Keldog

Breaking is VERY important to any martial art. Firstly, it is a way to test your skill. If you haven't learned the proper way to perform a sidekick and learned accuracy, you will most likely not be able to break a single board. The most important is learning confidence. I've seen way too many people (especially children) afraid to strike a board. What is the martial arts known for? Self defense. How will you defend yourself if you are afraid to strike?

What technique? A sidekick? I've seen that done before. Very cool. Would like to try it someday myself.

I think you misunderstood or read something into my post I didn't write. I'm not putting down anyone's school. It's just my own personal belief that learning terminology and anything else I can absorb about the art makes ME a better martial artist. My instructor is a great role model, too. He's also paralyzed from the waist down and teaches from his wheelchair. I also instruct people with disabilities. Everyone can do their own thing. I just want to shout out to everyone that there is so much more. You CAN be better than you thought possible. This transcends just thoughts on terminology. It's just more than kicking and punching. I can't explain it, but understanding theory and design makes for more power. It's what Bruce Lee emphasized in his philosophy.

Hi back! Welcome.

Hehe. Just showing off. Blindfolded. Jump spin side kick. Four boards. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/blindfold.jpg

Makes perfect sense, Sam. Probably one of the more wise thoughts I've seen in a long time and you don't even know it. And I would bet that after five years of training with that kind of awareness of what you are doing that you have reached a potential beyond what you or anyone else thought possible. I think a lot of the atmosphere in dojangs today is to focus on the exciting stuff so as not to lose "customers". If I ran a school, I would probably have very few students since I would expect and require much out of everyone. Not just a handful of talented kids. I like my school. Good friends there. However the owners want to run it is their business. I expect a lot out of myself being an adult and aware of what the art really means to me. It shouldn't really matter where you train. Things like terminology and language can be learned very much on your own time. Sometimes you just have to motivate yourself to be the best you can be. That's integrity. Courtesy and respect are not making it an issue with friends.

Your dojang sounds much like my own. Many words in the handbook but few used in class. I began my training in 1985 and studied through 1988. Real close to black belt but never tested because the school closed and I was 19 with other interests (that's another story). I started up again two years ago when my son turned seven and have climbed back to my former rank and conditioning at the age of 37. We used Korean terminology frequently in the old school. That seems to be a bygone era for most of TKD. I feel it's important to learn terms and commands in Korean. It is important to develop the mind as well as the body. Letting some traditions go, to me, is sad. It's a sign of disrespect for the art to deem some aspects unimportant. Making an effort to learn even the most boring techniques or curriculum is part of the tenet of integrity. Folks can learn all of the fancy kicks or sparring moves they want. But they will never understand the true mental and physical power that can be realized through respect and dedication to the art.

Usually, combinations that involve redirecting the leg works for me. In an open stance with my right leg forward I throw a twist kick to the midsection then reverse my body an bring a roundhouse to the side of the head from his blind side. Sweep an outside to inside crescent kick across the face and circle it around to a rechamber position and side kick straight to the chest area. Hook kick across the face then reverse it with a roundhouse to the other side of the head. Practice this one with a kick paddle. Hook over the top then snap it right back on the target. Double roundhouses work great. Snap a fake low then shoot high. Most people automatically drop both their hands to block the first kick then get nailed because they left nothing to protect the head.

Eolgul means face or high. It's a face block. Arae means low, momtong is middle.

Certain victory? Why would you say Pil seung to a black belt? That's one I've never heard of before. We use that one at the end of class. Join hands and, Hana! Tul! Set! Pil seung!

Actually, ninjanurse, much of the terms in Tae Kwon Do were originally Chinese influenced. Old skool. Funny. That's what my KJN calls me.

For two years, I had to listen to the highest ranking color belts exclaim "Face U Dun Jees!" at the beginning and end of every class. I've always known it to be "U Dan Ja". We have some of the best Instructors running the school. But Korean terminology is sorely lacking and rarely used. My first school 18 years ago, we stressed korean commands. It's part of the tradition and discipline to me. Let me know what y'all say if you go through the ceremony of bowing to the black belts in your school. Try to spell as phonetically as possible. I can't hear you through the screen.

I've seen the low riding stance used mostly in karate. The way I was taught this stance was with feet a little more than shoulder width and knees slightly bent towards the front such as is pictured on the Kukkiwon site. http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/eng/image/tkskill/kibon/126_2.jpg We only use it during punching drills to develop the correct coordination of alternating your hand strikes.and rechambering to the correct position on your belt. The leg strength developed during these drills is more of a bonus. Kind of a two fer.

This morning, he was Danny. In four hours, he became Mr. Hicks. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1842.jpg Danny became the first (known) disabled person to be promoted from white belt all the way through to black belt by an instructor that is also in a wheelchair. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1829.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1830.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1831.jpg We're very proud of Danny. He worked very hard to reach this day. I am proud to have been apart of his training. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1774.jpg Here's a few more pics from the day. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1781.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1805.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1806.jpg Me being thrown by Danny in his self defense portion of the testing. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/Throw.jpg Pic of the students who tested today. They are flanked by Masters Bill and Pat Auvenshine. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/Keldog/Tae%20Kwon%20Do/100_1840.jpg

Only kidding, 47. When someone makes a suggestion of a move I picture myself trying it. And catching it in the face would probably be the result.

And if done wrong you'll catch the kick in the face instead of the body as you are dropping out of sight. There's a 5th Degree I spar every now and then that uses that technique quite a bit. Usually, it's a spin back kick with the rear leg. My defense against that one is to pull in my guard to cover the middle body, absorb the blow and counter with multiple kicks as I chase him across the ring. You see, most guys that deliver a back kick (whether turning in the front shoulder and kicking with the front leg or spinning with the rear leg) don't follow with anything else and push themselves away after they kick to get out of range of a counter attack. That's why I push my weight forward and chase him because he's vunerable with his back to me. Of course, whenever I find I can't move out of the way or block a certain technique I resolve myself to take the hit and counter immediately. This usually works in competition as an immediate counter can negate a point by your opponent or it may cause a judge to miss the opponents strike if it doesn't look like they landed it hard enough to count. Hook kicks are a different story. Normally not effective to the body so look for it to be aimed at your head. I like the hook kick myself because it is a kick that travels in two directions. Straight in like a side kick, then horizontally across your opponent. Plus, you can snap off a roundhouse at the end of it if you keep it in the air. One way to defend both kicks is to lean the body out of range while using front leg techniques. I'd bet your opponent uses that back kick most of the time you throw a back leg kick because the turning of your body opens up the body mass.

That's a great way of putting it, cseid64. And also very similar to my view. I practiced TKD from 1985 to 1988 when I was around 18 years old. My school closed down and (being 18 years old) got into "other stuff". In the last 15 years I had pretty much kept myself in shape and practiced up on all of my old forms (Taeguks Il Jong thru Yook Jong) every now and then hoping to find a school comparable to my former school. My son turned 7 in January 2003 so I decided it was time to look into the local TKD school right in my hometown. Amazingly, it was almost a carbon copy of my old school so I joined up, at 35 years old, along with my son. We are a very family friendly school and include many adult students that are the parents of the young students. We've got one young lady, age 11, just received her black belt last Saturday and she has her mom, dad, little brother, two cousins and GREAT grandfather also members of the school. Grandpa is 73 years old. He will probably be testing for his black belt next August at the same time as me. draneym2 comments that he was the only adult in the school for awhile. Gotta start somewhere!