tufrthanu

OK first off...thats not 45 dollars per week...thats 45 dollars a month to go once per week. so its 79 bucks a month for unlimited classes. Thats probably about average but you can check other schools in your area to see. Thats Kyokushin Karate btw. If you see any black belts under 16 that will be a give away. I believe. Personally I don't agree with useos first 2 criteria as some of the worlds best martial artists got their black belts in short order. As to the young black belts thing...it depends. Alot of schools have them as Jr. Black Belts. If they know their stuff they know it whether they are 8 or 18. I would agree however if you find a 6 year old black belt that might not be a good sign.

Hmm...well first off 1st Gup is the rank before black belt. 16 years in TKD and he's only 2nd dan..could be. I haven't heard of the WHA but that doesn't mean anything...my concern is that he is teaching on his own at 2nd dan. Alot of places require you to be 3rd at least to teach as a head instructor...and he doesn't even have a dan ranking in the hapkido. Personally I think you should go watch a class and get his listing of instructors. You can always post it to the board. I know alot of people high up in tkd and hkd circles...not GM's mind you...4th and 5th dans but they may be able to give me more information if you get more info.

Well personally I don't like that descriptions aodhan. I prefer to say that soft arts blend force with force...hard arts meet force with force.

You know TKD guy I was going to invent an art called Tae Ki Do...then I realized it sounded too much like a mexican snack food.

My point is there is taekwondo outside of the wtf and kukkiwon.

Of course those are just the Korean approved 9th dans. There are alot of non korean approved taekwondo people out there.

I have worked out with several women at both of the schools I have belonged to. There techniques for the most part were fine. However I did find that I had to go easier on most of them. Now these were not champion female kickboxers or anything just the average student. A power range that most of the men I've sparred didnt mind I've had requests to tone down from women. Personally I think this does them a disservice as in a real attack a female will most likely face a man. Usually what I do is if I get the opportunity to work with the same woman a couple of times I will slowly increase the power that I hit them with. Some of them make huge strides.

A couple of local school teach what they call Shinbudo here in MN.

Possibly sam however I know for a fact Judoka do randori. So they should be familiar with people going trying to get at their legs through one form or another.

Lol niel ok will do!

Idon't know what to tell you TJS their systems feature those techniques...if they were not done in MMA competitions they have no one to blame but themselves.

At this school I have no idea what the breaking reqs are. And I have trouble with my feet so mine would probably have to be modified anyway. Hand breaks instead of some of the more dangerous foot breaks. At my old school all they required was a side kick to a single board. I believe its quite a bit harder here...but not sure. When I take my transfer test I will let you know. I'm a little worried about it myself to be honest with you.

Based on what you've said there I would say no. Best person to ask would be the instructor of the Kung Fu school. As to the lier thing that may or may not be true however if its what you really want then it may be your best option against an obstinate instructor. I think you should mention to your instructor that this would be a completely different art. The wouldnt be teaching you sword youd be learning empty hand and other techniques not covered in his Gumdo class...if he was ok with that before he should still be ok with it even after this discussion that you had.

The Chung Bong set. However I beleive they are set further along than yours are. I just transferred to this school a few months ago so im still learning them. I think we need to get to Chung Bong 5 by black belt. Then we do the other 2? after that. At my old school we did a mix of Jhoon Rhee forms, Chang Hon forms (which was the first unified set) and Shotokan patterns. The school on Lyndale owned by GM Ro does it the same way you do...although I'm not sure they do the palgue. The do the Tae Geuk for like the first three belts...then they had in chung bong forms along the way. Chung Bong is strictly Song Moo Kwan so we are the only guys you will ever find that do them.

Stationary bike will put alot of stress on your ankle. If you have access to a swimming pool laps can be done.

It sounds like your instructor is placing an undue restraint on you...it is not as though you want to go to another Gumdo instructor...your current instructor doesnt teach kung fu. Was he aware when you spoke to him that you mean you wanted to take an unarmed style of fighting in addition? Or did he think you were wanting to take Gumdo from several teachers? I have run across this type of thinking in traditional schools before. A rather high ranking shorin ryu acquaintance of mine said that he would not allow someone to study under two different teachers at once, even though he did the exact same thing. Your other alternative is just to not tell. I assume that these kung fu people would not be calling your gumdo instructor or vice versa. It's your life if you want to take both take both and don't tell them about it. I have done this several times.

Wow thats alot of breaking. I'm a black belt and I doubt I could do half of those. Will these be to 1 inch 12x12 pine boards? You are the first person on here I have found that knows the Chung Bong forms. I am currently working on number 3...having some difficulty with the back kick for some odd reason...I can do it perfectly into a heavy bag or body shield but doing it in the air throws me way off.

