pegasi

Perhaps you should have him stay and watch the class he'll be joining when he's moved up. Then he will see that it won't be that different from what he's doing now, and won't be afraid to be "graduated" from the peewee class. He may even realize that it could be better than the peewees since the older kids get to do more stuff than the little ones. Some new routines in class may even help bring his "spark" back into it.

One that we've done is to have 4 students stand in a diamond (one front center, one to left and right about 2 paces back, and the last directly behind the front person, about 4 paces back). The 4 students face away from the center, and then execute the form silently, and in time, only using breathing to sync the timing. When finished, the students end up in the center, with the final kick or punch bringing them almost in contact. Taegeuk sam jang is one form we use for this, since the last move is a punch, and when done properly, the 4 students end up with their fists together in the center. Its pretty cool to observe this type of forms demonstration, since the beginning has the 4 facing away from each other,and they end up facing toward each other, with fists together.

I agree with ps1... which leg you move depends on what you're doing.... for example, you don't want to move your back leg when you're trying to punch, you'd move the front and move forward as you drive your punch, if you were moving the back leg, your punch may not reach the opponent, and most certainly wouldn't be as strong.

I've done both front leg and back leg hook kicks from a fighting stance, not front stance. From front stance it would be impractical, since you'd have to shift both stance and position to make it effective, and it could be seen coming from a mile away... telegraph city anyone?

Had my surgery, know that more meniscus is gone, removed loose chunks, and did something with the kneecap, couldn't read the detail, will know more at my postop appt. Hurts a lot, that's for sure.

Thanks guys, for the encouragement and good wishes. Will post later and let you guys know what happened with the surgery.

Unfortunately, one operation was the result of an accident 16 days after surgery, I'd jammed the knee and undid the first op,so got another 11 wks later. One surgery was unrelated, a lateral meniscus hangnail tear, nipped off and walked home from that knee op. The last one was a follow up to the two that were 11 weeks apart, 18 mos later retore meniscus. the upcoming op was a result of being kicked in the knee, I didn't do anything other than be tagged by a beginner in a no contact drill. my knee being messed up already probably made it easier to injure, especially with a direct hit to the damaged area.

Next week I go in for knee surgery #5 on the same knee. My dr has been great, keeps patching me up, but I keep managing to wreck things again. Been nearly 5 yrs since my last knee surgery, so that's not as bad as last time, when I only made it 18mos. Anyone else continuing martial arts with multiple knee issues? I can't run or jump anymore, and my instructors are great about giving me a "pass" on the things I physically cannot accomplish, like jump kicks. The bummer is that the damage is bad this time, more than one thing needs fixing, plus whatever didn't show on the MRI, I'm sure there's some more wreckage. I'm looking at February to resume training, if I'm lucky. I hate being sidelined... but I'm trying to keep up on my forms anyway.

The moleskin is a good idea. If there's a lot of pressure within it, you can relieve the pressure by sterilizing a very fine needle and then making one tiny puncture just enough to let the pressure out of it, then cover with a bandaid and the moleskin. In my experience, if you have a blood blister where you have to put pressure on it, if you can remove the fluid within it with as small an outlet as possible, then bandage securely, it can let the skin layers bond faster. Yeah, it still will peel like a blister later, but at least I was able to stand having pressure on the spot where mine was, on my hand. I'm not suggesting that you do it, I'm just saying what I did to mine.

I had been getting a fair amount of overtime at my job, but that has disappeared in the last month or so and will last through the beginning of next year. I had a former employer contact me, they'd been through an ownership change, had changed their business model a great deal, and wanted to see if I was available. We talked, and I explained that I couldn't afford to work for them full time, but I would be willing to work part time. Shocker to me ... they need my help so badly they're willing to give me building access to work whatever hours I can, when I can. Talk about in a bind! Oh well, good for me I guess, to be needed so badly. They want me to help overhaul their process so that they can be more productive... I plan on finagleing more money out of them for that too! Consulting fees, I guess one could call it. I guess if I have to work a second job, being that flexible is a big plus. I start the first week of Dec. Anyone else have interesting second-job stories?

1995 Ford Aerostar 3LV6. Still gets 17mpg city with 164k miles on it. It's a 2.5 ton van, so that's not too bad considering the weight and mileage.

that shows that you're putting some effort into your lessons. Keep up the good work!

