I see what I believe at least in Martial Arts. Since Martial Arts aren't as numerous here as in the Americas or the bigger European countries my experiences with other styles are few, definately fewer than any Americans. But I've seen some Shotokan practitioners and asked them to show me a Bunkai..

The problems I have with them is that they are mostly ridiculous I consider it a matter of interpertation and if someone who really lacks any kind of combat experience or even training in full contact starts showing me techniques which make absolutely no sense and containt poor body mechanics well it just doesn't impress.

I'm not saying that the techniques in Kata are not useable - that would be a ridiculous thing to think in itself - I'm just saying I do not believe Katas to be some strings of techniques I see some techniques in Katas going hand to hand but I also see that many Katas we practice in Karate are actually weapon Katas so searching Katas for long stringed techniques meant to be used in situation A, B or C just doesn't seem like a very practical thing to do.

If your basic technique is strong then all you need is the experience to put those techniques together if you have a good flow and a good technique you can make your own ''bunkai'' with or without Katas. That's at least what I think.. There are many pitfalls in Martial Arts but there are also many hacks trying to teach things they don't know so maybe my experiences have been 1 sided and maybe somewhere up ahead I have something to learn from somebody with a completely different perspective.