Horsham:
A Veteran Beginner's Martial Arts Notebook
"Why Do We Do These Forms?"
by Stuart Coupe (6th Ji)
August 2005"Re-arranging your furniture again?"
My partner Jan walks into my living room flat and sees chairs, the stereo and other assorted clutter stacked neatly against the walls. "Er, I'm just going to have a go at basic form two," I sheepishly reply.
"And what exactly is basic form two?" Jan not unreasonably responds.
"Well it's erm.. a form. You know, a series of movements that we do to, er..." My reply breaks off as I struggle to explain. I look at the pathetic three-metre patch of floor in front of me as if the products of Carpet World will come up with an answer.
"Well, you know.."Humouring me with a knowing smile Jan wanders away leaving me to concentrate on this new form. A quick "Chun pei," in my head and I'm off.
Cautiously at first I manage to squeeze the first few moves into the little living room space. Then, in a rare fit of confidence I execute a rather high and wide 'sang duan tang' that, accompanied by an over-enthusiastic shout, hits the lampshade, disorientating me to stumbling into the vase of flowers balancing precariously on the stacked chair. Only by landing on my backside can I prevent a full-scale avalanche of furniture. Jan comes in to see what all the fuss is and I dust myself off quickly before she notices the mess. "
Heaven help the Friday night thug who attacks you with a bunch of flowers and lampshade," she says. We both laugh and I resolve to muster enough confidence to continue to practise outside in the communal gardens despite the twitching curtains and perplexed looks of the neighbours.
But that isn't the last I hear of the question 'Why do we do forms?' for low and behold, a few weeks later Master Goward asks the very same question.
"Well Ryan. Why do you think we do these forms?" he asks.
I breathe a sigh of relief that Ryan is up for his black belt and seems to be getting lots of these difficult questions these days. He answers confidently, belying his youth. 'It's a good way to practise linking moves against an imaginary opponent.'
"Maybe so," replies Master Goward, "but there's more to it than that." He works his way around to Tim who is usually pretty good at responding to such questions.
"They help our moves to become more instinctive?" suggests Tim, "and it can measure our progress towards improving our skills."
'Nice one,' I think, feeling that the pressure might be off me.
"Maybe so," says Master Goward. "But there's more."
It's my turn next and Sir looks over to me. I glance sideways, wanting to suggest that learning forms provides us with a good opportunity for rearranging the living room furniture, but think better of my flippancy. Instead, I offer my speciality. A nice 'Tang Sou silence' followed by a good long 'nei pei pause,' bought to an end with an expertly executed "Dunno Sir."
Master Goward lets me off with a gentle grin and then goes on to say something that has a profound effect upon my attitude towards forms and indeed practice in general. He acknowledges that forms can indeed prove to be a way of learning techniques in extended sequences and that some of these forms can mature into more instinctive movements, relying less upon thought and more upon the trusting of the body. But over and above this he points out that forms are Tang Sou Dao itself. They encompass the living breathing record of our art. They embody the very essence of what we do, the core of what our teachers' pass on to pupils, ensuring that our practise continues uninterrupted into future generations.
Now it could be argued that our forms should be recorded in detail on paper or indeed in our technological age through video and such like. I have read that some martial arts choose to record their forms in such ways and there may be good arguments for doing this.
To my mind at least though, there are equally good reasons for not doing this. Tang Sou Dao, as other martial arts, is by its very nature a practical activity, the subtleties of which are difficult if not impossible to capture fully in photographs and text. Video may be a little better in this respect but, and this is very important, this medium cannot convey the central role of the student/teacher relationship; something which I believe to be the critical factor to the effectiveness of learning anything that entails a sense of commitment and application. During my first few lessons of Tang Sou Dao I really wanted to have some text or pictures or something that might help me to get to grips with what it was I was attempting to do but as time goes on I am no longer so impatient and am even happy to learn in a more 'apprenticeship' style.
It might also be true that if our forms attempt to encapsulate the technique and spirit of Tang Sou Dao then this also cultivates a sense of personal responsibility within the student to learn them for wider reasons than simply to earn the next belt. When we execute a form we ourselves become the embodiment of our art. Forms significantly represent the shift from Tang Sou Dao being an 'organisation' to it becoming a living breathing entity. We are not separate from the organisation and the practise, we are the organisation and practise and this is exemplified each time we execute a form to the best of our ability.
This idea has changed the way I now view forms and hopefully these thoughts will encourage others to think about Master Goward's comment to our class. Sure we want the sense of achievement at learning something new but over and above this, it's good to know that when we work on our forms we are responsible for becoming an integral rung in a ladder that will hopefully stretch forward into future Tang Sou Dao generations. (Yes, even us veterans can help with the future!) Forms executed with the goal of technical excellence and spiritual integrity will help to maintain our art at its best and therefore become a noble activity. As beginners we may be aware that our contribution to the technical aspects of our art may currently be minimal, but we can all make a significant contribution through our mindful practise of the forms to the spirit, longevity and integrity of that which we call Tang Sou Dao.
I don't know about you, but I think that that's got to be worth rearranging the furniture for every now and again!
Tang Sou!Stuart Coupe
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