FETKD

Ha Ha yes yes.

Yeah that's why I said as the "story' goes, heh

Our black belt tests are incredibly strict, we only test one black belt candidate at a time. Strict tests are a good way to measure a students performance under pressure and confidence in themselves. How ever our candidates are hand selected for each test (lower belts too) doesn't matter how long you've been at a certain belt, if we don't think you are ready then you don't test. So far we've only failed two students so things have gone pretty well. We tell them let the butterflies in your stomach fuel you, let it give you an edge. Our students usually do well so it seems to work. As for me, I've never had much problems with belt tests I've always tried to treat them as much like class as possible that way I stay relaxed. Even my black belt test, it was just me an my sensei, two people who live for the martial arts so we had a blast.

Just wondering, this isn't really that much of a big deal. Do you prefer the Black Belt, or Midnight Blue belt to be the "highest" belt. So the story goes, before the ranking system, and almost everyone has heard this. There was one belt, and after years of training, and I mean YEARS the blood and sweat,and mud and rain from training had soaked into the belt causing it to turn a "blackish color" when in reality this color was midnight blue, (a very dark blue) I've only seen like two schools use the midnght blue belt, and it looks really cool. what do you think To me it does't so much matter, it's the symbol not the color that matters to me. To me the Black belt represens the martial artists spirit, sort of an embodiment of all s/he's been through to get to this point, and now, finally they are ready to learn what it means to be a martial artist, the black belt is the true beginning. Sort of like the Zen story "Empty your cup" Black reprsents an absence of light, thus and absence of knowledge, with an empty mind the martial artist can finally begin to take in all the martial arts has to offer.

I fixed it.. never mind

Yeah Naihanchi has alot of neat applications in it Yeah he does still teach the taikyoku series. He brings alot of stuff into his teaching that isn't typically "just" goju, and to me that makes him a much more effecive teacher.

I've never broken abone in my training knock on wood, I few dislocations, sprains and bruises. man, sorry to hear about your foot.

TKD is effective if applied correctly, (and I know this has been said before) you wouldn't throw a high round kick to the face on the street, but a low side kick to the knee would work, we all know a side kick don't we? and once again it all goes back to the training, at my school we even do some grappling excersises and that's not normally a charateristic of TKD.

Alot of it has to do with associations and schools. There is typically two perceived observations of TKd Modern and Traditional The newer TKD systems and schools tend to be more consumer concious instead of worrying about teaching martial arts. As long as the students pay money the instructors will let them get by with "just barely" I've seen my Teen Orange belts mop the ring with grown black belts! It just really depends on the school and the instructor.

Once again I never said directly linked to Goju I said Karate I was using Goju as a reference, and in truth the katas I were talking about come from shorin, it's just my goju instructor taught them is all. No offense takin by the way

all forms of Karate come from okinawa-te as taught by the old masters such as Itosu and Matsumura. There are four main styles as most know Shito-Ryu, goju-ryu, Shatokan, and Wado-ryu These forms of Karate were modified by the founders to fit there needs, Take Shito and Goju for example. Mabuni and Miyagi sensei trained together. Mabuni was considerably bigger than Miyagi and prefered large circular movements and that is why most of the Differences in Shito and Goju. I never said TKD was directly realted to Goju itself, I said Karate. My Goju instructor is well rounded in many forms of traditional karate and a very knowlegeable man, that is why he teaches these forms because they are infact related to tae-kwon-do

Take Goju for example... Goju literally means hard/soft so it employs both hard and soft in order to adapt to the cirumstances

Sometimes trouble comes looking for you... I was 15 and simply walking down my street to get my dog who got lose from his pen, it was maybe 11:00 at night or so and three older boys jumped me and it was all I could do to subdue one kid and run home. You just have to be prepared, if those kids would have been trained I could have been severely hurt or worse so, yeah I don't train because maybe one day that fight will come looking for me again, I train out of passion and love for the martial arts, I always have. But it's still nice to know I have a heads up on what's going on

And I too agreet with both of your posts, (thanks for the reply by the way) It just seems that TKD is always the target of ridicule and more often than not justly so I just wanted to make the point that not ALL TKD is the same. My Goju instructor teaches the Pinan kata and Naihanchi to me to bridge the gap between TKD and traditional Karate I beleive he said He learned those kata from the Shorin.

hmmm... Budo Secret-Teachings of the Martial Arts Masters by John Stevens

Many people put down TKD because of it's flashy techniques and impractical situations. I remember I was visiting a school in NY and I asked the instructor what to do if some one attempts to choke you or grab your collar and he said to drop to the ground and flip him over using your leg, (yes like in the movies) Maybe it's just me but I find that to be a bit ridiculous and impractical. One thing we have to remember is where did TKD come from? In truth it came from Japanes Karate. Take the original forms for example and I know forms vary from association to association but the "original hyungs" like the Pyung forms, the same thing as the Goju Pinan forms with a few modifications. Na Ba Jin is the same thing as Nehanshi in Goju. I come from a strong TKD back ground and before I started Goju there was kick block punch, kick block punch, and so on. The first thing my Goju instructor drilled into my head was for every technique there is at least 11 different applications. Why would you step into such a low front stance to deliver a punch, doesn't sound practical does it? Now think about it this way, every step you take could be a kick or a trip, and the same punch motion, think of this, open your hands and grab the hair of an opponent on each side of his head, and do the punching motion, one hand goes out and the other comes in to chamber position, what did you just do to your attacker? Why did TKD go from such a practical martial art to all the flash? My guess is popularity, people found the flash and the sport more entertaining than the blood and training for real life situations. That and Korea needed something to define it, by then almost everyone had heard about Karate(at least in that part of the world) and Korea wanted something different something to set it apart from all the rest thus Modern Taekwondo was born. The Points, the Judges the flash kicks and hop turn back spinny reverse side hind leg swing axe side kick( I totally made that up) don't get me wrong Taekwondo is one of the best sports on earth and most physically exhausting(next to soccer) but I prefere to consider what I do more than a sport and who I am more than an athlete So Let's get back to tradition I do Tae-kwon-do and I'm a martial artist (Taekwondo is considered the modern spelling and "Tae-kwon-do" is the traditional form of the martial art) [/b]

In my studio we have a few set forms of offense/defense that arn't really considered kata but we use for conditioning and application, plus we have our self-defense wich is real life situations and the students have to find ways to get out of them. Includes Holds, pressure points, joint locks and basic grappling

I think the biggest thing for strikers against grapplers is if the striker is not used to being put on the ground, they usually tend to give up thus the fight is lost, yet if the striker has experience with holds and such the right strike at just the right time could end it all, in my training I've seen a person knocked out in an instance, yet I've seen several people choked out, a good choke out depending on the person and his/her training and conditioning usually takes between 5-30 seconds before the person is unconcious. A strike maybe be instantanious, but if timing is off, or mis of target your screwed, I just think it's good to be well rounded, not to rely on a strike or a grapple yet to adapt and bend with the situation. As far as ring or street goes. A lot is proven in the ring however On the street it's life or death and too much is at stake, it could be the difference between lying in your own bed that night or lying in a grave. A fighter becomes a whole different person when it matters.

Good Article, I can tell you from experience, being an instructor definately means living like an instructor, a role model so to speak. You can't teach one thing and do another, people learn by example how can we teach morals and ethics if we ourselves as instructors do not abide by them if not LIVE by them. ettiquete modesty perseverance self-control indomitable spirit and most importantly truth and hope... these are the things I live by, these are the things I teach.