Training You In The Art Of Karate And Street Self Defence Since 1983
Kata is at the heart of karate, in order to grade it is essential to know katas, the higher belt you are the more katas you will know.
Having only really just got heian shodan and heian nidan I have to say this was extremely complex and I probably sucked at it, but then I am game for the learning experience and it was great to get some sort of insight into what is coming up WAAAAAY down the line, almost thank god for that!
We regularly do Kata training in our classes but rarely do we dedicate the whole lesson to it, I guess because some may see it as a tedious task and want to mix things up a little.
Heian Shodan is the 1st Kata In The Heian Series of which there are five kata.
The Taikyoku series is a series of kata in use in several types of karate. The name Taikyoku (太極) refers to the Chinese philosophical concept of Taiji. The Taikyoku kata were introduced by Gichin Funakoshi as a way to simplify the principles of the already simplified Pinan/Heian series. The embusen, or pattern of the kata’s movements, are the same as in Heian shodan. Students of karate systems that use the Taikyoku kata series are often introduced to them first, as a preparation for the Pinan/Heian kata. Gōjū Kai developed five of its own Taikyoku kata, based on the Shotokan katas and retaining the I-shaped embusen.
