Form vs. Function: A Lesson in How to Get Worse at Martial Arts

Fifty. That's the number of kung fu forms I had accumulated after 7 years of training. This was a combination of empty hand and weapon forms from a myriad of Chinese boxing styles. Some of you reading this, may think this is somehow a great achievement; I found it disparaging and detrimental to my martial arts training. Something that led to a decline in my skills, and ability to run/teach a new school with eager students.

Forms are choreographed sequences of martial movements. In Karate they are call kata. In wu shu (aka - kung fu) they are called tao lu. Historically forms were used as a database to store a boxers martial arts techniques. A way to practice techniques when one did not have a partner available to train with.

Why were forms used in traditional Asian martial arts, and why do we not see them in boxing, muay thai, judo, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, etc.?

A majority of the population in China and surrounding areas were illiterate. There were no videos, photos, etc. for people to pass on information. These choreographed sets were at times used as a method of transmission from one boxer to another, or as a storehouse for a boxers arsenal of hand-to-hand, or weapon combat methods.

Forms were also used for thousands of years in China, as callisthenics training for troops, or intimidation of an enemy army prior to engagement on the battlefield. Forms have a long, deep history in Chinese martial ritual/training, and are often for this reason, difficult for practitioners to separate their importance, or lack thereof, from the true underlying point - the practice of methods of violence.

This factor has played into why Chinese martial arts has gone off the rails in an extremely destructive train wreck. Function became absent from forms, and forms became the pedestal in which one’s art was judged. Like judging the quality of a significant other based on their make-up they wear, or their clothing, rather than who they are as a person.

After 7 years of training in Chinese martial arts, I had little practical knowledge of the kung fu applications locked within these forms. My only exposure to ‘real’ methods of attack and defense, were routine uncoached sparring, often way too hard and fast to be productive at anything other than hurting one another, and joint locking (qin na), which I trained as an entirely separate component from the normal class schedule.

I had zero idea what the moves inside my forms were designed to do. Additionally, I could barely keep 20 forms fresh in my head without having to run back to the video documentation I would compile so that I could keep records of what I had learned.

As far as handling myself in a fight after all this training? If I am honest about it, I would say on a good day, I could have handled myself against the average joe, but against a knowledgeable trained fighter? No chance. This was upsetting too me, and continued to gnaw deep in my bones as years passed, especially after all the hard work and countless hours of training I had done. What was the point? I wanted to know how to fight, not dance.

Whenever we would spar in classes, there was no cohesion of any kind between applications in the forms, and our fighting. Again, they seemed to exist independently of one another, with any sort of homeostasis lacking. It is as if one had absolutely nothing to do with the other. I began to question everything I had been doing. I stared long and hard into my art, and myself. Years before I had studied tae kwon do and found it lacking. I sought out kung fu 'specifically', so I could be a badass martial arts fighter. That was not happening.

Another growing problem with collecting forms - the more of them I learned, the worse I actually became at martial arts. Even though my mistakes were aplenty in the first years of training, as I progressed ever closer to competing in Nationals, I felt that my abilities and precision with my forms grew markedly worse than it was in year 1.5 to 2 years into training. Even when I won two gold medals and a silver at Nationals, I felt scattered, all over the map, and certainly unable to allocate enough time and focus on any one thing to master it.

This frustration caused me to look for answers through the annals of history. As I scrolled through text, after text, I recognized a pattern - zero, or limited numbers of forms to each style. Nowhere in the history of these Chinese boxing styles did I see 50 forms, 30 forms, and certainly not 125 forms which some boast about in their curricula. Instead, I found at their roots - ba gua: 1 form; tai chi: 0 forms; eagle claw: 3 forms; praying mantis boxing: 2, maybe 3 forms depending on who you talk to. Xing yi: 0 forms, Hung gar: 1 form.

This was a significant revelation to me at the time, and I began to recognize the gaping flaw in my own training practices. Immediately I started throwing away forms I did not want. Show forms, acrobatic forms, and anything that seemed too contrary to the other forms I decided to keep. I also began researching the styles of kung fu that were of most interest to me, as I had encountered and practiced many at this point. These included - mantis boxing, eagle claw, long fist, southern fist, hung gar, tai chi, and over 17 types of Chinese weapons.

