DLopez

You know, I just don't understand the negative comments about Olympic TKD. Is it just jealousy because your favorite martial art isn't in the Olympics? Just why does Olympic TKD have to conform to what everyone here thinks it should be, instead of understanding what it is and appreciating the strategy employed to win a bout? Why isn't everyone complaining about boxing not being very realistic the same way they are about Olympic TKD? I mean, all those boxers do is stand around and jab and punch. There's no kicking! Where's all the kicking? I can understand if someone just doesn't like a particular sport, but to hear the silly nitpicks being hurled at Olympic TKD, it's like people are just looking for any reason at all to bash TKD. Wassup with all the hate?

I love working on cars. Not so much making repairs, I still can do that, but I love adding performance parts to make them just go faster and faster! And I love going to the track and seeing the results of those efforts! I'm also into digital photography. I've had a Canon EOS 10D for about a year now, and am still amazed at the quality of pictures it takes. College football is about to start, and after that, college basketball!! Go Coogs!! Between the photography, the cars, and my martial art, I don't have much time left for anything else.

In Houston, MSNBC doesn't start showing TKD until 1:00 am. Crud.

I am very interested in seeing how Karate will be recognized as a sport for Olympic competition, yet not have the same type of sport-only rules applied to it that Olympic TKD does. Perhaps scoring in Karate sparring matches will be similar to TKD's with some variations on the rules to promote scoring through punches as well as kicks? Would the other aspects of Karate such as Katas be part of the competition?

I guess I better not start in on: He'll do press-ups and chin-ups Do the snatch, clean, and jerk He thinks dynamic tension must be hard work Such strenuous living I just don't understand When in just seven days, I can make you a maaa-a-a-a-an! So, you recommending Lacuna Coil, or were you just wondering if we've heard of them? I'll give them a try!

Let's do the Time Warp agaaaaaaain!!

C'mon people!! I just know y'all know the Rocky Horror songs! Aefibird, you got me started, so you owe it to us to chime in here! Here, I'll start, then someone else continue, and we'll have this thread rockin! It's just a jump to the left And then a step to the right...

You love her But she loves him And he loves somebody else You just can't win And so it goes Till the day you die This thing they call love It's gonna make you cry I've had the blues The reds and the pinks One thing for sure Love stinks!!

By low stance, are you talking about where your thighs are parallel to the ground? My understanding of the benefits of low stances are that they are mostly a training tool to increase the leg strength. I've not heard that low stances improves your punching strength, but I can easily see how having the knees bent would allow you to spring forward as you throw a punch, putting your weight behind the punch, but you don't have to be in a really low stance to acheive that. We don't use low stances in our sparring sessions. Lower stances do give you a lower center of gravity, and hence better balance, but if you don't train regularly with low stances, simple fatigue will most likely counteract the benefits of increased balance, as it takes a lot of energy to hold a low stance for a long period of time.

T-T-T-T-T-T-Touch me... I want to be diiiiiirty!

What you are failing to understand, or I'm just not being clear enough, is that the TKD fighters competing in the Olympics are fighting within the constraints of the rules laid down for that competition. Consequently, the TKD fighters are concentrating on what generates the most points. You are also drawing the wrong conclusion that those TKD fighters don't know how to fight any other way but Olympic competition style, just because they are competing in the Olympics. I fail to see that connection myself. Just because a TKD fighter competes in the Olympics, doesn't mean they don't know how to fight full contact style, and should automatically be considered less skilled in full contact fighting than a Karate fighter. Now, if you are saying that a TKD fighter restricted to using Olympic competition rules going against someone allowed to hit full contact, then duh, of course the full contact fighter will probably win but geez, talk about swaying the odds in the full contact fighter's favor! Is that scenario really worth contemplating? Otherwise, I don't know how you can make the blanket statement that based on what you've seen from some TKD fighters you've gone against means that the Olympic TKD fighters would get their "clock cleaned" by a Karate full contact fighter. Until you've actually seen the results of Olympic TKD fighters going full contact against a Karater fighter, then you're really just guessing in favor of your favorite style, right? So long story short, your conclusion about an Olympic TKD fighter getting his clock cleaned by a Karate fighter is seriously flawed.

Supa, so you've fought medal winning TKD fighters in the ring, have you? That's awesome! You sound very experienced. Maybe you should try out for the Olympics and win a gold medal or two?

I don't care what country they compete for, those tiny little gymnast girls are absolutely fearless!! Crazy blind flips on a 4 inch wide beam?? Are you kidding me???? You gotta admire that! And they make it look so easy, too.

