Writing It Down

People say there are lots of different styles of learning, such as visual, tactile, aural, etc. I haven't figured out yet which style fits me best. I do know, however, that with regard to studying, I have most success with writing things down. With this in mind, I have been writing descriptions of karate techniques ever since I started.

Actually I experimented at first with stick figure diagrams, and then briefly looked into using dance notation as a way of recording forms, but I eventually abandoned these ideas as too labor-intensive, and also too arcane to share with other people. Now I just write stuff down.

Here's an example of my notation for the first Cross-Hand technique in Ho Sin Sul (Self-Defense):

One-on-One Cross-Hand Grab (Opponent grabs defender’s right wrist with his right wrist.)
1. Il Ban (Number One)
a. Rotate right wrist inward and pull toward left shoulder, breaking hold; simultaneously deliver right elbow strike to face.
b. Stepping out to the right into side stance (45 degrees), chop to jaw with right hand.
c. Pivot into right front stance, while delivering left palm strike to face. Ki-hap!
d. Pivot into left front stance, while delivering low spear hand strike to groin, right. Ki-hap!
e. Pivot back into right front guard stance, with left hand forward (open hand).

Forms, because of their complexity, can get very lengthy. Bassai, for example, with fifty-two moves, takes up two full pages and then some. I try to have each bullet point correspond to a move in the form as it would be announced when going step-by-step, or "by the count."

Recently I realized that I had neglected to write up notation for my newest form, Naihanchi Cho Dan. When I started to work on it last night, I found that even though the form itself is quite short, many more words were required to describe it. This is because so much is packed into each move. A defining characteristic of this form is the utilization of the hip, which takes longer to describe than, for example, "punch left."

I haven't finished writing up Naihanchi yet (I kept having to get up and actually do the form until I was able to include all the features of each step before going on to the next. After that I will work on recording Il Soo Sik (One-Step Sparring) techniques #17 and #18. That will bring me up to date, at least until October, or whenever I receive my promotion to Cho Dan. Then I will begin learning and recording a whole new set of forms and techniques.