What are forms?

A pattern (also called a form) is a prearranged series of different defensive, counter, and offensive techniques that must be performed in a precise, logical sequence with specific foot movements and stances in imaginary combat against a number of assailants. The student must systematically deal with several imaginary opponents who are attacking with various techniques from different directions. The student begins a pattern by standing at attention, bowing, and then stepping with his or her left foot in a certain direction using a specific technique. Some patterns are performed solidly, some quickly with acrobatics, some gracefully, and some are performed very slowly with great muscle tension. The closest relatives of patterns are shadow boxing, dancing, or a gymnastics floor routine.  

"Hyung" (connected moves) is the Korean term for a pattern. "Kata" is the Japanese term for a form or pattern. The World Taekwondo Federation uses the term "poomse." The International Taekwondo Federation used to use the term "hyung," now they use the term "tull." The Taekwondo America organization uses the English term "pattern." TKDTutor.com uses the term pattern.

The "founder" of one of the "realistic" martial arts says that patterns are useless. He says that "Learning to dance is not learning to fight." In his opinion, pretending to learn how to fight while dancing is a way for instructors to drag out the time required to advance. Although patterns have been used by millions of great martial arts masters and their students for centuries, this "master" says it is all useless. As others of the same ilk have done in the past, if you do not enjoy doing something or you cannot do something, then criticize it and invent something you can do.

Patterns help students develop:

• Stronger, faster, and more effective kicks, blocks, and strikes

• Stronger and more secure fighting stances and positions

• Sparring techniques

• Defensive and offensive moves for every self-defense situation

• Build endurance

• Condition muscles to be harder and stronger

• Rhythm and grace of movement

• Awareness of oneself and body

• Effective breathing techniques

Patterns mark the progress of student development. Higher ranks require more complex patterns that challenge them to increase their level of discipline and proficiency. As students progress in rank, the patterns they are required to learn increase in complexity and difficulty. Traditionally, students must perform a pattern hundreds of times before learning the next one, but in modern Taekwondo, this level of proficiency is not usually required.

In the ancient Orient, a law similar to the law of Hamurabi (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth) was rigorously enforced. If you injured another person, you had to be punished, even when the injury was caused accidentally. Since modern free-sparring had not yet been developed, Taekwondo students who practiced their fighting skills against other persons risked their own safety if they harmed their opponents. Therefore, the development of fighting proficiency was somewhat hindered until the first patterns were developed. Then students were able to fight imaginary opponents with no chance of injuring an opponent.

Through the practice of patterns, students learn to apply various Taekwondo techniques in practical ways and to join the techniques into useful combinations. They improve their sparring skills by developing fluid, smooth, rhythmical, powerful movements. Gichin Funakoshi, the father of Shotokan karate, taught only a little sparring, he based his teaching on patterns. Funakoshi believed that  "Once you have completely mastered kata, then you may adapt it to kumite." Patterns also help students refine their coordination, flexibility, balance, timing, endurance, and breath control, all of which are essential to the proper execution of Taekwondo techniques. Patterns enable students to practice techniques alone and to practice them against simulated attacks that are difficult to duplicate during class exercises or while sparring. While free-sparring enables students to compare their fighting skills to those of other students, patterns permit students to critically evaluate their own individual techniques in a controlled situation. Karate master, Richard Kim, always believed that within kata was  all he would ever need to know to defend himself.

Many color belts, and even some black belts, think that pattern training is a waste of time because it is not practical in sparring. Since sparring is exciting to perform and to watch, it has become a major part of today's Taekwondo training. Because of this concentration on sparring, many students look at sparring as a method of self-defense. Since sparring is basically a long-range method of fighting, many students forget that self-defense is usually a close-range, hand-to-hand situation.

Key to Freedom

Are you locked into the belief that pattern practice is useless in modern Taekwondo training? If so, you need a key to free you from this prison of thought that restricts your growth in Taekwondo. However, to quote Eric Hoffer, "When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate one another."

Some think patterns are restrictive; that they inhibit free expression. However, rather then being restrictive, they are actually liberating. Patterns keep your basics honed as you sharpen your other skills. Patterns keep you practicing your basics, while you seek your own sparring, self-defense, or breaking style.

