Are Forms Still Relevant?
Forms. Let’s face it, they have gotten a bad name. Whether you call them forms, kata, shapes, or one of the many names given to them, it’s true. Most modern martial arts and self-defense systems not only question them but completely put them down and often call them useless. You may have guessed by now that I disagree with this view but there are times when the “haters” are right. In this article, I hope to give some ideas and tips to inspire your forms practice.
Now I will tell you right away, this article is an opinion article. I will not be citing sources and I will not dive too much into history. I hope to share some of my experience and what I have learned from that experience with the hopes it can help others in their journey.
Are Forms Just For Show?
Let’s start with what can be wrong with forms because as much as I love them they are not perfect. Also, I ask you to keep in mind that not all forms are created equal. To simplify one might break them up into two “types” of forms; those created for fighting (as many traditional forms may be considered) and those for show. Forms for show can include sport, art, culture, and forms created by misguided individuals to give their personal style a “real feel”. I will allow the reader to determine the latter through personal research or experience.
Modern wushu is a good example of forms for show. They are very athletic and complex with more emphasis on the look of the form. In essence, one could compare it to complex dance, made for aesthetic beauty and impressive feats of athleticism. Now if this is what you practice for, and why, then there’s no problem. The problem occurs when someone isn’t honest about that, whether on purpose or not (looking at instructors here). There are many examples for this and I again leave it to the reader’s discretion to decide.
So there, to all of those detractors out there you are correct, some forms are just there to look pretty with little to no actual practical application and sparring is definitely a key component to training. On that, we can agree.
Are Forms Misunderstood?
As I touched on before, dishonesty about what a form is or what it’s for is also a downside. I will extend this to misunderstanding a form as well as they can often go hand in hand. Not knowing or caring what a form “means” is not being truthful about a form. Having movements in a form that are meant to teach fighting that seem to have no meaning could be a sign of intentional or unintentional misunderstanding/dishonesty. Many people practice forms without knowledge of what a movement is “doing”, what we typically refer to as the application. Having misguided movements is detrimental to learning and development and teaches blind faith which I am personally not a fan of. This may also render a form “useless”.
The final negative aspect we will look at is imagery. Don’t get me wrong here, good and realistic imagery is key to good form-work but it does have a downside for those that take the “realistic” part out. To explain I will ask you to consider this; if you always imagine that every move works, you never miss, all enemies always fall at your feet, is this realistic? Not understanding a practical use of a movement or group of movements could all take away from learning and imagining that it works without that understanding can be dangerous. Martial artists are not invincible and one should avoid assuming that they are.
There, three negatives about forms to explore. There are more but I feel most fall into one of these three things; forms for show being sold as fighting forms, misunderstanding the movements and their meanings, and a false look at realistic fighting through the lens of unrealistic expectations or imagery. There are ways to fix these problems, but first, let’s take a look at what forms are (or at least can be) good for. To do this we will look at what they can do for fighting and what else they can help with outside of fighting.
How Forms Can Still Be Useful
Although many on the anti-form bandwagon think that forms can do nothing for practical fighting, I will have to disagree. That being said I will agree that you do need to spar to truly understand technique and application. If that’s true then how can forms help fight training?
First, we can look at proper body alignment and posture. No fight will go exactly how a form does. The individual techniques that make up a form should be looked at more like the alphabet than a sentence or book. The movements are like letters and it’s up to the practitioner to create words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. When practicing, however, posture and body alignment are key. This is to instill muscle memory in a student so that good posture and alignment become natural even when adrenaline is pumping.
Footwork Is Key
Along with posture and alignment is footwork. Good form-work typically includes good footwork. As many martial artists know good footwork wins fights so training it as often as you can is just good training. Forms for fighting typically include footwork and most good instructors emphasize that footwork. Seriously, in case you didn’t know footwork is important!
Take the last two benefits I pointed out and you gain power. Good footwork combined with alignment and posture increases power. Knowing how to twist that hip into a punch, to lower your weight at certain times(the list goes on) is key knowledge that aids one in a fight. Again I will stress that combining this with sparring is essential but forms do help here.
Forms Contain Ideas?
Another way that forms can benefit a fight is the ideas that forms contain. Techniques that one might not think of on their own, combinations that are revealed, strategies that are embedded all aid in what comes to mind, or just happens, during a fight. Planting these ideas in one’s mind allows for these ideas to flow freely and can inspire creativity in combinations and techniques that may not have naturally come otherwise.
So here are four ways that forms help in a fight; proper posture/body alignment, good footwork, delivery of power, and combinations/strategies/techniques that are revealed.
Be A Good Student Of Your Forms
The trick is that forms are meant to be studied and applied. Think about what that means to study a form. If that entails just learning the movements at face value then I will humbly suggest that you are missing out. To study a form begins with learning the moves. What about applications? What about strategies? Also, what about footwork? On top of this are you looking into those moves? What if I told you that many forms have multiple applications for one movement? The actual study of a form is required to flush out its secrets, intentional or not. So don’t just learn the form, study it! I will give some tips after we explore the benefits of forms that aren’t for fighting.
