CTTKDKing

While I no longer practice TKD, I hold a 2nd Dan in WTF TKD and I personally hate the mentality people have toward it or any art form that takes a bad rap for no real reason. TKD gets criticized for Olympic sparring, but that's a sport that is practiced as such. If you go to a school that only focuses on the sport side then yes, it'll be ineffective in a street defense scenario. If you go to a school that only focuses on Olympic sparring you'll do 90% kicks as that's the only way to score in Olympic TKD. My school was a WTF school that did offer classes on Olympic sparring but my head instructor was a hand to hand combat instructor for 7 years in the South Korean military before he came to the US. Those Olympic sparring classes were optional and secondary to the main school where we spent a lot of time training for self defense and fitness. Someone earlier said that ITF TKD was about 60/40 feet/hands and ours was the same and we spent a lot of time drilling empty hands against knives and sticks. All styles can be learned from if you learn to approach them with the correct mentality. I know people who rag on American Kenpo in the same way that people rag on TKD because of the bad rap that Villari's brings to the martial arts world. But not even all Villari's schools are bad. It's 100% based on the quality and mentality of the instructors and the demand of quality instruction by the students. My current school is an MMA gym that also offers traditional classes that revolve around self defense, which is where I predominately train. We have multiple sparring classes that focus on the different aspects of martial arts. We have ones with heavy padding to practice with real world simulated scenarios, and we have sport classes for the BJJ, MMA, and Muay Thai fighters. Recently we had a hybrid seminar where all the styles came together to spar with one another, open style in a round robin. A lot of the more hot headed MMA fighters learned a really valuable lesson that day. It's not the style, it's the practitioner.

This thread has been an interesting read. It's cool to see other practitioners perspectives on this subject. I tend to agree with Sensei8's perspective near the beginning of this thread. I've been studying martial arts for about 12 years now, and had to learn to stop paying attention to styles and more to the skill sets and levels of the person I'm facing. I'm pretty excited because on Saturday this week I get to test this further because, we are having an open styles sparring event at my school. I've invited people from my former TKD school to join us, and I know other assistant instructors and senior students are doing the same from friends who cross train elsewhere. They are expecting a huge turnout and it's going to be cross style sparring in a round robin style. So no weight classes, medium contact with and interesting array of people for about 2-3 hours. I'm expecting to be exhausted in the best possible way.

So I agree with the comradery benefits of training, but I think my favorite part of training is working the really nit picky technical parts of self defense techniques. If I can do that with one of my more productive training partners in an advance class or in an open mat session, I get more from those types of evenings then almost anything else. Analyzing and breaking down the techniques step by step, and then figuring out all of the different applications for the parts of a technique really engages me. Dissecting the bunkai of forms and katas as well for the same reasons. I love trying to figure out the bunkai of a form or kata and then on the other hand I also love hearing what the intended bunkai is from the perspective of the form's creator. It's a lot of fun for me to come up with my own applications and then compare how I view it vs. how it was originally intended.

Hey, haven't been on here in a while. Just saw this thread. So many cool videos. I have not taken a lot of recent ones, but here's a couple oldies of some breaking. 5 boards with a back kick A really old one from my first tournament back in the day. Another from that first tournament. Funny watching this and seeing how far I've come not just in technique but also in weight loss (which was my primary reason for starting martial arts in the first place).

I've been training for about 12 years and I still have these all the time when learning new concepts. Prior to the school in which I'm currently training, I practised WTF TKD. We had a fairly balanced school but a lot of the combinations we regularly practised were for sparring/tournament format. So switching to a school that was more self defence oriented and based in Kenpo, had to get me used to new concepts the biggest probably being close range movements where each movement sets the stage for the next movement. Now you always want your movements to flow nicely together, but Kenpo really puts an emphasis on this. If you're practising a self defence technique that say starts with a block and then a strike to the head, are you really taking into account, that the head of the person you just struck is going to be reacting a certain way, as will the torso it's attached to? The aha moment here came when I understood that you have to factor in full body reactions to each technique you execute. I spent a lot of time in TKD doing the same thing with my feet but had a harder time with my hands in the new dojo because targeting with your hands has to be so much more precise to yield the response you want. This is very far from my first aha moment (might have been my first when i switched styles as it was about a week in in the newer dojo), and i'm sure is far from my last.

I agree with Nidan. To clarify my previous post; since your past training revolves around Tang Soo Do, something like Master Woo would be a good reference because of the similarities between TKD and TSD to just bring your past skills back into practice. The HIATUS class I posted is less of a straight martial arts class and more of an all around protecting your home, self, family practical knowlege type of class. To learn something brand new from videos with no teacher to bounce questions off of though will be much more problematic.