I think his problem might be more that they smother him...and once they are on top hes not strong enough to get them back into a position where he can use any locks or chokes. I'm not really sure what to suggest. The advantage of a small person is that they are always more nimble than the heavy guys. It would seem to me therefore to be imperative that if they are on top you must get your legs around them. Try not to end up with your arms down at your side also as it becomes very hard to raise them once they are.

I think alot of styles had techniques that kept them from going down..or if they were in the process of going down a way to seperate themselves from the attacker to regain their feet. Examples would be a head throw of some sort, and a sacrifice throw like what is found in Judo.

Perhaps you could inquire to your instructor if he might be willing to test you early?

Cool niel so you work out on St. Paul side? What ranke are you currently?

It's called the Bloomington Karate Center...Which is on Lyndale and 90th. The head instructor there now is CB Bunkholt...who studied under Tim Mullin I beleive who studied under Jay Hyon...the guy that originally owned GM Ro's school as well as quite a few others in the TC. I had heard about the wonkikwan in New hope but hadnt found any listing in the phone book recently and their web page was taken down so I didnt know if they were still in business or not.

Sorry just a little addendum...Another thing that dissuaded me from GM Ro's school was that it's located on Lyndale just north of Lake street...a highly congested area if your not familiar with it. Classes scheduled during rush hour would entail alot of traffic...and the fact that Lyndale is a 1 way street during certain hours...and all the parking around there is pay parking. I also wanted to mention that there are a couple of guys that supposedly do HKD at the Training for Life place on Lyndale. They said that if I wanted to come in with help on falling I was welcome and their rates seemed reasonable. However from what I understand they were not affiliated with an org and had mixed the hapkido with a couple of other arts.

Wow old thread...heh. Well niel it worked out kinda like this. While I was at my old school I heard about a couple of Sin Moo HKD guys that taught in St. Paul on St Clair. They were both extremely proficient, but they wanted us to take full force throws and stuff during training. I was a little trepiditious about this given my weight...280. I had some problems performing some of the techniques and they didn't really seem to know how to get me to do it the right way. After being hurt on several occasions and seeing that they were getting frustated with me as a student I decided to leave. Both instructors there however are very nice and if you want to learn how to fall really well as well as do some wicked kicks they are great. They also teach alot of self defense techniques. After I stopped going there about 9 months later I finally got frustrated at my old school and started looking around for other schools. I checked out two that ended up having HKD that were close to me. GM Ro's school downtown and the school im currently at. I had heard about GM Ro's school from an acquaitance of mine Chuck Stepan...he's a 6th dan JiDo Kwan and writes occassionally for TKD Times magazine. He knew Ro Sr. and said I should check out their dojang. Unfortunately GM Ro was in Korea at the time when I went to see a class. His main assistant instructor was a woman who had a degree in nursing who seemed very nice and knowlegable. However, the man that actually taught the class had them moving at a glacial pace...and wasnt really watching the lower belts for errors. I beleive they also had the interlocking jigsaw mat type of flooring there which you really can't use shoes on they are too sticky and they are dangerous to go barefoot...I have sprained a toe because it got caught in between the mats. They would allow me to wear my MA shoes if I wanted to however. That was just the TKD class but the same gentleman taught the HKD class...which you had to sign up for seperately there...and so I decided not to go there. The I checked out my current school. This school they do alot of different things, although I haven't been here a real long time so I'm still kind of discovering things. They mix TKD and HKD here. The throwing is pretty easy...I mean they take you down but they give you a chance to go with the technique and don't force you to flip in the air to get there. I have not seen any what I would consider throwing however. Such as a hip throw and what not...im not sure if they do those or not. I should say this school is WHF affiliated. My only contention so far is that perhaps they could do a little more self defense...and by that I mean techniques against various grabs and stuff. Mostly we do the techniques to a punch. We do do some self defense however. There is a special class just for self defense but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to go to that one or not under my current plan. The instructor here was just awarded his 5th dan and is very nice and knowlegable...he also tries to work with anyones disabilities rather than trying to make you conform directly to his style. Well I hope this was a little edifying at least Niel.

Where does your neck hurt? Around the throat or around the spinal chord? If its around the throat its probably inflamed from the choke. If its around the spinal chord more than likely your head got jerked around at some point and the spinal chord is irritated...usually I have this problem if someone does a neck crank to be and I dont go down right away. The symptoms would be similar to whiplash...very stiff neck and inablity to turn it to the left or right with out pain. You should ice it and take some ibuprofen for the swelling...if it doesnt get better in a couple of days go see your doctor. The red marks on your arms are more than likely either bruises from getting hit or "indian burns" from your opponent trying to grab you.