As I alluded to before, forms are more than just for fighting just like most traditional martial arts are in my experience. People often look at “martial” and dissect that word, what it means and how it should apply. The word “art” is so often looked over. See, “martial art” includes the word art as well as martial. A while back Jaredd Wilson offered his thoughts in two parts on this vocabulary breakdown here and here. Practicing for fun, artistic expression, culture, and sport are perfectly good reasons to practice if that’s what you are going for. I would suggest that real martial arts are not just about fighting. I would also propose that martial arts, particularly traditional arts, in my opinion, have felt a duty to not just train fighters but also to train good people. That being said, why should forms be different? If you are one that thinks forms alone will teach you to fight with no sparring or live training I would argue that you are mistaken. However, if you believe that forms are only for fighting I would also assert that you are mistaken. Let’s look at some non-fight related benefits.
What Else Can Forms Be Good For?
When done with speed and power forms make a great cardio workout. From simple to complex forms all can be utilized as a workout when done fast, with full power, when done multiple times back to back, with ankle and wrist weights, or with any combinations of these. Good form-work is just that, work. When we do that work it becomes a workout, see how that works!
Getting in that good cardio is great but is that all? Nope. Forms can aid with focus and clearing the mind. Much like meditation, form-work can bring you to a centered place. The practice of forms can calm the mind and aid not only in focus but in destressing. Taking care of body and mind are central ideas in most traditional martial arts and forms are a great way to get both.
One other way that forms can help in a way other than fighting is school identity. Although this can be a double-edged sword historically speaking, a form can be a way you are identified as being a student of a certain school or style. Having this identity makes you part of that group, and being part of a group is something we all search for. There are some forms today that are easily recognized as coming from a particular style or school. This sense of identity and community is at the heart of many martial arts styles and performing a form that identifies you as a part of that organization often results in a sense of pride and accomplishment.
There are some ways forms are good at aiding a practitioner other than fighting; Workouts, focus/clearing the mind, sense of identity. Now we know some ways forms can be not so great and some ways they are great for fighting and outside of fighting. So how can we put these into practice? Great question I am glad you asked!
Using forms in your training is something I recommend despite the negative press they get these days, here are some tips to bring more out in the practice:
Know The Form
Know what the moves in a form are doing. In other words, know not only the movement but the application. After that is down dig deeper! What else can that move do? Then look at combinations or strategies that might be contained in the form. Is there high and low attacks? Evasion? Low stances, why? Is that “chambered” hand there just to get ready for another punch or could you be holding something? Does the footwork imply going inside an opponent’s stance or perhaps circling around? How fast would I need to do this technique for it to work? Ask these questions and come up with others.
Also, it doesn’t hurt to think about what movements might be exaggerated and why. Ask questions of your teacher and get ideas from others. One common attack on forms and techniques is, ”that won’t work against a resisting opponent!”. The truth is sometimes people are right! Some techniques are meant to be used against a stunned opponent, or one who has over-reached or is otherwise compromised. Many traditional forms were not created for sport fighting in a ring but rather for real combat where squaring up in a fighting stance and going at each other one on one would not be the norm. Know that and adapt techniques and combinations accordingly.
Visualize
Now be careful! Make sure you insert a more realistic visualization to your form-work. If you have been in a real fight before, use that in your visualizing and make it real. If you haven’t, I would suggest to watch videos of real violence and maybe talk to someone who has been through real violence and are willing to talk about it. Take care here, I mean actual violence, not sport fighting. Although sport fighting is great it is still not real violence. Real life violence is ugly, vicious, terrifying. Learn what you can about it and insert that into your visualization.
What if I miss one, two, three, or even four moves? What do I do then? Also, what if I am blocked or countered? Does the form give me options or do I need to stop and look at what might be available? What if the attacker is bigger? Additionally, what if there are multiple attackers and I am unable to run (yes, escape is a viable and downright noble option most of the time)? What about when I get hit? These questions and others that you can come up with will aid in the realism of your practice.
Spar And/Or Practice With Live Partners
Yes, that’s right, spar! Sparring is the testing ground for techniques. Full contact sparring with an opponent just as eager to not get beat up as you are is a great way to take technique to task. You can now take form techniques and try them out. If you fail don’t automatically feel that it doesn’t work. Take an honest look at it first. Did I do that fast enough? What about my power? Footwork ok? Ask questions of yourself and the opponent to get feedback if the technique works well for you or not. Keep in mind not everyone will but that’s ok. This is where you adapt and know yourself better. That’s a good thing.
You can also train a technique with a partner first. Just like practicing anything with a live opponent you can start slow and speed up. You can set up the scenario you want, add a weapon, another attacker or two, or whatever you need to try and understand the technique you are working on. This is a great way to learn concepts and your own limitations which are important for growth in the martial arts. It’s also a good way to look at what happens when you fail. Do you just stop or keep going while trying to see what you can do from the position you end up? Pressure test and review then repeat!
In Conclusion
There you have it, the bad, the good, and the tips to make bad good, did you get that? Seriously though I hope that this opened a few eyes and inspired deeper study and practice. What are your thoughts? Other ideas of the benefits of forms? If there is enough interest I could do a mini-series so to speak to break down some of these concepts in more detail. Feel free to comment and give me feedback as well. Thanks for reading and happy training!!
- Forms, What’s The Deal Anyway? - October 2, 2018
Good article, Pete! Down-to-earth, practical and helpful. Makes me want to go and do some forms right now!