tufrthanu

Toi Gye is not a form I am familiar with, however, Hwa Rang is a good form there are lots of different techniques rather than just the same few repeating. There isnt really anything too physically challenging about it but it does demonstrate lots of good strong moves and stances. If you know it very well do it otherwise Toi Gye may be better. My sensei says you need to do a form 500 times even to do it at an average level. so practice it often preferably in front of someone that can critique you.

I think you should do a form that you are very familiar with rather than trying to learn a new one for a competition as a more basic form performed excellently will trump a higher form performed sloppily. However, that being said, judges also like flash. Unfortunately I am only familiar with a few of the Chang Hon forms however something like Chung Mu would show both basic techniques as well as more advanced stuff like the flying side kick.

Well we dont do the Sine Wave in my style. So alot of this is just from what I have heard, but, basically the Sine Wave is designed to give you more power. The way its performed is to move High Low High Low and so on. So if your form went High Block Low Block HIgh Block Low Block youd stand up get low stand up get low and so on. It basically looks like this /\/\/\/\/\/\. It should be said thats the motion your body makes not your techniques. The traditional way was to keep your head at exactly the same level while moving forward. When doing the Sine Wave quickly in a pattern it turns into the bounce you hear peole refer to.

Well I dont know what some of those weapons are that Tom mentioned I think Sword and Staff are the big two. The reason for this I beleive is most of the weapons Korea has had have been either from Okinawa or China. I think therefore they are found more in those arts than the ones the Koreans tried to make solely korean.

Gen Choi made what are called the Chang Hon form set AKA ITF hyungs. Chang Hon was his pen name. The original patterns did not include the sine wave or what people consider bouncing. That was implemented in like 1983.

Well first off I would like to say as one of the few and or only americans posting so far in this topic that you are all talking different dollar amounts so far so how can you tell what you are really paying? Australian, English, Canadian, American. At my school you pay between 86 and 100 dollars or so depending on your plan and how you pay. MIne is 86 a month for unlimited lessons. Thats on a 1 year contract. Tests were 30 to start. Advanced belt tests were 65. Shodan Ho is 165 havent taken that one yet. First dan is either 165 or 250. This is alot but I've heard of schools charging alot more. Also as far as the rate for lessons go you have to look at where you live. Rates in downtown NYC are going to be vastly higher than in Rural Iowa. I would also like to add that gouging is by no means exclusive to TKD. There is an Okinawan karate place in upstate NY that charges like 180 a month which is way outta line for that area but as they are one of the few schools around there they can get away with it.

Generally speaking in TKD Master can be either 5-6 or 4-5 Dan Black Belt. I think GrandMaster you gotta be like 8th or 9th. But on the Title thing I think they are out of their minds. Personally I would never call anyone Master if you want to be called sensei or sabum fine or Ill call you sir. I have read in TKD magazines such idiotic titles as Great Grandmaster and Eternal Grandmaster. All i can do is laugh.

I recently took up Hapkido and also have done TKD for a long while. I was just wondering what your thoughts might be on how difficult it might be to take two fairly different arts simultaneously and keep them seperate. And then how to bring them together for your own benefit in your outside life.

This really isnt a discussion of WTF versus ITF. Rather its a discussion of Olympic versus Point Sparring. Anyone from either org can fight Olympic or Point style this is why I make the distinction. Olympic style does allow full contact punches and kicks to the body and full contact kicks to the head although I think you get 2 points if you knock someone down with a kick. Olympic sparring is also continuous unless someone falls or gets knocked down at which point they are reset. Point sparring allows kicks and punches to both the head and body but they must be light contact. There are a couple types of point sparring that I have seen. One type goes to 2 or 3 point and you get 1 point for each technique that lands and you are then reset to begin again. The other type goes to 5 or 6 points and you get 1 point for a punch with the back hand and 2 for kicks at which point you are reset. Olympic sparring tends to emphasize more power and point sparring tends to emphasize more speed although both types have elements of the other.

ITF TKD hyung are different right off the bat in that they bounce. http://tkdtutor.com/10Patterns/PatternLists.htm That site supposedly has vids of ITF patterns though. If not there you can look up the individual patterns and find mpegs for them. I always though Tang Soo Do had the closest form set to Karate however in that they do Pyong Ahn and various other karate forms

Jhoon Rhees system of TKD is American tkd. Not to be confused with ATA. I do American tkd. Heres a list of all the types of tkd I've heard of American TKD Moo Duk Kwan TKD ITF TKD WTF/Kukkiwon TKD Songham TKD Songham is the style some ATA schools do.

A break with the tip of the fingers I would consider very risky unless you have done things to toughen them up. Also I have seen guys break boards with a spear hand and it is a little different than what i bet most people learn. The middle finger is bent considerably so that the first three fingers make a continuous line, they then have a very good means of support in the bent middle finger.

Well as I have posted elsewhere all we usually do is a step cross side kick for advanced belts. However, one category of breaks I haven't seen anyone yet mention is a spead break. These are usually done by throwing a board and then kicking or punching it as it falls. One other example that I have had explained to me but never seen done or performed is to place a board on a single cinder block so that it overhangs into space by about half. You then do a chop on the half hanging in space to break the board.

