Martial Arts Forms and Katas
By
Whether you
call them "forms" or "kata" or "shing" or
"juru" or whatever, the pre-structured, dance-like arrangements of
martial arts movements and techniques that are taught in practically all of the
martial arts serve, in varying degrees, the same basic purposes. They are a fun
way to practice your art. They offer a complete catalog of all of the
techniques of the system. Also, they are a relatively easy way to teach the
martial art. Also, they provide an unbiased, totally objective basis for
evaluating the work a student has put toward his art, and for grading and
ranking students. They also standardize the art across schools. Therefore, if
for no other reason, this justifies their existence.
Forms versus
no-forms. I believe both sides of this argument, in a “Yin-Yang” sort of way,
since experience has taught me that the truth is never found at either extreme.
It is always found somewhere near the middle. I argue the two extremes, and my
present interpretation of the middle. In other words, although I approve of the
practice of traditional martial arts katas and forms, I will now play “Devil’s
Advocate” for a while, and present the opposing argument, which does make some
valid points that need to also be considered:
It has been
argued in recent years, starting most notably in the "Bruce Lee"
years, that forms serve little to no purpose, and if anything, they weaken a
practitioner's ability to respond freely and effectively in a real fight.
Instead, those making these arguments say that the only valid thing to do in
martial arts practice is to spar with one another. Then, to go on to
participate in and try to dominate the tournament world.
I could make
and show evidence to support the argument that attending and participating in
martial arts tournaments also weakens the student's ability to respond freely
and effectively in a real fight, even more so than practicing forms. In no way
does tournament "fighting" even resemble real street combat. In fact,
tournament-fighting forces the student to form bad habits that could get the
student killed on the street.
Even the,
so-called, "Ultimate Fighting Championships" with their "No
Holds Barred," "No Rules" promises are, in fact, chock full of
unstated rules that force the combat into an unrealistic arrangement that could
get the practitioners killed if they tried these tactics on the street.
Even in the
"ULTIMATE" fighting, you are not allowed to use, and are LULLED into
forgetting about some of the best of your weapons. I haven't seen any
foot-stomping, hair-pulling, finger-breaking, biting, or eye-gouging in these
contests.
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that you know where the fight is going to be, and that
you know whom you will be fighting, because that is the way it is in a sport
contest fight.
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that you will always know when the fight will begin. I
haven't seen anyone in a sport/contest blind-sidedly run up behind the opponent
and bash a full-swung beer bottle into his opponent's ear before the poor sap
knew that anyone in the place was even mad at him.
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that you are fighting only one opponent and that no one
but the referee will interfere with your contest, because that is the way it is
in a sport contest fight.
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that the wrestling "mounted" position is the
superior tactic to be used on an opponent. I haven't seen anyone get his ribs
kicked in, and head stomped flat by the buddies of the guy he is sitting on top
of, whom he never even knew were there, which is what often happens in a bar
fight.
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that this is going to be demonstration of fisticuffs and
otherwise, purely unarmed combat in a well-lighted stadium, on a smooth canvas
surface, while you are wearing your loose, comfortable fighting costume. I
haven't seen the tournament contestants have to dodge the swipe of a
razor-edged box opener. Or try desperately to scramble out of the way of a
four-by-four pickup truck that is bearing down on them while the
"tournament-champ" is slipping and sliding in his tight blue-jeans
and cowboy boots on a darkened, pebble and broken glass strewn, asphalt parking
lot. Not to mention trying to duck and run for cover when your legs feel like concrete.
You hear yourself screaming like a schoolgirl, and your heart pounding in your
ears while your body moves like a rusty robot. Caught in the worst nightmare of
your life, you run staggering as your vomit spews down your shirt, and the
urine stain on your jeans gets darker with each sound of a "POP" and
the hot breath of a .22 caliber bullet as it zips by with its
"whizzing" sound not six inches from the side of your head.
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that the contest is over when you "win" and
walk away. I haven't seen any of these contestants pulled into civil court
months later and wind up having to pay a substantial portion of his paychecks
to the family of his opponent for the next 20 years. Of course this starts just
after he has satisfied the criminal court prosecution, just after he gets
released from prison where he found that his "karate" tricks do
little good against a cell mate who looks like a wall with eyes. Or, even if he
escapes the civil and criminal court systems and prosecution, the fight still
may not be over. I haven't yet seen a
contestant burn to death with his family in his house at
YOU ARE
LULLED into believing that there is a "winner" and a
"loser" in combat. It has been my observation, in
It may well
be that martial arts training itself is pretty much useless when it comes to
preparing a person for real street combat. A person may survive longer if just
left to the gut-level, animal instincts we are born with to avoid combat
however possible, and to scramble under the refrigerator like a cockroach when
the harsh light of reality catches you feeding on the crumbs left on the
kitchen floor. I love to wax poetic. But, I digress. Let's get back to the
subject of forms.
