Pistol Kata in the June 2018 Prescott Class

[Brent Yamamoto]

I was curious about how the block of kata instruction went at the class. Curious to hear the point of view from both the instructors as well as the students.

How did it go? How quickly did students pick it up? Any learning points from the instructors' point of view?

Students - was it obvious how this material relates to gunfighting? I'm assuming so given the content of the rest of class but want to hear more. Besides learning footwork and choreography, what were the lessons you took away from this practice?

[Gabriel Suarez]

I have some ideas but I will wait to hear from others.

[Brent Yamamoto]

I have begun teaching the footwork in karate class. Although I think this footwork and concepts are in the traditional kata, it is not so explicit. It is easy to quickly teach this material to a group of people already skilled at footwork as well as the idea of kata. Curious how things were received by the gun guys.

[Greg Nichols]

I have begun teaching the footwork in karate class. Although I think this footwork and concepts are in the traditional kata, it is not so explicit. It is easy to quickly teach this material to a group of people already skilled at footwork as well as the idea of kata. Curious how things were received by the gun guys.

This is one thing that we noticed. For those used to structured kata the footwork and sequence came fairly easily. For those without that experience, even athletic people found that grasping it and the reasoning behind it to be fairly abstract but I'll leave more for Gabe and the students to comment on.

[Brent Yamamoto]

For those used to structured kata the footwork and sequence came fairly easily. For those without that experience, even athletic people found that grasping it and the reasoning behind it to be fairly abstract.

This was as Gabe and I expected. Kata is not a "normal" thing for most people.

Still, wanted to hear how things played out in class. Very curious to hear from those who do not have that kind of background how their experience was.

[Brent Yamamoto]

I will add...it may not be "normal" right now but we want to change that.

Humans are apex predators...but we've forgotten how to move. thus the very need for things like kata.

[psalms23dad]

Being honest and open. I struggled with it the first day. Gabe did a great job showing and explaining it several times but it wasn't clicking. The final day he made a small change and it became much easier.

The Kata is something I'll be doing. I like it and see the brilliance and value. As I've mentioned before, this is one of the many things that sets SI apart from the "other guys" I intend to take full benifit on my investments here.

[Brent Yamamoto]

Being honest and open. I struggled with it the first day. Gabe did a great job showing and explaining it several times but it wasn't clicking. The final day he made a small change and it became much easier.

Can you describe the change? A change in the sequence of the kata or the teaching methodology?

[Jonathon_Spaf]

Can you describe the change? A change in the sequence of the kata or the teaching methodology?

Gabe modified the kata so that we would always be facing the same direction for each movement sequence. I think folks were getting confused on which direction they should be facing during the transverse move and at the end of each sequence. This simplified things quite a bit. We also practiced for a while without the reload sequence, which can add another layer of confusion.

I have a karate background, so the concept of the kata is not foreign to me. I didn't find the footwork too challenging. The biggest thing I had to mentally overcome was the desire to make the kata technically perfect (e.g. correct number of steps) instead of moving naturally.

Gabe's mental image of the stacked pyramids helps a lot for the diagonal lines kata. The key for me was to continuously keep in mind where the opponent was. For me, the key was to imagine that the opponent started outside and ended up in the middle of whichever pyramid you are working on. This helps visualize where you need to be looking as you move along the transverse line and again once you return to center.

When I first saw the kata on WT, I didn't get what the big deal was. Once Gabe explained the concept of moving off the X and the after action sequence, I thought "Woah!!! This is brilliant!" It encapsulates a whole day of training in a single 30-second drill. This will definitely become part of my training routine.

[Air Pirate]

Not to piss in the pool since I wasn’t at training this weekend, but for that reason I actually pulled up the Diagonal Lines video on my iPad and cleared the furniture out of the room I was staying on my trip (and closed the blinds haha). I’m admit I’m one of the problem children when it comes to footwork and I’ve been trying to rectify that. The double pyramid description was a a huge help. It took me about half an hour of feeling clumsy and stupid, but when I kept replaying the video, committed to one direction, broke each leg down, it actually kinda clicked all of a sudden. The light bulb came on and I realized that it was more or less a continuum of each “off the X” angles we practiced at Complete Pistol last month (correct me if I’m wrong). That’s when it started to feel natural. After a couple of hours I had the idea and could take off in any direction of travel. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a ways to go to still to master it, but think I’ve got the idea and committed now. Looking forward to the comments from training!