Forms or Dances

School owners were already familiarised with my all-embracing book project at the 1st Leadership Congress on 21st May, and were also able to see some of the initial photos. Work on the first two volumes is now entering the finalisation phase. To shorten the waiting time until the autumn 2010 publishing date, I am extracting a few passages from the book, which has the working title “The Logic of Combat“, as the next editorials. This editorial is entitled “Forms or Dances“.

A form is a fixed sequence of choreographed movements that have greater or lesser relevance to actual combat or to preparation for it. There are solo forms for the individual and partner forms for two.
Forms (known in Chinese as "Kuen" or "TauLu", in Japanese as "Kata", in Korean as "Hyong" and in Indonesian as "Langkas" or "Jurus") were and still are the major component, and often the predominant or only content, when teaching the Asian martial arts. In Japanese Shotokan Karate it was not until Gichin Funakoshi that the long forms were split into short training sections ("Kihon").
Where the forms in WingTsun are concerned, there were originally only three solo forms and a further solo form in which the student practices precisely defined defences and attacks using the arms and legs on a static wooden dummy.
It is only during the fixed training sequence at the wooden dummy ("MukYanChongFat") that the student actually imagines himself to be fighting an opponent. This is undesirable in the other WingTsun solo forms, because otherwise it limits the practical scope of the movements and the creativity of the user too much. For this reason a student is discouraged from asking what a certain movement means, and how it should be used in real combat.
Moreover, not all the movements are defences and attacks, but sometimes a form of physical training in which the student becomes familiar with his body, its dimensions and the scope of its movements. Movements are also learned that train balance, flexibility, unity, coordination, tactile sensitivity and timing. The student learns to move his arms before his body, how to maintain the so-called "centre-line" and how to project energy into his attacks.
Each form in WingTsun has its specific tasks and special features: While the beginner e.g. mainly moves his arms and the body not at all in e.g. the fundamental 1st form ("SiuNimTau"), the body is moved a great deal and the arms much less in the last (weaponless) form to be learned, the wooden dummy form.
When a master watches his student practicing a form, he is not only able to assess its precise execution, but also the rhythm, dynamics and the expression of will.
The forms are subordinate to the principles, and are derived from them. They are intended to serve as examples of economical, well balanced and coordinated movements, and as a model.
The intention is to practice the principles using the movements in the forms. The aim is not to perform exactly the same movements as in the form during a real encounter – instead the principles enshrined in the relevant movements must be adapted to the combat situation.

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