Karate with Music

[emattson]

Throughout my years working out in Uechi-Ryu classes, our sensei never play music. At first, I felt it artless, so plain. But they turn out to have a good reason for quiet. An exceptional kata has a continuous flow, without breaks nor pauses. When in a fight, the defender must strike the thug without any pause, be relentless until the threat is gone. Any pause may give the thug a chance to recover and strike back devastatingly. Music may tempt one practicing to break up a kata into breaks following the beats. I seen that done obviously by one Kung Fu academy while playing dance music during their demonstration. This happened while I was at the Chinese summer festival.

Obviously, it doesn't happen all the time. Another academy demonstrated their kata with good flow while playing music. Maybe they are more skilled.