Reluctant to ever try again alone, I was inspired by recent posts and ambitious self learning of my peers and started to consider teaching myself a form not from a different style of martial art, but a different style of Taekwondo. Still wary of the process, I posted in an instructors group asking for opinions on how I should undertake this. On one hand, I wanted to be true to the style I was borrowing from, but because of my past experience playing with the Shotokan form, I was considering just translating what I didn't understand from the borrowed art to what I believed its equivalent would be in my own. Thankfully, I was talked out of this, by some of the most awesome artists in the world.
I fell in love with Sipjin a long time ago. As soon as youtube was founded, I started scouring it for different martial arts content, and I came across and watched all of the WT forms. The video quality back then was terrible, and I assumed I'd have to wait until I met someone who know the WT forms to teach me. Sipjin is cross shaped, and all of the videos would just show the back of the practitioner. Since the vocabulary is radically different from my own, written instructions were not helpful at all.
Thankfully video quality has improved significantly since the early 2000s. I was able to find a video where the person filming showed the front of the practitioner when they turned away from the camera. Finding this video, and seeing my peers self teaching and experimenting I set out to teach myself the form.
All in all, it took me about 2 hours from first watch to being able to do the form without referring back to the video. It felt very good to be able to learn a new form again. As a self labeled "forms person", when I came out of my 6th dan test, and realized I was done learning new forms I felt lost. This allowed me to fill a void I was currently struggling with.
I'm not going to go too in depth with analysis as the form is not from my style. While I can certainly emulate the motions, I'd be lying if I said I fully understand what is going on. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of opinions, but as I was not instructed on this form from an actual WT instructor, I am reluctant to talk too much about the technical.
What drew me to Sipjin in the first place were the amount of slow to fast transitions in the form. This is something that I love in forms, and I believe I am quite good at. Of all the WT forms, this one seems to have the most Japanese influence, at least in its over all architecture. Unlike the Chang-hon, I can't tie this form back to a specific Japanese form, most likely because it was designed without that direct influence.
The opening sequence sees you throw what I would call a braced inner forearm block, slowly turning it over in what I would say is a reverse of a wrist grab, and then executing a fast flat spear finger and two quick punches. This is done two more times in the form. These slow to fast transitions allows a practitioner who is good at this to really show a great deal of contrasting technique, meaning the slow moves accentuate the fast moves to make both look super.
The next aspect of the form I liked was the "pushing rock" technique or Bawi Milgi. I could make a couple of guesses as to what it is for, but they'd be just guesses. Although I loved the ascetics of the movement, I was pleasantly surprised at how this movment in particular along with the higher, narrower stances seemed to be working muscle groups that were under used in my training. I was sore in places I was never sore after working on it. This was truly enjoyable!
I did not film myself doing the form. My basement is currently a mess, and with a new addition to the family in the form of my daughter, making a presentable video is very low on my priority list. The form is easily found on youtube, and videos showing each individual movement from multiple angles are easy to find. I'll never advocate going against school norms but if you won't offend your instructors by learning something outside of your skill set, this is a great form to learn. I loved the form when I would watch it when I was younger, and now I appreciate the beauty and style the form presents. Let's just say that if I had my own school or system, I'd likely incorporate this form somehow - that's how much I enjoy the form now that I sort of know it.
