It's been said that this kata was originally designed to simulate a defence by an enemy wielding a Bo Staff. Does anyone here practise that kata, and have they used an opponent armed with a Bo to explore the applications in this?
Mick, I know you teach weapons in your class occasionly, any ideas?

I suspect the version I do is quite different to how you do it. I think the bit about the bo is simply because someone couldn't think what the bunkai was for one particular movement so they made that explanation up. And its stuck! An excellent example of why its best to be honest and just say "I don't know" when you don't know the answer.

Our version doesn't have this bo grabbing bit at all, so I doubt very much that defences against a bo are an integral theme of the kata.

Mike

But if Kata is a sequences of moves designed to reflect a defence by an enemy, wouldn't it make sense to have a kata - or a series of kata - that solely concentrate on counteracting an attack by an armed assailant?
Or do the moves in other kata include - or can be adapted to include - these techniques?

Hi Tom,

If someone attacks you with ther bare fists or while holding a weapon (apart from a gun ) they try to belt you along a linear or non-linear pathway. Karate have techniques which cater for both.. and against the untrained in a domestic confrontation should be enough. that is provided you are well trained and your attacker is not. Against a skilled exponent of the knife, club or long lump of wood you either better run for your life screamimg "mummy" or find a bigger weapon than the other guy quickly.. hang about, that is what kobudo is all about

Cheers,
Boz

ergo - karate should, to be a realistic self defence, contain kobudo yes?
Probably more so in this day and age...

Hi Matt,

I think so. I apply the concepts learned from wielding a bo on to a jo and scare the crap out of the joggers and bikers on my bushwalking track

I did teach a one off introduction to self defense class to some females from a large Chemist chain. I did little in the way of karate and instead applied the techniques from the Tonfa and Sai to a short stick. They all had access to a security type flashlight so I used some cut up dowell sticks as training aids.

They loved it and have a better deterren tnow if they were forced to defend themselves. I see a lot of sense in kobudo training but not in just performing the kata but in applying the two man drills and extrapolating the lessonslearned there into specific scenarios. Lot of fun too

Cheers,
Boz

Yeah, what Boz said basically.

I personally think that all karate kata contain some elements that are pertinent to defending against a weapon or using a weapon yourself. But inevitably the kobudo kata will be rather more directly focussed on how to use a particular weapon. Whether your opponent has a weapon or not needs to be addressed by your underlying strategy rather than the individual kata movements - if that makes sense.

Mike

I think that's the important distinction - "contain elements that are pertinent to defending against a weapon" rather than "contain elements for defending".

It's not a big leap for people to go from being told "these same techniques can be used against someone waving a big stick" to retelling it as it being "these techniques are for defending against...".

Then you get people who perform karate kata with all manner of weapons and say that because it looks so good it must also be a weapons kata


Mick