Cory Reynolds

Salutations Moo, I practice American Freestyle Tae Kwon Do.

A couple of huge differences that I can point out are that sport karate (non traditional) and traditional karate competition is vastly different. Traditional tends to be full contact without pads while sport karate often is light contact with pads. Also, non traditional karate schools sometimes even create their own forms to teach and ditch the old ones completely.

I'm only guessing that it has something to do with getting on your side? Honestly I don't know anything about BJJ, would you please fill me in on some of the basics of getting to your feet? Thanks in advance.

How would you suggest getting back to your feet then? Doing a kip up? Levitation? Unless I'm mistaken, to get to your feet you need a solid base, to get to a solid base you need to get to your knees. Are you suggesting that you stay on back like a fish?

I'd be super interested in this book. I'll try searching wherever I can look also. Thanks a lot for the info and the help.

KSN Doug wrote: "Now, I've seen in some of the other threads that some TKDs do teach at least a limited amount of grappling. For those that do, how much focus is there, at what point did you learn them, and what are a couple examples?" At the school that I come from, grappling is officially incorperated into testing requirments at around red belt, which means that by at least green belt we start practicing it in class. We begin with teaching simple principles of getting to your stomach, then to your knees to try to escape. We also stress the importance of being able to defend yourself from whatever position you're caught in wether it be on your back, stomach, etc.

Ha ha! I was thinking the same thing as KSN when I read the name of the thread! I've never performed forms in the sine fashion, but from all the different times that I've seen it done I've thought that it looked rather inefficient. Even when done properly, I thought the practicioners looked un balanced (not to be confused with off balance) and like they were wasting energy. I'm curious if people have taken the sine motion and ever tried punching a body shield or some other target in this way. With the constant rising up and down and indirect placement of power, I'd think that it would cause anyone to stop practicing in this way if they were trying to get more power. Anyone please let me know if they have discovered otherwise.

Circling is one of the most overlooked tools when sparring. So many people line fight, as in just travel forward and backwards when sparring and never get "off line" with their opponent. It opens up so many more targets and ways to trick your opponent. "He who has big mouth has much room for foot."

I agree that routines can get boring, but I've also heard theory about people feeling more secure in routines. They know what to expect, and a lot of people like to know what to expect when they do something. Surprises can be nice, but they can also scare people. Just some thoughts.

Something that never fails to amaze me is how often an untrained yellow belt can surprise the crap out of a black belt (name a dan, any dan) simply because of the fact that they are untrained. They won't do what you might see an expert fighter to do because they don't fight like an expert. That doesn't mean that they can't fight though, and often they'll do something that you'd never expect. One of the many reasons why an untrained fighter could beat an expert. Nobody is invincible and no matter how good you are, there is always someone who's better.

I've heard about stuff like this, I think we all have. I would think that if anything like this was possible, that someone by now would have made his billions marketing and selling this sort of training. I agree with Thai, I'll believe it if I see it.

Power is great and all, but there are about a hundred "what if's" that you have to be ready for. Like what if your kick misses? Or what if your leg gets trapped? Or what if you are crowded and don't have room to kick? And on and on, you have to be ready for what you don't want to happen. Like I said, nothing works all the time; period.

Hehe, I hope you're either kidding or have good health insurance. Good luck with that attitude, there are fighters out there who train and look forward to fighting someone with a battle plan like yours.

Muscle is nice, but not necessary. You've never heard "the bigger they are, the harder they fall?" Every situation has it's pros and cons. And while the kicks in TKD are very useful, they must be carefully used. A person would have to be pretty sneaky to kick some people above the waist without having their leg caught and sprained/broken/whatever they decide to do with an available leg. For that reason, if I was going to kick someone I'd be much wiser to go for the groin or the knees. Yes, a body or even a head kick might be feasable, but is it really worth taking the risk if there are better options available? I also agree that the idea of keeping your enemy away from you is the best plan of attack (I prefur to turn around and run away to increase the distance even more) but you have to plan for the worst. I want to be ready for when my first idea doesn't work and now the attacker is in punching or even grappling range. There is NO silver bullet in the martial arts that works all the time.

