Adaptation.

By Julius Anastasio
Julius Anastasio is a Green Belt at Wu Dao

Last year, a little over a week before I was competing I realized my form was too short for the advanced division (there was a 45 second minimum length). After tinkered around a bit and adding a few extra moves, I wound up adding enough time to avoid any time penalty.

One of the relatively silly rules that you will find in many tournaments is that you have to start and finish a form in the same "quadrant." This becomes a problem if the particular form you've decided to do isn't designed to actually start and finish in the same place. This year, we had to add a few extra moves to Zhen Shan Gun in order for it to start and finish in the same spot.

The form with the new variation looks a little like the video below, minus the look of total exhaustion and overall lack of intent in any of the movements.



The video is courtesy of my mom, who decided to tape me after I'd been training for an hour in slightly over-sized borrowed running shoes (we were at my parent's house and I forgot my martial arts shoes at home).

One of the major reasons behind learning a form is to develop the fluid transitions necessary to connect individual techniques into fighting application (you certainly wouldn't want to reset yourself after every technique you did). But this is only one stage of martial training. Besides what you see in Hollywood, fights are not made up of choreographed routines or sequential forms. Settling into predictable rhythms can be deadly in a confrontation. The world is unexpected, and you must learn to respond to this uncertainty. While it's caused me many a headache, improvisation and adaptation are fundamental components of martial arts training. While routines are comfortable and very helpful, change can be good, and very helpful. Now if only I can get these new moves memorized...

13 days until the tournament.