Why forms?
I am very happy that my teachers hardly teach me forms. At first I was upset, impatient. I was tired of doing the individual motions again and again and again, doing drills and always talking talking talking about theory. When the time came though, teach me forms they did, and now I see why.
A form is like a poem, or a book, which contains all the secrets to something. Like a bible, or a users manual. There are many so called martial artists who know forms, or even make their own, but it is as if they can recite a poem or sing a song in another language, merely reading gibberish from a page, without any understanding of what it means. A teacher gives you the form by having you copy his movements. You memorize the form with your mind, and as you perform it first slowly and in sections, you read it with your body. Over time it becomes part of you, even though you may forget the details of the form, the knowledge, those secrets contained, remain and meld with your spirit. When you fight, it is the spirit that governs, and if you have trained your forms properly, then your body will naturally default to the motions which are so familiar.
For example, my first time sparring competitively was at my San Francisco tournament. In fact I had hardly sparred at all before then. I was uncertain of myself and unconfident. My first match, I lost because I was hesitant, I was striking at him, but not connecting. I was not coordinated, I was thinking too much and trying too hard to not mess up. The result was ineffective use of technique. My strikes hit nothing, but when he attacked, I was quickly overwhelmed, and I retreated and back up until I fell over. My second match I was warmed up, and ready. While not an offensive fighter, I made up my mind to not lose. This second guy was a wing chun fighter. When he approached me, it was mostly with linear centerline chain punches. I let my mind go, and without thought, I countered his chain strikes with rapid inside circling redirects, and then rode his hand up and struck him on the side of his head with my right fist. Each time he advanced on me, we did this, again and again. Watching the videos I was amazed, as this is exactly what I repeat over and over in my Big Wheel Fist form every morning when I train! This is the power of training a proper form correctly.
No comments:
Post a Comment