Kata Are Not The Art

After class the group of us would often head over to the coffee shop with the teacher and senior students to hang out, catch up, and hear stories about the old days of training.

This particular night we were lucky to be able to grab a table in the back and spend the evening together.

The secret was to get one of the senior students talking about training, stories of meeting the master, or from a special event, which in turn would get the teacher reminiscing and talking.

Remember the time you guys did... would often be enough to get things rolling.

Physically I was present, but I wasn’t listening, and I knew I was missing the best part of the story.

Missing a part of the formative dojo culture from before I arrived.

So where was my mind?

Trying to keep the structure of what had just been shown in class alive long enough until I got back to my car so I could write it down.

After tonight class I now had sixteen of the eighteen kata from the shoden level.

In the presentation of these form they were only shown twice, before practicing with a partner. 

Once where you could watch it being done, and once where you had it done to you by the teacher.

Once chance one moment.

I didn’t want to forget what was shown, writing them down seemed important.

It took some time to figure out what I was missing.

Not the list of kata, but the moments in-between them.

Some years later looking at these lists, these notes, and they were useless. 

Dead in the moment.

A moment I wrote down, but as soon as that happened it became static, unchanged, and in the time since my understanding had matured regarding what was shown.

There was no need to write it down.

Especially if it took away from the real-living moment. 

A good teacher will transmit the feeling in that moment, and to carry it forward all one has to do it keep training.

Keep going.