Why are there moves and stances in katas that don't seem impractical in a real fight?


To answer that, the student must understand a bit of martial art history. For many years in Japanese and Korean history, the practice of martial arts was forbidden. Back then, if someone was caught practicing martial arts, he was jailed or even killed.

Did this stop people from practicing?  Not entirely.  Martial art training was done in secret. What they then did was disguise their practice right there in the open fields.  Officials could see the people doing these moves and would not be aware that they were training their martial art skills. 

By doing kata, we exercise our muscles.  We also improve our mind-body coordination, flow, timing, and balance while we execute blocks, strikes, and kicks.  Kata is useful in aiding martial arts skills.



Some martial art instructors today believe that katas have no use in martial arts training because they believe that kata does not aid the student in fighting.  What they fail to understand is that kata contains many useful applications.  Kata aids the student in his development of mind-body coordination, grace of movement, balance, and sense of flow... all of which will help the student's growth as a martial artist.