Azim

, the tenets of a TKDist, but you can't grade them really can you? Not that I think the guy in person has all of them but I aint' gonna say more coz it'll probably start a debate.

Those two statements contradict each other. If you claim your friend has no martial arts skills then he wouldn't have recieved a blackbelt from a respectable school (ie, not a McDojo). As for your question, it should be difficult to get a black belt and is usually hard to learn what you need to know, but it comes with time. Thats my point, he has no martial art skills yet he still managed to get a blackbelt. I dunno bout the school he goes to but in the UK you have to get graded by a independant masters. Also, raising another question, how much do u guys pay to get graded. My friend had to pay £100 for his blackbelt grading, the place I go costs £10 whatever belt you get graded for.

I'm sure he is a blackbelt, not a mcdojo. If people botherd to read my post's properly they'd see I'm not judgeing a book by its cover. He is extremly unfit, no chance he could run 1 1/2 miles in 13 minutes. Infact he failed to run 1500m (just under a mile) in our athletics lesson in school. And in reply to John G, he's not really a friend, more like a common aquaintance, thats dont mean I like dissing people. Just that I'm curious how someone with no skills in martial arts and on a low level of fitness can acheive black belt status. I beleive a blackbelt represents not just skill in the art but also phyiscal strenght and so forth. Maybe I'm wrong, dont really matter. The main question is what a TKD practioners learn on the way to a blackbelt, is it easy, is it hard?

What I mean is he's totally inept in defending himself and displaying any form of physical prowess. He's extremly unfit, unflexible, has no skills in martial arts and it really doesnt seem like he's a blackbelt. I was asking TKD blackbelts on this site what they had to do to become a TKD blackbelt, my friend aint got much to do with besides the source of why I'm aksing this question.

Is anyone here a tae kwon doe blackbelt. I'm from the UK and I have a friend whose a TKD blackbelt and he's a fat, unfit and can't do any of the imppressive kicks a TKD blackbelt should be able to do. So what can a blackbelt from the USA do?

I pay £142 a year, £2.75 a lesson and I go once a week. I thinks it's okay, I could go for cheaper as I'm techniqually a junior and not a senior but I don't mind.

I don't mean to offend anyone by this post, just this is my opinion. Alot of martial artists who fight in tournemants or spar often get dissolusened about what real street fights go like. In a tournement your given an area which you can use to the full potential. Your given space to advance and withdraw, space to do fancy spinning high kicks and such. In a street fight there might be a group of people who surround you to try and get a view of whats happening (cetainly in school yard fights) and its immpossible to try anticipate your surroundings. The attacks learnt for self-defence must be effective in these situations. Often the two fighters will end up on the ground and this is where grappling comes in, most advantages the other might have in the fight go down the drain when on the ground. Size, Strenght and speed don't matter, the only advantage you can have is knowing techniques for these situations. Thats why grappling is so effective for street fights.