“Practice kata exactly, actual combat is another matter”

The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate

Guiding Principle 18

Gichin Funakoshi “Father of Modern Karate” ¹

Some practitioners of Karate believe that Kata should be performed exactly as it was taught originally. This quote from Gichin Funakoshi Sensei often creates a lot of controversy regarding the subject. Should Kata be performed exactly as it was? Or is the meaning that kata should be performed with exact precision?

At Tahoma Karate, we believe the former to be true. Each Kata should be performed with clear intention and precisely performed to relay that intention. We teach Kata to be performed the same many times over and the precise motions help not only with the consistency of the performance, but the development of certain muscles that will be required further in the student’s karate journey. This is only our belief and because of that the videos below are designed to be helpful for our students. They do not relay intention and are only meant to assist students in the memorization of the steps.