Where do forms come from? Why are there so many diffrent forms (kata). Why is Japanese katas are so stiff and chinese so fluid? Respecfully speaking.

Well in a matter of speaking, I need new shoes. But about your question, the Chinese are more precise and cool, but the Chinese and Japanese cant copy eachother or that would look stupid. Their eyes look similar (but I can tell them apart) and the LAST thing they need are similar forms! Do ya understand what i'm sayin?

I would have to say that there are hard chinese styles and soft chinese styles, just as there are hard and soft okinawan and japanese styles, so i don't think thats really the point. As far as copying goes, the Okinawans borrowed a lot from China and Japanese karate today is nothing more than what Okinawans taught in Japan in the early 1900s (For my thoughts on this, just view some of my other posts in the karate section). One theory i've heard is that there was a 700+ step Tai Chi Ch'uan (not sure about the style, I think that is what was said) kata made about 750 years ago that was in effect a reference manual to differing strikes and attacks (much like kata today) and that many of the kata were just different parts of this.

 

While there are certainly "stiffer" styles, some of this impression comes from the fact that many people do not know how to perform kata (especially in America, i'm afraid) and they just go about thinking this is a block, thats a block, punch, kick, ooh, another block, etc. The division between kata and self-defense I believe is one of the main factors behind this. I know when I first started taking Shorin Ryu I thought it was hard and stiff, but the more advanced I became and as I learned all the forms, it is easy to see how soft it is with some hard points here and there.

 

Whether you believe it all or not about its specific origins, most of the older kata is simply people preserving their own techniques in a way they can memorize them. One story is of how Okinawan kata got Chinto, which is very Chinese, is when Sokon Matsumura (The Royal Bodyguard of Okinawa) was sent to track down and fight a rather notorious chicken thief (sounds funny nowadays), who was a shipwrecked sailor from China, he got thrashed, which was saying a lot because he was rather good. He tracked this guy down again and begged him to teach him his style, which is what is transmitted as the kata Chinto today.

Katas/forms is a great way to learn and remember techniques and a great tool when you practice alone!. It has nothing to do with self defence, like many here seems to think, but a tool to remember stuff. I persoally do the Sil Lim Tao, the first form in Wing Chun Kung Fu, every morning, sometimes more during the day, and every day it gives me a little deeper understanding of the techniques in wing chun.

 

WCKF do not compete in forms, like they do in karate?(Katas). We use it as a thing to perfect our technique and postures, nothing else.

forms are produced from basic movements ( punches, kicks, blocks etc.)

 

it just helps you remember your movements

 

forms are foundations of the MA

 

there are many type of forms because all MA are differnet therefore they must have different movements.

a popular way of describing the forms in wing chun is that it is the dictionary from which we pick our words to answer a question.

 

like any launguage, in time you will no longer need the dictionary because you will begin to know the answer to many questions.

 

but there are always times when a question comes that you cannot answer so we have to keep looking in our dictionary so that we don't forget what words we have to use...