Kicks

Shorin Ryuu Thanks for this reply also. I have heard of Shureido. Are all Shureido sia 'balanced'? If I were to order one would I be assured that it was blaanced. Does it matter if it's chrome or not? Again I thank you.

Shorin Ryuu, Thank you. The time time you put in to that reply is greatly appreciated. Looks like I'm an ash (no pun intended).

I'm just starting out on sai. What's the best sai to use in competition or demostrations if you are going to be doing a lot of flipping of the sai? I already have one set that good for demostraiting defenses against long sticks, but hear the I would need a lighter or "balanced" sai for free style. What sai you? (don't ya just hate puns?)

Bo isn't taught much at the school I attend one or two forms and some Hapkido self defense techniques. However I am interested in learning more. Can someone comment on how to select the right Bo to purchase for self defense practice and for competition/demostrations. Thanks.

The most difficult for me is the flying (jump) spinning kick, especially when turning counter clockwise and kicking with the left foot. I can't even say that learning any of those kicks that rotate over 360 are difficult for me..because I won't even try them! I personally like the back kick and have often successfully used the jump back kick when being chased out the ring by an opponent. It's put many a good man down with a hit to the chin. Keep training and practice it. It's a good technique and catches them off guard when they are on the attack.

Enjoy your TKD expierence. Remember one bit of advice I've seen posted elsewhere on this forum..don't go into a new dojang and say stuff like "That's not how we did it at my other dojang." Accept what they teach you. If something seems odd talk to the instructor one on one to understand the exercise or technique. Oh, about the flashy kicks. I feel it's important to also learn when's the right time to use thse techniques; ie: self defense, tournament sparring, demostrations. Good luck..and enjoy!

When I won the 2003 USTU National Championships in my sparring division. I had been training and competing for about 6 years and never thought when I first started out I would accomplish that.

Once in competition I as doing a form (kata) and right near the end I came to a pivot point and was about to go to the left when I caught myself and thought " NO.. go right!" which I did. When done, a friend of mine who is a dogang owner/head instructor told me "good form". I laughed and bragged "Yea, and I almost turned left at the end but caught myself and went right By now you probably already know the ending to this story. Yep, it came to me several minutes later when the other competitors did their forms. I should have gone LEFT and not right. I never liked that form anyway.

I'd like to follow a similiar thread to the of Shorinryu Sensei's "Humor - First Class" thread, and ask.. What was your most embarrassing moment in your martial arts expierence. I have a tie between two. The summer when I ws failrl new to TKD my wife and I had a sitter come in and watch the kids that summer. One day this young girl decided to be ambitious and do our laundry. She started a small load which included my only gui and some other whites, and a few of my kid's red shirts. You guessed it. I went to class that night in a pink gui. Embarrassing! The other one was when I did the laundry. I was running late to class and quickly pulled my gui out the dryer, put it on and took off to class. I just just recently been promoted to 1st dan, so the instructor asked me to warm up the class. I went of front of my peers and wanted to look good, so I had the class do some front kicks. As I demostraited a strong front snap kick a pair of women's panties came flying out of my pants leg!!! Right across the front of the dogang!! I hate static electricity!

Shorinryu Sensei, LOL..that sounds more like my first date!

With meals I'll do Diet Coke or Iced Tea (I'm a programmer too). Somethines Root Beer or Dr Pepper. Social drinking is rum and coke. I do like coconut rum and coke too. Skaked, not stirred. At home I'll do either wine (Char or Zin) or frozen daiquiris (white russian or pina colada). Here in the new Orleans area we have drive through daiquiris, so it's really convienent. During the Christmas holidays I enjoy the eggnog dauquiris. But I do drink plenty of water all day.

The USTU has posted on their website: http://www.ustu.com/ Hmmm...August 15th is Sunday, not Saturday. You'll have to check your TV listings for when and if they air on TV.

Hey, you can't say I didn't try to warn you. You're heard of 'dirty dancing', now watch dirty fighting the Nia & Diana fight. Diana does some pushing so Nia punches her in the throat ...TWICE. At the end Nia falls and Diana stomps her in the head. However, The 2003 Tim vs Arnell finals has some good sequences. This Arnell Smith is FAST!!! Enjoy the clips, but let's be nice. These atheles were doing their best to earn a spot on the Olympic team and represent the USA. Let's at least give them credit for being there and trying, even if it's not to our amusement. If I were any better then them I would have been there; but I'm not, so I wasn't. Take care.

