How to understand your form / kata
The breaking down of forms/katas in traditional martial arts is probably the most important part of training the practitioner should be doing by himself.
There are few important keys you should know before you can successfully reveal all the secret jewels hidden in each form.
Forms are not merely cardio workouts, or part of a tradition that should be observed. Done correctly these will enhance your timing, body actions and your overall combat efficiency. Just to name a few .forms are not separate from you applications or fighting they are one and the same. your form is only as good as your ability to apply it. Think about this deeply.
In days of old a trainee would pick a handful (if he was skilled) of forms and work just on them, his goal was to master them.
What does master a form mean?
To a modern practitioner that probably means, to be able to do the form with power, speed or lack of it in the case of some neijia schools. Focus, balance (mental and physical) the form overall should look nice.
In part this is correct, but in the old ways of training it meant much more than this. First of all the form wasn’t meant for demonstration so what it looked like didn’t matter. It must however look correct. Power should be issued correct with the exact body action needed for that movement, breathing must be correct and will change depending on what type of move you are doing and what kind of body power you wish to issue. You have to know where each strike or move is going and what effect it will have on the body, yours and your opponent. Each strike and block must be trained separate from the form to develop true power. How many of us have finger and palm strike in our forms? Have you trained up your hands to deliver that blow? Have you taken each move and drilled it separately, with different distances and different timings (they are actually one and the same)
If not your form is not yet correct. The outward shape or egg shell may, but the true kungfu is missing.
So let’s look at some helpful points to remember when trying to breakdown your forms.
First and foremost we or you should I say needs to ascertain what type of form you are studying. There are two major types;
- Fighting forms
- Training forms
Or we could say application based forms and structural, body mechanic, energy building forms. Both are needed and apply to combat. But how you train and break them down will be different.
Fighting forms
These are typical of most martial art styles; the form goes through a series of techniques from start to finish. The trainee visualizes his opponents each and every step of the way.
Training forms
These tend to be concerned with training the student’s structure and body mechanics (there are done in the first category) but this allows the student to solely focus on them without having to worry about visualizing opponents. These are like idea forms, the applications and there variations in combat have not been laid out on a silver platter for you. What the form is more concerned about, is teaching you to move, breath and focus correctly. Later when the ideas have been internalised you will have to “open up” the applications. The way you do the applications will rarely be how you do your form. They are conceptual ideas rather than exact applications. These forms often tend to be done slower than the fighting forms, as when it is done slow you can concentrate on structure. The fighting forms like to go the speed you will use in actual combat. Remember not all techniques have the theory “more speed and power”. There are actually places on the body that if struck too hard don’t cause a reaction on the person. An in the case of locking sometimes a slower pace will bring the person under control easier than if done to fast. As with all applications it is the interplay between fast and slow and that relative to your opponent what makes the difference between a skilled fighter and a novice.
Examples of the first category of forms would be most of your praying mantis forms, most forms that are called external schools use these types of forms (though I would disagree with the terms internal and external, any martial arts that is worth its salt has both-this term was made famous by sun lu tangs book) some xingyi forms would be fighting forms e.g.: ba shi chuan, chu chi chuan
The second category of forms would be those of yip man wing chun, pakua (all the versions I have seen, but there maybe exceptions) 18 hands of lohan qi gong.
There is a cross over that I will mention as I know some sh#t is going to point out, styles like xingyi and taijiquan make use of both at the same time. and some styles will have structural, body mechanic forms as well as fighting forms.
It must be noted that whilst performing fighting forms you are still practicing to get your structure, breathing, body use correct. but the very nature the way these forms tend to be practiced tend to make it very hard for the beginners to get correct. You will notice that often high level practitioner of these “external styles” will often favour going slowly through them as they know they can do them fast but want to make sure there breathing, body structure and body action are 100% correct.
I feel the fighting forms is probably the most misunderstood. as the very nature of the structural forms requires the instructor to open them up and explain them to you if he ever hopes for you to be able to use them in combat, if you are studying these types of forms and not having them explained to you, change instructors…. J
So lets look at some simple ways to help you understand how to breakdown your form.-obviously an qualified/competent instructor is invaluable. but if you don’t have this it can still be done, but the journey will be that bit longer and harder.
- angle
it is common for traditional forms, particularly those with a shaolin ancestry to go in a straight line. this is where most people fall into the first trap. they try to apply these without the use of angles and stepping skills. in some case straight back and forward is they way you can or even should perform the application. but other times it is just darn right stupid. you must look at your footwork and stances carefully. angles and movement may be suggested in small things like picking up a foot and putting it back down in the same place, this may mean you are changing angle but for the sake of keeping the form linear it is not done. I believe the use or neglect of angles and good footwork will be the difference in a technique being fairly effective to being darn right devastating.
