Taekwondo Poomse don't have hidden applications. Anything you "discover" in poomse is simply your own creation. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't the intention of the people who created those forms. By the way, I am specifically talking about the Taegeuk and Palgwe series of poomse and the current WTF Dan poomse.
I understand what you're saying and many people feel this way. I'm going to offer a different viewpoint for consideration. Let me paint a picture to help explain where I'm going. TKD, generally speaking, comes from karate. Karate kata over the years has been relabled, specifically the Pinan katas by Itosu Sensei. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. He did so to bring karate into the Okinawan school system and years later his student Funakoshi Sensei followed suit in the Japanese school system. Funakoshi in his writings has demonstrated various applications in the forms beyond the commonly used block/punch/kick format. Call these
hidden or
lost or
deeper or whatever terminology you feel applies. I personally feel that the term
alternate is the most applicable. Karate (and by extension TKD) can be like an onion in that it has many possible layers.
Now lets look at karate kata and TKD forms. It isn't a hidden fact that TKD/TSD forms (not all but many) are based on karate kata. I don't think any would disagree with that. Some TKD forms came later and aren't directly taken from karate kata, but have the same movements in a different pattern. So my premise is that if a
'down block' in a karate kata is also a hammer fist strike to the lower extremities and a
'high block' such as seen in Pinan Shodan is also a shoulder lock...then it follows that the same movement pattern in a TKD form is/can be the same thing.
Now it very well may be that it was NOT the intention of the designers of a TKD form. Thus it can be correct to state that hidden/lost/deeper/alternate applications were not the intention. But that would not remove the fact that if they are in a karate kata (and according to many karate masters they are) the same movement patterns would hold the same information in a TKD form. Whether or not they are used is entirely another matter. Remember, and this isn't meant as an insult to TKD pioneers, that with very few exceptions the founders of TKD were very low Dans...or didn't have Dan ranking at all. It stands to reason that many simply did not know this additional information. I stand by my assestment that there is a childrens version of karate and an adult version. And without insult intended, TKD by-and-large is based upon the teachings of children's karate. Now if we're looking at TKD as a sport then there is really not problem with that at all. Sport venues use that skill set for competitions without issue. B/P/K work very well and 'deeper' meanings to the forms would be a complete waste of time in that pursuit. For those that desire more of a self-defense focus, 'deeper' meanings can provide a wealth of information even in the TKD setting. Now again, without insult intended, karate masters designed kata with specific movements. In a literary sense they wrote a full and complete story. TKD pioneers as noted may not have had this training or had it in depth. So while they knew the letters they may have only been able to piece together fragmented sentences on TKD created forms. Now this is only my perspective and YMMV, but it may take a bit more effort to extract a 'deeper' meaning from a TKD created from than its karate kata parent. But it can and has been done by many in the TKD community. Stuart Anslow and Simon O'Neill being focal points for TKD like Iain Abernethy is for karate.
Now does this mean EVERYONE needs to accept EVERY application they've developed from a form? Of course not. But it does provide a basis for one to explore a kata/form more indepth if they are so inclined. KKW TKD has IIRC around 17 forms in total. Some may think they are all needed. For sport, perhaps they are needed. For self defense I personally feel that five or less are needed if those five contain enough varied movements to contain a complete systems techincal philosophy i.e. like the Pina/Heian katas. Indeed, those five kata are enough for an entire lifetime of training. And indeed again, Uechi Kanei Sensei once stated that to know Sanseryu kata was ALL that was needed to know ALL of karate. Again this is from a non-sport perspective so take it in context.
So in short (too late
), I would feel, from an SD perspective, that there needs to be 'some' leeway in TKD created forms because of the way they were designed. I would also state that the applications are simply a catalog of principle and not necessarly exacting movement patterns. As a quick example, I referenced the 'high block' in Pinan Shodan as a shoulder lock. It is a very effective shoulder lock and uses the movement pattern very precisely. I doesn't show a takedown from the movement but that doesn't negate the use of one as it demonstrates the principle. The takedown is a natural extension of the movement. Additionally, that same shoulder lock can be seen used while in a prone position and you can often see it used (or attempted) in a MMA submission type competition. Now the kata does NOT show this technique on the ground, but that does NOT negate the fact that the principle demonstrated in the kata can be used at various angles and also on the ground i.e. the shoulder standing is the same shoulder on the groung.
Hope this makes some sort of sense for your consideration.
