Black Bear said:
You still haven't responded to my request to define "forms" and, since you now brought it up, maybe you call tell us what YOU mean by "sets" as well.
I often find that confusion occurs when people fail to distinguish between content and process--what is being trained vs. how one trains it.
The map is not the territory; the menu is not the food.
I don't know weather or not this was directed toward me or not but, a form (at least in my opinion) is like a living book that teaches you how to produce power or timing in any certain movement or technique in reference to an invisible person. By that I mean forms teach you how to do a whole bunch of different moves and allow you practice them in the perfect setting due to the fact that the person you are fighting (which is invisible) will do whatever you want them to. I believe that
every individual technique in a form is it's own form and that all of them are just put together so that you can remember all of them easier as they are all similar. So really weather you know a whole form or not I believe that you should still only practice one of the techniques at a time so you learn that one. Doing the whole form teaches you fluidity in movements but not practical application. I personally believe that understanding each individual technique is more important (due to the complexity and application of each possible technique)
The correlation I was trying to make with the origional question was how some people who do forms don't actually use the moves they are tought by the form when they fight. They just stand up and kinda box. I was confused as to why this was.
I posted the origional question because I currently study under two teachers one of them teaches through forms one teaches through application of specifics.
The teacher that teaches by using specific techniques says okay if somebody does this you can do this. Then the technique is shown and worked on until it is understood. After I have a basic understanding of that one technique he says "or you can do this" and it goes on and on until he runs out of things to tell me to do in a certain situation while the whole time he shows he things that could happen while I am trying to perform the technique. So he tries to make me think the whole time by switching things up constantyly when I get a basic understanding.
My other teacher shows me one specific technique in a form and has me practice it for a while until it is "crisp" then he shows me the combat application and all the other uses for that same technique (that he can think of at the time) until I can spar only using that one technique for both attacking and defending.
Either way, both of my teachers make me use the techniques as they are tought. they were tought a certain way so that you can generate more power through the movements. their are like 10,000,000 or more different ways to use each technique. It's up to the student to understand power generation in each one.
Both of the method basically end up with the same result: an understanding of power generation through body mechanics and intention. At the same time both teaching/learning methods teach the complexity of every attack or defense technique. This again is just each of my teachers specific ways of teaching me, and again this may be due to the amout of time that each of them has to spend with me on an individual basis. Power generation is one of the top
priorities with both of my teachers. However, I am d
efinitely not able to speak for everyone who does forms or everyone who doesn't because I am completely unaware of how they are tought, or even if anything I just said was at all relevant or even true.
hope that might have clarified my original question:boing2:
