Forms

[MARTIALSTUDANT]

Why do you see so many systems teach diff forms?

Do you need more than 1 form per system?

What do forms teach?

Any help would be greatful!!!!

[BigPandaBear]

Why do you see so many systems teach diff forms?

Forms indicate the "flavor" of the style. Its the forms that seperates Kung Fu and Karate. Without forms, it'd be a little hard differenciating the traditional styles.


Do you need more than 1 form per system?

There's quite a few styles that only have 1 form. However, other styles have several forms for various reasons (crosstraining being the main one).


What do forms teach?

Traditionally forms taught the system. They also seperated the dedicated from the wannabes. There's several stories of instructors making students learn forms and stances for years before learning anything else.

Oftentimes, masters would only teach the student the form and nothing else, and it was up to the student to take the art apart and utilize it. Things are different nowadays of course. Forms have retarded a lot of styles because a lot of instructors and students don't know how to properly utilize them.

A lot of people don't even think forms are useful anymore. If you're more combat oriented, formwork may honestly be a waste of your time.

IMO, it feels great to do formwork in the morning on the backlawn. So to each their own.

[couch]

Forms indicate the "flavor" of the style. Its the forms that seperates Kung Fu and Karate. Without forms, it'd be a little hard differenciating the traditional styles.



There's quite a few styles that only have 1 form. However, other styles have several forms for various reasons (crosstraining being the main one).



Traditionally forms taught the system. They also seperated the dedicated from the wannabes. There's several stories of instructors making students learn forms and stances for years before learning anything else.

Oftentimes, masters would only teach the student the form and nothing else, and it was up to the student to take the art apart and utilize it. Things are different nowadays of course. Forms have retarded a lot of styles because a lot of instructors and students don't know how to properly utilize them.

A lot of people don't even think forms are useful anymore. If you're more combat oriented, formwork may honestly be a waste of your time.

IMO, it feels great to do formwork in the morning on the backlawn. So to each their own.

Good explanation. From my Wing Chun Kung-Fu point of view - my forms are like dictionaries. The difference being that some forms actually have you fighting a few different people, whereas some forms just contain techniques.

A really good book (that may not contain all the styles of kung-fu, but is good nontheless) is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0865680655/qid=1152913098/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0852370-4844115?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

All the best in your search for answers,
Kenton Sefcik

[hskwarrior]

like a dictionary......exactly.

What i call forms is a blueprint to the system. No the forms do not make you a better fighter, but they are fun to practice, great to build stamina, great to escpape the pressures of the day.

For myself, if i had a bad day i would go through my forms and once i'm done i'm good for the rest of the night.

But for drilling, i extract the combinations and drills those.

[Hau Tien]

Forms:

A) Are a "dictionary" for your style (as others have said above). They are what you can reference when you are practicing, or passing the style on to others.

B) Teach you how to put the movements of your style together (as well as that style's timing for doing so). Drilling a single technique over and over will indeed improve that technique, but forms can teach you how to put that single technique together with another one you practice, and now you have a combination. While you won't often use a set of techniques in a real fight exactly how they appear in the form, learning how to put together combinations is absolutely invaluable.

C) Teach you how to move. Movement is extremely important while fighting... you are constantly jockeying for a superior position. He who stands still tends to get hit in the head ;)

Obviously, they are just one small part of training, but I think forms are important for learning to fight (with a specific style in particular)... especially if you are interested in passing the style on in the future.

[dainos]

my simple explanation is that forms are just a bunch of punch techniques put together. thats a simple one.

the more complex one stregthen you and you got to have the right mind set etc.

thats what basically what a form is.