Do you watch a kata and, at first glance, it looks impressive – snappy, powerful – but something about the function just feels wrong?

The techniques look powerful, but only because the body is being overused to make them look that way.

Big shoulder rotation. Excessive upper body movement. A visible “back and forth” to give the impression of force. Everything is thrown into it so the technique appears to have weight and intent. It may look convincing. You can see the effort. You can see the movement. It reads as power.

But it isn’t power at all.

Something that reads well, not something that works – except for pleasing a judge.

I’m not talking about using the body properly. The ‘double hip’, as an example – that’s not in question. This isn’t that. The body should work as a whole. But there’s a point where that stops being functional and starts becoming performance.

And a lot of what’s being shown just crosses that line.

Once the movement starts from the arms and shoulders, and the rest of the body follows afterwards, the chain is already broken. Power depends on continuity. It doesn’t come from throwing parts of the body into the technique – it comes from everything arriving together.

Break that connection, and you don’t increase power.

You lose it.

That exaggerated “back and forth” you often see is a good example. It’s there to show force. But mechanically, it interrupts the flow, resets the structure, and delays the action.

The body is moving around the technique instead of through it.

To me, it just looks ridiculous.

Not because it’s different – but because it wouldn’t survive even a small amount of resistance.

Anyone who has been in a real confrontation understands this very quickly. You don’t get time to wind something up, throw your upper body into it, and bring it back again so it looks convincing.

If you try, you get shut down.

This is why so much of it doesn’t transfer to any kind of reality. It isn’t just a matter of style or preference. The method itself depends on space, time, and cooperation.

Take those away, and there’s nothing left.

Real power comes from the kinetic chain – from the ground up. The shoulders, arms, and hands are the last part of that chain, not the first. What tends to hold up is much less obvious. The movement is smaller. The connection through the body is maintained. The action doesn’t need to be shown – it just needs to be done.

From the outside, it might not look as impressive.

But that’s because it isn’t trying to be.

Power doesn’t need to be advertised.

And if it does, there’s a good chance something else is missing.

Photo Credit: Pictured on the left Noah Legel sensei and the late Richard Poage sensei.