Bo forms

[fallen_milkman]

Awesome. Always glad to help!

[unknownstyle]

me and a friend made one for a competition and made sure it was a practical form so that it would fit our style

[Why_Worry]

Yeah, there is nothing wrong with creating a kata or form. I mean the katas arent this special set of movements that cant be altered at all. While they are very good training tools, they were just created by people. Someone created these and you have to remember that, so there is nothing wrong with making your own (provided you know what yoru doing, although its still find if you dont, but it'd help if you knew).

[Shorin Ryuu]

I haven't. I'm too busy gleaning the concepts from the ones I already know.

[yamesu]

Hehehe,

an all too often overlooked point.

[Sauzin]

Yeah, there is nothing wrong with creating a kata or form. I mean the katas arent this special set of movements that cant be altered at all. While they are very good training tools, they were just created by people. Someone created these and you have to remember that, so there is nothing wrong with making your own (provided you know what yoru doing, although its still find if you dont, but it'd help if you knew).

No one person created any of the forms I do. They are all at least 3 generations old, some as many as 4 or 5 generations. Maybe even more then that but there's no way to trace it. Now you might say, "Well someone had to create it." Yes someone created it's first incarnation. Since then it's been perfected through several life times of test trials and dedicated practice. So what I'm saying is the kata I do are the results of lifetimes of study and refinement. Not a single lifetime or less.

It's kind of a complicated process. I had it explained to me by my sifu. I'll type up what I can remember.

Basically, there are a few ways to go about organizing your moves.

1. Basically go though several opponents, imagining an attack and defending. Then move to the next and defend as efficiently possible.

2. Use the form to organize tricky or new self defense techniques you have learned.

3. Use cool looking moves to make an impressive, performance based form.

After you figure out your method, start working alone. Arrange your moves paying attention to footwork, positioning, and being realistic.

Once you have a framework of moves and a concept of where you want the form to go, you find a living, breathing punching bag! (Also known as "friends" or "training partners.") Ask this person to throw the attacks you put into your form, and basically see if your guesstimations on how your techniques would flow are realistic enough. Make sure you can see each attack as it is coming. I.E. if they are attacking from behind, how do you know they are there? Is it a choke, or a headlock? If you can't answer, the form is not very realistic. After working with them, you should have a few mods to make. Practise alone for awhile until you know the new form inside and out. Now grab your punching bag again, checking for realism. Do this until it seems you have a finished form.

Not a bad start in my opinion. Mind if I add a few things that previous generations asked themselves while putting together kata?:

4. Do each of the techniques work just as well against 3 opponents as they does against 1? If no go back to the drawing board.

5. Can 80% of the techniques in the kata be used as both a throw/ grapple or a structural blow? If no then go back to the drawing board.

6. Does the foot work protect you from attacks against multiple directions as well as it enables the technique being performed? If no then go back to the drawing board.

7. Does every technique in the kata have the counter to it's counter built in? If no then go back to the drawing board.

8. Are the angles in each turn optimize for the techniques you are using or that follow? If no then go back to the drawing board.

9. Would the techniques work well if you were blind? If no then go back t the drawing board.

10. Are you protected while you transition between each stance and position? If no then go back to the drawing board.

And last but certainly not least...

11. Does each and every single technique have at least 10 different possible applications? If no then go back to the drawing board.

What I'm trying to illustrate is that these are just some of the things that people who created old kata spent their life times thinking about, working through, and still never mastering. That's why it takes generations.

So what about the benefit of becoming dynamic you might ask? You know, being able to string various techniques together. Well in my opinion the things I mentioned above should be learned first. Otherwise what are you stringing together? Certainly not things that are really going to work well or apply to enough situations to actually have any chance of being used. And you can’t practice a different technique or string of technique for every situation because there’s just too many possible situations. So my suggestion. Learn kata that is at least 3 generations old. Get the basics down. Then when you feel the need to be more dynamic, practice various moves from these kata in different combinations with a buddy. But first learn how to do them in the order they are done in the kata. At least this way you’ll know that the techniques you are making dynamic work to begin with.

Edited September 14, 2005 by Sauzin

[Why_Worry]

No one person created any of the forms I do. They are all at least 2 generations old, some as many as 4 or 5 generations. Maybe even more then that but there's no way to trace it. Now you might say, "Well someone had to create it." Yes someone created it's first incarnation. Since then it's been perfected through several life times of test trials and dedicated practice. So what I'm saying is the kata I do are the results of lifetimes of study and refinement. Not a single lifetime or less.

Yeah, good point. Thats actually what i though too, but i didnt want to be mean and say they shouldnt create katas because it can cause them to practice bad habits and something that hasnt been prefected over time, so i jsut sai dit iwas fine and gave an example of how it can work over time but probably not right away. Listen to Sauzin, Sauzin said it alot better, and has alot better point than me.

[Sauzin]

I don't want to be mean either. I'm just trying to shed light on what might need to be in kata so people can think about it.

[Why_Worry]

I know, i was kinda just trying to say i was too shy to say it, and also you werent mean for saying it, but i'm getting a little off topic too so yeah.

[fallen_milkman]

Wow, you gave me a lot to think about for my forms, and for that I thank you. I kept some of that in mind, especially footwork, but a lot I missed. Thinking up multiple applications was one that I didn't think of.

That being said, realize I am a white sash. Form creation is a requirement in my style at green sash, two levels away. They are just exercises in seeing what I know, a way to organize my techniques in a more interesting way to practise, and it helps add a bit of the "art" back into martial arts. Nothing more. Besides, these ARE works in progress for me. It not like I'll make a terrible form that just links some techniques, and say "Done!" and make a new one. This form will be revised over time, as I learn and my ability grows. Also, I still learn our traditional forms. So I have the best of both worlds.