A Modest Proposal for Tae Kwon Do Form Creation

A couple of weeks ago I attended the evening class on a form-practicing night. I like forms, even though I have a hard time wrapping my head around them. I get all the tae guks mixed together, and before every testing I have to review and sort them out again. But I do like the way forms give me a good workout--I practice forms for fifteen minutes, really focusing, and I'm sweating.

But mostly, folks, when they're done right, forms just look cool. At the evening class I attended each belt rank performed their forms, from white belt to black. The black belts did... um, a form with a Korean name that I don't remember. I told you, they all run together to me, especially the ones I don't know yet. But I'm starting to understand things well enough to pick apart what they're doing a little--I identify a block here, a kick there. I watched the black belt form performed twice. Just amazing.

What's missing from these forms for me, though, is the materialization of the Mythical Form Opponents: we're supposed to be blocking and kicking these Imaginary Bad Guys. I want to see the form performed with all the Bad Guys doing their thing, and then the form performer kicking the heck out of the Bad Guys. The Mythical Form Bad Guys, though, are apparently not bright enough to join together and gang up on the defender, by all coming from the same direction at once.

Is there someone in charge of new form creation? (I am so new to tae kwon do, there could be and I've just never heard of it). I think someone should invent a form where the Mythical Form Opponent is a gang of eight or nine thugs all coming at you from the same direction. Smart thugs. That could be more useful. Or maybe a form where you beat up the first guy, and then yell "The rest of you bad guys hiding in all the other directions? Y'all go home now, cause I'm gonna turn around and do the same thing to you I just did to this guy." And then you can give a courtesy Kiyup and bow, and be done.

Or not. Because let's face it, that would look lame. And the best thing about learning forms? Being able to perform something that looks sharp, precise, and just plain cool.