Benefits Of Training KATA For MMA | VLOG | Karate w/ Wonderboy 

Me with a busted hand: does nothing because my hand is busted. Wonderboy with a busted hand: Time for Karate

This guy is killing it with his positivity. If only more of us had this positive attitude in life daily how far could humanity go?

That was the most American karate class I've ever seen

Awesome! 😍 Such an underrated topic. 🥋 Keep up the excellent videos Wonderboy sensei! 👍

New place is beautiful, WB! And as is your form 😍 Absolutely loved this video and message 🙏

You the man Wonderboy, keep that traditional martial arts spirit alive 👍👊

It's nice to see traditional martial arts prove themselves in modern combat sport. Stephen Thompson, Lyoto Machida and Kyoji Horiguchi are my inspiration on practicing Karate

Dude this is gotta be best and wholesome channel on this crazy platform! Thank you Wonderboy and Wonderboy Senior.

Mom : What do you want to be when you grow up? Me : *Stephen Wonderboy Thompson*

So When Are You Evolving Into Wonderman?

Wonderboy wore it better than Ken😭❤

Kreese: What do we study here? Students: THE WAY OF THE FIST, SIR! Kreese: And what is that way?? Students: STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY SIR!! Kreese: I can’t hear you!! Students: STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY SIR!!!

Wonderboy is a true martial artist and his dad is legit.

I’m from Baltimore and when I was a youngster, I went to American Kempo Karate 🥋 . I remember one of the first things I learned was the “ star block” . Also , well I’m not sure if you know him but I got to meet Jeff Speakman got his autograph etc. was pretty cool. Just thought that I’d share. Lol I’m acting like wonderboys going to see this. Haha take care y’all and whoever reads this , nothing but my best wishes for you and your future. ✌️

Coming from a traditional martial arts back ground, and now practicing primarily Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - I gotta say, the student creed in the beginning, and the respect shown throughout the video was MUCH appreciated. Yes, I can see the criticism that it’s seems maybe “cultish” or brain-washing, but that’s only looking at the extreme negative end of it. The truth is, it’s all about building this mind/body connection, while promoting the positive values and morals of the Martial art lifestyle. Unfortunately, in most ( but not all ) modern, heavily combat focused martial art schools, the traditional aspect of martial arts has been left behind. So thanks for this video, I really enjoyed it, and keep up with the content! 🙏

Also, my background is in Muay Thai and Jitz but I enjoy seeing others motivated about their styles and backgrounds. I enjoyed this video, good job.

New school looks amazing, Wonderboy! So happy for your family that your business has expanded so much! Much love and thanks as always for posting! I had a similar cast last year on my hand when I had a metacarpal fracutre on my ring finger on my right hand -- they can certainly be fun to train around!

What a cool gym I wold love to train there

As a karateka, I love analysing your fights and seeing you endorsing karate. Great channel too. You're a great ambassador for traditional arts! OSS!

The positivity and high vibes are deeply appreciated brother. You're the best fighter in MMA in my opinion. 🙏

Thank you for opening my eyes on this form of MMA.. much love man

Thanks, Wonderboy! Nice variety of videos😊😊

Love Wonderboy, Wonderpops, and Wonderbro. Favorite fighting family

I train at Lyoto Machida's dojo in Lomita, California and we have a similar kata routine that we do all the time as well. I enjoy kata because as you say it teaches focus. You're making sure every movement is crisp and perfect so that come fight time your actual fluidity matches that same discipline and focus as well. His brother Chinzo tells us this all the time in regards to the importance of Kata. It's almost like a very active physical meditation. Great video as always, love the new facility, dude!

Love these vids. My favourite youtube channel!!

Love that y’all say the pledge, Stephen. Keep being great!

Keeping the arts alive brother! You have my admiration and respect truly!!!

Reasons for Katas Practice form: obviously it's good for instilling muscle memory in to your movements and cleans up bad form. Medetation: everyone knows meditation is good for your brain and is healthy for you, as a fighter or athlete anything healthy for you will make you that much better. Low intensity: as a fighter or athlete, how many hours can you train a day? 2-3? Anything more than that is bad for you, you can't go 100% all day every day ESPECIALLY if your taking a beating. Katas allow you train even when you are healing. Simulating: in a fight there is no time for thinking it happens so fast, you need to develope the movements before you actually fight Katas (and sparring) develope the muscle memory and help visualize so when the fight does happen you're all ready to go Katas aren't your main method of training rather a tool to aid you when necessary. ;)

Amazing! Love your dedication ☺️ I'd love to see more of these types of videos ☺️

OSU Sensei Stephen! Thanks for sharing some traditional karate. I've been doing shotokan karate for a year now, and loving it!