Some systems
teach more realistic forms than do others. Some are just plain stupid, but
still serve a valid enough purpose. Take traditional Tae-Kwon-Do forms for
example. When I first saw them, I loved them. I was learning the REAL STUFF. I
thought. Later, in 1966, after being slammed around my college dorm room by Wen
Yen Pao, I changed my view of Tae Kwon Do and its forms as rather ridiculous
and stupid. Anyone, I thought, who tries to stand and block and punch and kick
and turn like they have a broomstick up his butt, like that on the street,
deserves to have the holy crap beat out of them. And, it’s true. What you learn
in most karate classes will only give you false confidence, and will allow you
to get the crap beat out of you. Most karate people, even a very large number
of black belts and “tournament champions” don’t have a clue what to do in a
real life street fight.
Wen Yen Pao
had taken on the two of us at once and easily dodged our kicks and punches,
then proceeded to howl with laughter as we howled with pain from his joint
locks and nerve grips, not to mention our groans from being repeatedly slammed
into each other, then to the floor on our heads. He moved so smoothly and
fluidly. His techniques flashed out of nowhere. Nothing he did even resembled
the stiff, hard postures and techniques of karate or Tae Kwon Do, which was our
forte. At that point, I came to think that traditional Tae-Kwon-Do forms were
supposed to make the opponent laugh himself to death. As far as the laughter
went, it seemed to be working on Wen Yen Pao, but we were the ones doing the
dying.
It was only
after about 25 years in the martial arts that I realized that 99+% of the Tae
Kwon Do instructors in the U.S. and elsewhere simply do not have any knowledge
at all about what the hell their own forms are trying to teach them. They don't
know that there are NO arm blocks in REAL Tae Kwon Do, only strikes, kicks,
body-blocks, and neck and finger-breaks. In real Tae Kwon Do, at least some
portion of your leg is almost ALWAYS in physical contact with your opponent no
matter what you are doing, especially if you are just standing there in a
stance. Tae Kwon Do is really 90% in-fighting. They would know this if they
examined their own forms more closely.
I only came
to realize these things when I looked at much older Chinese Kung-Fu
applications, which were the fore-runner of Karate and Tae Kwon Do. Amazingly,
many of these similarities I found in the "soft" art of Tai Chi Chuan.
I noticed that many of the positions and movements were almost identical to Tae
Kwon Do stances and techniques from the Tae Kwon Do forms. I couldn't believe
what I was seeing. How could the "soft", slow-motion "be careful
that you don't fall asleep" art of Chinese Tai Chi have ANYTHING to do
with the slam-bang, rah-rah, broom-stick up the butt, wild-eyed, stressed-out,
blood vessels popping in the brain like fire-works on the fourth of July,
yelling, screaming, “kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out” Tae Kwon Do/Karate
load of doo-doo?
The problem,
I discovered, is that REAL Tae Kwon Do was simply lost and forgotten. The form
of Tae Kwon Do that filtered into the
In later
years, (in
Unfortunately,
(or perhaps, for the better) the American airmen that brought Tae Kwon Do back
to the United States, with their brand-new first and second degree black belts,
opened up schools without ever learning, or even knowing about the existence
of, the REAL Tae Kwon Do (or Shotokan, or Shorinryu, for that matter). They
just taught the "children's" style of Tae Kwon Do and promoted it as
a relatively safe sport. Now, this style of jumping around and working up a
sweat has made it into the Olympics, and on TV as TAE-BO, currently being
hailed by Californians as the greatest exercise system / self-defense system of
the 21st century. It figures.
The
“children’s karate” proved to be perfect for
I now abandon
the role of Devil’s Advocate.
It was only
after my 35 plus years in the martial arts that I realized the TRUE purpose of
forms and katas. It also made me realize that Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi, Karate,
Kung Fu, Pentjak-Silat, and whatever, forms are just FINE as they are. Nothing
really needs to be changed at all in ANY of these arts.
