Kong Soo Do
I must agree with some of those old masters that a few forms may be enough for a lifetime of study. That makes me wonder why I teach so many different forms, even after trying to remove the ones that are almost the same from what I instruct.
That being said it is sometime fun to mix up some of the knowledge and creat a new form just to put aspects of my knowledge into a different pattern.
Uechi Kanbun brought three kata back from his 13 year stay in China (10 of which was learning, 3 teaching). Those kata were Sanchin, Seisan and Sanseiryu. I believe he once stated that Sanseiryu was all that was needed to 'know' karate and that it was enough to last the practitioner a life time.
I also remember that Sanchin alone, which was the first one he learned, took literally months to finish because the training was so slow and intense. Just the opening movements took weeks of training. Not that Sanchin couldn't be learned in a hour, but rather by such intense study the movements were fluid and performed with incredible power. One of the stories of his reluctant demonstration of Sanseiryu at a public gathering relates that he performed it with such focus and power that no one was willing to follow the demonstration with their own kata.
His son Kanei added five additional katas to the system after the death of his father. The storyline was that it helped bridge the gap from one form to another. I personally do not believe this explaination. There is a story from that time of a house fire that destroyed (among other things) the written material Kanbun had prepared for his son about the system (Pangainoon). I suspect that perhaps Kanei did not fully understand the depth of the system or the kata. With this lack of depth he used 'filler' kata to lengthen the time of training, rather than the slow methodical methods his father learned.
I equate this to the plethora of forms that other systems have developed over the years. For some, I fully believe are nothing more than class fillers with a testing price tag attached. I'm one of those folks that believe that forms have deeper meanings beyond just block/punch/kick. Not necessarily 'hidden' movements, but rather forgotten movements. I know that the topic is sometimes controversial, but that is my opinion.
So we decided to develop just one form, covering what we considered (from personal experience with determined attackers) to be the most common attacks. Each movement of the form (25 total) can be used at arms distance or at grappling range. Standing or on the floor in many cases. It covers principles as well as specifics. It was designed to be broken down into 5 sets of 5 drills for ease of teaching. It is in no way, shape or form a competition form. And the form will differ from person to person. The skeleton remains the same, but it is fleshed out and tailored to each student based upon their strengths and/or limitations. We have modified it a bit over the years. As we learn (and to us it is continual education), so do our students.