Enjoy watching you fight man refreshing seeing karate thrown in there

Heck, yeah thanks for this type of video wonderboy , nicely explained of knowing what your body Is doing from toe to head when it comes to katas.keep up the quality videos👍, more of this kind too please.

THIS IS THE BEST AWESOME VIDEO EVER BRA....BACK TO DA BASIC'S LOVE IT

Wonder boy thanks for the info! this video was fire man 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 one love. Peace 🙏

Stephen's dad is so knowledgeable about the intricacies of the art. You can tell that the man has dedicated his life to his art. Awesome video as always!!

This is why I became a fan of you, because from the moment I saw your channel and your sparring sessions it reminds me of that old-school martial arts mentality I grew up with. So much respect for the every-man lifestyle you are promoting for Karate.

Heal soon Wonderboy!! Cant wait to see you back in the Octagon !💪

I love kata!. I am a sandan in shotokan karate in Canada. You have an amazing channel and are such an inspiration for everyone to be a better person!. Thanks for all the great videos!.

Good stuff! I still do Kata to warm up when none of my training partners show up for BJJ open mat. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. Congrats on the new gym and the win.

Ken "Wonderboy" Masters 💪👊

Although I don’t do Katas anymore, I remember using a kick, slide back to inside block combo in a real fight when I was like 15 and it worked perfectly. My kick didn’t really hurt the bigger opponent so he countered with a punch and I instinctually slid back into the inside block. I believe it was from either the second or third form in Taekwondo.

It’s amazing how many types of karates there are, yet they are essentially the same, I do goju ryu karate and the style in this video is super similar to my style

I've always seen Kata as being very similar in principle to military drills, some drills might not make much sense to alot of people but what they do is instill dicispline, direction and trigger muscle memory all these clearly important in actual combat. So yes Kata is definitely cool.

Great vid, once again!

wow this video is incredibly interesting. I never had any idea kata could be useful for anything in fighting but it seems to help a ton in building body awareness and timing. Awesome stuff!

Let's go Wonderboy Legend 🔥🔥🤙🏻

Dude. Respect and kudos. You are a true hero

This was very enjoyable. Thank you for this video

Big up wonderboy for just being a great human being🙏🏼👊🏼

Perfect explanation of why training kata is important. Awesome video and awesome kata training! From one karateka to another...OSU!

Thank you for sharing. Great that you can share it all with your Dad!

The way you and your dad describe the Kata is really cool and I understand it a lot more!

Great video! Thanks for explaining the purpose and benefits of katas. I believe it will mean a lot more to the general public coming from a successful UFC fighter.

Thanks for the postive video. Respect .

Love your channel wonderboy! This was awesome to see the new gym and love the traditional style cata! Would love to see more of your Dad in your videos!

This is by far one of the best explanations, on the validity of why Katas (forms/patterns) are important for any traditional martial arts style. Your father's explanation on the purpose, of Katas in terms of their bunkai (application) which more accurately means breaking down the significance of every move, stance, breathing and so forth, are the important components to prepare a fighter for combat. Not only physically, but also psychologically and spiritually. Katas teaches an individual correct posture, timing, speed, power, control, balance and also self evaluation of what one needs to improve, since perfection is humanly unattainable, yet a goal to aspire to nonetheless. Kata definitely is something often misunderstood, of which it is the reason why many, ignorant sceptics who do not understand it, or know what they are looking at, dismiss it as useless, Taichi or yoga type of exercise sequences. Yet the likes of Lyoto Machida have shown successfully Kata applications in the UFC mixed martial arts fights or in full contact, Kickboxing rules type of competitions. Your father is knowledgeable, as well such a legend, everything he says is pretty much, what other martial arts, wise masters say as well, Osu!🇲🇽🇦🇺🥋🙏

Thank you for bringing up kata. It's good to learn in your martial arts journey. 🙏 oss!!

It’s not just the martial arts you and your father are a big inspiration as a family thank you and Osu Sensei

I train karate and I love MMA. Watch such an amazing guy like Thompson doing these two thing I love the most...is incredible

The absolute best part of this vid was the pledge and oath! God Bless! ✝

One of my favorite videos yet.

