Ok I want know a few things about your kata practicing. How many days a week do you practice kata on your own? Any different or interesting ways of practicing kata? How important do you believe visualization is?

Here are my answers. I try and practice kata once a week on my own. I have a few way of practicing kata. One way is to perform all the techniques with tension. My newest way of practicing is doing all the techniques in smaller stands and paying more attention to the hand techniques. After I complete the kata like that I do it again with deep stances and perform the kata slower then usual. Visualization is the most important aspect for me. I have used kata techniques in sparring in class and in my sparring outside of the dojo.

I try to practice kata at least twice a week, the only thing i do differently for my kata training is the speed, sometimes i'll go fast, and sometimes i'll go slow.

Every day. However, I don't practice formally every day.

I teach 2 nights a week. I take time before during & after class to run through select kata. Sometimes I realize I've forgotten parts, other times I'm able to review several w/o a memory lapse.

The other 5 days of the week, I practice the parts. Rather than breaking down the whole engine & rebuilding it every day, I'll check the fluids one day or clean the plugs another day. Same w/ kata. I may work on "kake-te" (hooking/grasping block) in the elevator or practice my sanchin-dachi (hourglass stancs) in the shower or maybe even a series of techniques behind my closed office door.

Remember, kata wasn't meant to only be performed beginning to end. Separate the techniques or series of techniques to perfect the Bunkai (application).

How many days a week? anywhere from 3-5 depends.
Different ways? Just in different areas,slower,and faster.
Vissualization? I don't visualize all the time,sometimes I just do the kata.
I practice kata before classes,at home,sometimes at work too!! (and they pay me for it Muahahahah!! )

I try and run through my kata at least 2x a week, at different speeds and the big one- different angles...at some random point in a kata I'll stop turn around a few times and continue at a completely different direction.

Usually twice a week at school and the same at home. At home, I usually do a complete run through, but at the school, I tend to just focus on a particular move to improve my sharpness and cadence. Try to get a real "feel" for it.

I usually walk through the five kata I practice as a warm-up before training sessions, which is only two times a week now in olden days. Oyo-waza only occasionally.
I find visualisation possible only with a kata, from which I have practiced a LOT of oyo-waza, but I do think it's beneficial and my goal is to be able to do all my kata with unbroken visualisation.
As I only do five (and am not planning on learning any more [well maybe one, sometime in the distant future] as I don't feel I can keep any more of them alive with only two karate sessions a week), it may not be completely impossible!

well, since i study both Kenpo and Kobudo i have a lot of kata going through my head. In kobudo alone i have about 2O traditional kata to know so far(its a very kata heavy system). In kenpo i do most of the shotokan kata, however ive started to focus just on 2 or 3(kanku dai, bassai da, nijushiho). So with so many kata my week is divided. i do empty handed kata almost everday for an hour or so, and then ill choose one kobudo weapon and work the kata for that particular weapon.
Im kinda of like Hedkir in that i do teach twice a week so my training is done before and after class or during when im being taught.

I practice kata every day. It is always first priority on my lists of things to train. My other personal training consists of hojo undo and modern weights. I train every day on my own at my home, and about three days in class at the dojo, one of which will also likely consist of kata. Two of the classes are formal, one informal. I like to spend one session a week alone in the dojo and formally practice all the kata I know, perhaps some kobudo as well.


I typically practice at normal speed, although will sometimes go slower for precision. In longer kata like passai or kusanku I often practice one individual set of movements 10-20 times before going on to the next; an exhausting exercise. Often, when performing a kata, one has a tendency to siimply plow through the troublesome areas-this prevents one from doing so. I also practice kata hantai (mirror), which is doing everything to the opposite side.

I know about 11 of the 15 kata of my style, but don't focus on all of them equally. Being that I will eventually take on deshi, it is important to me to have a good, firm understanding of all 15. Or course, this is a slow process. I focus mostly on naihanchi and sanchin, and also practice passai consistantly.

Practice every day. Isn't that what lunch is for?