At our school we do very little breaking. Mostly just a step cross side kick into a single board for tests. We only break from 3rd Gup up. Adults get verying sizes, I usually do the 12 inch square job. And the kids usually do just a strip. Btw, how do I know whether im breaking with or against the grain? When I look that where I broke my last one it was several layers. Does that mean it was with or against?

I dont think he means a spinning side kick Kita because I mentioned that in my post and he said thats not what he meant. Spinning and reverse side kicks being where you turn backward and do a side kick with the leg that was formerly in back. I agree that that is a powerful kick, however, what I think he means is when you lift your rear leg up and pivot toward the front like if you were doing a back leg round kick, but instead then doing a side kick once your formerly rear leg was in front.

Of course you cant put anything into "muscle" memory until its in your real memory first. I remember when I had to learn Kanku Dai, which for those that may not know it is like the second longest form in Japanese/Korean arts, and it too me a long time to finally get through it one time on my own.

I would like to add $1.50 worth. There is no such thing as a back leg side kick, unless you mean a reverse or spinning version, as once you have pivoted around it becomes exactly the same as a front leg side kick. As to the back leg kicks there are some that are great equalizers. My back leg round house for instance would break most peoples guards leaving them the only option to evade. It can also be used to horrible effectiveness as a sweep to the lower leg or as a break to the side or back of the knee. I also want to point out a bit of semantics that I havent seen mentioned thus far in the postings. And that is that there is a difference between a front leg forward stance and a strong leg forward stance. What I mean is that if your good leg is forward your going to hit harder than if your weak leg was forward and maybe if your weak leg was in the rear, depending on how good your good leg is, but not as hard as if your good leg were in the rear.

At our school we don't do any Chang Hon forms after black belt. We switch to Japanese forms. Unsu, Empi, Bassai Dai, and Gojushiho. As to the colored belt ones that we do Won Hyo, Hwa Rang, Chung Mu, and Gae Baek which is usually a black belt form I think but we do it at 1st Gup. We do not do the sine wave part, we don't come up and down for each technique. Preferably we start out deep and stay at that same height. I should also say I have talked to another student of a school near me that does American TKD and it sounds like they dont do Chang Hon forms at all so there must be a certain amount of leeway given as to what the instructors can teach.

Actually I have an old copy of Choi's Taekwon-do that states it as do many of his other writings. If you dont know that Choi claimed it came from Tae Kyon and his Shotokan training then you need to do some research, as that was one of the main things that his detractors point out as being untrue.

They are Chang Hon forms not ITF. The ITF is just a federation. And as I stated before there are some differences between the forms as most American TKD people do them and how the ITF does them.

Actually Chois assertion was that TKD was a mix of japanese arts and Tae Kyon...an older Korean art. That is false. There is a very good text that I have a copy of and will send to anyone via email about the formation of the original kwans and what led up to the origination of the official name of TKD being taken. As to WTF ITF it really doesnt matter. Those are just federations, they have different forms but a kick is still a kick. Oh, almost forgot to mention the name of the text...it's "A Modern History of Tae Kwon Do" by Kang Won Sik and Lee Kyong Myong.

Well I do American TKD, which is the style that Jhoon Rhee taught here in America. From what I have heard he was sent a copy of the Chang Hon forms and learned them from that. I dont think Rhee ever studied with Choi. The forms are similar except that in the ITF they do the so called "Sine Wave". That is absent in Rhees forms, and they are supposed to be done without bobbing. Bassai Dai is indeed a shotokan form, and is found in some korean arts as Bat Sai Dai. I'm not sure but it may predate shotokan as well. As for Chul Gi, I looked around and it looks like this is the korean name for the Japanese form Tekki, or Neihanchi. As to why there arent as many I'm not sure. Jhoon Rhee has developed several of his own forms which are now taught in American TKD schools along with others including Chang Hon forms. My own school does Won Hyo, Hwa Rang, Chung Mu, and Gae Baek. Hope this helped a little.

It should be split into kids and adult classes even if liberally. At our school 13 and up can join the adult class. Otherwise there is just too much risk of injury, a kid decides to go running around as an adult winds up for a spinning hook kick and bam the kid gets nailed. Some places have classes aside from the regular ones where it is for families, parents and kids train together. However, that should be in addition to the regular classes. In the end though its how happy you are there.

Here is a better idea. Give him the benefit of the doubt. If he goes to hard ask him to lighten up. If he still goes to hard back him off. If you cant back him off dont spar him and tell your sensei or sabum. They may decide to back them off or discipline them some other way.

As to people getting rank that dont do a side kick as well as you or others of their rank...it happens. Alot of instructors need to pay bills so they sometimes advance people who shouldnt have been. Also sometimes a person who tries very hard and puts in time and effort will often be given rank based on perserverance rather than skill. Also there are things that I do that I'm sure could be better and some yellow belts might do it better, however, there are also things that I do better than anyone else in the dojang, except for maybe the head instructor.