3rdanblack

It's funny you bring it up because I was raised on point sparring (ITF) for my whole Tae-Kwon-Do life until I reached 3rd Dan, shen I started doing WTF or Olympic. As far as the rhythm part of the two sports goes, they are different. ITF is quick attack off the line speed and no to short movement counters, than stop and restart. So your timing for olympic shouldn't be the same. Olympic is much more continuous and the counters must be followed up. So your timing shouldn't be BANG! it should be BANG BaBang bang bang. Well you get the idea...

Oh stop you're whining all of you!! He said was is your favorite olympic Martial Art Event, not what SHOULD be there. Now that we got that out of the way, I was told the rules of Olympic TKD were being redone, For example jump spinning kicks to the head would be 5 points and feet to the head is 2. So if a fighter is down by 3, odds are things are going to get exciting real fast. GO TKD.

I guess I'm not the first person to love fancy kicks but here are my top 10 favorite kicks: 10. Reverse Hook Kick 9. 2x Turn Kick (same leg) 8. Fly-by Side Kick 7. 3x Turn Kick 6. 3x Front Kick 5. Natobon (360 Turn) 4. Turn Kick/ Back Kick (in air same foot) (see if you can figure that one out) 3. Side Kick/ Back Kick (360 Motion) 2. 540 turning kick (gotta love it) 1. Reverse Vertical Kick

When my school was taken over by another instructor he was 3rd dan and took the school from having about 30 students to about 200. If you refuse to join a school because the instructor is 1st 2nd or 3rd dan than you are either really conceided or just have no idea about what makes up a good instructor. I guess my answer to your question is YES

I did a 5 board turning kick held by people so i should be able to do a brick but the thing that worries me is the texture. Are bricks alot harder on the feet than wood, especially the instep of the foot. It didn't exactly feel great on wood anyways.

3rd Dan black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do. Have had that rank for 2 years now.

I'm w/ Pacificshore in the fact that if you are using you left hand in sparring it doesn't have to be strong just fast and that'll come with timing drills and speed drills.

http://www.kickacademy.com this is the school that i teach at. Enjoy the site

Hey, the guy that was doing Kwan-Gae for competion: If you know Gae-Bek do that. I am a third dan and have been told that Yoo-Sin is the competition pattern for that rank. What do you think. It's long enough but I don't know. At my school we learn Ko-don not Ju-Che so i kind of got jewed as a 2nd degree as far as competion forms go.

Bouncing is essential in the form of sparring that i was tought. Movement hides movement. No, don't bounce like you were on a trampoline, if fact when i bounce i don't even leave the ground. If you aren't moveing, the second you start to attack your opponent can pick it up. I would love to spar somebody who doesn't move.

I once sparred Freddy Lapan at a tounament in VT, if you don't know who he is he's ranked number 4 in full contact karate sparring. Anyways he is very excellent at this and the thing that he did to make it so good was not to make it the opening move. Open with a cut kick and that lunge in with back fist, punch. A nice alternative the the backfist, punch is the back fist than take the same hand around the helmet ridge hand. BE CAREFUL!! very easy to cream somebody in the face w/ this.

I have gotten back into the whole sport TKD scene and have found a couple of things that do really work: 1) LEAD WITH YOUR FOOT- Cutkicks are the way to get in. Don't lean in with the head and don't step in. Open up your options with the cut. If they are moving back you now know that, cautiously chase them with a skip or lunging motion. If they arn't moving drop the hands w/ the cut and go with with the turning kick or the hook. 2) LOOK FOR COMMON TRENDS: Every fighter fights differently but there are a couple of things that 98% of all fighters do. 92% of the time people over rotate when throwing back-kicks, there's the opening. There are a couple of others. 3)WHEN YOU THROW HIT SOMETHING: Very rarely will you only fight one fight at a tournament. So don't waste your energy. Just because you think you won't score doesn't mean its not worth throwing. Plug somebody 5 straight times w/ a cut when they come in they'll be a little less apt to do so. I hope these helped a little.