So I'll go ahead and answer now. KKW Taekwondo. The school I went to as a kid had tons of forms. We had...
- Exercises, which were like mini-forms and I'm pretty sure were specific to our school. If I remember right, there was an exercise for every test, and there were 28 tests on the way to black belt (7 colors and 4 tests per color)
- Kibon, or basic forms, either 1-3 or 1-5
- Palgwe forms 1-8
- Taegeuk forms 1-8
I didn't learn all of these. I only made it to green belt. And I was 11 by the time I quit, saw absolutely no point in forms (in fact went on a rant one day about how forms are stupid), so I don't really have much else to say on them.
- Are your forms linear in progression or is there different orders you can learn them in?
- Are your forms rigid in their execution or open to interpretation and/or modification?
- The pacing of your forms.
- Anything you can think of that I haven't even thought of.
Number and Length
At my school, we have 5 Kibon forms and 8 Palgwe forms. From what I understand the Palgwe forms my Master got from his master before him, and so only schools run by these two masters use these forms. Most of them are quite different from the other Palgwe forms I've seen on Youtube. We also do each of the Kukkiwon black belt forms, but also an extra form in between. For example, we have Koryo Hyung (official form) and Koryo Il Jang. Then Keumgang Hyung (official) and Keumgang Il Jang. The "Il Jang" version shares some similarities with the official, but has extra parts added that are a lot more complex. Our smallest form is around 20 moves, and our biggest form is 66 moves. So far, I've learned
18 of these poomsae.
Our demo team also has
3 dance forms (which you REALLY don't want to see me do) and
1 form to music, which was designed by me with the help of my students.
We also have punch defense drills starting at white belt (yellow belt for kids), kick defense starting at green belt, and adults have hand grab defenses starting at white belt. If you consider these forms (we don't call them forms, but others certainly would, like
@gpseymour for example), then we have an additional
112 forms that I've learned so far.
In our hapkido classes, we have a bunch more, as these basically take up the entire curriculum. I'm halfway to black belt and I've learned
47 of these so far (27 were for Yellow belt test alone).
We also have combinations that are tested on, which include punches and kicks combined with footwork. These are rote memorized and we drill them every class. If you count these as forms, then we have 8 intermediate kick drills, 3 intermediate jump kick drills, 15 advanced punch drills, and 20 advanced kick drills, 10 advanced jump kick drills, and 5 sparring team drills. This adds up to
61 memorized drills.
There's also weapon forms.
15 techniques for nunchaku (#5 is more of a form, the rest are drills),
2 forms for bo staff (one with a partner and one by yourself, the partner one can be done standing in place or with movement),
8 drills for eskrima,
1 knife form (there are 10 knife defense in the 112 defense drills), and
3 sword forms. So we have
7 longer weapon forms and
22 smaller weapon techniques or drills.
This is what I've learned so far. There's more that I haven't learned yet, and as I'm basically the highest belt at my school*, I haven't seen anyone else do anything higher, either.
*Aside from the master, of course. But also there's one guy higher than me, but he's new to our curriculum so even though he's higher rank than me and a MUCH better martial artist than me, he's playing catch-up on all of these and I end up teaching him a lot of this stuff.
Purpose
My Master once stated that he chose the Palgwe forms over the Taegeuk forms for the deeper stances. He wants us to build leg strength and flexibility, and get used to a deep stance for our self defense purpose. His explanation is that his experience in Special Forces told him that if you're fighting in a deep stance, you can go up or down, but in a taller stance you only have one direction you go.
I also see the forms as a great way to help control your body in various ways:
- Have the discipline to maintain proper stance and control over the parts of your body NOT involved in a technique
- To have proper footwork when turning
- To be able to control which part of your body moves and which way it moves (I see this in about half our white belt adults and the majority of our yellow belt kids, that they have trouble following simple turns exactly as described. Getting this down helps teaching back kicks and such later on).
- To reinforce many of the techniques and concepts taught in simpler drills
- To teach proper breathing while performing the techniques and help your body develop a rhythm for the techniques
Our demo team forms have a simple purpose: look cool.
Our defense drills serve to teach self defense techniques in a way that build on each other. At the white belt, you learn simple block and strike combos. But by red belt you are learning how to block and transition into a grab and throw, and then back into a strike for a finishing blow. (Hey, that rhymed!) The adults do hand grabs, and it starts off with a simple grab in front of you, moves into a 2-hand grab for green belt, and then grabs behind you for blue belt. This way you can see the application from different situations.
Our 61 tested combinations serve the purpose of getting used to the footwork you can use with those combinations, as well as how to string attacks together. For example, a cross-elbow strike followed by a chop, or a reverse punch followed by a backfist. There's also integration of punches and kicks side-by-side, and a progression from simple kicks to advanced kicks to combinations of advanced kicks.
The weapon stuff is mainly to get familiarization with the weapons. We don't do them enough to be proficient in their use, but we do them enough that I could use them in a standard self defense situation. For example, I'm not going to win any Kendo or HEMA championships, but I'm sure I can effectively swing a sword at someone who breaks into my home and at the very least make him bleed.
Progression
Our forms are very linear as they are tied to your belt rank. They do all build on the ones before them, even if some of them have very little of the previous form in them.
Execution
Our forms are performed slowly and one technique or combo at a time. There is a pace each form is done at. Most of our forms are done slow and deliberate, with a few fast pieces or one-two combinations. But our Advanced Form #7 has a brisker pace and Advanced Form #8 is even slower than everything else. The smaller forms are done much quicker.
Our forms are also very rigid in how they are performed, ESPECIALLY the demo-team form. I tell my students that everyone performing at an A level at different times is going to look worse than everyone performing at a B level in synchronization with each other. In execution, we want to see timing discipline as much as the form itself.
