tonydee

"Right" often isn't a significant concern for military regimes, which is what Korea was for much of the time the deception was being propagated. They were more concerned about promoting national pride and confidence than history / truth, and of all the countries whose contributions they might have acknowledged, Japan would understandably have been at the bottom of the list. You could argue that Korea made kicking their own, but the sad thing is that it didn't last: the sports emphasis in modern TKD compromised it again. The would-be pinnacle of that - the "Korean Tigers" demo team - set a bad direction for flashy kicks: paper-thin "boards" and kicks no more practical, and a lot less gymnastically impressive, than many kids into "extreme martial arts". And while ITF hasn't slid as far, I think they've dropped the ball too. Likening martial arts to cooking: some dishes are famously indefinite - you add whatever you have and modify things to suit yourself, teach someone and they know they can modify it freely too. But, sometimes a dish is just right the way it is, and that spirit of casual experimentation is less useful than a profound understanding of the existing recipe, which may already incorporate an accumulation of subtle fine-tuning. So, the morale of the story is: don't mess with Nobu's cod, especially you Americans with your tomato ketchup ;-P. Yes, I'll seek help....

Welcome to the forums Bryan. I look forward to reading about your experiences and insights. Best of luck with the promotion (assuming there's some testing around it). Regards, Tony

FWIW, I think non-contact or light/controlled contact sparring can be extremely effective in developing fighting ability, and much of my own training has been along those lines. I practice my basics in the air and on targets (be it hand-held or roof-hanging). In general, people who've trained with me don't question whether a pulled strike would have cleaned them up. Very occasionally, someone has to learn the hard way, last time it was a judo-karate hybrid guy whose idea of closing for a tackle was to pretend a fist infront of his nose didn't mean anything. Such is the way my original TKD school worked, and my continued expectation around sparring. I've seen what my ridge hand, palm thrust or side kick can do to 40/50/60kg punching bags - I'm not going to do that to a person just for the sake of competition. My sparring partners have probably held a focus shield while I've struck it... if they don't think it'll work in sparring they can ignore it and see what happens. There are senior martial artists who don't consider contact sparring essential for fighting ability: for example, Hapkido Grandmaster Ji Han Jae considers the safety-necessitated compromises in sparring to be detrimental to the development of fighting ability, and has no sparring in his school. Boards may not hit back, but that's not the point. The point is knowing that your body mechanics reliably generate serious destructive power... then in sparring, focus mitt exercises etc. you see if you can find the target without compromising those mechanics ala sports-style flicky kicks, or off timing. It's as legitimate a path towards the top of the hill as any other, though I'm certainly not saying it's the only one.

Jet Li's Fist of Legend.

Your "wishbone" term is very apt indeed! A bizarre way to deliver a side kick. With good technique there's no significant twisting stress on the knees - in the side thrusting or piercing varieties. Further, you can kick a lot faster if your technique is good. People rush it and end up with bad technique and injuries because they either haven't been told/shown what to do, or don't have the patience to learn it. It only takes minimal flexibility and strength to side kick powerfully at chest height, and head high isn't that much of a stretch either , so there's really little excuse for poor form. Regards, Tony

All other things being equal, I prefer to deflect to achieve blind side advantage (to be outside). Still, I don't like all things to be equal, and there are some specific things I do to tip the balance, such as tugging the limb they attempt to strike with in a way that prevents them rotating their back hip forward, so I can attack their inside with impunity for long enough to strike decisively. Similarly, I may take the inside of a striking arm but move towards the outside of their leg, bringing a shoulder alongside one of their's, facing opposite directions, striking as I do so. Cheers, Tony

A lot depends on where you are in the martial arts. For me personally, with a couple decades behind me, my tendency is to be less interested in the other students, as I can attempt to teach myself more directly from observation and interaction with the instructor. But sometimes that doesn't pan out. For example, a bagua senior master I trained with had amazing ability, but his classes were characterised by the gentle pace of life he'd settled into as a bit of a celebrity in the local Chinese community, catering to old men who wanted to keep up some semblance of training done long ago but had no expectations or ambition to master anything in particular, and their grandchildren who were being sent along for a dose of Chinese culture in a foreign country. There just wasn't the drive for achieving realistic fighting abilities in the available training time, and even the keenest and most able students who'd been with him 10+ years and paying top dollar for private supplementary lessons still weren't approaching practical ability as overall martial artists... a warning sign I might have paid more attention to. Iin the end I left for hapkido, which had less refined mechanics but a more practical curriculum and training methodology. In hapkido, my progress was hindered and ultimately limited by the lack of direct, realistic challenge with the master, preventing me testing or comprehending his abilities and their relationship to mine. Pushing the boundaries, going at it hard without regard to rank, is an essential part of training, and something I loved in my early taekwondo training. After reaching 1st dan then becoming an instructor, the availability of training partners at my level, and who'd be training somewhere at the same times, dwindled away. Lots of things have to come together to make a good learning environment. Instructor ability. Your strengths and weaknesses as a student. The intensity and directness of focus on practical, hands-on development of the techniques and abilities you're hoping to master, with practice partners at least as good and ambitious as you. Cheers, Tony

