Move with power and balance while building your body’s fighting vocabulary.

Many people do not understand the function of forms, and some believe they are a waste of time. I remember clearly hearing on the radio that Dr. Laura Schlessinger did not see the value of forms. If memory serves she had earned her Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do some time back.

Well now that I have my platform, I can take the opportunity to educate you on my understanding of forms. Please understand that my experience may be very different from what your instructor may or may not have taught you.

Here is my understanding, not only from what was taught and told to me, but also my personal experiences.

Forms develop fighting skills, fighting ability, and fighting principles . . . stretching your natural ability so the body learns new sequences for different strategies and situations. They help you to develop things that you would not normally do with your body.

Each form is designed to develop or stress certain principles and no form replaces others. Rather they are building blocks.  

“There is no substitution for form repetition”!

The eyes lead the movements in battle, thus you are not allowed to be psychic in forms. Look to where you are going!

Here are the over and under lying ideas:

There are Internal Dynamics  –  How the body works with itself.
There are External Dynamics  –  How you interact with your surrounding environment.

There are 4 principles you need to weave together:

1) Breathing
2) State of Mind
3) Coordination
4) Posture

For Shaolin Kempo Karate, I feel that the following has reasonable merit to the general ideas and principles that I believe are to be expressed and revealed. I will only share what I standardly teach to 1st Degree Black Belt.

1 Pinon  –  Balance, Movement, and Footwork.
2 Pinon  –  Posture and Familiarization of Basic Anatomy Targeting Points.
3 Pinon  –  In-close Fighting, Blocking in cat stance, introduction to use of Body, Leaning stances, and a little bit of Animal Familiarization.
4 Pinon  –  Body Relaxation, Power, and Efficient use of the Body.
5 Pinon  –  Shaping of Body, Power, and Bursts of energy.

Statue of the Crane  –  Balance, Power, Grace, and Finer use of the Body.

1 Kata  –  Your first angle, Blocking in a Cat, and In-close Movements.
2 Kata  –  Multiple Angles,  Movement of Body, and Rapid Direction changing.
3 Kata  –  Technique, Focus, Accuracy, Explosiveness, and Multiple Opponents.
4 Kata  –  In-close Fighting and Use of Body.
5 Kata  –  Body Mechanics with Linear and Circular movements, Accuracy, and Different Angles of Attack.

2 Man Fist Set  –  Interacting, Gauging, Speed, and Timing.

Bo Kata  –  Timing, Gauging, and Basic Staff Handling.