karatekid1975

Wow! I just re-read this whole thread because you "pumped it up." It's a good thing though, because I'm much different now than I was when I posted this thread (amazing what a couple of months can do LOL). I am retesting next week, but I have it in my mind that I'm going to go in there and have fun. I'm not going to be "intense and stressed out" like I was the first time. I also have a tourny coming up (this weekend). My attitude will be just to go and have fun. If I don't win, who cares. What I'm trying to say is that I want training to be fun again. Like that feeling you get when your are a white belt/beginner. When you were so excited to do whatever and you were happy with it. I got that feeling in Jujitsu when I put on that white belt again. I want that feeling in TKD again.

Some of the kids underestimate me, because I'm 30. Specially this one kid (about 15 years old, I think), that just recently came back. We never sparred. But he knows that there's a lot of "older folks" in the advanced class, and he "assumed" that we can't kick worth crap. He was wrong. My man who is 50, regularly "pops" him in the head, but he is a softy at the same time. Anyways, this kid and I sparred. I knew he was thinking that a 30 year old female can't do nothing to him (his ego just showed and he had this stupid smirk on his face). We traded a few shots. He got some well placed punches on me, but then I saw the openning (he dropped his guard) and did a spinning hook kick right to his mellon and almost knocked him out. He dropped the ego thing with me after that.

scottnshelly, cool site. I'm originally from NJ, and I live in NY. Here is the differences I got for each: I got 36% yankee. I was either "common through out US" or "heavily in Northeast US" for NJ talk. I got 28% yankee for my NY talk LOL. So I guess I'm a yankee either way LOL

I do TKD mon, thurs, and sat. I do Jujitsu on friday or saturday. Training at home depends on my work schedule and dojang activities (outside of training). I try to train when I get free time. Usually saturday nights (if I don't have Jujitsu) and one other day a week for about an hour.

Dang, Laurie! Good height! Na, that's on a good night when I'm stretched out really good (I'm 5' 8 ). Other than that, I can't kick above my head LOL. That's why it suprised me (and him) LOL.

Look in your phone book and see whats around your area. Let us know, and we can help you out more. My advice would be: look for a good instructor, not style. You can find the greatest (so called) style, but if the instructor is bad, it will be useless. You also have to be comfortable with the school. When I first started, I didn't know (you know what) about MA. But my first school just "felt right" (I found it after searching several schools). So I stayed. My gut feeling was right.

No you are not too old. I'm a 30 year old red belt (2nd gup/kyu). When I started, I couldn't even touch my toes (5 years ago). But I worked through it. I can do splits and all. But the mental benifits have made a big difference for me. My nephew is in it now (my second youngest nephew). He's 5. I have also seen people as old as 70 years old in the arts (just starting out). In my current dojang, theres a 60 year old 2nd dan that puts me through .... umm stuff. She's tough at times. There's some stuff she can't do (like kick high) but in self defense stuff, she regularly kicks my butt. So, don't say you are too old till you try it

OMG!! I just read your reply. We also do Shaolin "inspired" forms that my instructor created years ago. Nice! I wish I can see them (forms from your school). We do Taegeuks till red belt (2nd gup) then we learn bo and Shaolin type forms from then on as well as WTF forms. Hey we should chat more often. PM me Maybe you can teach me Palgue forms (always wanted to learn those ).

I agree, sk0t. It's not long. I just have to learn a few more moves and I have it down. It's a pretty quick form to learn, but getting it RIGHT is what is tricky. Just like any form.

My 1st gup/kyu test has been a ... well not easy. I failed once, and I'm in TKD. I'm going to for my retest this month. 2nd gup was easy compared to this test. Congrads, and good luck with the next one.

We got some award at some covention (sp?) a couple of weeks ago for the best TKD school in NY state or something. We also had students go overseas and kicked butt. But, that's not what impresses me. It's the training.

That sucks. Even though I am allowed to judge, I can't judge people (adults) above my rank. So, I don't know why other schools do it. I might know Koryo (but not well), I can't judge them. It's not my form. It sounds like "favorites" with the other dojang. Sorry dude. I've been there, too

Thanks Red J. Good point. I've heard about the research on the visualization, so I will be definitely doing that.

I think Koryo is cool. I already know bits and peices of it .... ssshhhhh. Only because I'm a technique geek, and my boyfriend was asking me how to improve different combos in Koryo. I had to learn it first to answer his questions. But, I think it will be my fav form when I do learn the whole thing.

