tufrthanu

Manuelito no offense but you are WRONG! When I took hapkido I was encouraged to wear shoes because some of their kicks are much more effective with them on. In addition most real fights will take place with your shoes on not barefoot. And as a shoe wearer I can tell you from personal experience that its much more difficult to execute spinning kicks with the added resistance on your feet. I have diabetic neuropathy so eventually due to a doctors insistance, who oddly enough also does tkd, I bought a pair. It was not a problem with either my hapkido or my taekwondo school especially since it was for a medical reason. I personally would not go to a school that didn't allow me to wear shoes if I chose to now. BTW i bought a pair of Discipline shoes...usually my sweat rips the soles of a shoe out in short order these are hanging tough. My only complaint is a rubber insert on the bottom is starting to peel...but I think I can just use some shoe glue and it will be fine. Bottom line Sick is that if you want to wear shoes, especially if theres a medical reason, you should be allowed to do so.

Wow there are other hapkido schools in the TC? What type of hapkido do you do if you dont mind my asking? I took Sin Moo Hapkido at a place in St. Paul for awhile but I kept getting hurt doing the falls so I left...not sure if I should take it up again or not somewhere else.

Doing dynamic stretching after workouts and pinching the floor with your feet while doing side splits will help you get there. Also you need to loosing up your hips with like crescent kicks. Tom Kurz has a good book on it. He says you can gain the suspended splits in 3-4 months using his method...I have trouble stretching regularly though and I dont think my body is designed real well for splits in any event and so I haven't attained that ability yet.

Um I do tkd...Duh! And yes I feel that if a person is taught to fight with their hands down they are at a disadvantage as I stated before. You are overly hostile and I will not discuss this any further. The reason I got into the disussion in the first place was to explain to someone why people see this as a not so hot form of sparring. I feel that I have done that and I won't be posting on it anymore.

Actually Dlopez if you had paid attention you would notice that I was the one that posted about olympic tkd being sport combat. And yes Judo and Wrestling and Boxing are all sport combats. Any thing where you are attacking someone and trying to score points or knockouts counts as sport combat. And yes I do beleive that those are real self defense arts. And as proof I refer you to the news item where a car full of Judoka on their way back from a tournament were carjacked and beat the hell out of the assailant who was later arrested by police. I would also like to say i find your derisive tone to be very offensive. I do not do olympic sparring but I have no problem discussing it in a civilized manner.

The reason is because its supposed to be sport combat...and it makes people wonder when they athletes dont even have their hands up. That is a very obvious flaw in the olympic tkd fighting and its not the sports fault really but the coaches obviously dont emphasize keeping your hands up. If you took another sport combat practioner and put them in a real situation they would have a chance of surviving because they know to protect themselves...when you blatantly ignore this and let your hands hang at your sides you are asking for trouble in a fight, sport or not, IMHO.

Hmm well the spelling thing happens alot with foreign words that are heard but never seen spelled out. I think you mean Kukki Won though. Or perhaps your trying to say Kukki Ryu even though ryu would be Japanese I think. And no we dont do Koryo at my school. I am however surprised that you do it at brown belt as I thought at most Kukki schools it was a 1st dan form.

Howdy Torris, I beleive you might do the same type of tkd as me...that is if its Jhoon Rhee related. As to the belt colors and requirements per belt those really are based on individual schools. The best advice is to look up your forms on the internet and also ask your instructor about them. That will tell you if they are bonafide or not. But even if you can't find them they can still be good forms. The order of belts and their colors is pretty meaningless. Poom is like the korean word for a belt. Without knowing more about your school it's kinda hard to tell if its good tkd or not. More likely though is that they are good techniques.

As a student at a Jhoon Rhee descended school we also do some of the ITF forms but we like the Jhoon Rhee schools are not really affiliated with the ITF. I would like to know if this 500 dollars gets you straight to cho dan or if this is just to cho dan bo. I had an olympic tkd instructor tell me once that some schools charge as much as 500 for their 1st dan but that can either be divided into 250 for chodanbo and 250 for chodan or 500 straight for chodan bo and nothing for chodan. I do personally however feel that 500 dollars is out of line. At my school which isnt in an economically depressed area I paid 165 for my chodanbo test which also covered my chodan test, got me a new uniform and my certificate. If you dont want to pay that much which I think you should definitely not remember alot of TKD schools will give you your rank at their style as long as you agree to learn their forms and what not. I mean you already have the knowlege of a black belt so your not paying for that, just belts and uniforms and certificates. So it might be easier just to look into another school.