I have felt like that with regards certain schools I've attended or styles I've dabbled in - Aikido never clicked for me, nor tai chi - but not about martial arts overall, and thankfully some things do click. I just love it. I think you need to break down your frustration to specific issues: are you struggling with stamina, flexibility, coordination, speed, reading sparring, generating power, untelegraphed movement, patience for repetition of movements, following instruction in Japanese, etc. etc. etc.. Specific impediments to reaching black belt can be addressed once they're identified. If there's nothing in particular, then you're probably making gradual progress on all fronts - some times the student is too close to it all to perceive the medium-term trend. At least if you're still aspiring to reach the standards of your seniors, it suggests the school itself is capable of delivering good enough instruction to see you there too. Rough patches come and go, the honing the determination to see yourself through them is as much and useful a product of training as the physical movements themselves, so hang on there as long as you see something you want and/or enjoy in it, however unattainable it might seem in the moment. It's good to be creative though... don't sit back and expect to improve... be hungry for insights, comparing yourself to those you aspire to match on every level - technical, attitudinal... experiment, reason, contrast, critique, use punching bags, pads, sparring, video etc. for feedback. Regards, Tony

I don't know much about Krav Maga's kicks, so not sure what stretches you'd need. Thai boxing seems to use the turning kick almost exclusively, but it's very different from my tang soo do turning kick in that the hips aren't generally rotated over at contact. Therefore, can only offer some very generic suggestions. I normally do a lower-back, groin, buttocks, calf, hamstring stretch sequence... lower-back: lie flat on your back with one leg out in front, toes upwards, knee almost straight, other leg's knee brought towards your shoulder... wrap the inside of your elbow around the upper shin - just under the knee - then grab your wrist with the other arm and squeeze groin: I like to prop my back against a wall actually, then bend both legs bringing the feet sole to sole in front of my groin, and as close as possible, then put the palms on the knees, straighten the arms gradually, lowering the knees to the floor. buttocks: sit on the floor, one leg bent 90 degrees in front, foot flat on the floor, knee towards the ceiling. Bend the other leg so the outside of the ankle is across the lower thigh of the resting leg. Put both hands on the floor behind you to push your upper body forward. calf: in a forward/walking stance, push against a wall/post with the rear leg, body and arms forming one long linear incline from floor to wall. Lower your hips as far as you can / reach the back leg further away / without raising the back heel. hamstring: best on a bench... can use the ones at the gym you see people lying on for benchpressing etc., though I'm lucky my dining table has 2 chairs on one side and a bench on the other. Sit on the bench with the leg to be stretch out in front. Allow the ball of the foot to relax forwards (you want to isolate the hamstring without stretching the calf again at the same time). Reach your hands along the side of the bench, and use the grip to pull your upper body forwards - keeping the back straight - so your chin moves towards your ankle. As you get more comfortable, wrap your forearms under the bench, pulling your head down to first your knee/shin and later the bench. As always, increase the intensity of exercise gradually, and stop if you feel anything beginning to tear. Once you know the basic stretches, you'll get better results if you use PNF stretching techniques to regulate your breathing and contractions. There are lots of good web sites explaining that: very roughly, deep breaths as you stretch down, then hold yourself at the limit of your stretch, clench the muscle being stretched for 7-10 seconds, take a deep breath, then sigh it out as you stretch further. Be even more careful with this kind of thing... read a bit more first. And anyone with bone density issues or under 18 shouldn't do it at all. Cheers, Tony