First off, welcome to the community. I can't speak for everyone else but I don't usually recommend training with no instructor, at least for new practitioners. Too easy to build bad habits from videos. That said, if you already have a background in martial arts, then online training could be very useful to get you back into the swing. I've trained alone many times before and I always feel like I get more out of it when I have someone else there so there's a back and forth, so having your 15 year old there will be very valuable for both of you. I cannot speak to the programs you've posted. They look like they'd provide you with the information, and I personally have been studying a kenpo based art that uses Ed Parker's system (similar to the first site you have listed but in a dojo) and I really like it. Again I can't speak to this one, but I know my instructors have modified some of Ed Parker's system to make it more realistic for street application. If this is a direct pull from Ed Parker's system, there may be some elements that aren't very realistic. I also have a background in Taekwondo and since I've moved on from practicing that in a dojang I have often referenced Master Woo's online program at http://taekwonwoo.net/. Their videos are very comprehensive, especially in the areas revolving around Taekwondo kicking and sparring. Also, not to toot my Sensei's horn for him, but he has a couple online courses for Home Invasion Prevention, and Tactical Urban Survival. I took the in person version of this course and learned a lot. It's done in a 7-8 hour long weekend seminar, whereas the online version is broken up into easy to follow lessons. http://www.hiatustraining.com/product/hiatus-training/ He also runs a well put together online program for home training to teach proper martial arts stretching. http://www.thenewdojo.com/product/power-stretching/ Don't know if this is at all helpful, but you at least have some more material to work with.

http://www.gizmag.com/uwm-unified-weapons-master-ultimate-hi-tech-armour/36881/ So we started talking about this as it popped up in one of our feeds at work the other day and it's sparked a lot of interesting discussion, especially with my friends at my martial arts school, so I thought it would spark some interesting discussion here. Personally I'm very excited to see where UWM goes and hope it takes off like MMA has over the past couple decades. Thoughts of the community?

Another thing to consider is that grapplers tend to favor a one on one concepts. Not saying this is the case for all of them but, I know in our karate class we spend a good deal of time practicing "mass attack" concepts in our karate with very little, if any, sport applications. We also practice one on one defense scenarios but even our defense techniques that involve grappling in a one on one scenario, the instructors are quick to remind you that you need to disable your opponent quickly because it's likely that your opponents buddies are coming in quickly to stab, punch, kick you in the back.

Hmm interesting question. I don't actually pass any on my 2 mile drive to my dojo (got lucky in regard to location). That said I live in the Hartford area of CT and there are a ton of schools within a 10 mile radius of where I live. In the neighborhood of my dojo there are at least 3 other schools within a mile of ours on the same street. Different styles are taught at 2 of them (ITF and WTF TKD respectively) but there is another gym that teaches Muay Thai and BJJ. They are newer and less established. Based on the quality of our instruction/students, I think in our neighborhood, they may have a rough time staying afloat. Hopefully they've found a way to coexist with us. Don't wish negativity on anyone from other gyms.

Boundaries are set and clear, and the wife will be included in the training sessions as an observer and new student when she's ready to try it, and will be informed of (and if she wants to at the time, included on) any communication between myself and my friend from karate, so I think we are ok now. The reason this developed into a thing at all is mostly because I'm a bone head. In my line of work at my day job it's nothing to email a link to share something like a document or fire a text message to someone. So when she (karate friend) wanted to contribute to the project and had some incite to add, my brain jumped into work project mode and I sent her a link sharing a document on Google docs and communicating about it via text. The bone headed part was, because I don't think anything about that, I never mentioned it to the wife because in my work life it's a 2nd nature thing. Not telling her made it seem like i was hiding something which was totally unintentional but put her on high alert. I've showed my wife all the communications that have happened that she didn't know about to make it all transparent, and my friend's responses to my messages detailing my married man boundaries and she is comfortable now. Us guys don't always pick up on things in lady land well, but as she read the messages and specifically my friend's response to my message about setting boundaries, I saw her face relax and she has been astronomically happier since then. My friend totally respects the boundaries that I've set and wanted to pass on to the wife that she meant no harm and wishes she could explain that we are platonic friends and nothing more but will keep her distance for now to respect the newly formed boundaries. She also threw in, not knowing I was going to show the message to my wife, that from what I've told her about my wife she "sounds like an amazing person that she would like to get to know and be friends with if possible". You concern about training alone is noted, but I doubt we shall be training alone in anyway. I do appreciate, your and everyone here's honesty on the subject though. It's easy to say you agree with my pov in my initial post, but sometimes harder to point out when someone is playing with fire. Thankfully this worked out, but looking back at the situation I can see how it could have been dangerous over time. I have many female friends, always have. I grew up with a little sister and all her friends were over my house constantly so I'm very comfortable around girls and maintaining non-romantic relationships with them, but just because I am, doesn't mean the girls are used to having non-romantic relationships with guys and that can still cause problems without my reciprocation. Thanks again everyone.

