LOTUS SELF-DEFENSE

The Way of Kata, Book Review

Greetings to all, Lotus brothers and sisters whom I dearly miss, I have recently discovered a book that I, personally, think should be required reading for all of us. I am having a great time reading thru it and applying it to our kata.

The Way of Kata by Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder published by YMAA Publications Center and available at Amazon.  It was printed in 2005.

Since I was never taught any of the "bunkai" contained in our kata, and I suspect no one in Lotus has been taught very many of them either, I think that it is up to all of us students to dig in and decipher the techniques for ourselves and for our students.

Since, to my knowledge, Kenpo and hence Kajukenbo and hence Lotus are more technique based, as opposed to kata based, I have my doubts as to just how many hidden techniques we will find in our kata. The more nearly the kata in any system can be traced, un-altered, back to their original sources, the more likely it is that the kata will contain the original bunkai. The bunkai were actually the combat tactics contained in the "original" kata.

Let me know what you think of this book and I would really be interested in what any of you have discovered about our many kata...I am still just a student after all these years.
 

Written by Tim Hollembaek