Cracking the Kata Code: How Does a Kata Mean?

by Tony Annesi, Wade Munson (Photographer)

Overview

The benchmark in understanding karate kata! The first book of its kind and there has never been another quite like it: a detailed explanation of the study of kata in karate that applies to any system. Make your kata study infinite!
Chapters include: What You See is Not What you Get; Why Methods Die Out; Change of Structure, Change of Meaning; All Kata is Training; The Value of the Kata Training Method; Kata, Waza, Bunkai and Oyo; The Map is Not the Territory; Other Analogies to Kata; The Kata of Code; Cracking the Code; Types and Modes of Bunkai. Over 150 photographs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538071922
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	04/21/2016
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Tony Annesi has studied the martial arts since 1964 and has received black belts in judo, aiki-ju-jutsu, and karate. His writing started with poetry and short fiction (the first stories of 1969: Loss of Innocence were drafted in 1969) and then followed his martial arts career with columns for INSIDE KARATE MAGAZINE (Tales of the Dojo and The Dojo Files) and articles for MARTIAL ARTS MASTERS, SELF-DEFENSE WORLD, INSIDE KUNG-FU, THE INTERNATIONAL FIGHTER, and BLACK BELT. He has authored the privately published Cracking the Kata Code, The Road to Mastery, Principles of Advanced Budo, Sudden Attack Defense, Elevated Elementals, and Comparative Aiki in Action. Tony has produced a fantasy novel trilogy entitled The Shangrilla Artifacts as well as an adventure novel sequel An Atlantis of One.

Editorial Reviews

With clarity and humor, Hanshi Tony Annesi teaches progressively from fundamentals that manifest principles formally to subtle feats that embody them nearly formlessly. "Cracking the Kata Code" applies his skills of analysis and synthesis to traditional forms., inviting us to understand kata as gestural poetry, as elaborated combinations, and above all, as movement studies that can be "transmuted" into a range of functions, thus learning from martial tradition without getting stuck in it.

private emial - Dr. C. Wes DeMarco

I have read this book twice, and each time walked away with a different and deeper understanding of Kata and application. This book draws on different types of artistry to better help the reader understand how, within Martial Arts, Kata has been used and could be interpreted. "Cracking the Kata Code" is a "must have" for the martial arts library of any serious student of Karate Kata.

private email - Soke Darrell Collins

One of the things that drew me to Annesi Hanshi's teachings was his ability to make sense of the Karate Kata that I practiced, and even more impressive to me was that he had a "method" to do so. I have my own personal way to analyze the Karate Kata I practice, which is sometimes different than the way Annesi Hanshi may look at the same move. That to me is indicative of the strength and robustness of a method in that two people using it can come to two different yet equally workable expressions.

private email - Sensei Wes Tasker