Are Martial Art Forms Important?

Training Forms are prevalent in most Asian martial arts from India, Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Philippines and more.  For anyone that has trained in traditional martial arts they have no doubt learned a key form from that style and trained it diligently unlocking the teachings, benefits and techniques within it.

Forms

A question and debate that often arises is the importance of forms and what use do they have.  I can only hope to give some insight into this based on my personal experience in traditional martial arts (most notably Chow Gar Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu).  So please do not take this as gospel but simply as a sharing.

The first important thing to remember is that when you train by yourself and when you do a form it is imperative that you see every application with every single technique within in the form or style.  Forms can contain techniques and knowledge of where to use that technique on the body ( i.e. Dim Mak / Muscle / Joint / Pressure Point Strikes)

Forms should only be trained as fast as you can see the application.  If you need to go slow to see the applications, then that is the speed you should go until you can build up.  You shouldn’t just do the form as fast as possible with no thought behind what and why you are doing something.  When there is no thought to the form and its techniques I don’t believe you can apply the necessary ‘intent’ to make the techniques and movements come alive.

Many people prefer just hands on training (pads, bag work sparring, combinations) and in many ways this means forms are not needed.  However I hold that if you can do both of together this type of training can bring a lot of gain physically, mentally and spiritually.

As an example of this I know a regular cage fighter who teaches fighters a short Tai Chi form in order to try and get them to use their body’s more efficiently and as a whole unit.  For simply allowing kinesthetic awareness and improving on awkwardness it has help to be a great tool.

The use of form training can also aid relaxation, movement, rhythm, memory, health and much much more.

The Saam Bo Gin Form

In Chow Gar Southern Mantis I have always come to know that signature and key form is ‘Saam Bo Gin’ (3 step arrow punch).  This is also known as the jewel form.  As I know it, this form is not the jewel form because it comprises the most techniques you would need in combat (although it has fighting applications).  There are a large number of forms that cater for that and they contain techniques like hammer fists, elbows, palms, palms, phoenix eye strikes and much much more.

The form Saam Bo Gin performed correctly develops the body, correct body positioning / alignment, power, steps, fingers, shoulders, toes, elbows, back, trunk of the body, legs, jaw, neck….pretty much strengthens everything!  This form is important as the training of it strengthens the body from the inside out (so to speak). 

Saam Bo Gin is there to develop the body and make it hard (conditioning to resist hits without using bags, dummies etc), build the joints, ligaments, sinews and incorporate body movements of float, spit, swallow, sink (which will be used in every form and technique you do).

Closing the points and strengthening the body

To quote my Sifu Paul Whitrod:

‘In the traditional martial arts one could spend many years mastering the basic form such as Saam Bo Gin of Chow Gar Praying Mantis.  These forms not only build up your active internal power but your passive internal power as well.  Hay Gung (Chi Kung) internal training is a vital aspect of all martial arts, internal systems and external systems alike.

This training is usually classified as health giving exercise and quite rightly so.  But chi training forms such as the mantis fist form and the Golden Iron Shirt Cover (Gum Gong) were not just for health but to build up pain tolerance against Dim Mak strikes by actually closing the points (cavities).  The active internal hay gung (chi gung) exercises and elements in the forms are to develop the energy you need to transmit the explosive power into an opponent.’

Why do I train this form or any form?

From my personal experience training a form like Samm Bo Gin is like a book about yourself and the more you train it, the more chapters become available to you. It took me a while to fully appreciate and realise the importance of this form in my personal development in this system. As you progress in your training Saam Bo Gin provides a means to address this progression. It also helps you to find out more about yourself physically, mentally and spiritually.

The more you train, the more important this form becomes and you can only know this importance by training it. Saam Bo Gin provides me a way to feel what I am doing, how I am doing it and if I am doing it. By this I mean as I train I realise and notice new things / bad habits and more. It allows me to address this while finding out more.

When training a particular form you somehow notice every important detail – stance, toes, feet, knees, legs, buttocks, waist, ribs, back, shoulders, neck, jaw, elbows hands, fingers, breathing, abdomen.

You question and notice how good your stance is, are you rooted and gripping, are you breathing correctly, is your posture correct, are you doing “really” doing the form (i.e are you putting gripping your stance HARD, are you clawing in HARD and with power…..all this to build yourself up and deliver power on a firm structure and root).

There is so much to write about this form but like the book it has become for me yet I still need to train it more and often to find out more. 

Form Training Stages

I will now try to outline 3 simplified stages of form training from my personal learning’s, discussions and experience.

Stage 1: Involves learning the form and the process of obtaining skill in the set.  The physical body is the vehicle for self-refinement. The development of a certain level of skill in any given form is “the mind teaching the body” or the procedure of instilling what is sometimes called “body knowledge”.  The structure, shape, techniques, movement and so on become ingrained.

Stage 2: Everything from stage1 should be tested, applied against other people.  I am not saying this stage should come next but rather it is important to test yourself, your art, the techniques and the applications you are learning.  At this level skills are employed against external resistance and one will already have a learned physical structure in place. In this process it can be considered that “the body is teaching the mind.” ?

Step 3: The fusion of the above and we can further look inward to the internal.  Forms are also described as a method of moving meditation other than martial skill orientated drills.

Form Training Guidelines

Below are some guidelines for form training.  Whilst most of this is for southern mantis I believe there are many points that aid other martial arts.

1. When performing step work, it is important that the feet land in the same positions every time, so that the length and shape of the stance does not change.

2. Movements should stop at their end positions and not allowed to float and move at the end point.

3. Power should be used, but not at the cost of changing body posture.

4. The eyes are focused in front, as though you are facing an opponent. Each movement is aimed to attack, and so is fierce and powerful.

5. The head should not be going up and down throughout the form.

6. Movements should be fluid until the last moment. Each part of the form should flow into the next without breaks in motion.

7. Each movement is concerned with power development and usage, therefore careful consideration on where power should be used and from what source (i.e. elbow or waist).

8. After the practise of forms, breathing should be even and relaxed, not gasping for breath.

9. Before using each technique, the stance and waist must be gripped to prevent loss of posture and moving of the body.

10. At times you will find you lack power within your movements, it is important not to force the use of power, or use the incorrect power (i.e. from the shoulders, or by closing down on the ribs…). Power comes as a result of practise and time.

11. During the practise of forms, the mouth should never open to either breath deeper, or to speak. Doing so will release Chi that the form has built up.

12. The line of power in each technique should be solid and direct, minor movements in-between will dissipate the energy. Body, stance and arms should be kept still unless performing the technique.

It should be realised that much of a system is not taught, but rather discovered and realised by the practitioner. By following the above guidelines in time you will find that your forms and techniques will change, at this point you must do everything you can to help produce more and more power within the forms and applications.

Almost done…

The training of forms can teach and remind us as well as helps us build on the structure a particular art adheres to (a notable important point relates to posture for the issuing and receipt of power).

In every form you do I believe it is very important to visualise the applications (not application as there is probably more than one) of each technique as you do it and to break down these techniques and train them in different ways (single, pads, bag work, sparring, under pressure). In this way how you perform your forms and techniques will change because instead of now just doing the the form and the movements with no real thought…you are now doing them with the intent and thought of combat usage behind them.

Form training can develop the body and a certain set of skills.  There are no set rules to how we use these skills, only the manner in which power is delivered.  As an example, Chow Gar Southern Praying Mantis develops its users and provides for them, but how we intend to use it is up to us, governed by our experiences and training (in particular combat usage).  I regularly incorporate many different types of training and my form training is an important aspect of that.

Train hard and train smart.