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KARTA FORMS
Author: Situ David Crook
MARTIAL ARTISTS reading this article can probably be divided into two broad categories - those who believe in the value of fist sets (or kata, hyung etc) and those who don't. Some people think that sets are an integral part of their Martial Art and others think that they are totally unnecessary.
Those of you who've read my previous articles will have formed the impression that I am in favour of a combat-effective style of training and am a bit non-traditional in nature. That may be so - but I still like to do sets! I also like to do bag work, weaponry, grappling, groundfighting, Chi Kung exercises and many other aspects of Kung-Fu. I believe that sets are a valuable training aid - one that can improve balance, flow, rhythm and coordination. However, those skills can also be attained by doing shadow-boxing, combinations training, etc, and some people may feel that those alternatives suit them better.
One of the problems with sets training is that some instructors over-emphasise its value to the detriment of other aspects of their training. It should be viewed as PART of our total training - not the totality.
To my mind, learning a Martial Art is similar to learning a language. First, you learn basic sounds - which equate to individual basic techniques. Then, you learn to link those sounds into words which equate to simple combinations. Those words can then be put together to form sentences - which conform to a grammatical structure in order for people to be able to understand you: "Me to the shops must go, milk to buy" would be regarded as being a somewhat unusual sentence structure (except to Erie MoonTa-Gu, who has been heard to utter phrases such as "Me Go Now" on occasion). This last progression equates to sets training - sets impose a structure on your basics, which enables you to express yourself fluidly within the concepts of your style or art, and enables you to practise those concepts without having an instructor leaning over your shoulder constantly.
Once you have assimilated the lessons contained within your sets and are fluent in your performance, you will find that the process of visualisation of response to various attackers that are contained in sets will help you to more effectively practise your shadow-boxing or bag work etc. You will start to emphasise moves that cater to your own personal physical and pyschological make-up - which will lead to "internalisation" of your techniques and to the completely spontaneous expression of your art required at advanced levels. If 'you view ·sets as a bridge between the constrained, artificial performance of technique, which is evident at novice and intermediate levels of skill, and the completely natural, spontaneous and dynamic performance of the "expert", you will see that they have a lot to offer as a training aid.
One very important aspect of sets training is that the instructor should demonstrate the potential combat applications of the techniques within a particular set when it is being taught. Unless the student is aware of possible applications, he or she will be merely performing a sequence of meaningless moves. Intent is crucial to the proper practice of fist sets! I have met quite a few people with absolutely no idea of what they are doing within a particular set - the worst offenders usually being Tai Chi Chuan practitioners with an instructor who either could not, or would not, explain the combat applications of the sets. On the other side of the coin, the Goju people are generally very conscious of the Bunkai (or combat applications) of their Kata. On this subject, I feel that it is also useful to let students experiment with the moves of a set, to see what other interpretations they can find for the techniques - apart from the ones that their instructor might have demonstrated.
The pace at which sets are practised during the initial learning phase is also important. In our K woon, we practice our sets initially in a fairly slow, relaxed manner. We do this because it is relatively easy to teach someone the mechanical sequence and flow of a set if the student doesn't also have to worry about rhythm, speed and power at the same time. Once the sequence is learned, it is a simple matter to impose those factors on that base. However, even advanced students occasionally practise their sets in slowmotion manner - as doing so tests balance, aids flow and can promote relaxation and "centreing".
Slow motion forms can also serve as a warm-up device for heavier training.
We emphasise certain factors in the practice of Bac Fu Do sets, which I feel should be common to most styles;
• There should be a smooth transition from one move to the next;
• Movements should have slightly more extension than the same moves performed in actual combat, to make the practitioners more aware of the subtleties of balance and co-ordination;
• Head turns and glances should be used prior to body movements, as they would need to be in a combat situation;
• Once a set has been learned, it should normally be practised at a broken pacewith fast, explosive movements interspersed with relaxed ones. (This is very important as it promotes the ability to move from a relaxed state into an explosive action in a split-second - a very valuable skill in combat situations); and
-The practitioner should be completely absorbed in the set (hence the value of sets as tools for "centreing") and should project intensity of purpose.
Once a student has learned a set, the instructor can be confident that the basic concepts of the style can be assimilated, even if he is not present.
Some sets have different levels of application - lower graded students are taught one particular application, while more advanced students learn another application (one that might require a higher skill level to perform but is more devastating in application, or one that is not suitable for general consumption for one reason or another). In addition, many sets also contain hidden or implied moves that are not paraded before just anyone - a legacy from the 'Bad Old Days' when your Martial Arts skill was all that stood between you and extinction. The old time Sifus were understandably reluctant to strut their stuff very openly, in case one of their clan's enemies was able to obtain vital intelligence about their style! Nowadays, of course, the situation has changed and we have free interchange of information between most non-paranoiac Martial Artists.
Interestingly enough, I've had several "non-classical" Martial Artists enrolled in my classes over the years, as a result of work transfers to Canberra. Although they had never done sets before, they enjoyed practising them, without exception -once they realised that sets were treated only as one aspect of training, not the whole box and dice. I cannot emphasise too strongly that sets are a valuable training aid that must NOT be over-emphasised at the expense of other equally valuable aspects. In fact, once we over-emphasise ANY aspect of training and become "a kicker" or "a forms person" or even "a freefighter", our overall development as a Martial Artist suffers - we tend to view anything outside our narrow specialisation as inferior and this leads us to underestimate other people's capabilities. (You know the sort of thing: "Boxers can't kick, so they're inferior". Or, "He likes doing forms, so he probably can't free-fight"). And that is VERY dangerous in a street situation ...
I know that someone is going to say, "But Bruce Lee didn't do sets and look how good he was!". To that, I'd reply: "Bullshit!" Bruce got the direct benefits of intensive training in sets before he founded Jeet Kune Do and used to practise them privately, even afterwards, as a method of sussing out the concepts of other styles that he was interested in learning more about!
If you read books by Bruce's original American students, like Jesse Glover, you will realise that Bruce's technical mastery had a lot to do with his early training in the sets of several styles of Kung-Fu. It's okay for someone who has already got the benefit of a certain type of training to tell everyone else that it's like "swimming on dry land" - especially when the majority of his students were already experienced in one form or another of Martial Arts or Western combative methods and had a good base for him to build upon - and quite another for someone without that background to decide to dispense with a training aid which is most useful to beginners and intermediate students.
In my view, sets have a lot going for them - they offer increased co-ordination, balance, poise, continuity, flow, intensity of purpose. They allow you to train in techniques that you can't apply in sparring, without losing a lot of friends (such as eye gouges and testicle crushes); they let you train in the concepts of your style without direct supervision; they are able to be practised by every member of your group, regardless of age or infirmities; and the list goes on!
As an instructor, I consider them a valuable training aid and I can assure you that those of my students who are best at freefighting are also invariably good at doing their sets.
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