Hyungs, Katas, or Forms

For the experienced martial artists here. Do you find the traditional martial arts hyungs (korean), kata (japanese) or simply forms as they are called by us westeners as the best form of moving fitness training? These prearranged technique patterns are created for coordination, concentration, focus and meditation. In this era of mixed (non-traditional) martial arts in which hyungs, katas, or forms are seen as a useless activity not in reality to real fighting. Do you feel as I do that these traditional activities are as valid as they have been for warriors since ancient times? Can you not have traditional and non-traditional martial arts as a comprehensive training program?

 

I personally view forms as art or demonstration. So many people have become obsessed with the fighting portion of martial arts, that they look down on other parts that make it up.

 

The only thing about (karate) katas is they can be quite rigid, particularly in the lower belt stages. The Japanese art I'm forever devoted to now doesn't have traditional katas and is a very short (and flowing) formed style. None of this 2-3 minute routine. We are not for show.

 

Aikido?

 

i know..she's so vague

if you wanna take something short and to the point tho with absolutely no forms (fuck it, no belts either), try boxing or muay thai

as a side note, i still practice some forms from TKD

like i said..they're like a work of art..a painter painting a portrait..and i always had an affinity for that

 

We do forms each and every time at my sansoo classes and I find them very useful for many reasons. And we are not for show one little bit.

 

i'm a training amateur boxer , you don't train anything your not going to do or help in a real fight . best thing to do in my opinion is shadow box or shadow kickbox .... katas ? what are you doing that for ? it's predesigned (unlike a real fight) question ,how many times have you seen a kung fu ,karate person get
in a fight and they get in their stance and as soon as the fight starts they start
fighting like a wild street person. i've seen it plenty of times .that's cause they are not practicing real fight training ,how many times have you seen someone get karate chopped in a real fight ? me .....zero ,so why practice it ?

 

When I was a kid we used to try out shit we saw in the movies when we were playfighting.

Surprisingly, the Captain Kirk Starfleet academy hand to hand combat is not as effective as one would think.

 

lmao

 

I had taken up shotokan karate, tae kwon do and Fu style tai chi. In all those methods of study, I became so humble, I came away with a respect for all life and did not care about making black belt. In tkd, we were graded on everything. I made it to yellow belt decided. I wated to compete when I made camouflage belt(it meant you were a street fighter in the dojang I studied at). I did not make it. When I studied tai chi, my instructor always told me to relax. Tae kwon do made me a little stiff.

 

I had read that the martial arts for real world are, krav maga, may thai kickboxing, jeet kune do(Bruce Lee's style), judo, jiu jitsu(and Brazilian jiu jitsu), western style boxing and a few others. Mixed martial arts demystified traditional martial arts.

 

Kata is meditative experience, it aligns your mind with body movements that don't exactly come naturally. Will I use an axe kick in a fight? Probably not but the movement makes my front kick a hell of a lot more strong and accurate.
I also find it funny that we don't think all the training things you do in muy thai and boxing aren't the same thing as katas. You're fighting an imaginary person based on fix positioning. The only training that might prepare you for a fight is sparring but even that to me is a little bs since you know there are no real consequences. Wanna learn how to street fight? Take your ass down to where the homeless sleep and pick a fight.

 

Yeah yeah, that's all well and good Bruce Leroy but can you answer me this one question...







































































































WHO'S THE MASTA???!!!

 

pretty much

when 4th degree black belts in karate started getting KO'd by a mofo who can box, all that Asian, mystic unstoppable martial arts > everything else went out the door:shock:

now mofos just want to learn how to fight, and leave all that show-off shit out

 

When they knock out monks Ill cosign this lol.
Btw you ever been to Blink Gym?

 

no

but seriously tho....all that east asian shit was hyped up by westerners through film and whatever

any old timer fighter will tell you that..westerners were just amazed and intrigued by ninjas, karate and all that other stuff and just really ran with it in the west

all those flashy moves and high kicks....there's a reason you don't see them in mixed martial arts

 

I think high kicks arent used because dudes dont have the patience to learn how to execute them properly. Theres a reason certain techniques have survived for centuries.

 

world-class fighters that live and breathe martial arts (i guess even they dont know how to execute them properly ) wont use the shit against other fighters

centuries of survival or not, that should tell you something

 

To be fair one on one fighting in a ring is way different than battle fighting. Katas and other forms wetent designed for compeition fighting

 

Guy's my apology for not staying in touch on this one. It has been extremely busy for me in the past month. I personally believe the martial artists can have the best of two world's in traditional and non-traditional. The training in the use of kata's (forms) serves as an aid in balance, coordination, concentration,body mechanics,power, focus and technique. This i believe is a powerful routine in exercise, philosophy, tradition and meditation all rolled into one to improve the mind's concentration (which aids in academic performance as the asians have shown us), the body's coordination, and the spirit's karma. The non-traditional realm offers much the same in a full ballistic approach of strength, flexibility and cardiovascular performance at a high tempo. I think you can have the best of both world's.