If you keep in mind that, every move should be able to bring the fight to an instant stop. it may prevent you thinking of just standing straight in front of your opponent exchanging blows.
- primary or secondary
next you have to find out what moves are in you form, I break these down into primary and secondary movements.
Primary movements are your initial response to an attack, these are often medium to long range, not short as why are you responding only at a short range to something that should have been dealt with earlier, and how did he get so close to you? If we were in the business of just worse case scenarios you should wear a bullet prove vest all the time and carry a first aid kit with you. the reason he got so close to you is because you were unaware. surprisingly many styles only concentrate at this range; the truth is that if the attacker has got so close to you without you being aware he will strike you without you being able to defend it. the reason it works in class is because you can get yourself ready.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, i.e. if you get suddenly grabbed and get into a grapple you are able then to defend yourself. in the case of strikes if the person is so close to you in reality he has almost 100% chance of striking you without you being able to defend. if however you are at close range and aware of a confrontation, you have to strike first as waiting to block his attack will be unrealistic. it must be noted your seemingly initial response is actually a defence to his aggressive demeanour; those who learn to connect to the person’s mind/intent will strike as soon as the opponent just thinks about moving. this is called preceding rhythm
What is an attack? it must have these 2 things to make it real.
It must have enough power to cause you harm.
It must be able to strike you.
Primary techniques are movements that you can use against a full out aggressive 100% committed attack.
Secondary movements are techniques that happen after the initially primary response has been done. these include follow techniques, techniques to slip around or grab the opponent’s limbs if he has block or avoided your primary response. our forms have plenty of these types of movements.
It is important that a beginner and even an advances practitioner spend most there time on primary movements. as a secondary technique has only been required because of your lack of skill in you initial response.” one hit one kill”
If you constantly train in only secondary techniques it will be natural for you to respond only half hearted so that you can get into your secondary movements. those that you train the most and are most comfortable with. the problem is that you get into some little kungfu fight with you opponent and then require numerous amounts of movements to end the fight. you should always try to end the fight with one blow. in the old days practitioners would train up there strikes to kill a man with a single blow, with the birth of sport martial arts that has nearly all but died. But for real life and death situations these are the real skills you need. and if you look at the old systems of combat it is exactly what they trained...
It is important that you know what primary and secondary skills are so that you do not train secondary techniques against an initial attack. it is common to see people practicing movements like pulling and pushing as initial responses. these are chance actions and are only good if you are pushing or pulling the person down stairs or into a moving car, thus ending the fight.
A helpful way to help distinguish primary from secondary is that primary movements will normally always require some form of quick body movement (whole body).initial responses rarely have you standing still as this leaves you exactly in the same place thus an easy target and you cannot get you full body into motion so as to strike with full body power. remember primary normally go to finish the fight instantly, provided you have the skill to land it.
- look beyond what you see
allot of techniques look like they are one thing but are actually meant as something else. I will use the front snap kick as an example. most people will see it in the form and say im kicking something ahead of me, say the groin, stomach ect… but you may be kicking the back of your opponent leg with your heel on the snap back. what you think may be a punch when given a different angle than your opponent directly in front of you may come out to be a close line style technique across the chest. what you think of in front may be behind. what you think is left may be right.
- touch yourself
ha I couldn’t resist the heading……
this is an idea that whenever you touch your body in the form. i.e.: hand on forearm, hand on stomach, leg on leg.
This is often showing you a number of ideas, it can be showing you the correct distance for certain blows, as is with point striking (dian xue/dim mak) or it can be showing where on the opponent you are striking, as is the case with a hand that touches your torso may be indicating the area at which your next blow should be delivered. (this idea is connected to point striking see no-6)
If say your left hand hits your right forearm it may mean you have blocked his strike with you left and striking him with your right punch. or hitting him with the forearm, you maybe replicating a block, he blocking your right punch or you are the left hand blocking his right punch. It may simply be a timing drill to get you to hit the same time you block. it may indicate a chin-na technique.
- look for the cross
no that doesn’t mean go to church, it mean that when ever the hands cross look for a locking /twisting technique. as you can see the forms imply allot. this is because whoever put it together had it for himself as his own person library of techniques and his own way of training them for combat. with the passing of time this doesn’t get explained to each generation and before we know it we are doing forms that we understand only superficially. Chinese martial arts are particularly bad as the fact is that most Chinese after the cultural revolution hardly if ever engaged in full out bare knuckle combat. this can be seen with most Chinese martial arts instructors today as when they go to teach they show a new form, where as if you were to take the traditional approach and breakdown one form it would take years, certainly enough material for one class. but this is only if the instructor knows how to break down the form past its obvious kicks and punches. contrast this to the old style in Okinawa today (there are still a few not into sports) they look exactly the same as southern Chinese martial arts but with the full extend of there applications in place. they still train the old ways, any move should be able to take the persons life.
