Kata

Probably one of the most common reasons behind the popularity of international seminars these days is the genuine desire to truly understand the nature and application of traditional kata. Most of McCarthy Sensei’s success over the years has been built up around his seminars on kata and their highly functional application practices.

Once a closely guarded, secretive practice, kata is the very reason karate, as an art, has been preserved and passed down to this day. Its heritage can be traced back to the Chinese progenitors of quanfa. Sadly, the unique formula once used to help deliver the contextual intentions culminated in kata was lost in the wake of the modernization of Karate, which obscured the original defensive application principles. It can be argued that the North Asian, Confucian-based pedagogy is partially responsible for the widespread confusion in relation to kata. Specifically, a culture of learning and replicating “the classics”, rather than understanding them results in a gradual degradation of meaning. The result, when coupled with the cultural mystique surrounding the martial arts, has been a lack of recognition concerning the most logical scenarios addressed by kata.

McCarthy Sensei approaches kata as classical configurations. Specifically, the kata seminar provides an entry point for negotiating HAPV (Habitual Acts of physical Violence) through the classical forms contemporaneously practiced. Using contextual scenarios participants are able to rediscover the link between the ritualized movements of kata and their corresponding defensive principles, as originally intended, before exploring related henka (variations).