Consistency over accuracy

One point that is often overlooked or even mistaken in kata practice is the fact that you don’t have to be objectively identical to some standard technical model. It is absolutely unimportant that the student’s motion look exactly like the instructor’s motion during a kata. The important thing for kata practice is that you make sure that you strive to do the kata exactly the same way every time you do it (or at least as nearly constant as possible).

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The reason that consistency is more important than accuracy in kata performance is that it is easier to correct systematic bias than it is to correct random error. If you do the same thing every time, then even if it is the wrong thing, it’s easier to correct than if you make a unique error every time.

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Another reason this is important is because of the prevalence of relatively inexperienced instructors. These instructors cannot even show their students the exact, ideal model of a technique because they are, in many cases, still learning what the ideal for that technique is. So the student is trying to achieve accuracy with the instructor presenting a shifting target.

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This does not mean that the lower-ranked instructors are bad. In fact, in many locations they are necessary if the arts are to survive and grow. It just means that the instructors and their students have to have an agreed understanding as to what degree of precision is necessary and even in what sense the word precision is meant.

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So, remember – in kata, consistency is more important than accuracy.