Originally Posted by
SoCo KungFu
But anyway, forms aren't meant to be about efficiency really. And that's part of the problem in using them to teach people martial arts.
Look at it from the way it used to be taught to the military(and it should be clear that mantis directly descends from Ming military curriculum).
General Tang tells us that "Within pugilism are the fixed maneuvers-shi 勢, but during their application they are no longer fixed."
They were not learning long forms, but a few maneuvers which are taught as a static posture and then a moving posture. Then, its application with soldiers.
Even old Mantis is made of a very small number of techniques, not these collections of forms that most styles have become today.
From an old article
The concept of shi is the essence of martial arts. To master martial arts is to master the ability of 'taking maneuvers.' For this reason masters of pugilism were often called 'maneuver taking masters' or 'ba shi jiang' in Northern China.
To get a deeper understanding of shi the best place to start is from a well known master of the Ming(1368-1644) dynasty known as Tang Xun. During his lifetime he penned a book known as Wu Bian. He tells us that maneuvers can be fixed, as in the postures we learn when we first begin our martial arts journey, or they are in constant motion. He explains the requirements for the understanding of 'taking maneuvers' or 'ba shi.'
"The maneuvers of pugilism are what enable us to produce its changes.
Regardless of whether you move horizontally, diagonally, sideways, upwards, forwards or downwards there exists walls and doors for defending and attacking.
This is the meaning of maneuvers.
Within pugilism are the fixed maneuvers, but during their application they are no longer fixed.
And when using them their changes also have no fixed maneuvers, yet the maneuvers are still there.
This is what is known as ba shi."