Some people are not creative and are happy with repeating what works. I once had an in-law who could duplicate famous oil paintings so well that they looked like the originals. Although she was a talented painter, she was not an artist. She could duplicate, but not create. However, she was happy, and so were her customers. She would be happy with repeating traditional patterns. Other people get bored with repetition and want to experiment. For them, patterns keep them based in the fundamentals while they try new things.

Build Strength

A primary reason patterns were developed was to increase the the ability to inflict pain upon aggressors in response to unprovoked acts of violence. Some think the performance of a perfect pattern is an end in itself. A sports car that does not start may look beautiful, but it cannot be viewed as perfect  since it can not perform the task it was designed for. A beautiful, entertaining pattern that uses techniques that are useless in combat is not a pattern, it is a merely a choreographed dance performance. Gichin Funakoshi in his book Karate-Do Kyohan states, “Once a form has been learned, it must be practiced repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a form in karate is useless.” 

Untrained Attacker

The movements in patterns were designed to be used against an untrained attacker. They were not intended to be used against a trained fighter. So, when trained fighters say the techniques used in patterns are useless in a fight situation, they are probably correct as long as the opponent is a trained fighter. However, if the opponent is untrained, the techniques are useful. Untrained attackers of today are not much different from untrained of feudal times. Weapon technology has increased over the centuries, but the basic fighting methods of untrained humans has remained the same for centuries.

Combat Mentality

Pattern training generally stresses perfect stances, arm position, foot placement, power, etc. However, this is only half of the performance of a pattern. the mental aspect of pattern performance must also be trained.  A pattern is imaginary combat, therefore the combat mentality should also be practiced.

Close Range

When patterns were first devised, sparring was not a major aspect of Taekwondo. Their emphasis was on close-range self-defense. Therefore, patterns, at least the traditional ones, tend to contain practical, close-range self-defense techniques. Patterns were not developed to support sport sparring or to be used against a warrior on a battlefield; they were developed as defensive techniques to use against violent, untrained attackers, not trained soldiers or other marital artists. Real world attackers do not use powerful kicks or intricate combinations. Real world attacks are wild "hay-maker" punches, head butts, kicks to the knees, biting, and tackling, therefore, patterns were developed to defend against these types of attacks. Patterns use such techniques as close-range strikes, throws, takedowns, chokes, strangles, arm bars, leg locks, finger locks, wrist locks, neck cranks, ground fighting etc.

Pattern Popularity

If we wish to practice Taekwondo as the complete art that its founders intended it to be, then we must study our patterns in sufficient depth and include aspects of them in our regular training. If all this is true, then why did these methods of pattern training fall from grace?

Patterns are a repository of Taekwondo history that transmit the techniques and principles of Taekwondo from one generation to the next. They insure the core principles and techniques of the art are not lost. Since Taekwondo is a physical art, physical actions were incorporated into patterns to transmit this information.

The first patterns were closely guarded secrets that were only passed down to worthy students. They were constructed to deliberately conceal the techniques within them. This was done to prevent a spectator from learning the techniques of a specific master and passing the information to others who might use the  information to dishonor the master.

Like many aspects of Taekwondo, the use of patterns was influence by Karate, which began in Okinawa. In the early 1900's, Karate pattern instruction in Okinawa underwent a metamorphous. In 1901, Master Yasutsune Itsou taught Karate as a part of the physical education program at the Shuri Jinjo elementary school. He thought Karate was too dangerous to be taught to children so he taught patterns that were mostly blocking and punching techniques and disguised the dangerous aspects of the patterns. The children gained improved health and discipline from their pattern practice without recognizing the dangerous fighting techniques contained in the patterns. When teaching the patterns to adults, Itsou would give full instruction in all the deadly techniques in the patterns. Thus patterns may be performed either for better health or for increasing fighting skills. The patterns were the same, the difference was in the way they were taught.

Another reason techniques in patterns of today are not taught as they were originally conceived is because of the changes patterns underwent when Karate was introduced into Japan. To be accepted by the Japanese, Karate had to adapt to the Japanese  way of training. Because of Judo's influence, there Karate had to adopt a standard training uniform (a lightweight Judo gi was adopted). A method of competition and a standardized ranking system had to be devised. Again the Judo way of doing things was adopted and adapted. The Japanese felt Karate was too violent so the eye gouging, throat crushing, testicle seizing, and other such techniques were hidden away within the patterns and no longer taught openly.

