tufrthanu

First off are you boiling your mouthpiece and form fitting it to your mouth? If so there shouldnt be any rough edges. ALso if there do happene to be some rough edges you can always reboil it and do it again. As to the sparring practice is going to help you the most, however, you should probably come up with several techniques that you can do very well and then do them over and over again. Remember to combo so that he doesnt know where your final hit is going.

I don't recall Choi ever defecting to North Korea, although he did have leanings toward them which was why he left South Korea and moved to Canada. He is buried in North Korea.

Yeah 3 years is a long time. And those programs...like the masters club or whatever sound like euphemisms for different contracts. The association for Hwa Rang Do is the World Hwa Rang Do Association but this place sounds like it maybe teaches both. In the end if you are learning good stuff and like the place 3 years is no problem. And it really doesnt matter if you have your black belt at the end or not. If a white belt trains long enough he can beat anyone no matter that hes not a black belt.

In my school at least green to blue do not follow each other however assuming as is in your case that they are progressive ranks I would say a couple of months on average. As to Won Hyo...you may need an instructor to learn the techniques...however if you know what the techniques are you can go ahead and start memorizing the form to get a rough idea of how it is to perform it. I have done that repeatedly and then fine tuned my forms with instruction and that has helped me learn them in about 1/3 to 1/2 the time normally required.

You guys are either buying very cheap doboks or do not know how to do your laundry. All of this pretreating blah blah blah is unnecessary. Just put stain stick on any stains and wash it in cold water then hang it up in a place where it will dry easily. Also one thing you may not be doing that is very important is to hang it up or at least lay it out after a workout. This will air dry it out and keep mildew and other bacteria from collecting.

How pricey?

All I do is wash in cold water and hang dry. I use StainStick for any tough spots. Mine is a macho and I have had it for three years of medium use(3 to 4 hours per week). I only wash it about once a week or sometimes in the summer more if it needs it. So far there is no discoloration.

You DON'T trust them. Hence the term opponent.

Thanks for your input TKDLady I will try that.

I am about 90 pounds overweight. I have seen topics on this board regarding how to stretch and I have a few questions. First off in Thomas Kurz book he recommends trying to do a side split but pointing your toes forward and slowly sliding down to the ground. This will automatically stretch your legs and you can also try to pinch the ground to increase the tear of the muscles. I have been afraid to try this as I think I will slide all the way down and tear or dislocate something. So has anyone worked with an overweight person for stretching or is overweight themselves that can tell me if this is ok to do? And do you know of some other things I could try? Also I have found that being overweight my stomach can sometimes keep me from doing certain stretches, such as sitting on the floor and putting both legs out in front of you and bending over to touch your toes. If anyone has any other good stretches an overweight person can do let me know. Thanks.

Does anyone out there happen to know if there are any Tang Soo Do or Hapkido schools or schools that teach either of those in the SW or W suburbs of the Twin Cities of Minnesota?

I take the art started here in america by Jhoon Rhee called American Tae Kwon Do. At our school at least the terms TKD and karate are used interchangeably. We even call our head instructor sensei instead of sa bum nim. If you want a good history of TKD, there is a text called "A Modern History of Tae Kwon Do" by Kang Won Sik and Lee Myong Kyong. Unfortunately this only covers the beginnings of TKD and not the spread in America. However Jhoon Rhee was the first to teach it here.

Well, I don't know how appropos this is to this particular discussion but I will say it anyway. In Japanese custom at least, and this may or may not be true for Korean customs, a bow of respect is always given with your eyes averted and your head down. However, when preparing to fight the bow is altered to be able to watch your opponent. Looking at a person while bowing in polite company would be an insult and possibly a threat. As to being able to see their feet move, kicking you in the head while bent over doesn't require you to move your feet simply to kick quickly.

Actually those aren't really ITF forms. The are from the Chang Hon school of Hyung. We do some of the same forms in American Tae Kwon Do only we don't bounce.[/img]