Our White and Yellow belts began learning their forms this week. Forms are an important part of traditional martial arts. They provide structure and identity to the art as well as teaching us how to move in different ways. They challenge our memories as a longer combination, and when they’re well practiced they begin to take on a life of their own. Sensei James started today’s class by anchoring the students in their training spaces. Getting them familiar with moving around, forward and back, left and right. Then he began teaching them their scripts. If you’ve been paying attention to our program, everything our students do begins with a script. Their forms are no different. Learning the scripts to the forms are the key to successfully learning the forms. Here’s the script to count number 1 of Line Form,

“Left hand to right shoulder! Stinky Sock! The shoulder that I look over is the foot that I move! Step, Low Block!”

Sometimes, even when we know the script we can forget to listen to it. The usually will happen around the same time we need to turn to a new direction. This will get us all confused. But never fear if you don’t know which direction to turn here’s a handy little trick, just remember,

“When in doubt, pinkies out!”