Practicing Forms

[SilentMantis]

Practice, practice, practice is the key to developing good praying mantis skills (just like many other styles). However, what are the best ways to train your forms. Should a practitioner just work on sections of a specific form, maybe spots that he/she feels need work? Or should he/she just practice by going through the entire form multiple times?
My next question is at what speed should forms be practiced? I know certain forms are much quicker than others, but how can the applications be done in real life situations, if were not practicing at real fight speed.
Finally, if anyone has information (such as theory or anything) on imagining the battle as you practice, that would be helpful. I try to practice my forms, and as I do so see myself actually doing the applications. Comments and further info would be great. thanks

[Robinf]

Practicing is a comfort level thing. You need to find what works best for you.

Sometimes I'll work sections of a form and do the entire form at the end of working those sections. Sometimes I'll do a form slowly with ultimate power and then speed up as much as I can without losing power. Sometimes I'll just do the same form over and over, trying to punctuate different sections each time.

I don't think there's a science to practicing or to visualizing.

Try practicing the apps with a partner--that's the best way to get them to work.

[SaMantis]

Ditto, it's up to you and what you'd like to study within the form. Break it into 3 or more sections and work them in whatever order you like.

I also break out the footwork and just do that for the entire form, hands chambered. Looks weird but it really helps. Then I do the form as usual. I break out the hands too, but not as much. I've found that if I do the footwork correctly the hands get where they need to be at the right time.

Speed: try different levels and see what works for you. Try slow/relaxed, slow/with power, medium/relaxed, medium/with power, and full-out. As fast and powerful as you can go without injuring yourself. The fast form will look horrible at first (or even all the time, in my case), but if you pay attention you may notice parts of the form where your body's momentum changes the speed & effect of a move. An interesting item to study.

Apps: Work them with a partner or ask your sifu to demonstrate, if he/she hasn't already. You can visualize them best while doing the form at slow/medium pace. Learning the app will make your form more precise; practicing the app with a partner will help you understand it more fully.

[mantisben]

Originally posted by SilentMantis
Practice, practice, practice is the key to developing good praying mantis skills (just like many other styles). However, what are the best ways to train your forms. Should a practitioner just work on sections of a specific form, maybe spots that he/she feels need work? Or should he/she just practice by going through the entire form multiple times? What seems to work for me is to practice each "road" in the form 7 times, 12 times if I feel up to it. Then practice the form in it's entirety.

My next question is at what speed should forms be practiced? I know certain forms are much quicker than others, but how can the applications be done in real life situations, if were not practicing at real fight speed.
I try to practice at fighting speed. There are certain sections within a form where I pause. Still, I believe the forms are to be practiced with the steps as fast as you can, and the strikes as hard as you can.
Finally, if anyone has information (such as theory or anything) on imagining the battle as you practice, that would be helpful. I try to practice my forms, and as I do so see myself actually doing the applications. Comments and further info would be great. thanks When doing my forms, in addition to imaging the battle, I try to imagine the "8 Places to hit" and/or the "8 Places not to hit".
Some the poetic names of the techniques kind of give a certain imagery to a technique, which is helpful to me. Unfortunately, I don't know alot of the names.

[MantisifuFW]

Mantisben,

I agree with your assessment of doing the sets at combat speed. Sup Bat Sao, for example is said by many to be done in only a few breaths, implying that it is to be done extremely fast. If you have seen any film of my Sifu, Brendan Lai, doing sets in his early days, he did exactly as you suggested. He was electrifying as a performer and formidable as a fighter so obviously it has merit.

On the other hand WHF suggested not doing the set at maximum speed so that the audience could appreciate the movements. (Performance speed vs. drilling for other purposes)

Also, as others have said, drilling at the footwork alone is an excellent focus point and something I engage in myself.

Lai Sifu also suggested that I do the sets like Taiji, as softly and slowly as I could, to teach balance, relaxation and eventually speed.

As for breaking up the sets into sections and drilling with them, Tainan Mantis did an extensive piece on five methods of doing this in the first issue of the Mantis Quarterly. We will have this on line soon at http://www.mantisquarterly.com

Good topic,

Steve Cottrell