This is exactly how American Kenpo forms were presented to me during my short stint with that Art. Long Form 4, for example, has Unfurling Crane, Darting Leaves, and others. This means that the student is taught these motions as self defense techniques in isolation. They are then presented together, flowing into each other in Long Form 4.
It was told to me that American Kenpo has many "hidden" things in it (probably because it just such a robust system?), but in this regard, we see that American Kenpo deliberately exposes many parts of the forms. That is, the meanings of these motions are KNOWN to the student as a matter of course.
Bill Burgar, in his magnificent study of the Shotokan kata Gojushiho, to which he devotes five years studying exclusively, consistently describes kata as a
mnemonic system, whereby a relatively large number of practical combat `scripts' can be ingrained into muscle memory at once. One of the things I found about Combat Hapkido, whose short drill sequences are not linked together into kata, is that it's... well, it's bloody
hard to remember all (or even a good chunk) of the drills! As time goes on, I see more and more the wisdom of taking discrete fighting combinations and threading them together into a whole that can be learned relatively quickly.
All I can say is the Seventy five sets of Kata, form or poomsae I know and do, is all bogus and my training is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
And if you believe that then send me your name and address along with 1 million dollars and I will also sell you the biggest and most blue lake they have in the desert.
Thank you all for coming.
:lol:
Don't worry, Terry... or maybe,
do worry: you're not going to get many takers. Meanwhile, console yourself with the thought that Geoff Thompson, probably the most experienced professional streetfighter—no other way to describe him—currently living, a sixth dan Shotokan karateka, instructor and dojo owner who was involved in more than 300 violent encounters in his ten years as a club bouncer/doorman/security manager in club in Coventry, one of the most notoriously violent cities in the English Midlands, by all accounts—had this to say about kata in his great book on adopting TMAs to street combat,
The Pavement Arena:
kata are a treasure trove of hidden techniques that can be adapted directly to a street situation...
...if you want to see them as unrealistic and impractical you will. If however you are perceptive enough to see, you will find that they offer enormous benefits to the street-oriented.... a closer look at kata will divulge not only the manoeuvres we have all come to know and love, but also grappling movements, throws, hook and uppercut punches, eye gouges, grabs, knee attacks, ankle stomps, joint strikes, head-butting and even ground-fighting techniques... when I had my own karate club all these techniques and more were covered. Why? Because they encompass every eventuality in all scenarios, a necessity if one is to be at all prepared for an attack.
(pp.62–63) My feeling is, if someone is
not the perceptive MAist Thompson is hoping to reach, well, too bad for them, eh? Really, what happens to them isn't our concern—there are none so blind, etc. etc. I've come to the conclusion, after thinking about it for a bit, that if people won't even
look at the evidence contained in the testimony of the elite street combatants of our era—people like Thompson, or Peter Consterdine, the eighth dan Shotokan ace who was an English International in Karate and spent eight years and several hundred barroom fights as—guess what?—a doorman/bouncer/security manger in a club in Manchester, and many others of that stripe—then there's no point in wasting precious lifetime trying to convince 'em, or pointing to evidence they won't pay attention to, or anything like that. I mean, that's
their lookout, right? You've been in this game a long, long time and know just how much information there is locked up in those hyungs... someone else doesn't see it and won't try to learn what they don't know, it's not your problem, eh?
