The techniques practiced with a partner came first and kata were invented later as a way to preserve and pass them on.
At STMA I teach Kali stix and boxing pads before I teach Kempo and Karate - your Kara Te, your Empty Hand, comes from not having a stick or wearing a boxing glove - you learn the Ken fists for a real fight - Kenpo or Kempo (same thing, different pronounciation)
Look at a boxer shadow boxing at the gym
(a real boxer not a wannabe)
he has learnt those moves on the pads, used them in sparring, refined them on the bag and used them in matches - his shadow ABCs are his "kata", his forms.
now look at the wannabe - he doesn't know what he is doing coz he's never really used those moves against an opponent,
he has no muscle memory or visio-spatial awareness
Most "karate" taught is not karate at all, at least not karate-do, it is what Bruce Lee called land swimming, done by somebody who has never been in the water
Master Nakayama referred to it as " a scarecrow trying to dance)
