Wu style 54 Form (Competition Form) 16 February 2008

The workshop was given by Don Spargo primarily to teach the 54 form or competition form to the group. In the event most people had had some experience of practising the form so it was for some refinement rather than a new experience.

Don began by talking about the history of the form and how it had been designed by Grandmaster Wu Kong Yu and senior members of the Hong Kong Academy between 2000 and 2002. The form is a subset of the 108 movements of the Wu style Fast Form. This however does not mean it is just like the 108 movement form but speeded up. The competition form has its own particular characteristics of smoothness or continuity of movement and a larger frame than the standard form. All the Forms are recognisably similar to the 108 standard form, but different. There are also a few changes in the sequence of the forms from that in the standard Form.

The aim of creating a competiton form was so that in competitions judges would have a single form for comparison, irrespective of where the competitor hails from. Don said the further aim of the workshop therefore was to introduce the students to the form so they could practise it should they want to go in for competition. However the form is a beautiful form to play and is worth learning in its own right as an enjoyable series of movements, and will extend or expand the students experience of Wu's style Tai Chi Chuan

The presentation consisted of single form exercises so that the students could undertand the ethos of the form, and how it differs from the 108 form they had already learned. There are two pitfalls when learning and playing the competition Form. Firstly that the movements revert to the less circular standard 108 form, or that the student thinks that by merely doing it faster that continuity of movement is achieved, thereby forgetting the essential style of the forms.

After the single form exercises the class worked through the sequence of the Forms from beginning to end going through each one in some detail. There were recaps of sequences of forms so that the whole form was gradually built up into the whole sequence. It was also useful to have big screen projection facilities available so we could see how the Forms were presented on the tutorial DVD and compare the classes attempts with those of Master Wu Kwong Yu.

The class ended with the whole class going through the entire 54 form in a slightly longer time than is normally recommended for competition(5 - 6 minutes) however for a first time for some it was a notable achievment.