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Question 002: Pattern usefulness

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“Even reading a book would be a much better use of your time the [than] memorizing and repeating a dead pattern.” Periodically, while typing on the computer, I get up and do a form. It helps keep the body loose and relaxed. Tai Chi is the most popular exercise program in China. Why? Because it works. Patterns were never meant to be a purely physical exercise. They are a mental exercise, such as the old “figures” that were once required in figure skating. The figures were not technically or physically difficult to do, but they required intense concentration and precise movement. Difficult to do; boring to watch. So, to gain more spectators and television viewers, they were dropped. To perform a precise form in a competition takes intense concentration, and it is physically taxing, as anyone who had performed a form correctly will attest to.

Forms do not have to include fighting techniques to make you a better fighter. The best way to become a better fighter is to fight all the time. But when not fighting, forms are an excellent training technique. Not the only training technique, but one of many different training techniques. It is the final product that matters, not the way individual parts were made.

I was just reading some things on your site about patterns and their benefits. However, I have read elsewhere about why they are not only not beneficial but somewhat detrimental. It was an article from a Brazilian jiu-jitsu group called Straight Blast Gym Intl., the link to the article is http://www.straightblastgym.com/street03.htm. I've just been contemplating some of the things I used to do back in my Shotokan days, namely forms, and if I would be where I am if I stayed. I'd just like to know what you would say in response to what that person says, about them being counter-productive, suggested training methods, and so on (the argument seems pretty substantial...).