I received some news this week. I’ve been recognized as a Master Certified Coach (MCC) by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

It’s a milestone that has me thinking about the path of mastery, particularly through the lens of a concept from Zen and Japanese martial arts: kata.

A kata is a form, a series of prescribed movements practiced with discipline until they become second nature. The student practices the kata relentlessly, not for its own sake, but so that in a real, unpredictable fight, they don’t have to think about what to do. The form becomes embodied.

The journey of a professional coach follows a similar path. We begin by learning the ‘kata’ of our profession. We practice these forms with our clients, session after session, internalizing the structure of a masterful conversation. The MCC, in many ways, is a recognition of a certain discipline in practicing this form.

But the ultimate purpose of mastering the kata is to be able to forget it.

The Zen framework for this is called ShuHaRi: 

Obey the form. Break the form. Transcend the form.

The form is a container designed to build our capacity for formlessness. The real work of coaching happens in the unpredictable, and alive space between two human beings.

True mastery is not the perfect execution of the form. It is the quality of presence that allows us to respond to the client’s next move spontaneously, intuitively, and with a wisdom that no form can contain. The kata is the discipline that prepares us for the moment we must let it go.

This is the beautiful paradox of our work. The kata, mastered, does not vanish. It becomes invisible, absorbed into the very fabric of our presence. The discipline of the form gives birth to the freedom of the formless. It is the structure that allows us to finally stand in a place beyond all structure.

So I find myself in deep gratitude to my clients, who have trusted me to be their thinking partner, and to my own coaches, who have taught me both the form and the formless.