Its still alive in the Chinese arts, but barely and believe me its dying at an alarming rate.
- get the point
the forms are also somewhat of a map of “how to destroy and effect the human body” and in what combinations is this best done. The forms map out pressure point striking to vital point striking. when you practice the forms it is crucial that you now exactly where and what you are hitting, what type of power is needed to effect this area or point and what will it do to this area and person. This makes a huge difference in understanding the combinations that are in the forms. Remember the techniques of the past were there to kill you opponent. They were not there to tap your opponent out or to get a point. These skills are there to end the fight quickly. Without the knowledge and the trained techniques to strike each area of the body correctly your form is useless.
Here are the classifications of upper and lower body blows. There are of course more detailed ones for specific points on the body.
Upper body
Focused stop blows
these blows stop at the point of impact, neither snapping back nor penetrating. the effect is that the power explodes within the target and causes it to “bulge” out on the opposite side of the blow. this “bulging” action is followed by a powerful “implosion” which causes the internal target to implode into itself. this is an extremely powerful type of blow. targets can include both soft tissues and bone areas
penetrating blows
these blows seek to penetrate the target. they do not focus and stop on the surface nor do they snap back. however, it is not necessary to literally tear through the flesh and penetrate the body to generate substantial damage. the tip of a stick or staff does not tear through the flesh and penetrate the body, yet their effects are lethal. the same is true for these techniques. this type of blow is restricted primarily to the spear-hand and similar thrusting methods, targets are usually soft tissue areas
snap back blows
these blows have almost no penetration whatsoever; they snap back from the elbow almost at the instant of impact. the effect is that the tissue (bone) impacted “explodes” with a sharp, penetrating power being driven deep into the target. however, this power does not explode internally as happens with focused stop blows; it acts more like the tip of a small blade.
This type of blow is restricted almost exclusively to the back fist strikes, and they are aimed at hard, bony surfaces where the skin in stretched tight over the bone.
Smashing blows
These blows seek to smash or crush the target. however, unlike the category of penetrating blows, these are not thrusts. they are strikes which are delivered along an arcing line. they strike the target and attempt to smash their way completely through it. soft tissue and bony targets are both suitable for this type of blow. elbow strokes would be typical of this kind of blow
Lower body
Penetrating kicks
These kicks are thrust kicks which attempt to follow a straight line to and into the target. penetration need not be deep. the kicking foot does not snap back immediately following impact; rather, it is extended and allowed to penetrate into the target. the effect is that great power is driven deep into the target with explosive force, causing great internal damage. additionally, great damage is also usually generated to the outer surface of the target
Snapping kicks
These kicks are know as “snap kicks” and follow an arching line to the target where they effect some measure of penetration, but are snapped back immediately from the knee. the effect is that a sharp but extremely powerful force is driven deep into the target.
Free-swinging kicks
These kicks are not snapped back to their original position; they “swing through” the target, shattering whatever is in their path. the effect is much like that of a baseball bat.
The nature of these kicks is such that they cannot be controlled; the faster the leg/foot is swung, the less control is allowed
Smashing kicks
Like the free swinging kicks, these kicks do not snap back to their starting point. they are intended to crush and smash the target and, to a lesser degree, to penetrate it in the manner of the upper body blow know as penetrating.
Knee strokes and stamp kicks are typical of this category
I hope this will help you start to understand how to break down our traditional taolus/kats.it by no means everyway you should look at a form, but it should be enough to get you to work at the moment. if you don’t want to spend time studying these traditional forms, then your training will be fruitless. it will be easier for you to do some form of sport martial art where this type of training is not required.
The traditional arts teach you much more than just fighting, spend many years, hours and sleepless nights trying to understand what you are doing and you may start to get a grasp of what the traditional arts have to over.
As you can see the logical, scientific ways our minds work are not the exact way we need to view our forms. our logical minds due to our up bringing view the world in a logical way,
“its snowing outside, snow is cold therefore it is cold outside!” this is important to our survival on this earth.
But the old martial arts masters knew they had to get us thinking beyond our boundaries and out of what we think we know. this idea is like Zen Chan Buddhism, Daoism and even from the great philosophers Plato
