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The Three K'sShotokan karate can be roughly split into 3 equal secions (Kihon, Kata and Kumite) which are so strongly inter-related that missing one section will produce incomplete karate. Realistically, karate is quite simply bunkai! Taking moves from kata and practising them in set routines (kihon) and then progressing this to be done with a partner (kumite). Once you understand that kata is the centre-point of Shotokan, you can see that virtually every single move is either taken from kata or derived from these moves. There are obvious exceptions such as gyaku mawashi geri (reverse roundhouse kick) which was far too unrealistic and dangerous to be done in real combat, which is how Shotokan kata were constructed. Some of the non-original techniques that have appeared are attributable to Master Funakoshi's son Yoshita who added the idea of kicks above the waist and developed the Ushiro (back) and Yoko (side) kicks.
Advanced Techniques
The meanings of basic and advanced are not what you would think, basic katas are taught to junior students because they are short and contain few stances and get progressively more difficult (a means of increasing skill levels through gradings). Advanced katas are generally longer and taught to dan grade students but contain moves from the basic kata. Kanku dai for example has only about 6 moves that are not from the heian series, tekki shodan and bassai dai kata but is considered an advanced kata! The masters who invented the katas only trained in a few katas because if you look in enough depth all the techniques that you need are there! When we say that you should never forget your basic katas it is because the advanced katas depend so heavily on them you cannot do one well without being able to do the others well! Doing a gedan barai (downwards block) can be done to block a kick or where the reaction hand does the block and the
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