so i've noticed that there seem to be a huge amount of variations on terms for forms, and that sometimes these vary from association to association, and other times, interestingly, from country to country. JMA are an exception, since 'kata' literally translates to form or shape, and JMA people tend to say only those. in KMA you have TKD's 'hyung'/'tul'/'poomsae' distinction. i believe other KMA (kuk sool?) use hyung. in CMA you have 'xing' (shape/form, same character as kata, iirc) and 'taolu' ('way-road', more or less, if i'm not mistaken) in english, 'form' is usually employed, but TKD forms are referred to as 'patterns'. spanish and portuguese tend to see the use of 'forma' (form), but when i was living in paraguay, where i started training, TKD people tended to refer to them as 'fórmulas' (formulae). then again, they also said 'tekondo' (probably due to non-fluent korean teachers), and mangled the spanish grammar when naming certain things like the roundhouse kick . additionally, in brazil, at least one kung fu org (the first one there, in fact) uses the term 'kachi'/'katchi' (unsure of romanization, think it's cantonese, dunno the characters), apparently meaning 'frame' or 'structure', due to a preference from the head sifu, and i've heard it used by someone from an entirely different art when referring to kung fu forms. lastly, i've seen two french people from different styles refer to their forms simply as 'tao' ('way'), and a third one use 'taolu'. i find this peculiar and quite interesting. has anyone else encountered anything like this? perhaps with another MA term? ...yes, i'm bored.
A local Freestyle (karate) group i visit occasionaly uses the term "Yuksu" for their Bunkai/oyo practices. I questioned it once and they said something like it refers to an early definition which they take to be more accurate. I cant remember the full word right now, but they simply say yuksu. Also, here is another Korean term for form or pattern: "Palgwe"
Palgwe is really just a set of forms. So Taeguk, Palgwe and Yundanja are all sets of Poomsae. My understanding anyway.
Xing refers to the shape/position/posture of the body in the execution of a given technique, IE; the correct form for a roundhouse kick. Taolu refers more towards linked sequences of movements, ala - Kata etc.
In the Filipino martial arts, terminology is always complicated, owing to the myriad indigenous dialects, terminology borrowed from Spanish, and terminology adapted from English. Whole books could be written on it. I've studied two FMAs that employed preset "forms." In one school, we used the term "sayaw" ("dance"). In another (Modern Arnis), they use the term "anyo." To make it extra confusing, some places use the term "anyo" to describe prearranged forms and "sayaw" to describe freestyle movement akin to shadowboxing. You may also hear "kadena" ("chain") to describe that as well. There are probably many other terms in use, to boot.
interesting! . dan djurdjevic calls them 'xing', however (again, using the same character for kata - 形).
I think Silat forms are called jurus (alternate spelling: djurus), and from what I've gathered from Bob Orlando's stuff, the lower-body equivalent are called langkahs. Of course, I'd appreciate if an actual Silat practitioner would either confirm or deny.
In the KMA there is a kind of "catch-phrase" ---"Beop" (lit: "method") which can be used to identify an entire approach to using a weapon, an approach to a situation or an approach to mastering a kind of usage. It all depends on how fine one wishes to slice their practice. Best Wishes, Bruce
I'm not a silat practitioner. Just had brushes with it through JKD. But that's my understanding as well. Limited though that may be.
Djurus are usually a very few basic movements performed with very little or no stepping.Langkas are more like a regular form/kata/etc w/mutiple techniques and stepping. At least that was my experience in Silat. Fish-you forgot CMA people will refer to forms/katas/etc as sets, or even kuen/ch'uan. The late Wong,Ark-yuey referred to them as "performances".
