mattyj

i dont really know much about kung fu karate is very rigid as people have said.. it uses strong movements with strong grounding. styles such as seido utilise momentum to string attacks together. saying "dont do taekwondo unless your under 17" is a really strange statement. i dont see how a 14 year old would know how easy/hard it is for people over 17 in relation to flexibility. im almost 19 (though not too far out of that bracket) and i can tell you, there are no issues with flexibility (there are many many amazingly flexible older students in the organisation - general choi hong hi would perform high twisting kicks in his seventies). anyway flexibility is something that is developed and is not even 100% necessary - one of the best sparrers i know (in ITFNZ around our area) is actually not all that flexible, and uses alot more punches and lower kicks. with taekwondo you should find out whether the club is more traditional based or sport based. ITF is the original taekwondo (formerly KTA) designed by general choi hong hi and adapts techniques from shotokan karate and other arts, as well as choi's own knowledge and analysis. It is what you would call more 'traditional' in style. ITF and other traditional styles of taekwondo do not conform to the normal taekwondo stereotype in that they are not overly focused on high and flying kicks, but use punching more extensively, also incorporating throwing & joint locks (particularly in self defence curriculum - alot drawn from aikido and karate). sport tkd is what youd see at the olympics (WTF), you can pass your own judgement on that. Sport TKD dojangs (often spin off's from WTF) are often unfortunately more 'Mcdojo' like. hope this helps

in itf you arent allowed to go below the belt in tournament sparring so you cant sweep. in free sparring you can do whatever but its light contact so obviously your not going to kick them in the nuts or whatever. in most itf tournaments punches are allowed (including head) - possibly in that tournament they arent. Another point is that alot of experienced sparrers will become highly proficient with kicks so wont use punches as much in tournament sparring, although it is unusual that so little punching was used in that video.

speed (most useful in sparring): turning kick (dolmyo chagi?) power: skip kick (as in skipping/flying side kick) cool factor: flying reverse turning kick (bandae dolymo chagi?)

ahhhhhhh sorry. but you get your first dan blackbelt in one year? yea itf follows 3.5-4 years from white to 1st black. 1st-->2nd = 1 year, 2nd-->3rd= 2years, 3rd==>4th = 3 years so on so forth.

ouch that sounds pretty expensive still! ours are $160NZD which is 60UK pounds per year for a full year's training (minus holidays) and $40NZD (15UK pounds) per coloured belt grading of which you can do 3 per year max at a coloured belt levels (they have to transport one of only two masters (7th dans) in the country or one 6th dan.) ie it costs 105 pounds per year max. and i thought that was expensive!

imo that is just not right... you cannot reach the skill/understanding level required to be deemed a 'black belt' in one year... especially not 2nd dan... thats just ridiculous! 3rd dan in 2 years? what the hell? ive been training two and a half, almost 3 years (i missed two gradings) and im a blue belt (ie i still have red stripe, red belt and black stripe to go before black belt). My instructor (granted he had a couple years break for injury reasons is a 4th dan and hes been training for 16 years!) You cannot tell me its reasonable for someone to be a 3rd dan in 2 years. As for the initial question. I think 4-5 years is reasonable for 1st dan, in itf taekwon in new zealand, you can get there in 3 1/2 if you dont miss any gradings.

well put. it may just be my observation... but wtf (what ud usually see on tv) dont seem to have actual power test competitions and their breaking is just exhibitional? (balsa wood, flips etc) i dont know if theres a video of it anywhere on the net... but nz's very own graham paterson (itf) does some awesome breaking. (not flashy, basic techniques - just incredibly powerful) It earned him the title of 'the man' at the ITF taekwondo world's

no offence but the muay thai guy must be really bad to get beaten by that kind of stuff.. the kicks dont seem to be that powerful anyway... even the reverse turning/hooking kick to the head he gets right back up from. search for "north korean itf taekwondo amazing knockout" on limewire or something to see some real damage by a flying technique (flying 'tornado' (i dont think itf has a real name for it) kick to the head) as well as some good quality sparring my 2c