Are too many people taking there Forms/toulu/kata too literally?
Not just taking the concepts (which is really hard to some people) but trying to take too much of it, going move to move etc. A good example of this I guess would be simple punching. In most of my forms I have a lead punch (jab) and a followup (or a couple, depending on the form). I don’t take the form too literally, for sparring I practice it very similarly, but it looks more like a jab and a cross. Or in the yang tai chi long form, there is a move that throws two hooks, they are not simultanious, but come in succession, fist is to the body, second to the head, a combo used in boxing (usually as part of a larger combo), but it poses afterword with both punches displayed. I don’t practice it like that for “practical application”, I do it hook hook, applying the taiji waste concept, and being fairly rooted.
I hear too much, wow, that would be a nasty move (not really here, but in class and at tournies), and I just think, yeah, but it doesn’t look just like that when you apply it and then think, but yeah, people do that all the time, but they don’t call it by the same name.
I’ve always looked at forms as a way to train the body for precision. You’re not looking to exactly duplicate any technique in a form for the most part. But constantly putting your body in those positions, where they may be ideal, teaches your body how to respond to the more likely oddball situations that happen in fighting.
Fighters no real fighting isn’t clean, so I have a hard time believing that forms were created to be reproduced in combat, as some of the more ignorant types will claim. It’s just a way of preparing you for the inevitable chaos of fighting.
I think that’s a disease spread by misinformed instructors. The techniques and movement principles within the forms establish a base, with the actual application (read: altered technique) being the structure.
I think of learning the aspects of a set in the same way as I do learning a single technique. If you learn the base idea, then you’ve learned one technique with a myriad of possible applications. If you learn the various applications, then it can be the equivilant of learning a bunch of similar yet disjointed techniques.
It seems to be almost heretical anymore to say that forms/sets/kata have a place in learning to fight. But they’re no different than learning the techniques separately, then learning footwork. It’s just a bit easier to train the sets (dancing) than to train the techniques (fighting).
Are too many people taking there Forms/toulu/kata too literally?
Sometimes maybe not literal enough. I was talking with my sensei about the opening moves of seisan kata, which is a block followed by three reverse punches. Since I can’t believe that anything is what it appears I was asking him what they meant? He showed me the secret technique which was after blocking my punch he drilled me with the three punches knocking me across the dojo.
Originally posted by rogue He showed me the secret technique which was after blocking my punch he drilled me with the three punches knocking me across the dojo.
lol! That reminds me of my old karate sensei!
BTW I like the article, but I never trust a man with three vowels together in his name. He might be Welsh.