First, always a pleasure to see your creative questions/scenarios. Not just a father son thing. If any "junior" is finding the level I set too easy, then they're ready for me to raise it, challenge them more.... It's not an aggressive thing, just a constant up/down tuning to keep providing them value. Like in most things, best motivation is if they feel they're succeeding 2 or 3 times in 10... I do try to limit their success to having forced a good block out of me under pressure, or kept me on the defensive for 2 or 3 moves, without letting them actually get one in on me. Even if they manage to lock me out from hitting them a couple times, that's great too, but there's no point just attacking at a level where they can consistently prevent me penetrating their guard.... Cheers, Tony

Choi, Hong Hi - who was influential at the time my first school's master split from other taekwondo associations - pushed a simplistic Confucian message of loyalty and obedience to particular people/groups (parents, teachers, country), and virtues like perseverance, integrity and courage. As a Buddhist, I find the notions naive and dangerously incomplete.... Cheers, Tony

It's specified as a side piercing kick (can't think of any that aren't in the Chang Hon patterns). For the crescent kick, it seems natural for me to keep the front foot forward facing, the body quite square, and the kicking leg tends to come down facing forwards: from there, with the supporting foot forwards and the kicking foot right-of-centre, it seems easier to deliver the piercing motion than the thrusting anyway.... Regards, Tony

Practice is a strange thing. When I first learned classical guitar, I wanted to play melodies and had little patience for tedious technical exercises that didn't even sound like music (I was only 8, if that's any excuse ;-P ). Later, I realised full physical mastery and conceptual understanding of chord, scales, arpegios is what liberates you to play an instrument well and with freedom of expression (whether improvising or interpreting). Martial arts is similar: if you have the patience to concentrate on something seriously, even though it may seem boring, you can make very rapid gains. The single exercise I find most useful is for hip rotation: - start in a forward a.k.a. walking stance: feet roughly shoulder width apart and 1.5x shoulder width in length, but adjust this to maximise strength in the movement - front foot faces forwards, starts bent so the knee is above the heel; back leg straight behind with foot outward of forwards at a small angle (basically, the less the better, and anything past 30 degrees is a problem requiring better calf flexibility) - while keeping both feet flat on the floor... - practice bending the back knee downwards as the same side's hip rotates backwards: in other words, "fold" at the knee and hip, bringing your backside closer to your heel, but without the body raising or sinking much in absolute terms - practice snapping the leg straight, driving that hip forwards, as the body spins around a central axis going down through your neck and out under your groin Youtube shows Kagawa sensei teaching this, (albeit in Japanese) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdIJVDKJ_Os. I start every training session by joint rotations, a little stretching and warm up, then this hip rotation exercise. I building from a loose, relaxed movement up to full power explosive thrusts accompanied by specific half techniques that leverage the movement: on the stronger reverse rotation :- reverse punches, palm thrusts, inward knife hands, ridge hand strikes, obverse outward forearm blocks, reverse inward blocks etc.. Cheers, Tony

The Krav Maga ones are a little better, but it's still a tough call. Putting things in perspective, if someone significantly stronger (assuming man vs woman/child) could apply a front grab to your hair, they could equally have struck you, and very probably hard (at least enough to make your eyes water so your subsequent movements are likely ineffectual). You're actually lucky if they only grab and give you at least some slim chance to get out of it relatively unscathed. By all means learn a couple of these escapes, and apply them trying for the best of a bad thing, but it's more productive to concentrate on awareness, deflection/blocking/dodging and breaks from the earliest stages of grabs on wrists (as they're typically the closest thing for the attacker to grab, and having your wrists grabbed is more of a problem in that it makes it hard to strike with the hands), and learning good mechanics for strikes that you can use whether or not they're interested in grabbing you, rather than focus too much on custom movements for when these grabs are well established: it's already kind of too late, and whatever you learn won't help you with the other aspects on combat, or against a dedicated striker.... Cheers, Tony

