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just thought i'd throw in a few of my favorite workouts that were shown to me by one of my instructers who is now my training partner. for kicking excersises, try breaking down the technique into each specific movement. for the roundhouse/turning kick, the first movement is to pick up your knee, so do knee raises as fast as you can for 15secs for about 3 sets or so. your second movement is to extend your leg to finish the kick, so have a friend hold a shield or some paddles at about knee height, slightly bend forward as to help with your balance, and for 15secs, kick as fast as you possibly can, the key to this workout is to try and only use your quads, this excersises gives you a faster snap. if you need to work on turning your hips faster, do the same thing just angle the paddles so your forced to completely turn over to hit them. i hope this helps, these are a few of my favorite excersises and i find them extremely effective for those of us that like to throw multiple techniques with one leg before bringing the leg down

well, finally had my tournament on saturday so thought i'd give yall an update, i only competed in the sparring and placed 3rd, so i got a cool little medal thanks to everyone who gave me advice as far as strategies and workout routines, i defenitely went into this tournament faster than i have ever been. as for scoring, i was more offensive and did'nt score off the side kick, but i got several points off the backhand and almost got disqualified for hitting too hard with a knifehand to the chin, but my bread and butter was just a simple double turning kicking to the stomach, then face. once again, tnx for the help guys

wow, kicks, your almost a Godsend bro, my next question was gonna be what plyometrics are recommended, but its already on your site, i appreciate the info. thank you!

recieved alot of emails and messages giving me different excersises to help me develope speed, well, thank you everyone! i think i enjoy the workouts a little more than expected and would actually enjoy working out twice a day, one hour per session, so i'm just curious if anyone knows if this would be considered overtraining. i kinda figure you can't get enough practice, but on top of these workouts, i have 3 hours a day of my classes, Taekwon-Do, Aikido, and Hapkido. so plz feel free to post what yall think

well, i just found some decent clips of some point sparring matches, so i thought i'd share em with ya, if ya think its still for sissies or what not, fine, its your opinion, but this is some pretty crazy action imho. plz enjoy http://gtf-taekwon-do.no/bilder/nm/2002/bilder/kampindivid.wmv clip is pretty long, so i hope you have a fast connection

i'm not sure how it is in most places, but here in south texas, light contact only scores points for colored belts, in the black belt competitions, if you don't get a clean, solid, not to mention HARD technique, you don't get a point. i've read the rule book and know that it says light contact, but it certainly doesn't hold true anywhere around here, in class we strike at about 80-90%, in the tournaments, not much holding back, except punches to the face must not be excessive, even then, a light tap won't get you a point

i like the advice on working on telegraphing, but could you explain how point fighting is for sissies? i keep an open mind to everyones opinions. perhaps i'm wrong but i have't heard of many knock-outs in olympic style than i have in point sparring. i'm was just surprised to read such an ignorant comment, especially coming from someone with your martial arts background. i don't want this post to turn into a heated arguement, i'm just curious as to why you would think that, that is actually one of the few times i've heard that comment.

i consider my self a pretty good point fighter, i'm fairly fast and pretty flexible, but i had the honor of refereeing my first WTF TKD tournament today, and i was completely amazed at the speed of their kicks, i know i've got decent kicks and have been told i'm pretty fast, but i KNOW that i do not compare to many of these guys. these guys were just machine gunning these kicks with crazy lightning speed, so today, i'm set on finding out some of the absolute best excersises to develope this type of speed. so anyone who knows of a true tried and tested excersise/drill, plz post here, i simply HAVE to add some more into my workouts. one of the guys i talked to said they did a bunch of "spot skipping", he explained that they put several spots on the ground and jumped to each one as fast as they possibly could. and another method was kicking a bag with ankle weights, i've yet to try either, so any advice is greatly appreciated. thank you in advance

plz do, i'll be looking forward to your response, thank you

k, i believe i was wrong on the previous post, just got ahold of a guy with san diego pd last night who confirmed that they are/were using nunchaku

if that is how you actually feel while meditating, sounds to me like you need no help, your doing fine, your far above my level, i have trouble keeping an empty mind. but one of my favorite books is by Koichi Tohei and is the Book of Ki, he doesn't really go into methods for meditation, more about different excersises to develope and extend your ki, hope this helps

alot of ppl get the misinterpretation that tkd is not practical do to what they have seen by olympic style sparring, ppl see a couple guys do their "flutter kicks" and see no use of the hands. someone who comments on the practicality of tkd should keep an open mind and take into consideration that even though olympic tkd doesn't look practical, they need to think about a couple other things, most schools DO teach the use of hands and many practical takedowns and other self defense measures regardless of how they fight their tournaments, 2nd, have you seen how fast some of those guys can kick? personally, i don't care for olympic style tkd, but man, anyone who can kick like they do deserves some respect, i think i'd use my hands less in practice if my feet were that fast. overall, all arts are defenitely a means of self defense, each just has its own pros and cons, and anyone claiming that one art is better than the other is either ignorant or is new to the martial arts and doesn't know what he/she is talking about. just my 2 cents

