The other night, I caught some ISKA action on ESPN2. Sometimes, I catch some interesting stuff on the ISKA shows: kickboxing under various rules, style demos, traditional forms, etc. However, this night, I was unfortunate to catch one of my biggest martial arts pet peeves (right below David Carradine): musical forms.
I don't know about you guys n' gals, but where I come from, forms are not meant for public entertainment. Even when I was tested on forms, I didn't do them with the mindset that I was performing them for my instructor. Rather, I did them as I always did them...as personal training and development. I have never seen a musical form that had anything of any real value to the serious martial artist.
How do I hate musical forms? Let me count the ways:
1) As I said, forms shouldn't be done as entertainment for others. They are meant to train students in the techniques and principles of their chosen style.
2) They have no real application. Come on, now...a backflip into the splits while looking down at the ground is supposed to help in a fight? Puh-lease. And standing on one leg doing those incredibly weak repetitive roundhouse kicks at head height? Give me a break. So you can hold your leg real high. Big deal. I can break your knee.
3) The kiais. Jeez. They weren't even real kiais. Just an extremely inordinate amount of grunting and yelling for no real purpose. It sounded (and looked) like the performers were all incredibly constipated. There was no focus or intent in any of their so-called 'kiais'. Sure, they grimaced a lot, but if someone did a kiai like that to me in training or sparring, I'd probably laugh my *** off.
4) I'm sorry, but those flimsy little toys they use as 'weapons' in their forms are pathetic. If you can't do those fancy-shmancy moves with the real thing, then don't do them at all. Sure, you can spin that balsa wood bo around nice and fast. Too bad it'll shatter if you hit anything with it. Too bad you can't do that with a REAL bo. Ugh. Then there was the misguided fool doing a form with a toy (no other word for it) katana doing flips and spins and twirls. Anyone remotely familiar with Japanese swordsmanship would know that a katana is not used like that. Sickening, really.
I'm sorry, but I fail to find anything of any value in these musical forms. To me, they are a perversion of everything I do in the martial arts. I shudder at the thought of somebody mistaking me for one of these people when I mention that I do martial arts. Grrrrr.
Cthulhu
(coming off a Nyquil high and incredibly grumpy)
I don't know about you guys n' gals, but where I come from, forms are not meant for public entertainment. Even when I was tested on forms, I didn't do them with the mindset that I was performing them for my instructor. Rather, I did them as I always did them...as personal training and development. I have never seen a musical form that had anything of any real value to the serious martial artist.
How do I hate musical forms? Let me count the ways:
1) As I said, forms shouldn't be done as entertainment for others. They are meant to train students in the techniques and principles of their chosen style.
2) They have no real application. Come on, now...a backflip into the splits while looking down at the ground is supposed to help in a fight? Puh-lease. And standing on one leg doing those incredibly weak repetitive roundhouse kicks at head height? Give me a break. So you can hold your leg real high. Big deal. I can break your knee.
3) The kiais. Jeez. They weren't even real kiais. Just an extremely inordinate amount of grunting and yelling for no real purpose. It sounded (and looked) like the performers were all incredibly constipated. There was no focus or intent in any of their so-called 'kiais'. Sure, they grimaced a lot, but if someone did a kiai like that to me in training or sparring, I'd probably laugh my *** off.
4) I'm sorry, but those flimsy little toys they use as 'weapons' in their forms are pathetic. If you can't do those fancy-shmancy moves with the real thing, then don't do them at all. Sure, you can spin that balsa wood bo around nice and fast. Too bad it'll shatter if you hit anything with it. Too bad you can't do that with a REAL bo. Ugh. Then there was the misguided fool doing a form with a toy (no other word for it) katana doing flips and spins and twirls. Anyone remotely familiar with Japanese swordsmanship would know that a katana is not used like that. Sickening, really.
I'm sorry, but I fail to find anything of any value in these musical forms. To me, they are a perversion of everything I do in the martial arts. I shudder at the thought of somebody mistaking me for one of these people when I mention that I do martial arts. Grrrrr.
Cthulhu
(coming off a Nyquil high and incredibly grumpy)
