anyone who thinks the forms are useless after the first year has no idea about vt. Who teacher you to ****. Yous parents they show you where to go, how to clean up etc. The form are not patterns that you use like combos each wove is entirely seperate. If you dont do the forms you tend to just do ****. We always say you lose about 50 percent of skill in a fight. If all you do is make the vt work you wont tend to do it properly. Spending all your time doing it wrong teaches you to do it wrong. Forms isolate the moves so it can be made perfect. Might be why most people look like kickboxers when they fight. The techniques should atleast resemble vt. If you are prefect in practice you should be at least decent when you fight.