Kata Videos

This page is here for when you’re stuck somewhere and you can’t remember the next move in the kata. Short Forms have been moved to their own page. Kobudo Katas and their bunkai will be on their own page as well.

The first video includes the first Kata, Basic Form 1, as well as a brief explanation of the 2nd and 3rd Kata. It also has the first 2 short forms. There is also a video that is just a walk through of Basic Form 2 and Basic Form 3.

OR instead of learning Basic Form 2 and 3, you can learn Pinan Nidan. It is the original kata that basic form 1, 2 and 3 all came from. I have also included a video of the Bunkai and Pad Drills for Pinan Nidan. So if you are one of my white belts (or their parents) Bunkai is when you practice sections of a kata on a partner. This is actually the most important aspect of katas. There are many different bunkais for the same move(s), but usually there is no One right answer. Here is a reference video for base level bunkais for the 3 different sections of Pinan Nidan.

Kata Gekisai is the 4th kata in our system and is the kata needed for those yellow belts who want to test for their orange belts. Currently Bunkai and Pad Drills are not required to know in order to move on to the next belt, but the videos are included and strongly encouraged.

Kata Wansu is the 5th kata in our system and is thought to be one of the oldest karate katas. It is also one of the most widely practiced katas amoung all the different karate styles. This kata is needed for those orange belts who want to test for their green belts. Currently Bunkai and Pad Drills are not required to know in order to move on to the next belt, but videos are included.

The 6th Kata in our system is Anaku. The main lesson of the kata is the “step drag” which is used to close the gap on your opponent. This is the Kata green belts should be working on for their blue belts.

The 7th Kata is Seisan. “It’s like Anaku but twice as long,” I like to say. The main lesson of this kata is to “breath”. This is the kata blue belts need to know for their purple belt.

The 8th Kata in our system in Niahanchi. It is a linear kata that moves back and forth from side to side. THIS KATA IS PERFORMED IN MIRROR IMAGE, so that you can do the kata while watching the computer. With any luck, I didn’t mess up describing which ones of you hands/feet should be moving. This is the kata the purple belts needs to know for their brown belt. Bunkai/oyo for Niahanchi incorporates techniques for both the regular Naihanchi Shodan variation and what I call the “Jim Hawkes Naihanchi” variation. Additionally we broke our bunkai apart so that each section is initiated off of a right punch from our Uke. Obviously in a real fight opponents aren’t going to only throw 1 right punch, but it worked well for out teaching purpose.

2 of the 3 Brown Belt Katas. It is usually recommended that you learn Koriyo first and Wankan second. I will usually teach san-kyus Koriyo first, but i’m open to teaching Wankan first. Both katas can be replaced with any black belt level kata. Bonus footage: the first few moves of Gosuko Yondan…before the battery died on the camera.

Gosuku Yondan. This is the required katas for all Ich-Kyus to go the Sho-dan (1st Degree Black Belt).

O’ Naihanchi: This video includes Naihanchi Shodan (NOT the Jim Hawkes Karate version), Naihanchi Nidan, Naihanchi Sandan, and all three of them put together into O’ Naihanchi. Our pandemic kata! This variation of these katas was something we started working in video classes during the pandemic to give us something new to work on. It takes movements and influences from variations of these katas from Matsumura Shorin-Ryu, Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu, and Okinawan Kenpo. In no way should this be viewed as a completely faithful/accurate version of this kata (incase you’re an Okinawan purest who has come across this video).