axispower

Trustar nailed it. If you're going back to the Philippines then you should brush up on stick fighting. As for self-defense in TKD - wellllll, it's going to depend on your instructor. Better to talk about self defense in Korean martial arts in general. Our school teaches TKD katas. Our sparring, like that in most American TKD schools, focuses on hands and feet. In Korea, however, it's almost entirely focused on the feet. Take a look at Olympic style sparring and you'll see what I mean. For self-defense we fall back on Hapkido - which focuses on joint locks and throws. Bottom line - take what works and use it. And yes, sometimes that means picking up a stick.

Any form is boring if the person performing it presents it that way. A beginning form like Do San can rock if you have sharp stances, snappy punches and kicks, great intensity and know how to sell it to the judges.

For instance, we don't teach eye gouging and stuff to lower aged kids. Nor do we show them how to utilize or defend agaisnt a blade. We also have a mandantory firearms portion required for bb, obviously you can't ask a kid to do that. Hey Tallgeese - Define lower age kids for me and explain what you teach a kid that will help them survive a life threatening situation on the street. My daughters knew by the time they were five years old that if someone attacked them and was holding them down against their will (stranger danger kind of stuff) the quickest way to get them to let you go was to stick a finger in their eye. Likewise, they were both told that if they couldn't reach the guy's eye but there face was anywhere near his throat that they should sink their teeth in and do their best to rip it out. So far neither of these kids has used either of these techniques on anyone (including each other) but I feel much better knowing that they'll remember them if they're ever in a life threatening situation.

well, I'v never seen anything out of the ordinary myself, but I seen gi wear the person irons it so much that it has like permanent creases at the shoulders, I wash mine twice a week, but I never ironed it. . . If all things are equal in performance between two tournament competitors I can assure you that the one with the 14 oz heavily starched and ironed heavyweight canvas gi will win. There's nothing else like the "snap" of a side kick in a heavily starched uniform. When we travel tournaments we typically show up with a minimum of three uniforms - and sometimes as many as five depending on what events the kiddo is competing in. At the minimum we'll pack a heavyweight traditional gi (starched and ironed) for kata, her hakama pants for weapons, and a lighter weight fighting suit for sparring.

I think there are instances where you have to do what you have to do. Of course, you should do whatever you can to legitimize your belts. That means you guys can't just arbitrarily form your own panel for belt testing and promotions. But I've seen similar situations where an accredited black belt comes in once a month or so to review what students were doing and make sure they were on track - then return, often with another black belt or two in tow - for the actual belt test. Of course, it's going to cost you a few bucks to bring these guys in but it is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, many instructors work with students until they reach black belt then pretty much ignore them after that. The school we're currently affiliated with has a "program" for black belts - but it does not include any new kata or weapons training. Once a student reaches black belt the instructor expects them to come up with their own creative kata for future tests and exhibitions. In class they work primarily on conditioning and sparring. This is all well and good if you're not competing in kata on a regional or national level. But the sad fact is that we have students who have been promoted to 2nd Dan Black who do not know all of the 1st Dan traditional forms. Being a die-hard traditionalist I've insisted my daughters learn ALL of the forums for their own belt level and one level above. Most of these were learned from videos, from other black belt friends we know from the tournament circuits, or from some of the older black belts who came to our school from other systems. Like I said before - you have to do what you have to do.

Block up and jab under. Ridge hand to the head. Turn heel kick to the temple. Groin kick.

Just to give you an idea on the gymnastics thing - my daughter (who is not an XMA kid) competes against the top four or five teenage girl XMA kids in the world from time to time. In chatting with these kids and their parents we learned that just about all of them are level 6-7-8 gymnasts. You'll find that many of these kids - now in their mid teens - have been in gymnastics ten years or longer. The funny thing about these kids is that they all show up at World and compete in every kata event - but when it comes time for sparring the majority of them quickly leave the building. On the flip side, as they are on the way out the door a completely different group of competitors walk in - kids who show up only to spar and do not compete in kata. Now - on to the topic of finding someone to teach you as an adult . . . probably the best way to accomplish that is to get a small group of like-minded martial artists together and approach a local gymnastics school with the idea of putting together a special class for your group.