I found a page with videos of US Olympic weight selections and team trials. It features Many Meloon, Elisha Voren, Steven Lopez, Tim Thackery, Diana Lopez, Kay Poe, Arnell Smith, Jason McEuin and more. Go to http://www.sc-tkd.com/video.htm to view the videos. Check out the Paris Fightoff hightlights video. Warning: If you like non-stop, continious sparring, go rent a movie or go watch young color belts sparring. You may get bored watching some of these videos. While at times there is fast paced, hard hitting action, a lot of time is spent just bouncing waiting for the other person to attack so a counter attack is thrown. Yet I love this sport. It doesn't seem boring when I'm on the mat, just when I watch MY videos!

Drunken Monkey, Thanks for the vote of confidence! I started TKD at age 35 and started competing on the tournament circuit at age 39. When there are no competitors in my age division I join in the 18 – 31 year olds division. I have won at State Championships every year since they started the over 32 year old division in 1999. I also competed in my first USTU National Championship that year and placed 2nd in sparring. In 2001 I placed 2nd in forms, and in 2003 placed first in sparring. I’m looking forward to doing some international competition in the next two years.

I'm a 4 Dan in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. We do the the Chang-Hon, the TaeGuek, and the Palgwe family of forms, with an occasional Karate or Chinese kata. I compete in USTU and AAU tournaments under WTF rules. This is the same as in the Olympics. We don't do much weapons, but when we do, we practice practical defenses against knives, guns, short sticks and long sticks. We use hand defenses, long sticks, short sticks, fan, nunchaku, sai, and even our own belt.

HA! I thought is was a nice way of saying puke. I thought ya'll kept saying "make him puke".

I go to a traditional TKD school, but I compete in Olympic style tournaments. When you talk about Olympic TKD you are just talking about a set of rules of competition. It's not a separate genre of TKD, per say. Some people may consider it different, and that's fine, but Olympic sparring was designed to showcase the power and kicking techniques of traditional TKD. Modern players are just getting more creative in their presentation of these techniques for strategic reasons.

darn, now its raining.

I hopeing those two storms in the Gulf of Mexico continue heading east and not hit New Orleans. Other than that, it's partly cloudy, 85F / 29C but feels like 92F, humidity at 74%, and winds 7 - 11 mph.

That's pretty much the way it is at the school I attend, but with one exception. If you really foul up at the test, you fail. You have to be able to at least handle the pressure of performing in front of your peers and audiance. It's all in the "Do".

LOL.. when I first saw your name DLopez I had to think "Could that be Diana Lopez?? No way! Way? Have you meet them? They are right there in Sugarland, TX. Have you trained with them? When my daughter took the seminar with Jean at the AAU Nationals this summer I met him and now think the world of him. Even though he had someone ask me to stop video recording his seminar, Jean was very polite and courteous when I spoke to him later. He posed for a photo with Shannon and even remembered her and her name later when she won in Olympic sparring and he walked up to her and congratulated her. What great character! I wish him and Steven the best at the Olympics! http://www.livaudaisnet.com/mafit/AAU04lopez.jpg Jean Lopez (coach US Olympic TKD team) and Shannon

mid to upper 40's, all muscle, in great shape. I was 39 then. Oops, I was a 2nd dan then, not a third. Photo of my first fight here. I fought the 5th dan in the finals. http://www.livaudaisnet.com/mafit/axkicks.jpg

I started at age 35 along with my 4 and 6 year old sons. There were a few adults in the class so I had someone my age to play with. But I spent a lot of my time working with my kids. I stayed with it and am now a 4th dan. So is one of my kids. One thing we encourage adults who are leary about joining and feeling out of place is to join with a friend, relative or family member. You might want to see if you can get someone to join and have fun training together and going through the ranks with. Your school may even have an incentive program to bring new members in. You might be eligible for some sort of a reward (for lack of a better term) for bringing in a new student.

I first took TKD as a PE course in college. Why? I can't remember. Maybe it just fit into my schedule. But I really enjoyed it but couldn't continue after the semester let out. 17 years later I have two little boys (4 and 6) who wanted to take karate. There ws a TKD school nearby that I had heard some good things about. So I enrolled them, thinking I was too old to get started. I spent a lot of time there watching them train, and I was picking up on their techniques and forms (kata). I ended up teaching them the forms. So I decided as long as I'm there anyway, and there are a few guys my age there, I'd join also. It's been a blast going through the ranks with them. And when my daughter got old enough she joined. It's been so wonderful doing so much with my kids I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!