"If you're not fired up with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm!" - Vince Lombardi

Well, you're basically saying that hamburgers should be outlawed so that folks will only develop a taste for steak. (Okay, I'll stop with the food metaphors!) I don't think that's appropriate. In fact, I see nothing wrong with someone watching the Olympics, and deciding that's the kind of TKD they want to participate in. They may not care about the other aspects of a traditional martial art. Is that any different than someone deciding to take Muay Thai, or some other fighting skill like kickboxing that doesn't focus on the traditional aspects like Karate? Who knows, someone who takes up Olympic TKD may develop an appreciation for the more traditional aspects of TKD later on.

I don't think Chef Boy-ar-dee quality martial arts is unique to TKD. Do you think the fine steakhouse Karate Dojo's are worried about all the McDojo's serving up the greasy spoon Karate? Not in the least, because while some may be satisfied with fast food, there is still overwhelming demand for the finer cuisines. Saying that TKD on the whole is no longer appetizing because of it's presence in the Olympics, is like saying Ruth's Chris Steakhouse no longer knows how to please your palate simply because they decided to enter the world chilli cookoff olympics.

People interested in the Olympics don't want to see "a real fight". They want to see sports contests, decided by sportsmanship. Boxing is probably as full contact as it'll ever get. Are you saying that an Olympic TKD fighter doesn't know how to fight full contact just because they participate in the Olympics? That's a pretty bold generalization. What's it based on?

Eh? How would becoming the most popular martial art in the world suck? Whatever TKD's quality control problems are, I don't see how that is a reflection on TKD as a martial art. Just because Chef Boy-ar-dee makes lousy ravioli, does that mean you can't get good ravioli anywhere?

I've witnessed the black belt testing before, and the material tested on can vary from test to test - it may or may not be the same as your previous test - but there is no sparring. However, by the time your instructor decides you have "passed", you will have demonstrated you have command of all you need to know. I would suppose that not knowing exactly what each test will consist of forces you to be ready for anything!

I don't know if there's a standard , but try shortening the boards a couple inches each side to 10"x10"x1". That's more the size of the boards we break. Then, you can stack multiple boards together, and if that's still too easy, don't put a spacer in between the boards. There's all kinds of ways to make board breaking tougher.

When I visited Ireland, my favorite alcoholic drink became Guinness on tap, but only the stuff you can get there in Ireland. Guiness just doesn't taste the same in the States as it does over there for some reason. I bet they just don't let the "good stuff" leave the island. As for my 2nd favorite alcoholic drink, the Margarita, only one pub in all of Dublin knew how to make a proper Margarita, and it was called the Lone Star Pub (or something like that - Yea Texas!!), but even though they had the machines that made them "frozen", the bar staff wasn't familiar with the term "frozen Margarita". I was amused with that, wondering what thoughts ran through their head as they tried to understand what I meant. My favorite non-alky drink, probably what I drink the most of, Diet Dr. Pepper!! 2nd fave, a nice Caramel Machiatto from four bucks... er, I mean Starbucks!

I think you got the idea aefibird. Black belt testing is every three months, so I would have three months to go back and work on what I need to get right until the next test. But it's pretty much accepted that no one ever passes the first one or two. How many it takes is really up to my instructor, and he jokingly hints (I hope! ) that since it took him 7, we should all be prepared to face 7 tests ourselves. 7,8,9 tests,... It doesn't matter to me. I've come too far along to give up now.

Difficulty in technique for me would be the jumping spin kick. I can do it, it just still looks kinda ugly yet. Difficulty in just plain doing for me are high roundhouse kicks. I just cannot seem to get flexible enough to kick above my own shoulder height, no matter how much I stretch. The thing is, I can get higher with a side kick, but for some reason, I can't get my roundhouse up there. I swear sometimes it feels the more I stretch, the tighter I get. It's pretty frustrating.

Yes, aefibird, it's my first of many black belt tests. I don't know if it's just a KSW thing, or of other styles do it this way also, but no one gets their black belt after just one test. My instructor took 7 tests before he was promoted to 1st degree black belt. It's just something I must be prepared to persevere through. Thank you for the well wishes!

I picked "other", because while not an absolute requirement, it is fine by me to break boards. Shorinryu, you can always increase the thickness of the boards a little if the ones you used were too easy. We don't break boards often, usually only during belt testing and demos. The only reason we do it during testing is to show that the student has command of a kick or punch, and can aim and deliver the power on a specific target. Granted, it doesn't have to be a board, it can be a padded target, but I've still seen plenty of examples where someone just can't aim correctly and fail to break the board. A pad will still "pop" when hit or kicked. During demos, it is all about 'Wow' factor. Nothing wrong with that. Besides, trees are a renewable resource!