I was teaching one night and a student mentioned that it was his goal to finish learning the 40 forms and then dive right in and learn the 108. I kind of smiled and asked him why the rush? He replied that there was no rush but it stood to reason that after the 40 he should start on the long form.

Now, you the reader need to realize that this student had been training for less than a year and had already swallowed the 10, 16 and 24 forms.

I asked him if he really knew all those sets?

Did he fully comprehend all the forms?

All the martial applications?

All the hidden intricacies within each set?

He answered honestly and said, no.

I tried to make the point that just learning the sequence of the sets will not net you the benefits. One should study each set and master it before proceeding on to a more complex set. It is not the quantity of forms you know, the advantage is in how well you know them.