directional katas?

Shana Moore · Post by **Shana Moore** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:30 pm

In transcribing information from the old UVa website and other club sources, I find kata sometimes described in terms of front, right, left...and sometimes in terms of North, South, East...

Do you train your katas to cardinal directions?

Why?/Why not?

fivedragons · Post by **fivedragons** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:21 pm

One should always practice kata facing the east. Funny word, east. Turn and face the new rising sun.

Shana Moore · Post by **Shana Moore** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:14 am

I like the poetic note, but what other reasons do you have fivedragons? Also, many of the kata I have start facing North...go figure....

kinda fond of the old rising sun...comforting that it's always there.....

fivedragons · Post by **fivedragons** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:18 am

"but what other reasons do you have fivedragons?"

Just tradition, but what it means is that you are pointed in the direction of the Earth's rotation. You're expressing the intent of the planet you are an organ of, to continue on the path.

You're doing the kata, and the universe is doing you.

What I mean by organ, what we consider "human consciousness" is really the spirit of the mother Earth and the father sun we are born of.

Kind of trippy, but there it is. We are the world.

fivedragons · Post by **fivedragons** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:00 am

I forgot to mention, lest we get too "earthy", we're also made of light, which is represented in the ancient knowledge of the chakras. Red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, indigo, violet.

We get that from our father.

Shana Moore · Post by **Shana Moore** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:31 pm

I'm familiar with chakras & paths, but I was trying to determine if there was a traditional reason for the different notations/direction, or if this was personal preference...teacher variation?

hoshin · Post by **hoshin** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:25 am

i do a lot of training outdoors and let me tell you if you dont have your kata down you will get lost very easily when you dont have references. when your indoors "in the dojo" your mind uses the walls as references even if you dont think so. try doing a kata facing a corner or with your eyes closed. i think using these directions is just an easy way to learn.

steve

Shana Moore · Post by **Shana Moore** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:06 am

Steve,

What a logical answer!

I like the combination of metaphysical and logic between the answers given!

Chris McKaskell · Post by **Chris McKaskell** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:43 am

I agree.

The flipside is paying no attention whatsoever to the directions--see what that does to your understanding of the katas.

One of my favourite moments is having done the seisan jump while working on a slippery stone slope in the Canadian Shield - back I went and down I slid recovering the ground as it slid by. I hadn't planned this, I was simply adjusting my direction according to topograghy until I found myself suddenly headed downhill.

Ooops, but what a great lesson!