JaseP

I had a situation where a big guy (He had about 40 lbs of muscle and 4 inches on me) had a scrap with one of my friends,... He had a hold of my lapels (so don't so it doesn't happen), after I stepped in between. He said to me,... "I know your some kind of black belt,... I'm not afraid of you." I said to him, calm as Summer day,... "It's doesn't matter one bit if you are afraid or not,... it's not going to change the outcome...". And I positioned myself for a couple of options I had... He pushed away, and said "I'm not afraid of you!", and backed down. I preferred that to kicking his *...

My opinion??? Century's student and heavyweight uniforms suck. The fabric tends to wear (as opposed to the seams), especially at the collars. I think the Pro-Force student uniforms carried by Asian World are superior. That said, the Pro Force heavyweight pants are horrible. The cut is too long in the torso. Century has them beat in the pants arena... But I would go with a middleweight if you go Century...

I totally disagree... You're talking to a 2 year Black Belt holder... I started my training in January of 1982,... and made 1st Dan in June of 1984... 2nd in June or July of 1986,... I assure you I every bit earned that rank... And nobody who knew me at that time, let alone now, would say different. One of my old friends still talks about the way I trained back then to his students... Everyone learns at a different pace. Some can learn quicker if given the chance. Others struggle with the basics after 8-10 years. I don't disagree having time limits, because they work for the majority of people and don't really hurt the people who can learn faster (humbles them). I'm also the first to say that there are siome things that can only be taught with time. But none of those things are learned at 1st Dan. But you really can't generalize about the time limits,... People who refer to "kiddie black belts," people who refer to rapid promotions, etc., are really talking about something else,... a decline of quality in martial arts students (in general). Then you go to tournaments, and you see these kids today, some of whom are performing forms or have skill sets that we would have killed for in the day,... and it blows the theory entirely... Are they better then we were back then??? I doubt it. I think they just have more oppurtunity to show off what they know... But it doesn't lessen one bit that their skill and knowledge levels have reached where they should be. The problem is that the promotion cycle that was once the exception, has become the rule for many places. I also don't buy the race car driver analogy... Being a Master is not about being better than everyone else,... it's nice to be, but it isn't required,... if it was there wouldn't be any 80 year old masters,... it's about knowing more. Some people take 10 years to complete a bachelor's degree. They drop out and come back, or just pursue it at a slow pace. Some can do it in 3 years. They don't take Summers off and take full course loads year round. At the end of the day, the degree is the degree...

When I teach, I teach in Korean and English. First, I give the command in Korean, which the students repeat, and then in English, to which they respond "yes, sir!!!". Many of the traditional Korean Dojangs I know of do this.

No way, that's way too long... Most people can be competantly brought to black belt level within 3.5-4 years,... even in todays standards. The Moo Duk Kwan, under Hwang Kee, used to award GI's their black belts after 1 year, provided they trained religiously every day (usually for like 3 hrs). Those guys every bit of earned their rank. A lot of those guys are the current "old guard" of Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do Americans...

It is more of a guidline... there have been notable exceptions, especially for those who have had prior training in other arts... Generally though, the time scale is kept to prevent people from simply getting by on pure natural talent without ingraining the technique and teaching into their psyche... It's important for a student to have a firm grounding in training before jumping belts, and some knowledge needs time to "settle in". This is particularly so in the Dan ranks. Allowing people to jump throught the belts too rapidly sometimes lets the wrong element into the senior levels. Also, the whole idea is to achieve Pyung Ahn,... and pyung ahn is not achieved in a quick way.

The Yuk Ro, Chil Song, hyungs, et. al. really were not taken from the Muye Dobo Tongji, per se, but were influenced by Hwang Kee's reading of it and his prior training. The Muye Dobo Tongji is at best ambiguous regarding Kwon Bop. It is an excellent thing to read, but it is near impossible to draw technique out of without having some other context.

You'll want to go here for a candid look at modern Tae Kwon Do: http://www.bstkd.com/ROUGHHISTORY.HTM It's an article I've seen several other places that pops up, disappears, and resurfaces from time to time.

That's not true. Tang Soo Do was bandied about as a name right after WWII. TaeKwonDo wasn't used until the early 60s. Prior to that the name was TaeSooDo (not to be confused with the Hwa Rang Do curriculim of the same name). In fact the early Chinese characters that were used for Karate prior to WWII and the Chinese characters used for Tang Soo Do, are the same. During the nationalism craze in Japan, the Japanese started using the "empty" hand character instead of the "Chinese" hand character... Attempting to distance themselves from Chinese arts. Kinda like the Koreans who had Japanese/Okinawan martial arts experience did after WWII, maybe??? I don't know what your experience is, but all of the classical Japanese/Okinawan stylists that I know do not generate power with hip rotation in the punch in the same way as in TSD. It is a shorter, more jerky, more jiggly movement... Now the more "modern" practitioners, that's a different story. It's an example of cross pollenation. Even in the relatively short time I have been training (23-24 yrs), I've seen a good deal of changes, and a lot of things becoming more homogenized.