I learned
that the forms are not meant to teach the art of fighting. The forms are meant
to teach the art of living. Oh, I know. I had said this for many years, but
even I didn't really understand what I was saying, or even really believed it.
It was just the politically correct thing for martial arts teachers to say.
Now, however, I am sure of what I say on this matter.
In their
primary role, the forms instill in you an awareness of your own body and mind.
And even with your limitations, they reveal to you how the mind and body can
work and even "fit" together. They instill perseverance as well as
awareness. They instill purpose and focus. They show you your own limitations,
and your strengths. They teach you how to learn, how to teach, and then how to
teach yourself. They give insight into others. They teach that compassion and self-control
is a strength, not a weakness. They teach accuracy and precision not only in
movement, but in thought. They teach perseverance and dedication. They teach
you to finish what you start, by showing that you CAN finish what you start.
They give you the pride of accomplishment. They teach character.
Also, when
perfected, the forms, any forms, become an ultimate moving meditation that
opens a window in your mind and exposes you face-to-face with your true self.
Not that lie that you try to show others. Not that lie that THEY see you as.
Not that lie that you, in your shame, think yourself to truly be. No. It shows
you the real you. The you, that you would have never guessed existed. You will
never be the same person again. The old you dies, and a new you is born in his
place. Very different. Very alive. With a very different view on the universe.
And the beautiful thing is, this did not come from a preacher, or a political
structure, or martial arts teacher, or even from a suggestion of a friend. It came
from deep within you. From that one point, that one spark of pure light where
your mind is attached to, and indistinguishable from, the universe around you.
So, you might
say, "What a load of crap!" Sure. If you haven't been there you can't
know. And you say, "The same old cop-out!" Sure, it is. More
In a
secondary role, the forms also provide a way for the instructors of the system
to judge the progress of a student in an impartial and fair way, in comparison
with the other students. If a student can perform the required forms to an
acceptable standard then that student deserves a promotion regardless of sex,
race, creed, or color. This is why the forms are standardized. Standardized
forms serve as a fair platform and basis for judging how much work the student
has put into the art. Because they are standardized across the system, the
forms allow the students of one school to have a common basis of interest and
discussion with students of another school within the same system. It forms a
feeling of loyalty and brotherhood across schools. This is important if a
system is going to grow and expand beyond one school.
If one school
changes, deletes, adds to, or modifies the forms of the system, that school is now
a different system, and is no longer a part of the brotherhood of the system.
It is OK, and even encouraged to come up with modifications and even additional
forms. And these can be shared with the other schools as interesting points of
study. But it should be understood that they are not a part of the standardized
system, and are not to be used as a basis of testing and promotion. At least,
not just yet. If they are good enough, and with ALL of the other schools
agreements, they may eventually be added to the system. Or, they may become a
different system all together.
Further down
the list of importance is that forms simply serve the purpose of cataloging the
techniques of the system. They are a convenient, and less boring, way to
practice all of the techniques of the system without having to refer to a list,
and without missing or forgetting any of them. They also provide a convenient
way for the instructor to teach the system, in that more or less standardized
fashion.
Even further
down on the scale of importance is that the forms provide exercise and promote
coordination, and extend the range of movement of the student in a low impact,
aerobic fashion, provided that they are practiced slowly and carefully. Only
after a certain degree of expertise is gained (read belt promotions) does the
student go on to learn and perform more demanding forms. Fairly structured and
logical, even sensible, as an exercise system. For this reason, even as
simplistic and mindless as it is (perfect for Californians), I tend to like the
TAE-BO concept. It actually is more practical to learn short, simple, one to
three technique combinations, and then repeat them until you drop onto your
stupid face than it is to learn long, boring, three thousand movement, obsolete
epics.
But, my cut
on exercise (jumping up and down in place, grunting, and sweating) is still
basically the same. It would be better if you came over and painted my house,
cut my lawn, or cleaned out my garage. You will get about the same amount of
exercise, I won't charge you as much as the gym, and at least something useful
would result from your effort. The pioneers did not have aerobics classes. They
didn't need them. They worked their butts to the bone from sun up to sun down
every day just to stay alive.
