Topic: how many katas do you know

[Hong Kong Cheungy]

Just wondering how many katas do people knows, be honest

Only counts the ones you can do by yourself, not the ones that you can do after refreshing yourself a few times

[JimmyTheHoover]

That's not "knowing" a Kata - that's just remembering "the movements"....

Jim

[Hong Kong Cheungy]

You know what i mean

I'm just trying to make some conversation on the forum, it's been pretty dead recently, don't you think?

[JimmyTheHoover]

You know what i mean

I'm just trying to make some conversation on the forum, it's been pretty dead recently, don't you think?

Well - it's been pretty dead as far as discussing Karate is concerned 

....and in that case the answer is 42...

Jim

[Moley]

Only counts the ones you can do by yourself, not the ones that you can do after refreshing yourself a few times

This is the problem with me Cheungy. Kata tend to come and go, in and out of favour so I need a couple of run through before I can perform them. Some are evergreen like Sochin, Empi, Bassai Sho, Kanku Sho, Jutte, Jion, Kanku Dai etc..But things like Tekki Nidan/Sandan, Jiin and Chinte tend to get neglected.

[Huw]

Let me throw the question back at you in a different way Cheungy - does it matter how many kata you 'know' ?

IIRC most Okinawan styles of karate (from which shotokan is derived) only had a handful of kata - often only one or two. You spend your whole karate 'career' learning and perfecting one or two kata. Seems like a good idea to me. Helping B&D and Owain with Bassai Dai last night reminded me how many little intricacies are in most of the advanced kata. To learn one 'proper' kata, bunkai and all, should take years of study for most normal people I reckon 

[JimmyTheHoover]

Let me throw the question back at you in a different way Cheungy - does it matter how many kata you 'know' ?

IIRC most Okinawan styles of karate (from which shotokan is derived) only had a handful of kata - often only one or two. You spend your whole karate 'career' learning and perfecting one or two kata. Seems like a good idea to me. Helping B&D and Owain with Bassai Dai last night reminded me how many little intricacies are in most of the advanced kata. To learn one 'proper' kata, bunkai and all, should take years of study for most normal people I reckon  

Which was exactly what I was trying to convey with my first post 

Jim