In this day and age, it would be hard to deny allowing parents to watch, given the improprieties of others. Having a video feed to another area is a great way to allow watching without disruption. Have signs posted saying that spectators are welcome, but if you start disrupting class or distracting class participants, you will be asked to leave until class is over. Simple and to the point. For those who change class locations, a couple laminated signs that can be put up with removable adhesive would be a good idea. Then you can post the notice on the door where people come in, and take it with you when you leave for the day.

Several things... Look into liability insurance requirements, know the ages you plan on teaching, you'll have to work with the rec center on fees, class times, etc. Find out about things like being able to securely store your equipment at the center, or if you'll have to bring everything back and forth each time the class meets. I know at the rec center where I took classes, my instructor had to be flexible about the room at the center for classes when other programs needed to use the same room. He also had to contend with having classes using the same space as summer camps, and the floors not being swept before his classes. He was able to keep his freestanding kicking bags in a storage room, but not smaller items like targets etc. The bags were too big to disappear, but he had noplace available to keep the smaller items. He also could not provide any "school" sparring gear etc, for the same reason.. no place to keep it, and providing it would mean too much gear to haul back and forth.

A hook kick was explained to me as moving like a skip side kick, aiming out just in front of your target, and hooking the heel of the kicking foot across into the target just as you reach full extension. For back hook kick, you turn, chamber, and extend like back kick, but instead of kicking straight back up the middle, you kick back and off to one side just slightly, and hook the heel across as soon as you reach full extension.

I'm a lady, a shirt under my dobok is pretty much a necessity, since I don't care to flash certain body parts. I'm a big gal, so I wear a larger uniform to begin with, and that leaves a larger gap to cover up.

Something else to remember is to look at where you aim your knee. A leg chambered for a kick is going to be bent 90deg or better. Your knee is the "lead" body part until you release the "snap" of your kick. If your knee is pointing to belt level that's where you're gonna kick. if you want to kick higher, you've got to aim the knee higher. Think of the kneecap as your pointer, where it points is where your foot's gonna go.

Interesting conversation here... I don't even like wearing a colored shirt under my white dobok. I might do the black shirt to go with the black collar once reach 1st dan, but other than that, I'll stick to white on white. I thought of wearing a red shirt under my white dobok top to match my red belt, but thought that would be just tacky.

I have Tae Kwon Do The Ultimate Reference Guide to the World’s Most Popular Martial Art Yeon Hee Park, Yeon Hwan Park, Jon Gerrard It's a good reference book, has the Taegeuk forms (wtf) in it. Also has some background info and info on philosophy etc of the art.

I started training TKD at 33, so you're by no means old... go for it! I've heard of 60 somethings just starting out... so you're fine!

The simplest method would be to use the pocketpc version of a program like Excel (spreadsheet program). Then you can just list your information in a table format. If you can link your pocketpc to your desktop or laptop, you may be able to set up your program on your regular computer and import it. I don't have a pocketpc, so I can't advise specifics, but that is what I'd consider doing if I wanted to track that information on a portable device.

In response to the religion thing, you can simply take the gracious way out and simply say something like "thank you for the offer, my family gets together on sundays, and I reserve that day for family matters" A "thanks but no thanks" kind of response is all that need be said, and your potential sensei should drop the subject.

When we practice forms in class, the instructor starts out at white belt, and you do every form including the one for your current level. You then take a seat and watch as the higher ranks then go through the rest of the forms. Sometimes he'll reverse the order and go from highest to lowest, to change it up.

It has been my understanding that there is a line between self defense and taking the offensive. It has been explained to me that if you are grabbed or otherwise attacked, and you choose to execute a couple kicks that ends up knocking him down on the ground, if, at this moment, you choose to execute any further techniques, you have just changed from being a defender to being an attacker. However, if he gets up to hit you more, you can, of course, still defend yourself without being considered to have "crossed the line." In other words, once your attacker is down, he is not an immediate threat (in the eyes of the law), so any further action on your part has just crossed the line from defense to offense, thus making you open to legal action as an aggressor. So, to me, what this means is that when one is attacked, once you have rendered the aggressor unable to continue their attack (and you can get away), any further action on your part then changes your legal status from victim to aggressor, for any actions you take after that point where your attacker became unable to continue the attack. But, if the person gets up and attacks again, you can still defend yourself without having gone too far, since they were too stupid to stop after one round of getting taken out.

I always air cooled mine for a few seconds or so, just to let the surface temp drop enough that it wouldn't burn my gums. I thought most people would do something like that, so I didn't mention it.