Probably the
LEAST IMPORTANT product of traditional martial arts forms is in teaching
fighting techniques. This is evident in the fact that most of the forms of most
of the martial arts systems are ridiculously simplistic and stupid, when viewed
as fighting applications. It is the rare system, indeed, that has forms which
are actually well thought out from a self-defense perspective, and are
comprised of really simple, slick self-defense techniques that would really
work on the street against a fairly seasoned street fighter in the 1990's, and
beyond. For example: a form using a wide "horse stance" is just that.
It supports techniques that were designed to be used WHILE RIDING ON THE BACK
OF A HORSE, or techniques used while standing on a rocking boat (from southern
style Chinese systems). Get real. If you try them on the ground, with you in a
horse-stance, standing in front of your opponent, you have lost your mobility
and you just get your gonads kicked up into your throat. And, you deserve it.
However, even
if you find a system with forms consisting of really useful slick tricks of
self-defense that actually work on an opponent whom:
1.
doesn't know you, doesn't care who you are, and is not
impressed by your "black belt" in SUM DUM LUK FU, …
2.
is not in a martial arts school and doesn't know he is
supposed to "bow" before he slams a beer bottle into your face, and…
3.
is really enraged and is actually trying his best to
beat the crap out of you for real.
… a system
like the one I teach, then that is just icing on the cake. And a rather cheap
icing at that, in the long run, because I have found that this is the LEAST
IMPORTANT PART OF WHAT FORMS HAVE TO TEACH.
Hell, if you
just want to learn how to fight, that's the easy part. Just go into nasty old
cowboy / biker bar on a Saturday night and shout "I can whip any one of
you illiterate, red-neck, goat-herdin' faggots in this place!" If you
survive after doing that three nights in a row, call me and I will be glad to
print up a real neat looking diploma for you declaring you to be the baddest
puncher-outer from here to the ocean.
This kind of
thing isn't really what forms are about.
Soft versus
Hard Forms
Some martial
arts are called hard style arts. Some martial arts are called soft style arts.
Some are called internal arts, and some are called external arts. The hard arts
are generally considered to be external, and the soft arts are generally
considered to be internal.
Advocates of
hard-external arts such as Tae-Kwon-Do, and Karate (primarily Japanese and
Korean arts) generally say that soft arts are for sissies and dancers, and that
the soft arts don't teach you to fight. They say that you need strength and
speed and hard-hitting to win a fight.
Advocates of
soft-internal arts such as Tai-Chi Chuan, Hsing-Yi Chuan, Pa-Kua Chang, and
many other Chinese Kung Fu and some Indonesian Pentjak Silat style arts say
that hard styles are crude and vulgar and unsophisticated. They say that these
hard arts rely too much on brute strength, and too little on actual skill and
knowledge. They say that the soft arts are the ultimate fighting arts and that
a real seasoned practitioner in the soft arts can defeat fighters of the hard
arts. They say the life force (Chi in Chinese arts, Ki in Japanese arts, Prana
in the Indian arts) is developed through the soft-internal arts, and not so
much developed in the hard arts. The soft arts people claim that they can use
this life force to defend themselves.
So far, I
have seen little evidence to support the existence of Chi, at least as it is
promoted in many martial arts. I have, however, seen great evidence to support
the power of courage, determination, true skill, and attitude… as well as
physical strength. (Read my essay on "CHI".)
It turns out that
most of the arguments against the soft arts, by the hard stylists, is that the
soft forms are done too slowly and too relaxed, and generally do not show any
evidence of hard striking ability. Let me explain a few things to the hard
stylists using Tai Chi as an example:
Tai Chi does
not show much evidence of hard striking when viewed by someone who doesn't know
what he or she is seeing. Tai Chi has strikes that impact the opponent with
GREATER force than the average karate-trained person can muster. How can this
be? Tai Chi is an in-depth study of how to align the bones of the body in such
a way that the MAXIMUM efficiency in the generation and transmission of force,
from the contraction of your muscles, can be achieved.
You say,
"Bull! Karate people learn to hit HARD." I say, "Slow down, Rambo." (Here
comes some more Devil’s Advocate.) Let me clue you in to a bit of pure physics
and human anatomy. For every movement you can do, there are two sets of
muscles: The synergistic muscle groups, the muscles that cause that action to
take place, and the antagonistic muscle groups, the muscles that go AGAINST
that action taking place. The ones that do the OPPOSITE action. The way that
Karate people tense EVERY muscle of their body when doing a strike, I am surprised
that they don't poop their pants and pop every blood vessel in their heads.
They are tensing the antagonistic muscles as well as the synergistic muscles.