Also agree that of the three, the guy in the first video looked most credible. The lady in the second video seems to need to learn about using her hips, legs, torso etc to generate power... bending her knee before she front kicks. That elbow looked more likely to dislocate her own shoulder than hurt someone's back. The final video might work, as long as the opponent's no stronger than her and a little surprised, but it's hard to fall backwards then get back up quickly for that knee. It's also dangerous if there are other attackers who might kick you mid-escape. The style of joint lock is also interesting: you have to drag their arm (and your head) down quite a way before this starts to apply much pressure. If you have the element of surprise and can generate a slight S bend at their wrist - rolling their hand slightly sideways then pressing forwards - you can escape with much less movement and much more compliance-forcing pain. Higher skill requirement though. Being frank (when am I ever not?), I think all those solutions are half baked, and agree with those who've said a much stronger emphasis on striking is better than anything in the videos. I'd be delivering a palm heel, elbow, punch to the throat, eye gouge, front knee or front-kick to the knee even as my other hand pressed their grab against my head. Id' be using that back hand to twist their wrist and escape as they loosen it from the shock of my strike.... Why strike too? Joint locks against much stronger opponents just have a low success rate. A movement like this is most likely to be needed by someone who's not particularly strong. It's not instinctive to go up to someone built like Tyson and tug at his locks (if he had any). But someone might do it to a lady or child. When someone grabs they grab intending to either hold you prone or rip you around violently - not so much in between. A larger opponent can bring a lot of power to bear through a grab: try to do what any of these videos does as the opening movement and if you're not strong enough to bend their wrist, you can be bowing your own head down nicely for them to pull it into a knee, or to rip you forward and lay you flat on your face. Reminds me of headlock escapes - there are so many great escapes that work perfectly in class, but why do they all start with someone standing passively beside you? When someone with an aggressive mindset, athletic body and even schoolyard fighting experience actually wants to drag you around by the head, they'll be ripping you around their body breaking your balance and you're as likely to find your head down at knee height with their body weight on top of you before you have a chance to counter. Sometimes, it's good to re-create a little of that schoolyard feeling for a reality check about a determined opponent. If you can't get your hair grab or head lock escape to work under pressure, then find another technique.... Cheers, Tony

If the technology was really immersive - so you felt like you were really experiencing things first hand - then it'd be absolutely terrific. I'd love to have half a dozen of them and send them round the world, scuba diving, hiking, hanging out in dangerous but interesting places only the suicidal would go for real, taking photos of all kinds of things (another hobby), and of course android-vs-android sparring . Treat them like a glorified webcam with limbs. But I wouldn't mislead people into thinking that the surrogate was a real person - that's manipulative and raises all sorts of issues. Makes me think of the U.S. military and their robot soldiers and planes... how depressing. All that stuff about nuclear disarmament: my bet's is that it's only because many countries have or may soon have significant nuclear capabilities, but everyone's still generations behind the U.S. in robotics, and that'll be the new dominant factor.... Regards, Tony

That's a very, very strange question. I'd say anyone who goes somewhere where they feel they need to carry such a weapon is not good company. Carrying a knife suggests more practical, considered bad company. Nunchaku scream self-taught Bruce Lee backyard hack to me. Of course I do acknowledge that some very small percentage of people that pick them up do actually know how to use them, but even from that group, many are living in wanta-be ninja la-la land, and I would not want to be depending on their conflict avoidance skill, fighting skill, or general good judgement either. It also depends on how serious a conflict you expect to get into: if it's life and death stuff, with the other guys at fault, I'd prefer the knife unless I knew the person was very skilled with nunchaku. They're less likely to hit me by accident. If the other side had knives and comparable general fighting skill, nunchaku may be good for the extra reach, and as they're less likely to be familiar with the threat. If the conflict's not serious but you know the guy's going to drag out a weapon, then perhaps the nunchaku are less likely to get me into the middle of some serious trouble with the police? But perhaps not too! Another consideration is that I use a knife rather effectively myself, whereas I've no special skill with nunchaku, but the same may well be true of the opponents.... Cheers, Tony

That's a tough one: think you'd need to read the medical literature to form a balanced judgement re the health implications, but if the rationale is only that parents think their children will be less attractive / charismatic and have a consequently harder life, then I think that's pretty silly. The parents would be better off stimulating his or her social skills, rather than encouraging their child to think of themselves as having needed help.... Cheers, Tony

Wow - quite an adventure by the sounds of it. Contragulations on seeing it through! Trust you'll be grinning like a madman for a while . Cheers, Tony

I keep my heel on the foot for all standing kicking techniques. I think many/most? people from older style tangsoodo/taekwondo do so, but it's a huge and uncoordinated group, so it's hard to get a statistical feel. I agree that raising the heel compromises power and control.... Cheers, Tony

