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| Me at a tournament long ago, flying side kick, took 2nd. |
Boy oh boy, this is my topic. Today I came across some
people who have had a really polite, yet disagreeable, topic on the net and I find
that refreshing. They were opinionated but not in a rude way. I love talking
about the forms. I know some WTF forms but I have never been coached on the applications
of the moves, however I had great coaching on the ITF forms.
My instructors broke down every move, as they felt it
applied, and did a pretty through job. I have a largely analytical mind, so I broke
the ITF forms down even further than I have ever been taught. If you look at
the belt meanings and back ground the forms become important because they teach you history of Korea, from a Korean
perspective. I feel it’s really important to get out of your way of thinking,
from time to time, and listen to other perspectives. Very refreshing.
I implore you to read through the above link and hear them
out. Again, they only speak from their perspectives, being what they know, and
although I may disagree I respected what they said. You have to take criticism
like theirs constructively and ask yourself a question; are the forms to teach
you TKD as a martial art, or as a martial sport? From my perspective it looks
like that has been the discussion all along in TKD, is it real or is it “sport
real”. I enjoy the sport, but if you know me then you know I side with the
martial art philosophies.
Sport strategies I believe can be taught in drills and by
sparing, but the forms are what are going to preserve the martial art;
therefore I am for keep the integrity of the ITF forms and maintaining their
martial teachings. The sport has grown over the last three decades into
something bigger than what most could have seen coming, but sports change. This
one already has, so if you continuously change the forms then you lose the true
teachers of the founders.
Although I am athletic, I don’t fancy myself an athlete, but
instead a martial artist. I hope that rings true with you as you read my
writings, and even if you are heavy into the sport I would hope you could come
to see the difference in perspectives. (If you don’t already)
So I know a lot about ITF forms, some about WTF forms, but
ATA forms I don’t really know. They seemed to have started their own thing; I have
never really looked into it. But here are their forms.
They seem to have evolved from ITF, obviously because of
some of the patterns, but when I have seen ATA guys perform them at tournaments
they seem like they are done for show. I would like to learn more about the
approach in teaching ATA perspective. I will leave off with that.
Peace.
