Sports
2 mo

Should kata really be required for belt rank in Okinawan karate?

I do not.

I studied Okinawan karate and Japanese Ju Jitsu full-time for a little over 6 years of my life, and I gotta say I never really liked the katas at all. Just teach the techniques in their proper context, not savant-like memorization of sequences of 50 techniques out of context. You see, the "bunkai" is supposed to be the "meaning of kata", but even grand masters disagree on what the bunkai of each kata actually happens to be.

I used to be able to beat not just one, but two of my old Sensei's Second Degree Black Belts in a 1vs2 handicap match using a combination of striking and standing joint locks. Basically, you joint lock the smaller opponent and keep his body between yourself and the larger opponent (in this case that was a 235lbs, 35 years old Marine Corps Veteran,) and when you beat the first person into submission, you throw him aside and then beat the second person. THAT was supposedly part of my First Degree Black Belt Testing and even though I beat both of sensei's next best two students, he still didn't promote me to Black Belt, because I kept failing the Kata portion of the black belt test, which was Sunsu Kata. So for six months, at sparring class Sensei was putting me in handicap sparring matches against people who had escrima sticks or okinawan bos, or against 2 second Dan's attacking me simultaneously, and I won all of those challenges, but again, he never promoted me to black belt.

According to their own ranking rules, I was actually fighting at 4th degree black belt skill level, which is defined literally as "able to beat two 2nd Dans in a handicap", as Mark explained to me to begin with, yet they never promoted me to First Degree Black Belt. Honestly, In hindsight, I think Mark was afraid of me starting my own karate school, because by then I knew, and still know, around 200 total Japanese Ju Jitsu submissions in total, and could use them on Second Degree Black Belts in full contact "close to no rules" engagements.

Updates
2 mo
It should be noted that I've trained for Brazillian Jiu Jitsu for 1.5 years full time, and they do stupid stuff and think they are training "self-defense" too. For starters, in a Gracie gym, every "roll" starts from kneeling position, which is unrealistic for a real fight. I've tapped out multiple Gracie 1st through third degree black belts who were pro fighters anyway during that time.
Updates
2 mo
Anyway, I'm not ignorant of BJJ, and I have around four thousand four hundred gym hours worth of Okinawan karate training and probably more like 200 gym hours of Gracie BJJ. Honestly, the guys at Dana White's UFC gym are better than the Gracie clan, I've trained there too.
Should kata really be required for belt rank in Okinawan karate?
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