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Many color belts, and even some black belts, think that pattern training is a waste of time because it is not practical in sparring. Since sparring is exciting to perform and to watch, it has become a major part of today's Taekwondo training. Because of this concentration on sparring, many students look at sparring as a method of self-defense. Since sparring is basically a long-range method of fighting, many students forget that self-defense is usually a close-range, hand-to-hand situation.

Key to Freedom

Are you locked into the belief that pattern practice is useless in modern Taekwondo training? If so, you need a key to free you from this prison of thought that restricts your growth in Taekwondo. However, to quote Eric Hoffer, "When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate one another."

Some think patterns are restrictive; that they inhibit free expression. However, rather than being restrictive, they are actually liberating. Patterns keep your basics honed as you sharpen your other skills. Patterns keep you practicing your basics, while you seek your own sparring, self-defense, or breaking style.

Some people are not creative and are happy with repeating what works. I once had an in-law who could duplicate famous oil paintings so well that they looked like the originals. Although she was a talented painter, she was not an artist. She could duplicate, but not create. However, she was happy, and so were her customers. She would be happy with repeating traditional patterns. Other people get bored with repetition and want to experiment. For them, patterns keep them based in the fundamentals while they try new things.

Build Strength

A primary reason patterns were developed was to increase the ability to inflict pain upon aggressors in response to unprovoked acts of violence. Some think the performance of a perfect pattern is an end in itself. A sports car that does not start may look beautiful, but it cannot be viewed as perfect since it cannot perform the task it was designed for. A beautiful, entertaining pattern that uses techniques that are useless in combat is not a pattern, it is a merely a choreographed dance performance. Gichin Funakoshi in his book Karate-Do Kyohan states, “Once a form has been learned, it must be practiced repeatedly until it can be applied in an emergency, for knowledge of just the sequence of a form in karate is useless.” 

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