Took me about 3 and a half years also. I was a bit slower than most of the other people who did it in about 1 and a half to 2 and a half years. The fastest at my school, other than people who have transferred and my instructor has given rank to, was abotu 10 months. But those few instances were there about 5-6 days a weeks several hours a day.

What I meant sleepy is that alot of instructors sell martial arts equipment to their students. He might have some of the stuff you need for sale at his dojang. If not you can look around and see if there is an MA supply store near you that way you can try on some of the stuff...the salesperson will probably be able to fit you pretty good.

Kihaping with a mouthguard in your mouth negates its effectiveness. Unless you can do it without opening your mouth that is. In order for a mouthpieace to work properly your jaw must be closed. That way the mouthpiece helps support the jaw and teeth.

Speed first? I say technique first. You can be as fast as you want if you dont do the technique properly you may end up hurting yourself.

I found one school that was specifically Hapkido in the Yellow Pages called American Hapkido located in Lytle TX which from this list looks like its around 22 miles from San Antonio. Otherwise there are a number of Korean schools that are closer i.e. Tae Kwon Do where one of the instructors might be ranked in Hapkido. Alternatively there are some Aikido and Jujitsu schools which might interest you if you are looking for the grappling content.

Well the only pieces of equipment you NEED are Helmet, Hogu, groin protector and mouthguard speaking of which I highly recommend Shock Doctors. Shin and Forearm guards are optional however the first time you bang shins with someone doing a round kick at the same time you do you will realize they are a good idea. I could name some good brands for some of this stuff however like I said being olympic they have certain requirements. Tigear shin guards can stand up to a baseball bat with supposedly no pain but those arent allowed in olympic tkd I dont think. I would think your sabumnim would be able to help you get started he might even have some of this equipment in his backroom. At least as a starter set til you can see what every one else is wearing and what they have found to work. As to the sizing with it's probably better to have stuff a little to small as long as its not something like a foot pad where its going to clip the toes. The reason I say that is most of the stuff has elastic on it now so it will stretch to fit around you if its close.

If this is an olympic tkd place you may have to buy certain brands that meet requirements, unfortunately I dont spar with those types of equipment so I'm not sure what they should be. You should definitely get a female groin protector however. Even though you dont have testicles you can damage your privates. The point of the groin protector is to distribute force over a larger area thereby lessening impact. Actually I did talk to an olympic sparrer later on he says Addidas, Macho and Tekno are your best bets for your equipment. Hope that helps.

Thanks spookey!

Does anyone have a link to a site with an mpg that shows the forward shoulder roll, preferably with multiple views including from the front?

Hmm well without knowing how it fits on you its kinda hard to picture but here are some causes that it could be: The belt should be tied around your waist not way down on your leg joints, the top should be tied to that you just have enough room to move a little on the inside, also I have noticed from personal experience if I have a belt thats too small i.e. one I can only wrap around once my uniform gets all messed up however if it is the proper size and wraps around twice its fine. Which also makes me ask are you tying your belt properly? Cause that could make the uniform shift too.

With the spinning hook kick I dont think it matters as much if you over pivot as long as you are chambered before 90 degrees and hit whats in front of you. If all else fails remember that a full spin hook is basically doing a half spin and kicking...then setting the kicking leg down behind. This may help to break up the kick so you kick in the right spot. BTW where do you live in MN I am in Minnetonka just outside of MPLS.

I wear the old style uniform. Personally I have never had the top come undone on me. You should be able to get the ties tight enough so that it doesnt come undone. Your belt should be however tight it is comfortable so that you can still breath easily. It makes me think that your belt might not be tight enough if the top keeps riding up or shifting. I am a fat guy however when I do my belt I try to get the belt a little bit tighter than a perfect fit.

Well, heres the deal no matter what your knee is going to twist a little when you spin. Here are your best bets. First ALWAYS spin on the ball of your foot. You may need to do calf raises to get the strength to lift up at a moments notice to spin like that. Second you may want to do LIGHT exercises to help strengthen your knees. Squats, Leg Press, and Leg lifts are good ones. Use therapeutic weights.

This the one where you turn backwards and do a hook kick with the foot that was formerly in back and then set the kicking foot down in front? Remember to do everything slow to learn it. When you first start your spin you can step once and position your stationary leg so that the toes point away from your target that will get your body in the right position to kick. After awhile dont take the extra step just spin.

Well actually Steven Segal did not open an Aikido Dojo in Japan. The dojo was already owned by a Japanese woman as non Japanese people were not allowed to own property in Japan at that time. He married her took the dojo from her and left her. Then later moved back to the United states.

If you want tough feet your best bet is to use some form of Makiwara. These are usually made of rope covered wood. Don't get the foam ones. Just lightly kick or roll the contact points of your foot across it. You can do these with your hands too.