The Palgwe Forms are taught in the WMTKDA starting at seventh gup (purple-with-white-stripe belt). One new form is required at each rank, except 4th and 3rd which require two each. By the time a student reaches first gup, he should know all the Palgwe Forms.
"Palgwe" is literally translated as eight ("pal") symbols ("gwe"). The "eight symbols" being referred to are the 8 trigrams, various arrangements of three lines that are either solid or broken in half. There are exactly 8 possible arrangements, and each form has a unique symbol associated with it. The symbols carry deep, philosophical meaning, and explain the actions and significance of each form.
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The Palgwe Forms, with the exception of the Kichus, have the simplest pattern. The pattern consists of two end bars and a central bar, and almost every form occurs in the following pattern: Top end bar (dark blue in picture), up the central bar (red), bottom end bar (cyan), down the central bar (magenta), top end bar (dark blue). There are a few exceptions, such as the seventh Palgwe, in which a bar is skipped entirely, but most of the forms follow this procedure.
Ready position, from which you begin the forms and in which you end the forms, should take place in the center of the dark blue (top) bar.
Moving "up" the center bar is to move in the direction of the red arrows (pointing down in the picture), while moving "down" the center bar is moving in the direction of the magenta arrows (pointing up in the picture). They are labelled as such because usually the forms have the student move in the red direction ("up") before going in the magenta direction (back "down").
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The Poomse
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Here are links to the 8 Palgwe forms, described as closely as possible to the way they are practiced at WMTKDA. Please note that every instructor has a different way of executing movements and describing them, so these explanations are not meant to be a teaching source. These are simply meant to record our current methods and help students remember what they have been taught. Unless you are a member of the WMTKDA, please do not send me "corrections" based on what is taught in your class, unless you are certain that I made a typing error (such as saying "right" instead of "left"), as any other difference is most likely due to the preferences of individual instructors.
Palgwe Il Chung
Palgwe Ee Chung
Palgwe Sam Chung
Palgwe Sah Chung
Palgwe Oh Chung
Palgwe Yuk Chung
Palgwe Chil Chung
Palgwe Pal Chung
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