So what's your opinion on grabbing and holding during point sparring? Some tournament circuits allow a 2 or 3 second controlled grab. For example, if your opponent sticks his leg out there you can grab and hold it for 2 - 3 seconds as long as you don't force him/her to the ground in doing so. A technique I used to see used a lot (and this is why a lot of veteran point sparring competitors prefer short sleeve gi tops or keep their sleeves rolled up tightly) is to grab the other person's sleeve and pull him/her toward you while you punch. Another old trick is to simply trap the other person's arm under yours, then pound them soundly before they figure out why they can's get loose. Anyway, lots of ways to grab and hold - many of them legal in some tournaments - illegal in others. Thoughts?

I've been paying for my kids' (and others) karate lessons monthly for over twenty years. In that time we've taken exactly one month off - a month when we were out of state for three weeks and would be unable to get ANY training in. Once upon a time the owner of one of the schools we attended came to me and said "We're converting over to a contract basis and setting everyone up so we can direct debit their checking accounts for tuition. I'll need you to sign one of these for me." To which I said, "Sorry. I don't do contracts." His response? "Okay. Just keep on paying like you have been and we won't worry about the contract." It is what it is. Now, with all that said . . . if I were going to put together some sort of program the punch-card idea for people who train irregularly is a good one. For new students I like the idea of INITIALLY contracting with the student/parents to attain a certain belt level in a certain amount of time. For example, a white belt might be expected to make it to orange in 90 days, so you could have a 3 month contract to get the student to Orange. At that level if you need to hold them a little longer at individual belt levels you could - but at least you'd have 3 months to get the student on the right track.

Yeah, we've seen a lot of drop-outs at our school of late. Going rate here is also $65 a month. Interestingly enough, that's less than I paid in another school fifteen years ago when my older daughter took up martial arts. In those days we paid $69 per month for the first family member and $39 for the second. These days that same school is charging $89 and $49.

There will always be some kids that progress more quickly than others. On the other hand, I've seen kids double promoted who should not have been - just as I have seen kids promoted that should not have been. In fact, I can think of half-a-dozen black belts I know whose fundamentals are so bad they should probably be rolled back to orange belt. Unfortunately, far too many instructors have to pull off a balancing act between promoting students too quickly and keeping the parents happy.

IMHO there are just too many people out there who don't understand the meaning of the phrase "controlled technique" in point sparring. For that reason alone I think leg kicks really don't belong in point sparring. Leg sweeps, however, as long as you strike your opponent at ankle level or below for the purpose of upsetting his balance - are just fine. I don't have a problem with groin kicks either. Hey, wear your cup! I can assure you that every young man who spars my teenage daughter in karate class ends up getting his cup checked by a front snap kick before the fight is over. Yeah, I could tell you several amusing stories related to that. Face contact and head shots . . . well, that's a subject for another thread.

The key to this whole thing is to know your tournament circuit and whether they run open kata or separate traditional from non-traditional. Non-traditional, by the way, can be further defined down. Some non-traditional (creative) kata divisions do not permit the competitor to use flips, back-handsprings, back-tucks, etc. Those techniques can only be utilized in Extreme kata divisions. In the early years of running the roads hitting tournaments we ran into the whole traditional vs. extreme thing just about every week. I lobbied the promoters in this particular organization for three years to break the groups down, but they were not interested in adding divisions. End result - they lost our tournament dollars. Now we compete in tournaments that are more martial artist friendly.

Yep. We hit around 20 tournaments a year and see significant bias in some circuits. Sometimes it's black belts judging competitors from their own schools. Sometimes it's based on regions within a circuit (e.g. folks in the northwest region favoring competitors from the northwest over those from the southeast), and sometimes it even breaks down on racial lines. In addition, there are just a lot of bad judges out there. Some circuits grab any black belt and let him judge - without regard to whether he has judged tournament karate in the past, what style he is judging, etc. On the other hand, every parent feels like their kid gets the short end of the call a lot of time. After you've seen as many tournaments as I have you come to realize that EVERYONE thinks the judging is bad - which means it must be going in your favor at least HALF of the time. As much as it pains me to say it - bad judging for one is bad judging for all - and in some sort of sad, sick way that is somehow . . . well . . . fair. Ugh.