isshinryuronin
Senior Master
Forms do not teach how to fight. Fighting teaches how to fight. My mother used to tell me and my brother it takes two to fight. She was right. Forms can definitely give some tools to help develop fighting skills, like Driver's Ed classes can help prepare you to get a license. But to learn to drive, one must get behind the wheel in some traffic.To each his own, there’s a lot to Martial Arts.
How does practicing forms translate into knowing how to fight? It doesn’t.
How does not practicing forms translate into knowing how to fight? It doesn’t.
Some of the greatest fighters I’ve trained with can do Kata at the highest level I’ve ever seen. Some don’t do them at all.
So there must be some other magic potion. There is. It’s called train your ash off.
Chuck Norris had excellent forms, Joe Lewis, not so much. From a purely fighting perspective, in sport or street, forms are not required. But if one sees value in pursuing TMA and all its associated benefits, forms can play an integral part.
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