THEY ARE WEAKENING THEIR STRIKES by fighting against themselves with every
movement. One group of muscles is actually countering the other group of
muscles. They are also getting themselves very tired by doing twice the work to
get half of the result.
In Tai Chi
(and most of the other "soft" internal arts), the student learns to
put 100% of their muscle energy towards the action. They learn to activate ONLY
the synergistic muscle groups while RELAXING the antagonistic muscle groups.
They wind up doing HALF of the work, but generating TWICE the power of the
average karate practitioner. To teach your body to do this is a more complex
process and takes longer, but the result is well worth it.
You have to
learn to RELAX half of your muscles while TENSING the other half for EVERY
STRIKE AND MOVEMENT YOU DO. And each movement has a different set of antagonistic
and synergistic muscle groups. In fact, if you change to the opposite action to
the one you were doing (like pulling your arm in instead of pushing it out) the
muscle groups change roles. What were formerly the synergistic groups are now
the antagonistic and what were the antagonistic groups are now the synergistic
for that particular action.
To train your
body to do this AUTOMATICALLY, without thinking about it, you have to practice
the movements COMPLETELY RELAXED WITH AS LITTLE MUSCULAR TENSION AS POSSIBLE.
This allows you to observe WITHIN YOURSELF which muscles are activated for
which actions, and which MUST BE KEPT RELAXED so that they do not work against
your movement. This is a much more sophisticated study than just the grunting,
shouting, and jumping around of most martial arts classes. Admittedly, it does
take years longer to achieve your goal, but it is worth it.
Seasoned
Karate and Tae Kwon Do masters who have been at it for decades are no dopes.
They know all of this just through their constant practice. At first, they were
hard all over. Over the years they started aging and getting tired so they
started realizing that they could relax a LITTLE bit while doing the techniques
and by re-adjusting their focus and concentration, they could still get good
power, but not have to work as hard. As they do this more and more, and the
years drag on, they eventually wind up using only the synergistic muscle groups
for their actions. They eventually wind up in the same place as the Tai Chi
masters, and probably in about the same amount of time.
The Tai Chi
people arrive at the same place by starting soft and slowly getting more strong
while the karate people arrive at the same place (if they stick with it for 40
years) by starting hard and slowly getting more tired. Besides, you don't
generally need to practice for exerting strength. Practicing for accuracy is
MUCH more important. For doing something HARD, just do it harder when you
actually need to. This is why the "soft" arts are practiced
"softly" and relaxed, at least for the first 5 to 10 years, because
you don’t really have to practice to be hard, but you do have to practice to be
accurate and precise.
Tai Chi is
practiced very slowly, too slowly from the perspective of someone who doesn't
know what they are seeing. Let me clue you in. Practice does NOT make perfect.
PERFECT practice makes perfect. Tai Chi, as mentioned before, depends not only
on controlling the muscle groups, it also depends heavily upon ALIGNING THE
SKELETAL STRUCTURE of your body PROPERLY to allow the best transmission of
force from the floor, and up along your bone structure, to knock the crap out
of your opponent with the LEAST EFFORT EXPENDED.
To learn
these alignments, train them into your body AS A REFLEX ACTION, and practice
using your tense synergistic muscle control with your relaxed antagonistic
muscle control while employing these superior skeletal alignments for the
effective transmission of force TAKES SLOW DELIBERATE PRACTICE… REAL DAMNED
SLOW, or you will start making mistakes, which will have to be corrected. If
you practice SLOWLY, you are giving yourself the opportunity to observe and
feel the mistakes you are making, and CORRECT THEM AS YOU ARE PRACTICING. Most
mistakes are so obvious that IF YOU DO THEM SLOWLY ENOUGH, even YOU can detect
and correct them WITHOUT the need to have them pointed out by the teacher.
Better to do it right the first time and every time, and allow your speed to
build naturally.
You can walk
fast, right? But you never practiced walking FAST. You just practiced walking.
To walk fast, you just do what you are already well practiced at, walking, but
you just do it FASTER. You didn't have to practice for speed in walking, and
you don't have to practice being fast for the martial arts either. You can, but
you don't really have to, and you risk accidentally practicing WRONG movements.
Practicing accuracy is MUCH more important. Just speed up what you are doing
when you need to. This is another reason why the soft arts are practiced
SLOWLY. It is just simply more efficient to train this way over the long haul.
