profesormental
07-09-2006, 07:25 AM
On the questions of formal exercises (Kata, Forms, Sets, etc.) it has to be taken into account that many of these exercises have different purposes each, and many have multiple purposes, depending on what the Instructor wished to teach that particular lesson...
Some are for perecting simple movements... like practicing to draw strainght lines or circles that look good...
Others are to be used like kinesthetic "notebooks"... the forms are notes for you to extrapolate and expand on the sequences of movements depending on your expereince, knowledge and insight on the training purposes of the lesson. This is one of the historical reasons for forms... they allowed teachers to teach the form, go away and return months later to continue lessons while the form was perfected, and then teach the applications of the perfected movements.
Others forms practices are to be seen as simulated combat scenarios with imaginary opponents, in which you visualize being the winner and executing the movents perfectly for the desired effect. This presuposes knowledge of the applications of the movements.
The benefit for fighters is preconditioning of combinations and displacemetns, while ingraining strategies and gameplans. This is accomplished mostly when the perfected movements learned in the forms are practiced in "alive" drills that ingrain the skills in "fight mode"...
note that combat skills are dependent on mental state...
if you practice in a relaxed environment with no stress, and then practice fighting with the stress it brings, then the skills are lost. (State Dependent Learning phenomena)
If you practice perfectly in a higher stress mode, then the mental variables can be better controlled (fear effects, adrenalin rush, higher fine motor movement control, retainment of higher mental functions and thinking, etc.)
So the forms can be seen as essential examples of perfect movement in sequences that can easily be learned and be put to use as pedagogical tools for students and instructors.
Or they can just look pretty and entertain you for a few minutes. LOL.
This is just less than the tip of the iceberg...
sincerely,
Juan M. Mercado
Some are for perecting simple movements... like practicing to draw strainght lines or circles that look good...
Others are to be used like kinesthetic "notebooks"... the forms are notes for you to extrapolate and expand on the sequences of movements depending on your expereince, knowledge and insight on the training purposes of the lesson. This is one of the historical reasons for forms... they allowed teachers to teach the form, go away and return months later to continue lessons while the form was perfected, and then teach the applications of the perfected movements.
Others forms practices are to be seen as simulated combat scenarios with imaginary opponents, in which you visualize being the winner and executing the movents perfectly for the desired effect. This presuposes knowledge of the applications of the movements.
The benefit for fighters is preconditioning of combinations and displacemetns, while ingraining strategies and gameplans. This is accomplished mostly when the perfected movements learned in the forms are practiced in "alive" drills that ingrain the skills in "fight mode"...
note that combat skills are dependent on mental state...
if you practice in a relaxed environment with no stress, and then practice fighting with the stress it brings, then the skills are lost. (State Dependent Learning phenomena)
If you practice perfectly in a higher stress mode, then the mental variables can be better controlled (fear effects, adrenalin rush, higher fine motor movement control, retainment of higher mental functions and thinking, etc.)
So the forms can be seen as essential examples of perfect movement in sequences that can easily be learned and be put to use as pedagogical tools for students and instructors.
Or they can just look pretty and entertain you for a few minutes. LOL.
This is just less than the tip of the iceberg...
sincerely,
Juan M. Mercado