March 19, 2007
Back to Basics with Whitney
As I was driving home from class tonight, I couldn’t help but think of that Whitney Houston song from many years ago. You know the one, because you’ve probably had a singing session with it in the shower or car at some point when you were sure no one was listening. Don’t deny it; I know I can’t be the only one.
"I have nothing, nothing, nothing. . . if I don’t have you-oooo-oooo."
You know. Don’t act like you don’t.
No, I’m not getting all weepy over my husband or even my karate teachers or school. Instead of "have," I thought it rather appropriate to replace that word with "know."
"I know nothing, nothing, nothing. . . . DON’T. MAKE. ME. DO-ooh one more KATA! I don’t want to find another PROBLEM! Stay in my COMFORT ZONE-if you dare, or must I just imagine myself there. . . "
In case you’re wondering if all my life moments have a mental soundtrack that goes with them. . . yes, most do.
I asked my instructor a couple weeks ago if she would watch me do all my material, every kata I’m supposed to know up to this point, so that she could pick it apart. I wanted her help to nit-pick starting now, so that a month before black belt testing, I’m not panicking because there are all of these little things that have been piling up.
One of the classes I go to is packed with white and yellow belts, so the black belt class (where it is often just me and one or two other people) is the right time and place to start working on all the little nuances. Tonight, it was just me and my instructor on the floor. I started with my first kata, Nai Hanchi Shodan. The suggestions came from my instructor and from a black belt who has been taking a break and was just observing from the back: widen nai hanchi stance, push the knees out more, make that strike parallel, make sure not to double block from the inside, the leg lift needs to be out in front, not on the inside, etc. etc. etc.
All this from a kata I thought I knew like the back of my hand.
I have so much to work on. I’m so glad I’m starting now.
"I know nothing, nothing, NOTHING. . ."
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Nit-picking is discouraging at the time, but when you are aware of bad habits forming and you get them fixed and begin practicing with proper form, it is great in the long run. ITF taekwondo is very technical in its movements and I benefitted very greatly after a 3rd and 5th degree black belt spent a couple hours picking something as simple as how I punch! My power improved a lot after months of punching the correct way. I hope you learn a lot from your nit-picking sessions!
Ahh – someone else for whom life is a song-cue!
As to picking apart katas, my experience thus far is that about every six months or so, I need to go back through each kata and rebuild it, incorporating the things I have learned in the meanwhile. For example, I just spent about a month dissecting our first kata (Seisan, which I have known for a decade), and making sure that my stances were pure, that my kicks were as high as I could get them without breaking form, that I used rotational retraction in my punching (the biggest change), all the things that I had learned to do, but that hadn’t been showing in my kata because the body habits were established back when I didn’t do things the same way. Just because your Naihanchi stance has improved generally, for instance, doesn’t mean that your new habit has overridden your old way of doing the kata.
If I go back to an old kata after half a year or so, and can’t find something that needs improvement, I’m suspicious that I haven’t been improving my technique generally as much as I should.
Something else I would suggest is that you film yourself doing your kata. You will see things that you just can’t know you are doing. When I was a yellow belt, I would be doing seisan kata and sensei would constantly be telling me to punch lower. I thought, “What does he want me to do? Punch the guy in the knees?” It wasn’t until I watched myself doing the kata on video that I realized how high my punches were.
We often don’t know the back of our hand as well as we think we do.
Three months before my black belt test, I finally started learning the stances the way my kwanjangnim wanted them done (long story: I had learned stances in America and Master waited several months until *I* was ready to change them all to his way). Six weeks later I was temporarily training at a new studio and told to do a whole new set of stances (which, for the most part, I didn’t).
By the time I was done at the temp studio, we had 17 days to really nit-pick before the test.
I was praying that the random form would not be one of the ones I’d learned in America, because I was afraid that in my nervousness, I’d blow all of my newly-learned stances. And you know, my head might explode or something.
All that picking is good, but it can be stressful. Enjoy! ^^~
It can really suck. I know it blows my confidence right out of the water whenever I realize I’m doing so much completely wrong, when I thought I was doing decent.
I know I’m just as guilty, but don’t let it discourage you.
hehe, you’re crazy. But in that good way.
Be grateful, I’d love to have a kata anylyzed that way. The last corrections I had go back to … far too long.
Be well,
That’s a lot of what they are doing more of across the board at our school, and across our taekwondo association. The biggest thing they are REALLY getting going on is stances. Evidentally at the BIG testings (4th, 5th, degree etc.), 60% are failing their testing, and of that group, something like 90% of them is due to bad stances. So, the whole US is being beaten down about doing their stances right at the moment! Especially since I compete, I get nit-picked more for that and all sorts of little things, but it’s the difference between winning and not placing. :-S
In Isshinryu we learn Naihanchi for 6th kyu, and there’s just one version (not three like most styles). The basic stance is called kiba-dachi, somewhat narrow, and has the knees out with the feet in. The hardest part of the kata is going from one move to the next while maintaining a good kiba stance. Not the most aesthetic form, but has plenty of good bunkai.
I know the problem being in a similar position (but in a different martial art).
The closer you get to the black belt exam, the more you realise that there’s quite a few things to correct!! Paniiiiiic!!!
As my teacher said: “Do your best on the day, I’ve never seen a perfect demo for black belt anyway. But as long as you give your best, have the right attitude and don’t mess up too much, you’ll should be fine.”
Also, everybody is still learning. You could spend 500 years training and still find faults and nits to pick.
So go give your best, kick asses and get that belt you deserve! 🙂
Christophe