I practice Chung Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do, which was the first kwan in Korea and was opened in Soeul in 1944. At that time, TKD was primarially Okinawan/Japanese Karate with small contributions from Chinese Chun Fa. As more and more kwans were started, TKD was still called "Korean Karate" until possibly as early as 1955 the name "Tae Kwon Do" may have been first suggested during a first effort to bring the kwan's togeather. With the creation of the ITF and later the WTF, all ancient kata was replaced with first the Chang Hon poomse developed by General Choi, and then the Palgwe and Taeguek series. When the new organizations and forms were created, some practicioners fled Korea to escape the governments pressure to change, so that they could preserve the traditional ways that they had been taught. From what I can see, the TKD forms created in the 60's are origional as far as their order and combination are concerned. But the older Chung Do Kwan TKD forms have been mostly preserved by some schools and are clearly Karate and Chuan fa in origin, including the black belt forms. This is just my own opinion based upon what I've studdied and learned about the history of TKD. So far I've never found any evidence that the Koreans had ever taught Japanese diplomats martial arts, or that any such teaching had any effect on Japanese Karate. I'd be very interested in finding out where I can learn about such information.

I think that KickChick answered this perfectly, and she continues to impress me with her ways of expressing her thoughts. Only thing that I would like to add is that the athletic side shouldn't be overlooked. First, if you're really looking for a martial "art" and not just a fighting school, the athletic side will be just as much as a part as throwing kicks, punches, etc. Second, remember that the "martial arts" (not to be confused with your average bruiser or street fighter methods) are for self defense fighting purposes only; and that's only as a last ditch effort. The first thing that you should try to do is look for a way out whether it be verbal discussion or beating feet for the nearest exit. If you're not in very good athletic shape, you should probably get ready for that attack from behind while you're sucking wind.

We do a fair amount of grappling at our school, but should we start a new thread so that we don't get off topic?

Agree with Kick Chick & Jack, but there is something to be said for learning from other people's mistakes. Trial & error can be one of the best ways of learning, but it can also be one of the most discouraging and sometimes extreemly painful. I'm guessing that if Anonymous knows what they're doing, the personalized programs will still be fairly rough and moldable.

That's fantastic! I tend to tense up in front of a crowd and rush my form, even after years of competition and performance. Please share with me your secrets

I agree with everything that Kick Chick said. Dynamic stretching actually teaches your muscle groups to work togeather and more efficiently. The muscles that normally tighten up to keep you from kicking higher learn to relax and stretch more when you control the lift of your legs instead of just flinging them up into the air. It's a process that takes a little while, but it's more more efficient than just swinging your leg up and causing tiny rips and tears that can eventually end up as a major injury. While balistic stretching shouldn't be practiced the same every day to allow your muscles to heal from the tears, dynamic stretching becomes more efficient the more often that you do it. [ This Message was edited by: Cory Reynolds on 2002-02-15 12:07 ]

Being nervous will help keep you on your toes and is normal. As far as feeling comfortable competing in front of a crowd though, I recommend just practicing in front of an audience. Everyone gets to practice their forms in a group setting, but how often do you get to perform solo with people watching you? That alone will help a lot.

block=strike, strike=block, hehe.

The school that I'm from isn't affiliated with any other schools or organizations, so I'm not sure of what organizations regularially practice the forms that we do. I know that our forms are very old, still in their Shotokan form before they were altered for TKD. Their names commonly start with Koo Moo or Pang On (sp?) Like Koo Moo Cho Dan is one of our first forms. Any comments or hints as to who practices these forms elsewhere would be appreciated. I've seen modified versions practiced by some TKD schools, and also by some Shotokan schools.

I have to go with 360 and Bon on this one. I have total respect for anyone who has put in the time and energy to earn any belt rank. But just because they have a dozen'th degree black belt doesn't automatically make them better than a first or second degree. And none of this has anything to do with teaching ability either. My own instructor is a 1st degree black belt. He's been a 1st degree for close to 20 years. He's had the chance to test for 2nd degree many years ago but could really care less. Not because he doesn't want to progress, but because he realizes that just because you stop earning higher belts doesn't mean that you have to stop learning. And he doesn't care about what you think about him when you see his 1st degree black belt. I'm testing for my 2nd degree this spring and that means that I'll "technically" be a higher rank then him. But that's because it's a goal that I wish to accomplish. But I know that my instructor will still be, and probably always will be much better than me because he refuses to stop learning. Some of you might recall hearing about the days when belts were worn to hold your jacket (gi) in place instead of being used as a sign of rank.

Adonnis, being a first dan in Karate, I'm sure you know as well as any of us that the school you come from can be very similar or very different from other Karate schools. The same goes for TKD. Some may focus more on the sport aspect, some may focus more on self defense. Some may be good at incorperating both. From my own experience, I've found it funny that even though Olympic TKD might be thought of as the extreme end of the sport side, it's also one of the fastest and most agressive forms of TKD that I've ever seen. At the school that I visited, the techniques were EXTREMELY fast and accurate and their defensive skills were second to none. Plus, in Olympic TKD they run longer continuous rounds that don't break for points to be called. More time + no breaks = tougher workout.