Ritual as Quality Control
I'm watching a PBS documentary on samurai swords. The academic in the film postulates that the religious rituals surrounding the sword-making process were done as a form of quality control.
I can't help but think that this also applies to traditional martial arts. In those styles, importance is placed on transmitting the technique from teacher to student in a "lossless" fashion with as much fidelity as possible. Ritualizing techniques into the organized nature of such things like kata serve as the platform for such transmission.
The teacher can observe the student performing movements in the controlled structure of a kata, and can make the necessary adjustments as the student perfects it. Repeated practice countless times over years of practice engrains the movements into the student, and the student gains insights into the particulars of the mechanics of those movements such that when it comes time that the student becomes a teacher, he can transmit that knowledge successfully to the next student.
Structuring practice like this essentially removes all the external variables. Imagine trying to learn to hit a baseball. In one method, a machine pitches the baseball to you in exactly the same trajectory at exactly the same speed every time. You know how long the baseball will take to get to you and where it will be, so you can fine tune your swing to a known quantity. In another method, you face a different pitcher every training session, and that pitcher is allowed to throw any pitch he wants at you. Imagine how difficult it would be to try to hit the ball without understanding the mechanics of the swing!
Many martial art practitioners like dismiss kata as being "fake" or "not realistic". In the context of sparring or otherwise dynamic context, I would agree. But when viewed as a tool to train and fine tune the fundamental movements of a martial art, their value is apparent.
I can't help but think that this also applies to traditional martial arts. In those styles, importance is placed on transmitting the technique from teacher to student in a "lossless" fashion with as much fidelity as possible. Ritualizing techniques into the organized nature of such things like kata serve as the platform for such transmission.
The teacher can observe the student performing movements in the controlled structure of a kata, and can make the necessary adjustments as the student perfects it. Repeated practice countless times over years of practice engrains the movements into the student, and the student gains insights into the particulars of the mechanics of those movements such that when it comes time that the student becomes a teacher, he can transmit that knowledge successfully to the next student.
Structuring practice like this essentially removes all the external variables. Imagine trying to learn to hit a baseball. In one method, a machine pitches the baseball to you in exactly the same trajectory at exactly the same speed every time. You know how long the baseball will take to get to you and where it will be, so you can fine tune your swing to a known quantity. In another method, you face a different pitcher every training session, and that pitcher is allowed to throw any pitch he wants at you. Imagine how difficult it would be to try to hit the ball without understanding the mechanics of the swing!
Many martial art practitioners like dismiss kata as being "fake" or "not realistic". In the context of sparring or otherwise dynamic context, I would agree. But when viewed as a tool to train and fine tune the fundamental movements of a martial art, their value is apparent.