At one time or another, most of us who have practiced Kempo (or any kata based art for that matter) have been tempted to create our own kata. Perhaps it was for fun, or to help remember some techniques that you don’t practice often enough, or maybe to have some flashy moves to impress the judges at the next open tournament. Cool.
Most of us have also dropped the kata, or even the idea of creating one. One might think based on my occasionally reactionary stance in regards to kempo material that I’d be against it, but no, more power to the kata creators, within reason.
David Krueger at 24fightingchickens.com wrote a fine article about creating a kata with very good advice for the creative process involved in kata creation, and he began the article with a selection of questions to ask yourself before you start. The first question was the most important: Why do I want to create this kata?
The time that most people get uneasy about the creation of a kata is when the kata is to become a codified part of the curriculum of a school or style. Many of the more modern kata are tagged with the ‘he just made it up’ derision, forgetting perhaps that at some point, every kata was ‘just made up’ by someone. The time I get uneasy about people creating a kata is when they are planning to add it to their curriculum, but not because it’s ‘just made up’, but rather, because it is adding to the curriculum. Our curriculum is a bit bloated to begin with. Do we really need another kata?