The changes that patterns underwent did not diminish the effectiveness of their techniques, but the changes did create misunderstanding about patterns. Today, most students simply practice patterns to gain rank or win trophies, and thus are only concerned with a pattern's appearance. They tend to forget, or never learn, that the purpose of pattern's is to teach how to block an attack and inflict pain upon the attacker. Some think that the performance of a perfect pattern is more important than any meaning that may be gained from it. Gichin Funakoshi, in his book Karate-Do Kyohan states, "Once a form has been learned, it must be practiced repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a form in Karate is useless."

Patterns are a means to an end rather than an end in themselves. Hironori Otsuka's (founder of wado-ryu) book, Wado-Ryu Karate, stated that, "Martial arts progress from kata to kumite, kumite to combat, and so on. Kata is a fundamental aspect of martial arts and hence is unyieldingly important." Patterns techniques should be an integral part of sparring and self-defense training. By eliminating pattern techniques, such as throws, chokes, locks, etc. from sparring, we do not develop the skills and attitudes needed to execute the techniques in self-defense situations.

Not only do the patterns provide techniques, they also include the principles upon which the techniques were developed. It is important to understand why techniques work and their underlying principles, we must get beyond the mere memorization of movements. Principles are far more important than techniques. Principles may be applied in many ways, while techniques are very specific and limited. By concentrating on the principles and the various ways in which they may be applied, a single pattern may become an inexhaustible repository of martial knowledge. Understand the principles and you will be able to adapt any technique to be of use in any situation. In his eighteenth principle of karate, Gichin Funakoshi write, "no two fights will ever be the same, but the principles upon which the kata rests never vary." Choki Motobu (one of Okinawa's most feared fighters) once said, "One must learn how to apply the principles of the kata and how to bend with the winds of adversity."

If you only practice patterns for rank advancement or to compete, you are missing the wealth of knowledge they may provide. Through the practice of patterns, we learn from past masters and perhaps gain a little of their understanding  of the martial arts.

Violence

Patterns are a way for students to perfect the physical movements required for the application of Taekwondo in response to violence. Students learn the precise muscular movements, timing, rhythm, and breathing required to perform techniques properly in accordance with traditional teachings. This exact transfer of data from the teacher to the student allows Taekwondo to pass from generation to generation with little deviation from the original teachings.

Through the practice of patterns, students learn to perform techniques precisely within their own physical dimensions. Then, through performing one-step sparring sequences, they learn to extend those techniques beyond their own dimensions, toward an opponent. Finally, through free-sparring, students learn to apply the techniques in actual combat with an opponent.

Beginning students may quickly learn to perform certain movements and feel confident while performing them. However, most of the time, these beginning movements lack stability, speed, and power and thus are ineffective and inefficient in their application. By practicing patterns, students learn the intricacies of their movements and learn to fine-tune their movements to gain more stability, speed, and power.

When firing a hand gun, the slightest imperfection in technique may result in the bullet missing the target by inches. Likewise, the slightest imperfection in technique when executing a kick may result in the kick missing its intended target or striking the target with insufficient power. Through constant practice, precise movements become instinctive and techniques consistently strike their intended targets with sufficient power.

To become instinctive, movements must “flow.” Actors also must develop flow so their actions on stage appear instinctive and natural. Without flow, actions appear awkward and unnatural. Victor Turner, in his book From Ritual to Theater, describes how flow is developed in actors:

• Action and awareness merge

• Attention becomes centered

• Ego is lost

• One is in control of one’s environment and actions

• There are no-contradictory demands for actions

• Actions become autonomic, they need no goals or rewards outside themselves

When a Taekwondo student becomes proficient at performing a pattern, the pattern performance flows; the student and the pattern fuse into one entity. It becomes difficult to separate the student from the pattern performance. All the movements seem natural and easy to perform.

Patterns are ritual movements. Ritual movements in animal and in humans are redundant, repetitive, and exaggerated. Ritualistic movements depict violence and responses to violence in an effort to avoid or defuse violence. Watch two dogs as they perform their instinctive ritual movements that allow them to establish which dog is dominate without having to resort to a physical confrontation.

Ritual movements depict violence but they are used to purify violence rather than to elicit it. In rituals, the behaviors that may lead to violence and the actions that may be used in response to violence are acted out. The ritual movements send the message, “I am able to defeat you, so leave me alone!” The ritualistic movements in patterns help students learn to deal with the concept of violence, to defuse violence, and to take action against violence when all else fails.