Only one form?

[madhusudan]

How far can an introductory hand form take you, if the goal was only fighting ability and not complete mastery of a style?

I ask because I learned Lama Pai in NYC about a decade ago. Now I only remember Gei Bon Kyuhn, a chi gong form, a palm set and an elbow set. I enjoy going through the forms occasionally for fun and just to remember them. I also remember some of the less obvious applications.

Any thoughts?

On a side note, I don't think I ever really understood how Pow Choi is applied. I can see it being a regular upper cut, but not how to use a long straight arm going up. I remember something about it being useful to set up throws, maybe?

Thanks for any replies.

[Drake]

You really need interaction with others and a present teacher in order to be a better fighter. Otherwise you are either going through the motions with the forms, or flailing about like a bunch of rabid monkeys with unsupervised and uncorrected sparring.

[YouKnowWho]

Training partner, traning partner, and still training partner. If your training partner tries to beat you up daily, you will learn something within a year.

[nospam]

You will draw techniques from your patterns and take them into 2-person training then to sparring. Learning 1 form or 10 forms have no baring on your ability to fight. Take your moves from Yat Mun Kuen and get busy training the application with a partner.

Forms are a method of passing along techniques and concepts. You need to take these into 2 person training and mix it up. If you are training yourself with a buddy..take 3-5 techniques that make the easiest sense to you and become very familiar in their application(s). Remember to train intent! otherwise go play football (soccer). Without martial intent you are wasting your time.

Practise form, power, speed, and don't be afraid to get hit. Practise intent to hurt and execute and finish what was started..quickly. All you'll need are the 3-5 techniques and you should see gains within 3 months.

nospam

[jo]

How far can an introductory hand form take you, if the goal was only fighting ability and not complete mastery of a style?
.

No form is "going to take you" anywhere when it comes to being able to kick the other guys ass before he kicks yours.

-jo

[madhusudan]

Actually, I began to think about this because my brother-in-law is staying with us and so I have a convenient training partner. He has done some boxing and I've started having him throw jabs at me in order to get used to stepping forward at an angle rather than back. It was from this that I thought I might start drilling some of the moves from the introductory form.

I know a form is not going to give fighting ability. Just that I wanted to start drilling some of these moves and really the principles to get them to be natural. I have been in very few fights, but in Korea I was attacked in a bar. I dodged a haymaker by leaning back, and then sprang forward with an elbow. Though that finished the fight, I would have rather been able to apply some of the principles of kung fu, instead of just being lucky.

[hskwarrior]

One thing to be aware of is trying to be "Kung Fu - ish" when practicing. In combat, best is to be naturally you. and like No Spam mentioned, pick 3-5 moves and work the heck out of them. when you drill or spar the mental intent is very important whether going hard soft or medium