Form or Function First?

I was reading a post from a HEMA blog, “Guy Windsor; Function first, then form. Finding seconda with the rapier” the other day and it reminded me how often this came up when I was first learning how to fight. I learned all of the Kenpo Karate basics, kata (forms), and techniques for each belt level. My instructors would always insist on the low horse stances, hard bows and soft bows. It was a good workout and all of the moves seemed to work better with good form.

Fast forward to sparring training later and I soon discovered that that function was more important than form. That is not to say that form was no longer important but my focus was mostly on connecting with attacks or not getting hit on defense! Having a good functional reverse punch that fully extended, where possible, was key no matter what my stance looked like. I would improve my form over time but hitting him/her was key!

I recall one time (1978) when a couple of Tang Soo Do fighters came over to my instructor’s Tracy’s Karate Studio in San Diego and wanted to have a friendly challenge with our fighters. I was only a brown belt at the time but I was happy to oblige as it was fun to fight marital artists of different styles.

The Tang Soo Do fighters were disappointed to see there was only me as they were advanced belts and I was an intermediate belt. But at the time I was a bouncer and had plenty of real fights under my belt so I was confident and happy to represent the school.

I sparred with both gentlemen but one of them got pretty upset at me. You see the Korean stylists had beautiful kicks! They did a lot of jump spinning follow on kicks to keep coming at me. Their hands and feet were in the perfect positions. Only one problem. That could not land anything on me!

One of the Tank Soo Do fighters was pretty upset at me because he saw that I understood critical distance (the distance where the other fighter is just out of range from any attack) and I was staying on my side of that distance unless I had an advantage. I threw mostly reverse punches and some lunge punches to his ribs and kidneys after every kick combo. I then retreated at a different angle.

You see a reverse punch is where one twists the whole body into your back hand low punch to the opponents body. If you hit the bread basket (solar plexus) you will knock the wind out of him. If you use a lunge (attacking offensively) it is even harder. Most untrained people cannot take one of these punches to the face as it will knock you out (assuming one relaxes and extends through the target).

Getting to the form over substance – I did not care where I hit these guys from because if any one of those kicks had landed – I would be potentially on the losing end soon. I just made the reverse punches work so the attackers would have a cost for every flying kick they threw at me.

The Korean stylist was saying repeatedly I had poor form. He was getting madder and madder. After about 10 or 15 minutes I stopped fighting and he wanted to keep going. I knew at this point if he came at me I had to take him out. Luckily his partner clamed him down.

Later in the office my instructor smoothed relations and they both complemented me on my good use of critical distance and they joked they would remember me. I joked that their ribs would remember for sure and we parted with a mutual respect. I know I wished I could kick like they could.

So I would say to learn the form in practice and make it functional when you are sparring. Better form will come as you make the technique more effective!