Toi-Gye Under the Microscope - Practicality

Instead of focusing on two forms, and picking a theme, I wanted to introduce a new feature of my blog.  The "Under the Microscope" features will take one form and look at it a bit deeper.  I think Toi-Gye is a great place to start for this.  We're also going to slightly explore practicality in forms because there is a lack of it in Toi-Gye.

Toi-Gye is an interesting form for a few general reasons.  At 37 movements, it is the second longest form of the first nine.  It is also in my opinion one of the hardest of the first forms to learn, and certainly is tough to master.  It features repetition, but the difficulty of the techniques in sequence, the variety of technique and the lack of good practicality in the technique make it formidable. The lack of practicality trips students up because it is hard to execute a technique correctly if you can't visualize what you are supposed to be doing.  All of these factors nullify the repetition and make it a difficult form. 

The opening sequence starts off very practical, inner forearm block into low section spear finger (or palm strike - depending on your point of view - regardless a strike to the groin).  This is followed up by a pulling outer forearm block and down block thrown simultaneously.  Now, taking these techniques at face value it seems very unlikely that you would choose such a movement in the real world.  From the low groin strike it would make much more sense to just step away from an attack.  You are in a good position to step back with either leg really.  Again, I'm leaving certain viable interpretations of that move out, and only looking at the face value of a simultaneous outer and down block.

After the repeat of this sequence we see a practical Xblock low followed by the sort of practical twin high punch.  Front kick and punch reverse punch follow - all practical, and probably the easiest sequence in the entire form.

What comes next is by far and away, the most peculiar moves in all of the traditional Chang-Hon forms.  From the reverse punch we move to what can be best described as "stand like a Korean general in a photograph".  We scoop from the reverse punch to standing sideways on our primary line with our fists on our hips as if we were angry at someone.  There are ways to interpret this move as an actual TKD move and  there are  similar looking techniques in Gojushio Sho of Shotokan and in Tang-Soo-Do's Jin-Do.  In both of these cases though, after assuming the position, there is a 45 degree turn of the hips to indicate a kind of shoulder block.  That's not the case in Toi-Gye where the move feels like a pose rather than anything practical.  

I can think of a practical interpretation of the move in Toi-Gye quite easily.  The problem with interpretation at this point is that a lot of people (in my opinion) disregard Occam's razor in doing so.  Take a standard front kick thrown in a form - you could interpret it as "just a front kick" or you could interpret it as an escape from an ankle grab from the guy you just knocked down on the previous move.  While the later explanation is technically viable, it's not in my opinion a very probably interpretation.  Just because you can think outside the box and come up with an alternate view of what "could" be happening, doesn't make that a practical interpretation in my opinion.  Thinking outside of the box is fun, but instructors should not put their need to seem "smart" in the way of logic and common sense. 

From this point of the form, we launch into the 2-3-1 sequence of W shaped blocks.  This is a monument to impracticality.  Why you would Wblock so much, in so many ways and finish it with a low reverse guarding block is befuddling.

Arc-hand grab into knee strike speaks for itself, as does the turn to knife hand guarding block, the front kick, spearfinger and the repeat of that sequence.  The down block backfist combination is not the most practical move, but doesn't seem like it is as outlandish as a W shape block to pull off in a practical scenario.

The final piece of impracticality though comes in the "big move" of the form.  A jumping, low section X block in an X stance.  Coming up - I could not wait to learn this form, for this move alone.  It is unfortunately, completely impractical.  Why would you need to jump over something and then perform a low section block in a stance designed to lower your upper body?  Although I can come up with several reasons why this might be necessary, none of them speak with any kind of real logic.  To a certain extent I believe that certain sequences, or certain movements are more for art, and do not require a logical explanation.  Also as we'll see later in this post, the impractical can teach us something valuable, while having us perform something seemingly impractical. 

The form finishes with downward knife hand blocks followed by circular blocks - this repeats and the form ends with a punch.  This ending sequence is a wonderful lesson of how to transition from front to back stance properly and quickly.  It is a shining beacon of practicality in an otherwise impractical form.  That being said - does practicality matter?

Ultimately, I don't believe it does.  Although many of the sequences of movements in Toi-Gye are impractical, there is something valuable happening.

The movements of Toi-Gye  teach valuable skills while not being 100% practical techniques.  Toi-Gye is a form of "complicated double movements" - meaning you are moving both hands very independent of each other.  Simultaneous outer and down block, X block into double punch, "stand like a general", W block, down block back fist, low section X block in an X stance, twin knife hand block low, circular block...these are all techniques that require the use of both hands and most of these techniques require a more complicated "flight path" than standard reaction force (equal and opposite) movement. 

You are practicing all of this in one form.  So while it is easy to dismiss Toi-Gye as being impractical and thus "worthless" to do so would be to ignore the super valuable fundamental skills being taught - albeit in a round about "wax on, wax off" kind of way.