Tag: American Karate-Do Kata’s

This is the second take on this demonstration of Seisan Kata – taken by my friend and co-producer at GCTV JB – the first take below is with my little Olympus 7.0 on a tripod, someone did come along and pan left to get me back on the screen…thanks BL!Please refer to the text below for the ‘lesson’ about how to practice a form/kata while learning the sequence.

Sifu demonstrates Seisan Kata the second form in the American Karate-Do System – this demonstration is performed slowly, without focus (Fa-Jin), with a slight pause at the end of each posture/gesture to make it easier to see the sequence and the detail. Lesson: When learning a ‘form’ always pay more attention to the detail of the final position of each postures/gestures than to power and speed. It’s like practicing a drum rudiment or a scale on a melodic instruments…if you do not know the ‘pattern or position’ yet….what exactly would you be speeding up?Going slowly and stopping momentarily at the end of each posture (up to a few minutes in each posture) will give you the time needed to become aware of what your doing and to adjust your body position accordingly. The main things that should be attended to are: 1. Balance 2. Structual alignment (Bones) 3. Muscular tension 4. Breathing. Pausing momentarily will also give your body and mind enought time to absorb the feeling of a more correctly positioned posture. Your body and mind are like hot tea water and the position/gesture are like the tea itself…your body and mind will automatically become ‘infused’ with the posture as you hold it. This method will give you the best results. As time goes on in order to ‘upgrade’ your Kata’s you will also need to be able to withdraw the power and speed and again return to going slowly and stopping at the end of each posture in order to have the time to ‘see’ and then change the old way of doing it and replace it with the ‘new’ upgraded version. The process of refinement continues …….forever!