And less chance of stupidly injuring yourself in the beginning years of
training when you don't know what you are doing anyway.
Tai Chi has
such weak looking moves that don't seem to have any self-defense applications
when viewed from the perspective of someone who doesn't know what they are
seeing. All I have to say about this is that 99% of all Tai Chi teachers don't
know crap about the actual applications of their own art, just like most karate
people don't know crap about what THEIR own forms are trying to teach.
I was a major
skeptic. I thought exactly the same way that most karate and Tae Kwon Do people
thought. I was a Karate Guy through and through, and I thought that Tai Chi was
a bunch of nampy-pampy crap for old codgers and fools. I had heard of a Tai Chi
teacher who was supposed to be real good. One of my dearest and oldest friends,
Dwight Higgins, holder of
black belts in both Tae Kwon Do and Ed Parker's Kempo Karate, at the time,
asked if I knew of any Tai Chi teachers. I gave him the name of Sam Chin. After
I saw what Tai Chi did for Dwight's skills and understanding of human movement,
I started taking Tai Chi practice from Dwight. It sobered me up and changed my
evaluation of Tai Chi around 180 degrees.
Marian and
Jack Erickson are also some long time friends of mine who also happen to be
among the most respected, long time high ranking, pioneers of Tae Kwon Do, and
long time instructors in this area. They eventually took up Tai Chi and Jack
Erickson told me that from what he is now learning, he too has done a complete
turn-around on his views and now considers Tai Chi to be a superior study of
the martial arts. I never enjoyed the company of most Tae Kwon Do and Karate
teachers because I wrongly considered them to be mostly a bunch of egotistical,
know-it-all, hothead jocks who didn’t really know crap about any thing where
real fighting was concerned. This view has also changed because I met some
really great people in these arts.
Marian and
Jack were always the exception among the hothead-jock martial artists, and have
always been ten cuts above all of the other Tae Kwon Do, and Karate people, in
my opinion. The first time I met them (around 1970, when I had my school at the
Green Earth Multiplex in Dallas) I knew that they had brains, insight,
kindness, compassion, and minds open for real knowledge. A rarity among ANY
martial artists. Therefore, my general denigration of most Tae Kwon Do and
Karate people most DEFINITELY did NOT extend to them. (Unfortunately, Marian,
God rest her soul, departed this life in 1998.)
Now, that I
think about it, I also have pretty high regards for several other Tae Kwon Do
and Karate instructors around this area whom I have become friends with over
the last 20+ years. A great friend, Shannon Harvey, is an example. Golly gee,
could it be that the art doesn't really matter, that we are all just people
trying to find our way, and that it is the kindness and goodness of the people
that really counts, and that these dedicated and compassionate people can be
found in any and ALL of the martial arts? …Nah, very unlikely.
Seriously
though, REAL Tai Chi moves have evolved over the centuries into the most
efficient movements possible for deflecting and redirecting force issued
against you, and for issuing force against an opponent, while breaking their
bones, and man-handling the opponent against his will, than any other art I
have seen to date. And I have seen bunches. This is true with the possible
exceptions of Pa-Kua and Hsing-Yi, which also happen to be major soft Chinese
Kung-fu styles. In fact, major portions of these arts' applications, including
Tai Chi, are very similar to applications of jiu-jitsu and Aikido.
Unfortunately, it is now RARE to find a Tai Chi, or Pa Kua, or Hsing Yi teacher
who actually knows how those movements are supposed to be REALLY used in
self-defense. Even if you are lucky enough to find a really knowledgeable
teacher, it may be difficult to convince that teacher to part with the REAL
knowledge. Most just PRETEND they have "real" knowledge, but don't. I
was lucky to have some good teachers who, like me, TAKE NOTHING AT FACE VALUE,
and dig deep to find the REAL stuff and were generous with imparting that
knowledge to me.
Surprisingly,
after all of this study and observation, and even though my preferred study is
of the Chinese systems, I have come back
to and re-evaluated the simple, basic Tae Kwon Do forms I was taught decades
ago. I have found things hidden in them, things that most Tae Kwon Do
instructors don't even know about, that have rekindled my interest in them, and
given me a new respect for the ORIGINAL arts of Tae Kwon Do, and Karate.
The bottom line
Forms and Katas,
of whatever art, should be taken seriously and carefully examined before you
decide to just throw them away as valueless. You may be missing out on the best
thing the martial arts really have to offer.
