Lower Body

A lot of times in kata we tend to stress just the sword parts of the kata. What should your hands be doing, when to do saya biki, how should you cut etc. However In my opinion what is even more important is where your feet are.

Kata helps you get acquainted with the idea of a threat coming from a certain side. In kata though we always do one attack. However in real life, the guy will not always come at you from jodan, or nukitsuke or whatever. To deal with that the attack can change, so you have to be on your feet.

To be in a situation where you can do any attack, the proper footwork must be in place. Toyama kata number 2 is a great example. Normally we attack stepping forward after the second step, however that second step must put you in a solid position where you can step forward, step back, step off the to side, or just not trip over yourself. Same thing with kata 3, where if your feet are not in the proper position, your tsuki will just go wayward and either not be as accurate or not have any umph because your off balance.

As you deal with more enemies, the footwork becomes more advanced. Hopefully if you built the proper footwork from earlier katas your body will learn how to adjust and make it work.

So instead of always just stressing on the sword, take a look at your feet and see if you have a good base to react from in the first place.