singularity6

Interestingly enough, our instructors tell us to not consider gender when sparring, for your exact reasons.

Your instructor already knew you were at that level before he invited you to test. He would not have promoted you if he did not think you were worthy. The jitters get to all of us at some point in time. Congrats! Well deserved. Yeah, they felt I was ready months ago, and told me as much. Our master instructor tries to create a "stressful testing" environment, because he feels we need to understand how our bodies work when we get an adrenaline hit just in case we ever need to use it in the real world. My reactions during the testings I've had have me a bit concerned about that!

Well, I never really aim for the chest, but I would feel bad if I hit someone there. My wife did drop me in class once: round kick to the groin.

Congrats!

Indeed. Our school is quite small. I think my student number is 623, or something. I'm not sure when the count was started, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was 20+ years ago.

I've noticed this, too. My friend's TKD school did seminars on Thai Chi, but no one at the school had much Thai Chi training. I also feel martial arts is about the last thing anyone should consider in an active shooter situation, as anyone with active-shooter training will tell you, fighting should always be your LAST option. I know for a fact that 2 years of training hasn't made me into hero-material.

It's wrong for one person to strike another out of anger, in general. Sparring in class - men and women hit each other all the time in our school! Self-defense - The use of an appropriate amount of force to stop someone who's trying to harm you is cool, in my book. That being said, it doesn't necessarily need to be a strike, as take-downs work pretty well!

I won't be testing for black any time soon, but I've been a spectator for 3 people who tested for first dahn. here's what I've gathered: 1) Our red belts (first geup) train for at least a year before testing for black. In order to test, you must be able to effectively defend yourself against one attacker, and multiple attackers (unarmed, ) with both Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do. At this point, all our techniques should be performed with a high level of accuracy, power and finesse. 2) There's a point system (100, I believe) that's split between forms (we need to do all the Palgwe forms, and Koryo;) napa; matt work, sparring - unarmed attacker; self defense - armed attacker; sparring - multiple unarmed attackers; self defense - armed attackers. We are also tested on knowledge of terminology, tenets, oath, and we have to write a 5 page essay about why we aspire to earn a black belt. Overall, someone testing for first dahn should expect to be performing for a couple hours.

Heh, I've been diagnosed ADD, so concentration has always been an issue for me in environments with distractions. As I've mentioned before, our school practices in a church gym. It's attached to the kitchen, and it gets used quite a bit during the holidays. Listening to our instructors and focusing on what I'm doing is quite challenging when there's a lot of noise going on. Concentration is always going to be a work-in-progress for me.

Are you referring to the two-method system that uses the Condorcet winner, if one exists, but switches to a Borda count if one does not? Yes!! I'm fine with it. Both methods involved are easy enough to understand (for transparency) and easy enough to apply. I also prefer them to some of the various run-off methods, as those can sometimes harshly eject good candidates.

Congrats! You beat me to it!

This thread took an interesting turn. Related to some of the above posts: Our instructors are not very strict about titles. Our master instructor is fine if folks call him "Mr. Dennis," even though Dennis is his first name. At a tournament, an instructor from another school chastised someone who called him Mr. Dennis. I do not recall if it was one of our students, or a student from another school that knew him. The other instructor insisted that the title "master" be used. Dennis did not stand for that. All that matters to him is that we address him with respect.

Are you referring to the two-method system that uses the Condorcet winner, if one exists, but switches to a Borda count if one does not?

Heh, well that testing finally happened. At first, we were supposed to test at the end of September... then sometime in October. Well, that got put off until yesterday, December 2. While I got the promotion to 5th geup, my nerves got to me and I didn't do nearly as well as I would have liked. I even fell during my board breaking! (I tried for a suspended break with a spin hook and ended up falling.) My one-step sparring techniques suffered, too.

Thanks, all! I'll have some time to think about this and shop around, as we are only starting to look for houses. Interestingly enough, I was thinking of a Thai hanging bag OR a BOB XL (we have a BOB XL at my dojang, and it can be fun to beat on!)

We will be buying a house, soon. I'm really hoping to have space to train, and I'd like to get a bag to beat on. My wife is also interested in doing the same. There are a lot of choices out there, for sure. We are both want something to punch and to kick. I'm considerably larger and hit harder than she does. Any recommendations as far as brands, size or style?

That's what sparring's for!

Learning is a life-long journey, my friend.

For those who prefer hitting bare-handed, the type of bag also matters. Canvas bags are harsher on the knuckles than leather-like materials. That being said, your knuckles will split until you've conditioned them... But if you keep going at it bare-fisted, you'll likely have noticeable callouses.

This, I wonder about, too. Our school uses ITF forms, but isn't affiliated with the ITF, nor the WTF, and about the only reason anyone in our school would become affiliated with the WTF would be to compete nationally in their tournaments. But, there aren't many around here, maybe one a year, and we don't really focus our classes to the sparring aspect of training, either. I'm not inclined to believe that this is being done solely for the money, but I wouldn't deny that they haven't considered it, either. Oh, I'm sure there are many reasons to introduce more forms, and I'm interested in seeing them (maybe even learning them, at some point.)

The form in that video was really neat (and quite long.) When it comes to self defense and breaking, that looked kinda like what we expect for first and second dahn testings in our school. I agree with Danielle - higher rank black belts seem to be awarded for teaching and contributions to the art.

So does the term apply to anyone that has "mastered" a single technique? How about a few techniques? To me, if I were to ever use the term "Master" to define someone, it would be in reference to mastering the art not just a portion of the art. If you see the bold above Continued practice of ALL "mastered" skills is essential to maintain mastery. I remember the first time I taught calculus... I had a significant amount of prep time going into the lessons. While I managed to do well with the subject, it had been some time since I've used some of the topics (related rates, for example.) "Relearning" these things went pretty quickly, all things considered, but I did have to practice a bit before delivering every lesson.

While I practice and thoroughly enjoy Tae Kwon Do, I am rather skeptical of the Kukkiwon's relationship with making money. My school's not part of the Kukkiwon largely because it'd cost too much for us to join. This seems like it might be something else schools around the world would have to pay for in order to maintain their credentials.

In math, mastery is the ability to perform a particular skill or apply a particular concept on your own with no use of outside resources (i.e., not following an example in your notes, text, online or asking for help.) That being said, mastery isn't permanent. A student who earned an A in a rigorous calculus class may have mastered the material then, but if they do not apply that knowledge on a semi-regular basis, they lose it. So, attaining mastery is one thing. Maintaining it is another.

I'm actually trying to avoid all that, as they do collect a whole bunch of data on the customers who use smart-tech. It's bad enough that Google probably knows me way too well because I use Chrome, Gmail and have an Android phone. But, I suppose that makes me a bit paranoid?