good job bro, glad to hear your test went well, just think, 1 down, like 20+ to go. ooh, some advice i wish i had received, when you finally test for black belt, you may get real nervous (i sure as hell did) and with the pressure, you may tend to forget things, so as you learn new one steps and such, be sure to practice them every so often so that they will be second nature to you. when i tested, i really worked on my one steps about a week prior to testing, i got real nervous and forgot half of em, so i wound up having to make em up on the spot, but it was unnecessary stress. just another 2 cents, congrats and good luck on the rest of your TKD career

i thought i had originally read that NY PD allowed its use, but i'm probably wrong, just checked the net and couldn't find any stations that currently allow it, found this site that merely mentioned that it WAS used by some law enforcement http://tkdtutor.com/15Weapons/Offensive/Nunchaku.htm but apparently it is no more, i would love to have the opportunity to decide and intend to put in the paperwork to get the idea out in the open, but defenitly not until i know what the hell i'm talking about

from what i've read, and i'm not 100% sure, but alot of the police departments in the north leave the choice to the officers, its because of that reason that i would like to see even the federal law enforcement to be given a choice, if i find any specifics as to exactly what dept. alllows its use, i'll post again

currently we don't have a choice between self defense weapons, but there is a group of us that are trying to promote variety, there is a group of us trying to promote variety, currently we are trying to get a self defense program where a few of us will have the opportunity to teach basic hand to hand combat and self defense, and personally, if i ever gained some knowledge in the nunchaku, i'd love to be able to add that to the curriculum

just thought i'd renew this post, i had a friend nail me with this one, defenitely a classic, personally i counted 8 j/k only 3, amazing how the mind works, or doesn't work

Hookt on Foniks Phukt me up

i just read this joke last night for the first time, must admit, i about fell off my chair laughing, defenitely a topic of alot my upcoming jokes in the future. tnx for the good laugh

one day in the woods, a bear comes across a little rabbit holding a lamp and attempts to steal it from the little rabbit, in the pursueing arguement, a genie pops out and advises that each are to be granted 3 wishes. the bear thinks about his 1st wish and says, "i want to be the only male bear in all of these woods." "DONE!" exclaims the genie and then looks down at the little rabbit who simply requests a nice home for his wife and little rabbit babies. "DONE!" yells the genie. for the 2nd wish, the bears thinks about it, "on second thought, i wish i were the only male bear in all of this state" "DONE!" exclaims the genie. "i would like plenty of carrots and other fresh vegetables for my family" the rabbit kindly asks. "DONE!" for the bears final wish, he thinks real hard, "Better yet, i wish i was the only male bear in the entire world and all other bears were female" "DONE!" finally, with a smile on his face, the rabbit looks up at the bear and points saying, "i wish he was gay" "DONE!" when i heard this joke, all i could think was "DOH" hope you enjoyed it as much as i did

i'm interested in learning the nunchaku for both self defense and because of the coordination, the nunchaku has always been real appealing to me. i'm in law enforcement so i carry around the steel baton, though i don't prefer it, i miss using the pr-24, which is a tonfa. but there are some areas of law enforcement that allow the use of nunchaku instead of the baton, and from what i've studied, someone well versed with the nunchaku would be very devastating, the lighting strikes alone raise the hairs on the back of my neck. so overall, i want it for self defense, but a little bit of flash never hurt anyone.

for a good change up, try ballistic pushups, get in pushup position and try and launch yourself off the ground every time, very exhausting and great for power, just make sure your strong enough to do them and you are adequately warmed up to avoid injury

well, imho, if you can do a side kick, you can do a spinning side kick/jump spinning side kick. if your gonna do jump spinning side kick, i recommend having your kicking foot back (i know its obvious, but i've seen some ppl try the opposite and end up on the floor). keep a tight chamber and don't thrust out until you see your target, there doesn't see to be any "great technique" in a jssk cuz technically you shouldn't have to jump that high. i prefer to use the jssk as a defensive technique and follow it up with a backhand/reverse punch. as far as practicing it, i remember just standing in a right back stance and doing a have rotation as fast as i could over and over, and when i felt it was fast enough and had the balance portion down, i added the sidekick, pretty easy technique and looks pretty impressive as well. hope this helps, GL

i'm currently with CTF which is ITF affiliated, and for my opinion, i prefer the point sparring over olympic style any day, i HAVE to be able to use my hands, its just my style, but i practice hapkido at a school that also teaches WTF TKD, and i wish my kicks were as fast and flashy as some of their's. just my 2 cents

good luck bro, i still remember having to get up and do that form, wasn't in front of 100+ ppl, but i was still nervous as hell. only recommendations i can give ya is complete and absolute focus on your form, and if you spar (we didn't spar till we were doing Do San;green belt i believe) try your best to tune out the audience, i remember getting really edgy when i'd hear the audience "ooh" and "aah". and i know "pretending ppl aren't there" is alot easier said than done, but during the stretching, just try and focus on your breathing and remember that you aren't the really the center of attention, there are several others there testing, usually the focus/pressure is on the higher ranks cuz some ppl expect the impossible out of them. hope this helps, sorry if it doesn't, GOOD LUCK!!!