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Posted By: Duncan
Thanks!
I ask because I had a confusing conversation with my instructor (translated from Chinese to Hungarian and then into English) where I asked about animal forms and was told "there are no animal forms".
This was confusing as we learn a number of forms and there are certainly movments described as snake or dragon, and I'm yet to learn animal forms specifically. If the movements range from one to five (for each animal) perhaps my instructor doesn't regard these as forms in itself.
I must try the multi-lingual questioning again tomorrow night! 
Cheers,
Duncan | ” |
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Hey Dunc, dont listen to Slick, he dont quite get it yet :P (He need to study more
)
Your teacher is right that there are no animal forms. There are animals, but not forms. Forms are a collection of movements into a sequence which is then remembered.
True xing yi is not about forms. True xing yi is about being able to flow from one technique to the next, based on the opponents actions/reactions. If you just learnt forms, you'd end up like them taiji lot
Think of the animals not as a collection of movements (and for the record, there are a shed load more than 1 - 5 per animal!), but as a strategy of overcoming your opponent.
Here comes my famous example:
Tiger and Eagle are both meat eating animals. However, you dont see an eagle biting the throat of its prey, and nor do you see the tiger smashing the animal into the ground, or flipping upside down to catch it from underneath.
Both animals kill, both do it effectively, but both do it differently. THAT is xing yi.
Understand it better now
