tufrthanu

Hey all, I have recently been looking into leaving my current tkd dojang and joining somewhere else. I was hoping to find a hapkido dojang in the western twin cities area however the only two I have found have some severe drawbacks. One does falling on carpet over cement which I am really not wild about...the other doesnt teach falling til blue belt which I find disturbing. Can anyone that is familiar with the western TC recommend a course of action?

I have taken it before which was why I was concerned about falling on a hard surface! I had alot of trouble with the falling. The hapkido school I went to had a thin mat over cement. But on the forward shoulder rolls I would constantly twist my shoulder and hit my hip and back hard. Also when they were teaching us the side fall they started with the sweep where they grab the lapel and sleeve of your uniform tilt you onto one leg and then sweep the other leg out from under you. I fell wrong and smacked the back of my head into the ground. Even with the mat it was very painful and i was stunned for several minutes. Also I am overweight 290 6'2" so when I fall I fall hard and don't necessarily have the musculature to twist myself around midair to get into a more advantageous position. That's why I eventually ended up quitting. But I loved the art itself and am still looking around for someplace near myself that teaches it...perhaps with some instructors with more experience with people of different body styles. Both of my instructors at this one school, while very good, were both like 5'11" and 150 lbs and had only worked out with each other for the most part.

Well in this I can only speak of the Sin Moo HKD that I did but they had wall jumping kicks...double flying side kicks...and multiple kicks while airborne.

I don't know, every hapkido school I have been to does kicks. Also if you look in most hapkido textbooks they also teach kicks. The variety of the kicks changes according to the style of Hapkido but I'm pretty sure they all have it. And these are not TKD+HKD schools...these are HKD schools only that's all they teach. Also as to the origin of the art yes Aikido and Hapkido both come from Daito Ryu Aiki Jutsu however, the aiki jutsu does have strikes whereas most forms of Aikido have gotten rid of them. And it is not surprising given that hapkido is a korean art that they would incorporate kicks.

Yes. LOL. As far as I have been able to determine it is equal parts kicks, punches, locks, pressure points and throws.

Well I did sin moo hapkido for a short while and all I can say is if you think hapkido is purely defensive you haven't been doing it right. It's one of the more combative complete arts I've come across. While it does do alot of thing such as how to get out of a bear hug or a wrist escape...alot of teachers will teach the techniques seperately so that you can do them offensively...like walking up to a loudmouth and kicking him in the knee and then putting him into a wrist lock. But this might just be the style that was taught to me.

I was recently at a hapkido dojang viewing a class to see whether I wanted to join or not and I saw that even though they had a standard mat that was about 1-1.5 inches thick they still did most of their falling on a thin carpet over cement. They didn't seem to be throwing full force but still it worries me. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Also, I have had problems falling in the past...i.e. twisting my arm and hitting my head will this exacerbate that problem?

Basically the techniques covered are like the striking areas of the foot and hand. Basic blocks such as low, middle, high and X block. Stances like the front stance, back stance, cat stance and cross stance. Strikes such as punches, chops, spear hands, and kicks like front kick, side kick, round kick and jumping side kick. There are more than this obviously but the book basically runs in that vein.

I also have a copy of this book being that it is very traditional taekwondo there are no spin kicks. About the only thing fancy are the jump and flying front and side kicks.

Well odd I don't know exactly how your TKD classes were structured but at our school we go over the basics every class. Every single class. The advanced stuff is just something we do in addition. Unfortunately without knowing the forms of Shotokan Karate you are going to have to go with the flow of the class. I am sure you will advance faster than the other students seeing as you will already be able to perform most of the techniques but you will still have to go through every class. I would also like to add that with most people quitting by 7th gup or so you will probably outrank most of the students shortly...and that will require the sensei to focus more on you...or at least to have you work more with the black belts.

A flying punch to a forward shoulder roll might give you that area.

Don't get hit.

I like Macho. They even have gloves and footpads with extra padding now over the contact points. Also I have heard good things about the shinguards from Tigear. Supposedly you can take a baseball bat to the shin with em on. I know Black Belt magazine did a review of them and they kicked the corner of a metal filing cabinet with little trouble.

I have a very good E-text on the history of TKD. It's kind of dry reading but if you would like a copy please private message me your email address and I will send it over.

Well seperate pads allows you to mix and match otherwise you are stuck with the same padding on your shin as your foot, which may or may not be desirable. I kick pretty hard and I like to buy high impact shin guards which dont have footsies attached.

Tekken Tag for PS2 has 2 tkd guys and is one of the best fighters around IMHO.

Men and womens fly weight went to chinese taipei aka taiwan mens featherweight went to Iran womens featherweight went to Korea mens welterweight went to the us and womens to china womesn heavyweight went to china and mens to korea

Well there are alot of good tkd books out there and if you are still interested I can list some however, in all honesty , and not to insult you but you need to take it easy. Just go to some classes and relax you don't have to learn everything at once. And you won't. What I see you doing is burning yourself out in 3 months and quitting because you were so gung ho right off the bat. Now you might not but thats the sense I'm getting. Sparring gear is really all you need right now...if you would like to know more about the history of tkd I have a good e-text I can email you for free. As to the techniques just go to class and listen to your teachers if you still want to know the names of some good books let me know. JMHO no offense please.

I dont know if there are any sites with just videos on it...you can try doing a search on yahoo and googld for tkd sparring mpegs.

I think what alot of people dont realize about TKD and some of the other striking arts is that the self defense aspect comes in the form of One Steps and Self Defense maneuvers...in that you really need to find an instructor that will drill you on it more and you will become effective. There is no attack, IMHO, that a person can make that can't be beaten with a strike as well as a grapple. It's just basically what you feel comfortable with on a certain defense. If you are at a tkd school that you feel does not do enough SD find another one...unfortunately TKD schools have a gigantic range of what they focus on...from pure sport to very hard core self defense. You will probably find that the sport schools will be very much more common however. I am not sure and someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I think tkd schools do Ho Shin Sool which is the self defense stuff. If thats not the correct term then its something similar...I hope ...anyway if you want a school that teaches self defense your just gonna have to look around, they are out there. And remember this last bit it doesnt really matter how you spar...if you are getting some form of contact versus a thinking moving partner you are learning. You are doing the regular techniques and forms in class over and over and thats what really determines what you can do.

Please do send the info...send your rate too just so I know what I'm getting into. It might take me awhile to get over there but if your patient I will try and get there at least a few times. Actually I just wanted to add that I do have some physical limitations I'm working on...overweight, asthma and I have to wear MA shoes. I understand totally if you'd rather not train on that basis but please let me know.

Well tapes not gonna work IMHO...I tried taping my toes once when i had injured the nail and it was a disaster tape came right off first time I did a decent spin. I would say buy a store bought fungicide as tom suggested or see your doctor for a prescription if its real bad. Otherwise theres not much you can do...we had one girl that wore socks I suppose you could ask about doing that, only problem is, is that its very slippery for footing and tends to not allow spinning. You should call around and see if you have a MA store near you personally I was not wild about paying 65 bucks for a pair of shoes I hadnt tried on and luckily a store somewhat near me had a huge selection.

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I have not tried Otomix personally however I have heard good things about them. I just wanted to add that I do however have 2 Otomix TKD baseball hats that are good quality>