Most martial arts seem to have staged pre defined series of moves as part of their practice routines. Karate with its Katas, Taekwondo with the Poomsaes etc.
When push comes to shove and the fight is real, details like which part of the leg to kick with etc. change and it becomes different.
I want to understand what exactly traditional teachers say about the usefulness of these exercises.
Traditional teachers of different style say many different things, of which, some have more, or less validity.
Here's some things I've heard said about forms in general:
The last two seem very relevant and true in my experience, and I think of forms less as an immediate tool for combat and more as a development exercise - just as much as you don't do pushups or punch like drills on a speed bag in a fight, those are still useful practices to do.
I do know that many of the folks reputed as masters, and two of the skillful teachers I've managed to work with, swear by forms. My personal guess is, though, that need a good amount of hands on time with live partners to ingrain the understanding of reach, timing, force, and balance against another person before doing the form can really give you much of whatever they're getting from it.
Kata is sparring.
Due to the facts that:
it can take many years to get your head around this concept. Gradually the two start to merge, so that when you are sparring you are executing a constant sequence of kata moves (in a sequence that fits what's happening), and your kata practice becomes a mental sparring session as you perform the moves.
How can kata be sparring?
Many instructors teach kata as just a memory aide or a conditioning exercise, and indeed they are both of those, but they're also more.
Take one of the most basic moves - a stomach level reverse punch (gyaka zuki chudan): why is it in any particular kata multiple times? It's because along with the moves adjacent to it it becomes part of an attack. Mastery of a kata means being familiar with the multitude of different attacks and permutations buried in the kata.
Exactly what the attacks are hitting will depend on what position your opponent is in when you start. To borrow a programming term, attacks from kata are mostly deterministic - if all the inputs are the same then the output is 100% predictable and the same every time. As I mentioned in a previous answer on the subject, if the opponent starts in a certain position and I execute a specific sequence of movements then I will know exactly where his head and body are at the end, this allows me to progress on to the next sequence of moves should I need it.
Many people/masters/schools have different views on what Katas is and is for. Below would be my views on Kata
What KATA is.
It is basically a set of moves a practitioners could do on their own, as well as with another partner.
What KATA is for.
This question is very subjective depending on the school / master. From my point of view, KATA in its essence teaches proper structure,form, footwork, proper utilization of power and leverage and etc. By perfecting your KATA, you could generate the maximum effectiveness of your art.
For example, i feel that my punches tend to be weak and tend to leave me unstable after delivering a solid blow. By perfecting the KATA, i am able to understand the principles and reason why it is weak, thus allowing me to make corrections, and after many many times of repetition, it overwrites my previous form or bad habits.
There are also many hidden moves & principles in a KATA and it is usually difficult to identify unless pointed out by someone else.
Misconceptions
Many practitioners find that by perfecting KATAs alone would make them a complete fighter. They often neglect the physical conditioning part of training. By lifting weights to make you stronger & faster, sprinting to increase speed & stamina, meditation to increase focus and etc. These are all as important as KATAs and should be trained equally.
In the beginning , you might be able to get away with sloppy stance, sloppy punches or kicks just by being strong or fast, but as you progress and meet more experienced practitioners who are as strong and as fast as you are, you wouldn't be able to rely on physicality alone.
I think that, as a concept, kata are highly useful. It teaches students to chain moves, to not hit once and then pause to figure out what to do next. It gets you thinking about how your body shifts weight from block to punch and teaches combinations that are synergistic, such as using an inside block and capitalizing on the opened defense with a reverse punch, or chaining a roundhouse kick with a spinning heel kick. The odds of doing the movement during sparring in exactly the same way you do it in kata is small, but your muscle memory has you headed in the right direction and more likely to have an alternate plan if you see your opponent is prepared for what you started doing.
That said, you should always know why you are doing the movements. The term in Karate is bunkai and it's the difference between thinking "OK, for the next move, I put my hands on my hips and waggle them" and "I am being pulled into a bearhug. I am striking their forearms and shifting my center of balance down and to the side to break their hold". And, of course, you never want to become predictable in your movements, but that's where training multiple kata is necessary.
