Drift

This will probably be my shortest blog ever but I wanted to talk about DRIFT.

Drift: The natural change of a repeated pattern over time.

Drift is something that occurs naturally for a practitioner.  Indeed Taika did it and to a point encouraged it.  He would say, make this yours, make the kata for your body, not mine, and other such similar comments.  If you drifted the wrong way or poorly, you might get a bonk on the head.  No matter how die-hard someone is about traditionalism, I don’t think anyone can rightfully say that there is a single person in this world that does any kata exactly as the originator did the kata.  Each new generation drifts and adapts and I believe this is a good thing (to a point) and believe that this is one of the key things about this style that Taika instilled.  One size doesn’t fit all.

But here is the cautionary tale; Check your drift regularly!

With modern technology, we have cameras and particularly video cameras everywhere.  Any class night there are at least 5 video cameras in the dojo (other than the 4 permanent ones for the online students) that are simply just phones.  It is quite easy to record a video of yourself and periodically check them to make sure you are still doing things correctly or rather, along the same line of intent.  I luckily have a lot of videos recorded of Taika, some by myself and some of other sources.  One of my favorites is Spider Web and I regularly use it to ensure I’m not drifting too far from the original.  I have countless weapons and technique videos I shot while training with Taika that I regularly source to make sure I’m still doing what he wanted me to.  I believe, as he did, that it is ok to take some minor creative adaptions for mainly physical reasons (birth defect, hip dysplasia) but it is also important to check to make sure you are not just remembering it wrong.  When you have about 35 kata and countless exercises in your head, it is quite easy to jumble them at times.  Someone I used to train with knew many more kata than I do, and they quite frequently would get them wrong unless they ‘checked for drift’ with old videos. 

So in short, for a short blog, use technology and record….then check yourself regularly.