Favorite Poomse

[matt.m]

The question is "Which poomse is your favorite and why?" I am not asking of the ITF or WTF, I would have to say that Won Hyo is my favorite. To generate that kind of power to me is just absolutely amazing.

In my school I have to know the Chon Ho and Tae Guek Forms I-VIII. Won Hyo has got to be my fav so far.

Out of the 8 forms I know I think that Won Hyo is the most graceful as well.

By the way zDom can tell you, I am a poomse junkie. I love doing poomse.

 

[karatekid1975]

I am a forms junkie too. I have done the Pyung Ahn series, the Taegeuks and I started to learn the Chan Hon (SP?) series of forms. I think my fav is the Pyung series of forms. I just like the whole set. It's hard to pick a fav, eventhough Pyung Ahn Ee Dan was my fav for the longest time. I competed with it twice in TSD and won. So I worked on that form a lot before hand. It just felt "right." It was "my" form ... like it fit me like a glove. It kinda still does when I do it (memory lane LOL).

 

[terryl965]

Tae Guek 5 and Won Hyo that would be my two favorites at this point and for under belts for BB it would be Sip Jin and Koryo.
Good question

 

[Gary Crawford]

definatly Koryo

 

[zDom]

I've always really liked Yu Shin.

 

[Fluffy]

I just learned Sip Jin...it's fun! I would say Moon Moo would be my fav ITF form and Sok-Bong is my fav Songahm form.

 

[exile]

Palgwe Oh Jang, for me---it better be, it took me long enough to learn it!

 

[Kacey]

Yu Shin is pretty cool, but I haven't polished it enough to really enjoy it. My favorite is probably somewhere between Won Hyo and Po Eun.

 

[searcher]

I am a great big fan of Gae Baek. Maybe with Hwarang as a close second. I am such a forms nut I can't even stand it. I think I may be a rarity, because I love the forms for how they help me to fight better.

 

[Kacey]

I am a great big fan of Gae Baek. Maybe with Hwarang as a close second. I am such a forms nut I can't even stand it. I think I may be a rarity, because I love the forms for how they help me to fight better.

You're a rarity because you realize that forms help you fight better - more power to you!

 

[ajs1976]

My favorite form is usually the one i'm working on at the time this question comes up. Right now that would be Taeguk Yook Jang (6), which is required for my next test, and Taeguk Sam Jang (3), which is the form I am reviewing right now.

 

[exile]

You're a rarity because you realize that forms help you fight better - more power to you!

I just got Iain Abernethy's monthly e-newletter for October, in which he has a guest column by a chap named Stuart Anslow, taken from part of his new book Ch'ang Hon Taekwon-do Hae Sul: Real Applications to the ITF Patterns, about the combat applications---parallel to bunkai in karate---of these TKD hyungs. It looks like it's going to be an outstanding book. Next year, Simon John O'Neil's book on TKD hyung fighting applications will be published. I think that we're on the verge of some kind of of watershed in TKD, a reaction against the sparring/foot-tag model of the MA as purely a martial sport and a return to the full arsenal of hard, no-nonsense techniques for all combat ranges---similar to the kind of reassessment of kata, and what they're telling about how to fight, pioneered by Abernethy, Rick Clark and Lawrence Kane & Chris Wilder. Eventually a lot more people are going to wind up sharing your appreciation of the practical fighting systems disguised in the hyungs.

 

[Kacey]

I just got Iain Abernethy's monthly e-newletter for October, in which he has a guest column by a chap named Stuart Anslow, taken from part of his new book Ch'ang Hon Taekwon-do Hae Sul: Real Applications to the ITF Patterns, about the combat applications---parallel to bunkai in karate---of these TKD hyungs. It looks like it's going to be an outstanding book. Next year, Simon John O'Neil's book on TKD hyung fighting applications will be published. I think that we're on the verge of some kind of of watershed in TKD, a reaction against the sparring/foot-tag model of the MA as purely a martial sport and a return to the full arsenal of hard, no-nonsense techniques for all combat ranges---similar to the kind of reassessment of kata, and what they're telling about how to fight, pioneered by Abernethy, Rick Clark and Lawrence Kane & Chris Wilder. Eventually a lot more people are going to wind up sharing your appreciation of the practical fighting systems disguised in the hyungs.

I was wondering if anyone had gotten that; I'd heard about it, but didn't have the money to buy it without a good referral. Please let me know if you hear anything else about that book, or any similar ones. I have the Taekwon-do Encyclopedia, which has some good applications, but some of them are... well... a little unrealistic, and I've been hoping to find something like this that I could add to my collection.

 

[exile]

I was wondering if anyone had gotten that; I'd heard about it, but didn't have the money to buy it without a good referral. Please let me know if you hear anything else about that book, or any similar ones.

I will for sure, Kacey. I've ordered it from Amazon, and will probably get it early next week. As soon as I've gotten a bit into it I'll post something about how the book seems to be unfolding. I'd really like to see a lot more of that sort of analysis emerge---but one new one already out, and one in the offing for next year is really encouraging. More soon on this.

 

[IcemanSK]

I'm at a place in my training where I've come back to the WTF-style where I started from a number of years in an ITF style school. So, I'm relearning the Tae Geuks, plus my instructor's forms that he's added. I'm testing for 3rd Dan in March: so, I spend about an hour a day on forms. My early training included Pal Gwe 7-8, also.

I currently like Kuemgang, but I'm not sure why. Like Po' Eun, it's the 2nd Dan form & it has no kicks. But deep stances are a challenge for a lot of TKD folks. Basai is in our curiculum also as a 3rd Dan form. The deep stances & unique movements are a challenge. I'm really not a fan of Tae Beck, tho. For a 3rd Dan form, there's nothing to it. Tae Guek Pal Jang is a much more challenging form, IMO.

 

[MSUTKD]

Chonkwon is my fav!

 

[rmclain]

Either Chang Kwon, So Ho Yon, or Jee Tae.

R. McLain

 

[stoneheart]

I've really dabbled in too many systems.

From goju-ryu: seiunchin
From maysubayashi shorin-ryu: rohai
From the Chang Hon TKD hyung set: Toi Gye

The sad thing is that I know different versions of the same form: the Pinan/Pyong An/Heian set devised by Itosu and passed from Okinawa to Japan to Korea to America. At the height of my folly, I was practicing 3 different versions of Pinan 3 and 4 at the same time!

 

[Miles]

Hard question!

Under black belt-Taeguek 8.

Yudanja-Sipjin, though I am working on Hansu and it is pretty cool.

Miles

 

[TraditionalTKD]

I don't really have a favorite. I have forms that I like better than others, but each of the WTF forms is beautiful in its own way and has something unique to offer. I do like performing Koryo and Pyong Won because the actions strike me as being uniquely Korean in the way they are performed. For example, the low block in high back stance after the spearhand strike in Koryo is designed to replicate the stances of the Kumgang Yuksa warriors. The The two double knife hand block actions followed by the augmented backfist in Pyong Won is meant to replicate the lines of the Um/Yang symbol on the Korean flag.