.

Morote Kamae, what does that say? Put up your dukes? Create a Guard and boundary? A method of creating a boundary for things to go around without landing? Again, forget what it looks like and start focusing on what it is actually saying.

‘Stances’ are just methods of positioning via weight shifting, dropping, rising, forward, back, etc., depending on context... What is the possible context?

Identifying with a style or Organization is fine, but when we say ‘this is how we do this,’ what do we actually mean? Why are things done that way as opposed to another and is there really any difference? Is it just superficial?

The Human Body only moves in so many ways, so there really can be no difference, only in the mind of the practitioner and for no real reason other than an attachment to appearances which yields no real underlying understanding.

If understanding were present then the rest would not matter.

Kendo utilizes a training method known as Tsuburi in which a movement is exaggerated specifically for training and conditioning. 

The stylization behind Karate is similar to Tsuburi, simply an exaggeration for training, emphasis, to draw attention to something specific, not the be all and end all of everything. 

The question in the mind of a Karateka going through Kata or drills should be ‘what principle is this trying to show me and how does it meet the strategy in this context?’ 

Does this make sense? If not, what other way does it make sense? Get a partner and work it through, try it out in a pre-arranged drill, move to free sparring, apply it there, then move to specific scenarios if you are able to do that with any skill in experience. 

Books can, and have, been written on this stuff so I will leave it at that. Good luck and happy hunting.