Hey there.

Regarding the reason for Kata:

First off, Katas are only used in Japanese martial arts. I believe you were referring to forms in general.

I would agree, to some extent, that most Gong Fu is overly traditional, and does things/training that are based purely on faith. That is okay, if that is what you are into. But many times (as is rampant in this thread), Karate is somehow thrown into the
mix with that.

Karate is different. It is, in essence, a study of the psychology of violence, as well as the science of force/human movement. In my dojo, these concepts are constantly tested. If you read Karate books (the legitimate ones), the master senseis discuss
these scientific principles in great detail. They also give examples of why we do the basic movements that we do.

For example and back to the subject, someone had mentioned that standing in a horse stance (or any long stance) does not make sense, and that you do not fight like that. In essence: that person is one hundred percent correct! When a fight breaks out, and
someone drops into a low stance immediately, do them a favor, and drop them. These stances are meant to reinforce one of the core principles of generating power with efficiency: USING GRAVITY! Dropping your weight. You do the same thing in BJJ. The only
difference: your objective is to be on the ground at the end, and ours is to be standing at the end (in most cases). These stances teach the body how low or hard it can drop while still keeping our base. When we apply these stances, we start off in a
comfortable fighting stance. When we want to execute a technique (say, a simple reverse punch), we very briefly drop into that longer stance, and then you better believe that once contact is finished, we are back to the higher, more mobile and functional
stance, if the situation permits it.

We do not fight in our lowest stances, we practice them so that we can move in and out of them with ease. Many karate people do not understand this, as the art itself is not easy to learn or understand.

BJJ is an excellent martial art, and you’d better believe we talk about it in our dojo. But it isn’t the “most functional” martial art. The “most functional” martial arts adapt to the most effective concepts and techniques possible in human
movement. The most functional martial arts are constantly changing. If your BJJ studio is focused on effectiveness in every context, and is comparable to a “working document”, then your gym is the best BJJ gym it could possibly be. After that, it is
up to the student to express the art in the most functional way according to their context.

My friend studies BJJ at a gym like the one I describe. Though, obviously, there is a curriculum, the teacher has the attitude of “let’s test this, and learn together”, rather than “learn these techniques, they can beat anything”. We discuss
karate all the time, and we roll.

My dojo teaches under the mentality that we are all very mortal sacks of meat and bone, no matter what. That you can be a master of any art and still encounter unexpected and formidable danger. The point of our training is to be prepared mentally, and
physically, to fight off that danger using whatever works the best (or when not to be the hero). If you should find the need to break your hand to save your life, then consider your hand broken. If you need to grapple, many do not understand that we use
tons of grappling.

Keep up the BJJ! It is an admirable, wonderful, effective martial art, and it is very fun. Consider one day that it is not a magic pill for effective application, and just maybe you may become a more effective martial artists. The minute you accept that
you have the answer is the minute you grow stagnant, and the beginning of your decline.

OSSU!

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