Exercises that require you to balance and move on something unstable are particularly good. The most obviously accomplished person I know is Greg Laughlin (a book by his brother: http://www.amazon.com/Stretching-Flexibility-Kit-Laughlin/dp/0743200691)... who I remember mentioning he'd worked up to one-legged up-and-down squatting on one of those big plastic balls, apparently terrific for developing core strength. The point is just that when the body's intuition is that losing balance might be dangerous, the nervous system kicks in and works the supporting muscles much harder, so they gain strength quickly. Simply standing on one leg on a stable floor won't produce comparable benefits, but might be a reasonable way to start, and sufficient depending on your goals. Cheers, Tony

I personally find a canvas gi much nicer to train in than a cotton one, but the weight of canvas doesn't matter much. The cotton ones are prone to clinging to your limbs when they get damp and sweaty, which isn't a good feeling. Canvas ones might give you a bit of a sandpapering for a couple weeks until your skin gets tougher, all good, no? . Cheers, Tony

I haven't read the article, but I agree it sounds wrong, and is almost certainly an accident on her part. (Being painfully pedantic - clockwise and anticlockwise are only meaningful terms if you establish whether you're looking down from above or up from underneath, but the former is generally expected if unstated). Cheers, Tony

Spearing with fingertips appears in the ITF 7th gup pattern (10th gup being white belt, 1st gup preceding 1st dan, so 7th gup is typically 6-12 months into training). I personally also feel the ridge hand is a very important technique - allowing good reach, power and minimal telegraphing when attacking from the side - and while the first ridge-hand block appears at 4th gup, the first attack isn't until 1st gup. A pressing palm appears in the 2nd gup pattern. Lots more appear in blackbelt patterns, but I think it's fair to say that the variety in colour belt patterns is more in the fundamental movement (i.e. X blocks, wedging blocks, twin blocks, double blocks etc) that tend to be either knife hands or fists.... Cheers, Tony

I just watched your video... good to see someone making the effort to create one as it makes the discussions that much more meaningful. My concerns boil down to: 1) accelerating adequately into the kick 2) having enough space for that acceleration to create speed before striking the target 3) getting more body weight over the leg Re 1: you want to get the strongest hamstring contraction possible, so it is best to incorporate a plyometric element, which is to say that given the nervous system reacts strongly to contract a muscle that is suddenly strongly stretched - trying to avoid damage due to joints exceeding a safe range of motion - you want to create a tight stretch during the upward movement and maintain or increase it during the downward acceleration. This means not rotating the back foot too far to the side - doing so makes it easier to get the leg up, but that means there's less tension ready to bring it down. Similarly, pulling the toes back will increase tension through the hamstring. Keeping the knee straight throughout the kick is also important: when kicking full power, I typically find my kicking leg swings past my support foot before I can get it back under control and bend the leg. Leaning forward and keeping the body square during the entire kick will increase tension as well as help with issue 3) - body weight behind the kick. As is, you're pushing your kicking hip forward and twisting the torso as you kick - reaching further with the kicking foot but releasing the hamstring tension rather than using it to drive the leg down. Re 2: acceleration by itself isn't much use. Put a Ferrari against a wall and hit the accelerator and it'll be less impact than a Diahatsu that's had the requisite kilometre to reach its top speed. Similarly, you want to have enough space from the top of your kick to the target for the kicking leg to gain speed. Again, I feel you're reaching forwards too much with the hip of your kicking leg: another consequence is that it extends the foot forwards further before the leg comes down, reducing the room for acceleration to create speed. Re 3: Leaning the body backwards is releasing too much power from the kick. I see it a lot in sports taekwondo - you get a touch more reach and won't seriously injure your training partners - but it's not so good for protecting yourself, and unexpected resistance near the apex of the kick could spin you backwards onto your back or head. I think you could feel the issues and difference the suggestions above make if you practice on a target. It's good to use something with significant resistance, but not so much you can't bring the leg through and complete the kick, putting too much pressure on your knee. For example: a friend holding a thick focus pad - such as might be used to protect from thigh kicks during kickboxing practice - but please make sure that the kick will move their joints in a safe way: e.g. bending not straightening the elbow. I'd also suggest you practice the pick kick, in which the kicking leg bends as it's lifted, straightens in a position like the axe kick, then is being bent again as it reaches the target. It's a very fast and savage kick, with most of the power of the axe kick and without the slower lift and pause at the top that makes axe kick easy to avoid. The mechanics of the axe kick mean it also requires from over commitment and hence recovery is slow, while the pick kick is easy to control and recover from, and the preparation is more generic and deceptive (being akin to front, inward- and outward-crescent kicks). Cheers, Tony