Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Finding the Pace and the Heart of a Form

forms martial arts forms tournament competition Dec 23, 2007

Many years ago, I received some excellent advice from a female karate black belt judge who consistently scored me very low in tournament competition, even when other judges scored me high. I usually performed Hsing-I forms in tournaments back then.

This went on for a couple of years. So I approached her after one competition and said, "Critique my form."

She told me that I blew through it like a house on fire. There was no pacing, she said. I thanked her for the advice.

Naturally, at first I thought, "Oh, what does she know," and then as I thought about it for the next few minutes, I realized she was right on the money. When I watched the video of the performance, I knew exactly what she was saying.

I was performing the movements and trying to get through the form without giving the movements the full life that they deserved. I compared it to the advice I used to give young TV news anchors that I hired, when they read each story, whether it was a murder or a story abo...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Finding the Pace and the Heart of a Form

Author - Instructor

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