Hello all,

I once read of a Karate style that Taught 40% Kiho, 40% Kata and 20% kumite. As an Instructor what are your thoughts? Do you
agree?

Respectfully,

Rickmesiter

That mix is fine once the student is advanced enough to really get into kata. Lower belts need more basics and block-and-counter drills.

I think everything should revolve around Kihon. The broader the base the bigger the building, so I think a basic foundation is most important. I see things oddly anyway but this is how I see it.

Chuck Norris talks about how to keep a wheel round, and that is by keeping all the spokes equal. So I see a wheel of basics, a wheel of kata, a wheel of kumite, a wheel of locking, a wheel of throwing etc. In each wheel the spokes represent something, so in your baisc wheel you have blocks, strikes kicks, stances etc. This is 100% to me. and basics ashould be 100%, Kumite 100% kata 100%, everything should be equal.

It never happens you always do something better so you constantly try to achieve 100%. Your kata may look great, but the stances may need work, so you workl stances, then to bunkai, to oyo etc.So I see everything as 100% I think the most important thing is Basics, if your basics are bad, your kumite is bad, and so is your kata. SO to me its basics, basics, basics. Then you use your kata as a vehicle to work your basics, and then to learn Bunkai and kumite.

I agree. Basics are the foundation, everything else is buiding blocks on that foundation.

As Senseilou said, if basics are poor, so is everything else.
Sharon

I agree. If you don't have basics you don't have anything. How your time is spent in any particular month will vary and on through the ranks but long after you forget a particular kata or flow drill, it comes down to basics. I still spend a lot of time through the week drilling basics in my work-outs.