Don't forget that the Moo Duk Kwan fractured in the mid 1960s with roughly half of the Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan becoming the Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan... that 1/2 represented a significant number of the people calling themselves TaeKwonDo... That's your main link.

You train them progressively to the point where practice with the partner gets progressively more realistic (that is not reacting simply to allow the technique to work). Not all joint locks end in broken joints or bones. That's a matter of the particular technique and control.

In my experience as an instructor, parents tend to either be over-protective of new students or completely apathetic. There isn't much middle ground. Methinks Mom doeth protest too much... Working on getting kicks higher is normal for a beginner... Don't worry about that. From the description of the "heavy bag" it sounds like a Century Wave model. I can't see how using it will hurt a kid, although she should be working on her technique to get better.

Yes. Yes. Train like they will be used, building speed and smoothness of technique,... and Yes.

I think we just have a differing opinion of what it means to no longer be a beginner. What you are describing is to me having basic competancy... Having a good amount of experience, physical strength, technical ability, and combat confidence IS the end of being a beginner...

All associations that add belt colors other than White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Red and Black (including Midnight Blue), are offshoot organizations... Including the WTSDA, of which I think you are speaking of. The old progression was White, Green, Red, Black (MN Blue). That is why colored trim is not added to the Dobahk until 6th Gup... It was the first color belt under the old system. Orange was added in the late 60s, early 70s,... and Yellow was added in the mid to late 1970s. The Orange and Yellow belts were added primarily for westerners, who were typically less patient when it came to promotions. Other offshoot organizations added other belt colors to further break down the 10 gup levels with individual belt promotions (one for each level). It tends to be a "value added" marketing thing, rather than for reasons of curriculim. There are always 10 gup levels and they typically are learning the same things from organization to organization (with slight variation).

See!!! It's fun. I'll bet sparring becomes one of your favorite parts of training...

This was the code of the Hwa Rang Dan,... more originally: 1) Be Loyal to your King or Master 2) Be Obedient to your parents and elders 3) Honor Friendship 4) Never Retreat in Battle (literally,... never back up) 5) Never make an unjust kill It's been "reinterpreted" over the years,... reinvented for a new time... Variations and additions abound, but the theme is usually the same. It's all about having honor, bravery and indonimable spirit.

Typical Belt order in Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do: White 10th Gup Yellow 9th Gup Orange 8th Gup Orange 7th Gup Green 6th Gup Green 5th Gup Green 4th Gup Red 3rd Gup Red 2nd Gup Red 1st Gup Cho Dan Bo - Probationary period before 1st Dan 1st Dan - Black/Midnight Blue 2nd Dan 3rd Dan 4th Dan (Master Ranking) (Black or Midnight Blue Belt with a Red stripe running the length on one side) 5th Dan 6th Dan 7th Dan 8th Dan Typical progression is 3 months at each of the Gup ranks, about 9 mos. at Cho Dan Bo,... and the number of years between Dan ranks as the one you are going for... so from 3rd to 4th takes an additional 4 years past 3rd Dan... So,... it typically takes 3 1/2 years to 1st Dan,... 12-14 years total to make master ranks... minimum...

Master Ferraro was kind enough to ask me to give him some feedback on the cover art for the DVDs. It looks very sharp. A really Grade "A" production... If the DVDs themselves are only 1/2 as good, they will be well worth their price.

Wait `til you get to bricks...

Tell your instructor about it, and get yourself a generous tube of BenGay... and a large Ace bandage... AND,... make sure you have some laundry soap that'll get the Ben Gay Out!!! Equally important. PS... warn your partners and fellow students of your use of the noxious stuff.

Good. I have a teenage girl student (I am assuming from your handle you are a girl) who is your age and just made black belt... and one a couple of years younger (13) who also made black belt... I didn't start until I was 13. My wife didn't start until she was 25 or 26. I truly believe that more teenage (and younger,... and older) girls should train. Girls and women are more likely to need the self-defense skills that the martial arts teach.

Yep,... as in Ho Shin SUL,... Self Defense TECHNIQUE.

Would people PLEASE stop quoting Bruce Lee's characters in movies,... especially when it's totally out of context [bruce DID do breaking, the character was just responding to the other character's "show" ).

Yes. Some schools will have classes broken up by rank ranges, but by far the most common way to break up classes is to have youth classes and adult classes. My instructor runs Black Belt classes about once per month. Occasionally, you'll get beginner classes that are geared towards newbies, and then general classes for everyone else.