It occurs to me that centuries ago, masters wanted to teach their students certain techniques: strikes, blocks, kicks, avoidance, breathing, rotation, penetration, etc. So, they arranged them into forms, progressively more advanced, as memory tools, to engage interest and simulate events where these techniques may be of benefit and provide insight and opportunities to use them in different ways.
The goal was, and is, not to learn the form, but to perfect the individual techniques.
In essence, the technique is a stand-alone form in itself. From the beginning of its execution to its culmination it is a series of angles, positions, muscle contractions, weight distribution and delivery, timing, turning and twisting, raising up and dropping down. A simple Soo Do Bahng Auh is a mind blowing symphony of nerve synapses and muscle memory.
How can one do it justice by breezing through it - anxious to get through the larger form and onto the next? Only to absentmindedly fumble through another one, two, ten or fifty techniques in order to complete another form and so on.
And still, your Soo Do is not much better than when you were a yellow belt because you've been doing the same thing for --- how long?
Give the technique its due. After all, we want it to accomplish what we send it out to do, not just fill space between two other techniques.
SUN! I will improve myself through self-reform and self-refinement!
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3 comments:
Very well said, Master Crane. Give ANY technique its due. Do it properly or don't do it. The purpose of the kata is to refine, make better, to attempt to master each technique, each strike, punch, etc. within that form; so, if someone just simply plows hurriedly through a series of kata just for the sake of saying "Wow, we did all 22 forms in 30 minutes", what is REALLY accomplished? Possibly a fast heart rate at best.
It's importatnt to realize that forms aren't just a series of "moves" through which you go in order to get some kind of cardio workout. If you just slow down, think through some techniques and listen to what you've been taught (all properly, hopefully) and break each technique down into its own series of "subtechniques", it can really be noticeably rewarding.
Have either of you found a way or approach to pass this valuable advise on to students in a way that they see and feel the the benefits of training this way? Or do you feel this is just something that must come through self discovery, reform, refinement, etc.
Do you think it is possible that maybe you see more in the form simply because you've been looking at it longer?
SUN!
Probably the best way is the same way we teach most things knowingly or not; example, example, example.
And I think you are correct about the experience factor. The forms are cool. They hold a certain status because of rank. And maybe it's not until you've done every form a million times that you search for something more in them. Maybe this is why so many black belts leave the art. They think they have accomplished or perhaps HAVE accomplished their goal. To get a black belt or maybe achieve 5th dan. I've always heard it said that when you become a black belt is when you really begin the learning process. In essence, you become a white belt again. That is so true! I thought it a cliche for the longest time. But here is what I've found true for me though it might not be true in everyone's experience; I reached a point where I started back at our first form and began deconstructing them and examining them one by one. In the process I saw where I was deficient in technique and style in each individual move. Of course, those corrections not only improve the form as a whole but also the technique's efficiency. Then the reconstruction of the form takes on a certain artistic air and gives satisfaction and a desire to do more.
I feel I've only just begun in this endeavor. The mine is deep and full of gold!
SUN!
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