Palgwe Forms

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.

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").