Your welcome all. I have so many links that are MA related, I should go through them all and see what links still work (I've had them for a long time) LOL. And thanks Jill

Thanks all. No I won't be able to move for about a week, so I will definitely catch up on my reading Visualizing kata is a good idea, too. It will keep my technique sharp (in my mind anyways LOL). Meditation is good, too. It'll help me stay "focused" and relaxed during recovery. And, no I won't be able to stay away from the dojang. I will pop in now and then during that month to watch class, or modivate my team. We have "cleaning teams" that compete against each other. "Who gets the dojang the cleanest," ect. And we even have mini tournies for the teams to compete against each other. There is one in Dec that I just can't miss. I got to support my team. We are tied for 1st place, so I HAVE to get them pumped up. I won't be able to compete, so it's the least I can do. If anyone has any more ideas to throw out my way, feel free

Here it is: http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/eng/ I'll even throw in the WTF site http://www.wtf.org/

Hiya all. I need some advice. I have to have surgery in Dec, and I won't be able to train, for at least, a month The good thing is that I don't have to pay tuition for a month or so, and go shopping hehehehe Anyways, do you have any advice on what I can do to keep "sharp" mentally (obviously, I won't be doing physical training)? Is there any excerises that I can do while I heal (as long as it doesn't hurt my belly where the surgery will take place)?

Ok, I'll admit it. I did it a few times. Two times was to "deflate" egos. The first one was a girl 14 years old. She thought she was the ... you know what. Mind you, she was good (At this point I never sparred her). So everyone was telling how good she is (and had the ego to show for it). The next sparring class, we sparred. I was actually ready to "trade some shots" knowing that she was "good." She came at me hard, so I retreated, and came back at her with a combo of my own. I got her in the side of the head with a front leg roundhouse. It wasn't hard, but she complained that I kicked her in the face (which I had not). Then we resumed sparring. To prevent her from "rushing" me again, I threw out a push front kick and she walked right into it and fell. She complained that I wasn't being fair. But I did everything within the rules and light contact. She hated sparring after that for a while, cause I beat her. Now she is one of my buds in class. I give her advice on sparring and she has gotten better. And she doesn't have an ego anymore

I haven't yet, but I have seen another judge give one kid a 10. So yea, it can happen. But we usually add up the 4-5 scores and get the over all score.

We do the "sliding scale" thing, like I mentioned above. The first person comes out and automatically gets a 7.0 or so. If the second person does better, they get a 7.5. If the third person does worse than the first two, they will get a 6.5 or so If the fourth person does REALLY well, they will get a 8.0 or so. And so on. The scores are added up later. If it's a tie, the lowest and highest scores are dropped. If it's still a tie, a "sudden death" match of the two goes on and are rescored. But the more people competing the harder it is to score. But I've been lucky. I only had to judge 4 to 7 kids at the most. We usually have 4 judges (sometimes 5), most of them black belts, but some of us red belts went through a "training class" for this. There's only three or so red belts that are actually allowed to judge (I'm one of them), but we can't judge BB's (adults). I can judge beginners, intermediate (adults) and kids of all ranks. The way I judge forms is on technique #1 and presentation #2. Not all schools will do the same forms, so I go with technique first (I'm a technique geek LOL). Are they sharp? do they look like they know what they are doing? Is their technique good? And how "confident" are they/do they look? And so on. I try to be as fair as I can. It doesn't matter if it's one of my kids (from my school) or someone elses.

Good post. I'm 30 and I'm not ready for BB. Physically, maybe. But, as stated above, nope.

We actually have a tourny coming up, and we were doing "mock" judging in class tonight (we all took turns doing judging and forms). A few of us actually judged in tournies, so it came easy. But some didn't know how and scored very high or very low. But we usually use a "sliding scale" and have a "middle" score for the first person, and go slightly lower or higher, depending on the person doing the form and so on. Anyways, that just reminded me that if someone is new at judging, they can definitely make a "bad call/score." That can effect the overall score. I am also judging for the next tourny. It's an "inter-school" tourny, so all that are competing are from our 4 schools, that's it. It's a new challege for me. Because I have to rely on how they do that day, not how well they do in class.

I can see your point. I competed a few months back, and the judges I had were BB's from my school. The one BB KNEW that I could have done better (she told me why later), so she gave me a low score. But I wasn't upset about it. Part of it was nerves and I messed up on the second half of the form (stances). But I still managed 3rd place. But as far as sparring, I don't spar in tournies just for the fact of unfair judging that I have seen in the past. I know if I mess up on forms or breaking, I deserve a low score. But if I had sparred well (making "scoring shots"), and still lost, I would be very upset. So I just avoid it all together.

Yea, OUCH! I only watched part of it, because the video was a bit "jumpy."