It had come down to this - ‘I had to narrow my focus’. I chose praying mantis (my original style) and tai chi. I kept tai chi only because the two were so similar to one another that I was able to focus on both in tandem. Following this pruning of the tree of knowledge, I sought out experts in those prospective styles to fill in the gaps years of misspent training had created.

That training ultimately served me well in the long run, but I could not help but feel discouraged and somewhat angry about all the time I had spent chasing these trivial, or ephemeral things I thought were going to make me better. I felt like Gollum in The Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings, ever chasing the ‘shiny precious’s’ down every crevasse of Mordor imaginable.

Eventually I found people with the knowledge that I truly sought, and the know-how to show me how to do what I enjoy most - breaking things apart and figuring out how they work. With this knowledge I have been able to reconnect the past to the present and have a new found appreciation for forms and the depth of knowledge that they often hold.

It’s amazing how many of the true fighting applications have been lost from Chinese boxing arts. But now, it is easy for me to understand why. If we took a string of 10 BJJ moves that we would apply based on our attacks, defense, and the opponent countering, and we then remove our partner, we have a form. A BJJ form.

If I took said form and taught that to a student, but did not show the application to each move, yet I was precise and particular about each detail being correct and just so, ensuring the individual were handed something that would work if needed, two things would result:

1. They wouldn't be able to use it for real, and…

2. After I taught them and was no longer watching over them, they would change something through forgetfulness, laziness, or just plain desire to do a move differently than the way it was originally taught.

Now that same student teaches that form to someone else. What happens then…? The fighting application is lost. Possibly for good, if no one else is carrying it on. One generation. Lost. That is all it takes.

Without function, a form is just an empty shell subject to the flaw of human transmission. It reminds us of the game telephone. Where people sit in a circle and one person whispers in the next persons ear, and each person is supposed to repeat it around the circle until it comes back to the originator. It is never the same sentence.

So ultimately, form should always match function, and function should be realistic and achievable in full speed all out combat. This keeps integrity in the system, and keeps our martial arts honest.

If we are in a style with forms, how many is the right number? I would counter with - how many applications do you need in your style? An average form in Chinese boxing has 30 to 50 moves in it. If the form is a specialization set, e.g., its primary mission is kicks, then it may be lacking when it comes to offense/defense in a real fight.

If the forms is a boxers arsenal, then it will likely contain strikes, kicks, throws, and counters that they considered their primary method of fighting.

How many forms do you need in a 'forms-based’ format? If you only do forms, and do not practice how to use the techniques inside, how many forms/routines can you remember, or reasonably practice before seeing your skills drop. This is completely arbitrary, but for me, when my training had a heavy forms focus, 3 to 5 was plenty.

In 2004 when I traveled to Pennsylvania for the Nationals Qualifiers, I had three forms I competed with. Once I qualified, I decided for Nationals I was going to compete with 5 forms. This expansion was a mistake. Although I did well in the two of the three divisions I competed in at qualifiers, the other sets suffered. I had less polish on them.

If you practice forms, and you know each of the applications, consider testing these on a live and resistant partner(s) to keep the applications intact as intended. Making sure they can stand up to someone throwing multiple punches not just stepping in and throwing one strike.

If you have no idea what your forms do, but you want to learn:

• If possible, seek out good teachers in your style that might know the answers. This saves you time/energy of reinventing the wheel.

• If that is not an option, then find a martial art based in real technique such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, jiu-jitsu, judo, wrestling, shuai jiao, sumo, etc. This way you can have a solid self-defense system to accompany your forms.

• If your style is multi-faceted, take up boxing for a while to learn more about hands, upper body, positioning, and footwork. Kickboxing, muay thai, or silat for kicking power, and skills. Take up judo or shuai jaio to learn throws, trips, takedowns. Wrestling, and/or BJJ for grappling experience. Learning BJJ has helped me unlock so much more understanding of my mantis boxing.

• Above all else - SPAR! Not point sparring either. Test your skills and you will have invaluable lessons to help you weed out bad techniques from the good.