Martial arts question. Has any of you modified any parts of your forms to suit you and if yes why?

Yes I have and so have some of my classmates. Reason is usually do to physical issue like an injury. I had a broken foot and couldn't do certain kicks for 6 months so my instructor and I modified it for the time being. One of my styles white belt forms has a inside crescent kick than jump spin inside crescent kick turn 180 around and do again. I couldn't do that for abt the first year do to hip injuries. So we did a step behind and spin instead. Another classmate has bad knees and a fused ankle so we modified the forms to adapt to his body.

Some people will shame you for such. We look at it this way forms are not set in stone as long as you know the original form without modification that is intended. And at times due to injury and ability they can be modified to accommodate to the students injury. And this is the exception.

Otherwise a student should do the form correctly not modified. As for "I don't understand" or "I can't do it" (and it is not a ailment or injury). Than yes I agree it should not be modified. The student needs to work on it and perfect it.

Yes.

I don't think it necessary to change our kata. They have more than enough to handle anything I might have to face. But I have modified some thing for my personal benefit. Nothing was wrong with the way it should be done. But because of my physical limitations due to a car accident I can't do a few things. So I made changes to allow me to still train.

Example: Pinan Godan

There is a portion of the kata when you go to one knee doing an x-block. I can't go to the ground and get up like I used to so I don't go to one knee. In another kata I don't do a jumping kick. If not for the physical limitations I would not make a change. If I have a student that has so,e limitations they will know what is supposed to be done and how to modify it for their limitation.

I did some when I first started competing on the NASKA national circuit. I also always had another strictly traditional, black-belt kata ready in the event of a tie and would sometimes even do that instead if the judges seemed to be more from the traditional side of things. Later since I had been competing in the black-belt traditional Japanese/Okinawan kata division they became stricter and passed rules against some things like no machine gun kicks, gymnastics type moves, or kicks higher than the head and no more than three kicks to the head in a kata. My competition kata only had two kicks to the head and none of that other junk and in that kata only one kick is actually to the head so it really was not much difference for me.

I also always had the first kata that I ever learned ready as well and of course in local or regional tournaments that I would sometimes go to for a tune-up for a national tournament later that month there was always more chance of ties because they only scored to the second decimal place. In national tournaments they score out to three decimal places and its always panel of five judges for adult black belts and seven judges for any grand champion round and that would reduce the chances of ties considerably.

I would sometimes change the angle that I would start my kata from in relation to the judges. I would do that because sometimes the space was not that large. If I had a strained leg muscle and wanted to hide a little imperfection or weak kick from the judges then I would also start my kata from an angle so as to hide that a little better and its important where you start your kata in relation to the judges. You don't want to come so close that you are almost hitting or kicking them but you don't want to start and do your kata so far away that they can not clearly see the quality of your stances, technique, along with getting a real feel for the power and the speed to a lesser extent that you are doing your kata with.

In Juche, I could not do the split kick at all. Now I can do a mediocre one. I first

a) replaced the split kick with two kicks----a front kick, and a black kick

b) then, I replaced those kicks with a very low V kick.

c) once I got a decent height on the V kick, I replaced it with a split kick

I did that so that I could learn the form even though I could not do all of the moves.

I also have used Pinan Idan (Tangsoodo), (Won Yo in ITF TKD, Pinan Chodan in Okinawan Karate, Heian Shodan in Shotokan if memory serves me correctly) as a staff form so I could compete in a weapons division.

Other modifications, if any, are because I either learned a new version, or made a mistake in remembering it.

Possum wrote: "Sometimes, a stomp will be preceded by a crescent kick - both ITF and WTF have "keumgang makki", or "mountain block" - and this block is usually landed with a stomp. But sometimes that stomp will be preceded by a crescent kick. " Come to find out I was always taught the crescent kick versions because my teachers felt I had the flexibility to pull it off.

Yes and so have my teacher over the course of time. The forms he taught to us back when I first began although is still recognizable in the forms we practice today it is not exactly the same. Plus, most of the senior students are senior in terms of age so we don't do much if any high jumps or jump kicks if they are in the forms.

One interesting point regarding the change in forms is that in some of the postures that were changed they were done because my teacher thought that the modifications his teacher made did not improve on the original - so we in fact reverted back to how the great grandmaster did them.

I personally have not, so no. However, I have been in WTF taekwondo for over 3 decades, and I have seen my style's forms change over the years, and these changes were made by our organization. These changes were deliberate, gradual, and with purpose.

The most profound changes are the stances. Way back when, the stances in the forms were very close to the way the Palgwe forms execute their stances, and the Palgwe forms were very close to Shotokan Karate and the way they did their stances, which were wide and deep.

In the last 20 years, the stances gradually changed to more condensed and narrow format. The reason was because the wide and deep stance afforded the stylist power, balance, and stability. The change to short and narrow was a deliberate (and documented) change so that the practitioner achieved speed and agility, and power and balance was reduced.

Another profound change was the chambering hand moved from the chest down to the hips.

About 5 or so years ago, WTF/Kukkiwon tried to create new forms for competition only. There were 3 forms created, hanryu, bigak, and I don't know the third. These forms are not meant for self-defense, they were put together with asthetics and difficulty in mind - creative forms put into official curriculum. At least, that was the plan, and it never happened.

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ITF underwent several changes to its forms as well.

In the beginning, there were 24 forms. Over time, one form was repalced (Juche replaced by Ko-Dang). Also, ITF gradually introduced the sine wave - their forms didn't originally contain them, although by the time Gen Choi wrote his encyclopedia, the forms used the sine wave. And later, the sine wave grew out of favor with many instructors, and so ITF could be said to be divided into two styles: those who use the sine wave, and those who don't.

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Instructors and competitors often add additional movements, such as a double or triple side kick where a single one was called for - this creates difficulty and challenges for the practitioner. Other times, a double punch is added instead of a single punch. Sometimes, an instructor wants side kicks to be held for a few seconds, or, all side kicks are thrown with a side punch. Sometimes, a stomp will be preceded by a crescent kick - both ITF and WTF have "keumgang makki", or "mountain block" - and this block is usually landed with a stomp. But sometimes that stomp will be preceded by a crescent kick.

There are a myriad details instructors will add. I don't change forms, but from an instructional aspect for beginners, I might slow down the pace, or break a double technique into two distinct movements.

But I never modify a form myself. It's not that I don't believe in the practice, but, Korean styles are not particularly old, and it is known that the forms were borrowed and adapted (read: "modified") from other styles. So little has been written about them (in so far as the applications behind them) that changing them here and there doesn't seem so sacrosanct. But there has to be a better reason for changing a form other than "I don't understand it". So I would easily forgive an instructor for making a rational change, though I wouldn't do it myself.

No and yes. I don't purposely try to do it, but if I'm being taught the form a certain way that doesn't make sense I'll try to change the way that I learn said form. I always hope to keep the correct form, but I'll often change the techniques to fit the situation as needed.

Yes I've changed them and no there is no benficial reason..

The changes I made mostly just felt comfortable and right but every time I go back to my original Kyokushin school I realise that what it is is sloppy and fix it.

good call there, everyone will naturally throw some of their own personality into forms, like holding chambers just a li'l xtra longer, deepen certain stances, timing ect.....older forms are pretty much straight forward and by the book though.

Yes,

Some of it was intentional other parts were not, I think its only natural that you change your style over time, as you better understand your ability's and limitations