karatekid1975

Start by finding out what is in your area. Give us a list and we can help you better. Most instructors, as long as you let them know, would work with you or modify techniques if you have limitations (at least the ones I studied with did). So it shouldn't be a problem

That's about what I had guessed. I was basing it on your comment about strength. Strength actually plays a big role - you'll see when you compete. Technique is key though. Thanks, Seven. I'll keep that in mind. White had good advice also.

I'm only a white belt in Judo, so I don't compete yet. But my TKD school also teaches some grappling. I learned some moves already before I signed up for Judo (which made it a bit easier for me).

I never got to Bassai Dai in TSD, but I always wondered about the bunkai (as I watched it). So if you guys can help with bunkai, that would be cool

Rich is right. It's not about strength. It's about technique, timing, and leverage. In Judo, we don't use strength at all. If you can get him in an armbar or choke, he won't go nowhere without tapping first (my two fav moves)

I pay monthly for TKD. Judo I pay by the session at the YMCA.

My TSD school had testing fees. But that paid for the belt, the cert, the instructors and some of the cash went back into the school. My tuition there was cheap, so I had no complaints. My dojang now doesn't have testing fees till BB. My tuition here is also cheap, but I wouldn't mind paying it (a testing fee) cause the work (and instructors) that go into it (testing).

My Dojang used "The Blue Man Group" song (I forget the title) for our demo. It was pretty upbeat. It has a lot of cool sounding drums in it (I used to play drums, so I liked it).

Judo is Japanese. I just started it

After three and a half years, yes I'm still going. There were times I wanted to quit, but I just took a week off instead. That usually did the trick. Now I'm 6 or so months from black belt. When I look back at all that I had to overcome, I always wondered what kept me going for so long. Now I'm a white belt in Judo (on top of TKD). Go figure LOL.

LOL. Yea, that was fun

I am mostly a striker. But since attending the dojang I'm in now (they mix judo with TKD), I've done a fair amount of throwing, takedowns, and grappling in the past year. But yet, I'm still a lot better at striking, I think.

My tuesday nights class was like that. It wasn't sparring, but I learned alot that night. I hardly get to do throws (something I'm not too good at, except for a few throws). My instructor decided to do breakfalls for warm-ups, then throws for the rest of the class. He watched everyone do their throws and told each of us how to do them properly or gave us tips on how to improve them. I relearned 3 that I had trouble with and he made me do them, at least, 10 times each or till I got them right (I feel bad for the sucker I was throwing hehehehe LOL). It's good to work on stuff that you are not too good at (or even don't like). I also like the smaller classes when I need to work on something. It's more 1 on 1 instruction (there were only 5 of us in class Tuesday).

It depends on what you want out of MA. Delta had solid advice. Do a little "window shopping" before you sign anything. Check out different schools in your area. Actually $80 for my area is cheap (I pay $67, though). The average is $100 a month around here. So it depends on the area you live in.

Good for her .... I mean, not for the fact that she was attacked (I've been there, too), but for her courage to kick the bad guy's behind

We do sparring, but about once or twice a month. Which is OK with me. I really don't like the rules (TKD rules). But grappling, we do way more (hardly any rules). Standing or ground grappling is fun

All three I have studied have been Korean (TSD/TKD) based with a mixer of other styles. TSD with Thai boxing and Hapkido. TKD (WTF) with Chin Na and a little Kung Fu influence. TKD (MDK) with Judo, Kali, Chin Na. Except now, I have recently got back into Judo (Japanese), so I didn't take the poll.

Like I said in another post, try to reach 4th dan first. Not that I wouldn't learn from a 1st dan (I'm only a red belt) but all my (master/school owner) instructors have been 4th dan and above.

All good advice here. My personal opinion would be, wait till you get to 4th dan. You are a TKD person so I would suggest reading the book from Yeon Hwan Park (Black Belt Tae Kwon Do). In the back of the book, there is sound advice about openning a school. He strongly suggests that you should wait till 4th dan, and I agree with him. After that, like it was said above, start at a rec center or YMCA. Build a good student base and get your name out there. Take a course in small business management, and first aid. Make sure you have something to fall back on (job-wise) incase it doesn't work out. I wish you luck

I do a hybrid style of TKD. The base style is Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan. We do WTF TKD forms with the TSD MDK ones (except for color belts. It's just the Taegeuks). Our style is mixed with Judo-ish stuff, like sweeps, throws, chokes, standing grappling, and ground grappling. Sparring is the typical TKD way. Grappling, there are no rules, except for no contact to the face (for saftey reasons). We do defenses against different types of grabs/holds. The BB's do the weapons defenses. We don't get into weapons training till BB But they include the bo, knife, sword, and gun (defenses). We do some pressure point training, but it's not required till BB. We don't break all the time for testing, but it does happen. As far as techniques, we use everything from high kicks to low kicks, elbows, knees, ect. I haven't seen any headbutts yet, though.

No, in the competition I was in, it wasn't the difficulty of the technique they were looking at. It was the technique itself. If your technique is sharp already, you don't have anything to worry about. Breaking, just make sure you do your breaks. They don't judge stances. The judges look at technique (how sharp your technique is to do the break) and if the break was "clean" ( first shot, straight through). That's just my experience with tournies, though. I hope this helped

I like my pants to just touch the top of my feet. The jacket, I like the arms to reach my wrist, not my hands (so it doesn't get in the way of hand techniques). Otherwise, I like my uniforms a bit big (wide) for grappling and throws. There's ways to "cheat" to make it smaller (besides shrinking it). My mid weight one, the pants are a bit long. I roll the pants up (at the waist). The top fits (I wear size 4). But if it is really too big, you should have it tailored.

I did a competition with one steps before. It was interesting. Anyways, what we (my partner and I) did was pick which one steps we wanted to do (it can't be ones above your rank, if I'm remembering correctly). We practiced just those over and over and over. We would make sure that our techniques were smooth, but snappy. We made sure we always started at ready stance, and kihap when we were supposed to. The most important thing is DON'T FORGET THEM LOL. I did, and we didn't place As far as forms, practice the form you want to do. Be picky about every technique. Watch/correct anything that needs improvement. Pause after every technique just for a second. Do not do the form super fast. That makes it look sloppy, plus the judges won't be able to see what you are doing. Do the form slow and smooth. As far as breaking, don't try breaks that you have never done before (I learned my lesson doing that). Pick breaks that you know you can do. If you want to try a fancy break, practice it before the competition. It's better to do something simple and break, then doing something fancy and can't pull it off.

Good luck, TangSooGuy! I was still in my TSD dojang when my instructor went through his master's test (well not at the test, but ....). The day before he left, he was so nervous. The months before, he did a lot of training after teaching. But he did very well. As I'm sure you will, too Go in there and do your best. Drink plenty of fluids, and eat healthy meals, so your body will be ready also

Welcome to KF. I'll move this to the Intro forum so you can get more