The empty pattern

There has always been the empty pattern, the one executed by a large number of practitioners searching a stylistic perfection very difficult to use in actual self defense.  A number of factors are involved in a pattern’s developing that in rare occasions are taken into account.

In Taekwon-Do, General Choi, its undisputed founder and developer, included countless details in designing the 24 patterns that support his art. Symbolism and chronology illustrates significant dates of ancestral Korea and the persons who fed its history. The amount of movements and the diagram are significant details related with these actors. . Beyond this admirable historical summary, however, lies the method of executing each of the 970 movements involved, many repeated, some symmetrically and others not.

Their structures have evolved? Without any doubt that so it is, but only in its Founder’s hands.

What was done after his passed away was only the delirium of those who consider themselves more papist than the Pope, most of them being basically non-believers to summarize the elliptical of the sentence.

Students ’use of the body has also changed. Today, performances are far more artistic and controlled. The need to stand out in the numerous tournaments where patterns must be showcased has spurred these eloquent displays.

There has been endless discussion about the sports focus of the art and its limited martial orientation. This trend has significantly impacted the execution of movements, which, beyond a biomechanical variety encouraged by the lack of a single governing entity, are often performed with a marked lack of intention and power.

The obsession with fulfill the details imposed in the «seminars» dictated in this regard, has turned the execution totally dissociated from the true meaning of the movements. The performer only think in carry out the demanded details but not in the intention of it. In other words, the practitioner’s mind is focused on fulfilling details, not on the practical utility of the movement.

Among the many things that feed the structure of patterns (symbolism, history, diagram and its biomechanics) is the reason for each movement. The study of this detail allows us to relate with the intention that its creator gave to each and every one of the movements. Without this we are only executing a choreographic show, looking good but empty of content. The question to ask yourself is as follow: when I am executing a pattern am I doing it to satisfy the guru who gave the last seminar or I’m doing it to improve my effectiveness in self-defense?; because that is what it is about, self-defense or is this a thing of the past?

It is also curious that the leaders setting the new rules have overlooked the detail of starting from one point and returning to that same exact spot, as the rule and diagram specify. This important detail will lead them to corroborate whether the biomechanics is correct or not, because if it is not, be sure that you will not return to the starting point.  The patterns are one way among others to train movements for self-defense against several opponents, difficult to achieve in the sport free sparring that is designed only against one opponent and with a number of regulatory restrictions.

Studying patterns significantly improves body control and angles in executing attacks and blocks, both from the ground and in the air. It is understood that each and every one of the movements is designed to protect the practitioner’s physical integrity, so they must be performed with naturalness, free from rigidity, and with maximum power. Choreographed performances that lack this perspective merely feed the empty form, crafted solely to satisfy the standards of the judges at the next tournament.

SGM Ricardo Desimone   

to be aware read again the previous notes