Katas vs Pop-Locking
I've had a lot of disputes and debates about the necessity of having katas in a martial arts curriculum. And since I want to keep this discussion, logical, and not full of magic dust, the word BUNKAI is not allowed to be used. First off, I am a big fan of katas, and I love to watch them. With that said, they in no way, shape or form belong in anyone's core curriculum, and they definitely should not be a part of testing and determining if somebody deserves the next belt level.
And how, and why would having the ability to show numerous obscure, ineffective, sometimes, almost comical, strikes, stances, and weird positioning have any effect on someone's ability to earn the next belt? I think cutters are like a dance, and everyone knows I love dancing. I appreciate the power it shows, athleticism, and sometimes even acrobatic displays, but again they don't belong anywhere in a martial artist's core curriculum.
My main problem with having katas in a martial arts system's main curriculum is, if you leave them in, something that could actually save their lives, has to go out. And I mean, techniques, and the time in each class. The average martial arts class is one hour and if you spend say 15 minutes practicing katas, that's 15 minutes that you cannot teach effective martial arts techniques that will keep your student alive, or physical conditioning training that will actually help your student become a better, more effective, and efficient martial artist. The people who love to do katas should do that on their own time, or if you wanted to do an upgrade in your martial arts school, but it belongs nowhere in a core curriculum.
So basically, I don't ever think that katas should be in the core curriculum, however, it is a great addition to your martial arts school to have an extra class or program where they can do KATAS and even compete in them, however, as a martial arts, school owner, your main goal, mission, and responsibility is training your student to be safer in the street, or the schoolyard, and to do that you must use every minute you have teaching them the best and most efficient and effective martial arts, techniques, drills, and exercises, and every minute that you spend teaching the useless katas, it will take precious time away from your main job when it comes to that student, and it is definitely not in the students best interest.
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