pegasi

I'm 33, and just started tkd in Jan. I've just gotten my yellow belt, and I have a permanently injured knee. So, there will be things I can't do, but nothing says that I can't be the best I can be with what I am able to do. We have a mom and her three teenage daughters that just started with us last week. It's nice to have more adults to work with. The class I'm in is a family/adult class, meaning the only ones under about 15 are the children of adults in the class.

Cathal, some yo-yo here did dye their dog with red white and blue for 4th of july, so yeah, people have done things like dye their pooch.

I've got one of Century's Wavemaster freestanding bags, and with enough weight in it (water or sand) it works just fine, and is movable -- pull out to use and put back in corner when done.

If you have a faded black gi, why not purchase some dye, such as RIT (here in the us) and redye it so it looks newer? Then you still have your favorite gi, just more presentable, as it doesn't look so old anymore with a fresh color on it.

The timing aspect of onestep sparring comes in when you do it so that the defender stands in a neutral stance and does NOT indicate to the attacker that they are ready for the attack, then the attacker acts when they feel like it, be it one second or twenty seconds later, the defender does not know. This is a controlled way to learn to handle the unexpected - you know what's coming, but not when. Not knowing what OR when comes later, as you have more confidence in your ability to avoid getting pounded on.

I'm one of those people with a disability, so I know how the "invisible" disability goes. I'll never really master some of the jump kicks, as I cannot take any impacts (landings) with my right knee. I'm bone on bone, and that HURTS to land on. I tried and paid in days of pain, which told me that it just wont take that kind of stress. So, when it comes to jump front kick, I can only do it left sided, and I think a flying sidekick is going to be way beyond me. I can't do pushups right either, I can't take the pressure on the knee, and I'm not strong enough for hands and toes pushups, so I have to do them on one knee, being very careful to not stress the good knee. My instructor does a lot of self defense related training, as well as some competition style training, which I think is great. The breakaways, step sparring and things of that nature I can do. Just not the fancy demonstration stuff. My instructor also tells me that they will make allowances for things I cannot physically accomplish when it comes to testing, some schools won't.

For white gi/dobok that gets accidentally washed with colored items and gets turned into the infamous "pink gi" try Rit Color Remover. It worked well to fix my son's gi that I accidentally got in with some other stuff. Just thought I'd share that little trick I found, as no one likes to have to show up to class with a tinted uniform.

I think earning your rank is more important than age. Meeting the requirements of respect, ability, self control and responsibility are very important. I just watched an advanced testing session (both red and black belts testing) and the requirements got more complicated the higher you went. You could be asked to perform any form, any self defense technique, any sparring technique, any terminology, any variety of kick, punch or block, not to mention the oft-scorned board breaks. In other words you had to be prepared to demonstrate proficiently anything you learned from the day you started training.

I've done some training in both shotokan and taekwondo. One of the hardest parts for me has been changing from the more formalized traditional learning methods I was taught in shotokan to the more "action oriented" training I'm getting in taekwondo. Shotokan emphasizes technique as applied to forms (kata/poomse) a lot more than technique as applied to actual confrontations, which leads to differences in the ways moves are performed. This is the way I understand the differences as I perceive them.