Thoughts on Bunkai

I have always wondered why many instructors either do not do bunkai, or only use the punch, kick, block method.  Then there are the instructors that teach the old, you have four people around you and they are attacking you one at a time in the order of the kata. Really?

I personally feel the pattern of the kata is not essential to the bunkai and that more than likely the whole kata is against one person.  My father was never really big on teaching bunkai, neither was Keeney Sensei.  In contrast Lloyd Johnson Sensei liked to teach bunkai.  I remember working with Kimo Wall Sensei once in Peoria, Illinois and he told me that he taught 5 levels of bunkai kumite for his katas. Terou Chinen Sensei also has some very nice bunkai applications for the kata.

One of the things I like to do is get the yudansha together and pick a series out of the kata and just kind of round robin the ideas. Have each of them tell me what they think the bunkai could be. I personally try to find the most effective and devastating applications that I can find. In my job, I deal with life and death situations, so I want to find the nastiest, meanest applications I can. I want it to be quick and devastating.

I attended class this evening at my father’s dojo and we did the usual training, but then he turned to me and said, we need to do more bunkai, like you do at your dojo. They really need to know it. So we worked on it.  

I really have a lot more to say about bunkai and my thoughts on the matter, but It will have to wait for another time, as I have other matters that I must attend too.