The gym looks sick, love that octogon!

Incredible top class gym you have developed there. The Thompsons deserve all the success with their hard work, passion and vision. Salute and respect.

That was my first ever kata. I loved knowing what you were doing.

Amazing new academy! Congratulations!

Loved this! With me being a traditional martial artist who did BJJ and boxing later, this was great!

Awesome video man.. I love doing my Kung Fu and Tai chi forms. There is only a handful in my wing Chun but there is a crap load in my seven star praying mantis and yang Tai chi. Love seeing TMA... And the same is for my Kung Fu forms as on kata. There is hiding application in them and it makes you focus and become mind and body as one... Please keep up all the great material. 👊

Even though I'm a muay thai and boxing practitioner but it was so interesting when your father said : "I'm still learning". Respect, much love.

Stephen your father has a fantastic teaching. Great video!!! Make a video about a ranking of karate practitioners you like, it would be very interesting.

You the man Wonderboy!

Thanks for this motivation through the Umunderstsnding of the practicality of karate or what it offers to real life situations

I love your channel, Stephen. And we share sort of a common lineage, my old longtime instructor, John Stover, and your dad trained under the same instructor long ago. Keep up the good work.

Awesome!!! This shines a tiny light onto the philosophy of Karate, which I would love more of. Maybe some videos that describe the differences in other karate disciplines, Im especially interested in the philosophies compared to one another. THANKS!!!!!!!!! I love your videos!

So glad I go to this dojo. Absolutely awesome. Not only do you learn karate, but you socialize and get to have fun with games. I have Mr. Tony and he is absolutely awesome

Very envious of that gym. Really well done

Thanks for sharing! Loved it. And especially enjoyed seeing Mr. T teach. Would like to see some of your advanced katas!!! For non traditional subscribers, maybe show some of your UFC fighting techniques in the katas

So cool. Takes me back. Thanks

you the man wonderboy !!!

Kata for MMA is sick, Lyoto Machida still does that too 😎

It's refreshing to see this, I enjoy doing kata

Keep up your RU-vid Steven best channel in my book, technique Tuesday!!!

Keep that trad spirit alive Sensei! Im waking up early to do some sil nim tau when I wake up. Salute

Sick video dude !! Makes me miss karate. I used to love doing Kata

Good to see you in a traditional KARATE and form sir...salute for sharing this video...

Really enjoyed listening to your dad explain kata. But love all the content wonder boy keep it up. Can't wait to see you back in the cage!

Wonderboy, you're amazing.

My Favourite fighter is Wonder Boy. Great attitude, super polite, a true gent and a fearless, lethal warrior.

Wonderboy is a true legend 💪🏻

This guy is just on another level of awesome

Stephen's fighting career must have done wonders for the success of the family business

My Master always said martial arts is a way of life, and you are a great martial artist! Amazing attitude :) I'm also glad to see you post this video that sheds some light on how kata works and it is or is not good for. Obviously it's not a replacement for other training methods, but it does teach balance, body mechanics, footwork, etc. I'm especially fond of the sliding footwork, which is most applicable when close to an opponent (lower stance for more balance and power) and balances the more bouncy footwork seen in Karate or TKD sparring. Last thing that I wanted to mention is that, when learned properly, it also gives a firm foundation on the positioning and structure of the punch (from the feet to the hips, the shoulders and all the way down to arm to the structure of the wrist and knuckles). In my younger years I tore a ligament in my hand because I didn't pay close enough attention to what my master taught on the subject, haha ;P

Awesome video dude. 👋👍👍

Love it! Definitely understand the benefits of kata! Want to collab with you one day in the future.

Sou do Brasil e virei fan do estilo de luta desse cara, ele parece ser um ser humano legal! Torcendo para o canal crescer!!!

That's the reason why I still train KATA coz it helps me a lot specially on building up rythm

This is a great video! This is why I love doing Kata. I also love learning the interpretations of what each movement is for. So there it is folks! You can be good at Kata and be good at fighting! :)

Great vid. Looks like a lot fun would like to learn kata myself.

So cool to see you using kata as part of your routine . Vastly underrated and misunderstood. I'll be sharing this with my students . Very nice form too sir . Thank you 🙏😁

Love the new gym. About to start up Kempo Karate tonight!

Keen to see this, and more self defense/kenpo when you can!