Ha ha, noted.

I hear you. We've talked several times since last night when this all came to a head, and I think we are at a good spot. I contacted my friend and spelled out the boundaries that we need as a married couple, and she fully understood and agreed to all terms without question. Her response was supportive of my decision and she also wanted me to pass sentiment that no harm was meant toward my wife, to my wife, and that based on what I've told her, my wife sounds like a wonderful person and she'd love to try and get to know her because she doesn't have many friends around here as she's only lived here for a little over a year. I showed my wife the message thread for maximum transparency. This went a long way with my wife and her comfort level with the whole situation. As part of the agreement our contact outside the dojo will be limited to emails specifically about the curriculum I'm putting together and when I'm going to talk to my friend I'll let my wife know before hand. My wife is comfortable with all of this and my friend is fully supportive of the restrictions, so I think through all of this, everyone is going to come out happy. Thank you for all of your inputs. This was a weird situation as the title says and I was unsure exactly where to go. I've been a member on this site for a long time, and while i'm not a heavy poster like sensei8 I've always checked out karateforums for any serious discussion on real world martial arts topics. I'm glad I could come here to discuss this. While not exactly martial arts related, it does involve a certain element of my life crossing to my martial arts life and opinions from other real martial artists helped. Peace to you all.

Thank you for your reply. As we know abandonment is the issue on her side, I've been reading some psyc papers and articles on the subject to better understand myself how to work with her on it and I feel I've gotten a good grasp from today's readings on some things I can do to make things better. I of course do not want to cause damage to my relationship with my wife and plan to stop any activities that cause a risk there by making her uncomfortable. I have made everything transparent and I've also talked with my karate friend and set some boundaries, which thankfully she was fully understanding of and when it comes time to test techniques with my karate friend, I'm going to invite my wife to join us. Things seem to be ok at the moment, now that I've talked to everyone and it's all out in the open. I thank you guys for your inputs and welcome any other advice if anyone has anything different to add.

Solid advice. Thank you. I have suggested a therapist for both of us on this topic but whenever it's something for her health, to her, it's like it's not important and I feel like mental health issues by many are looked at as less important than physical ailments. For example, I get a cold and she makes me stay home from work and go to the doctor if I'm not better in a day or 2, but same scenario with her being sick with the flu and she'll refuse to go to the doctor and try and let it sort itself out until she's so sick that she's barely able to stand. I'd like to get a neutral person for her to speak to but who that person should be is a tough one. Thanks for your replies. It's good to get some outside perspective.

Thanks for your reply IcemanSK. I have been fairly open about it but I suppose I could be more inclusive in the creation process. She's agreed to be my control point. As a person that's never done martial arts, she's the perfect person to see if the techniques I'm cherry picking and modifying for this will work for a lady that's never practiced martial arts. We had a discussion last night about setting some boundaries with my friend. She wants to come watch us try out techniques on an open mat time, which I said was obviously not a problem. In your opinion as a mental health person, how should the abandonment issue be handled. This isn't the first time in out 14 years that this has been an issue. She says she trusts me more than anyone and I've never given her a reason not to, but then gets upset and accuses me of things that she knows hasn't happened and would never happen. It hurts me when she does this because it feels like she doesn't trust me. Even if something were to happen from my friend's side, like she fell for me and made a move (which has not and I believe has no chance of happening), I feel like after 14 years my wife should trust that i'd do the right thing and walk out.

So I wanted opinions, but wasn't sure where to ask, and I'm not even 100% sure how to ask where everything is going to sound right, but here's a whack at it. Sorry if it seems like I'm rambling. I've been training since 2004 and have made many close friends over the years in the dojo because of the dynamic that develops when working together in this manner. Some of those relationships have lasted for years even if we've stopped training together and are to date some of the best friends i have. A rank or 2 behind me in my current regular karate class there's a girl (age 26-27) who I've been assigned to work with many many times now and we've become good "karate friends". Up until recently the friendship was limited to the dojo. For the record, I'm 32 and have been married for 9 years (together for 14) happily with no incidents of cheating or anything like that on either side of the relationship. Trust is as high as it can possibly get. In the last couple of months myself and this girl have begun to talk because she and another student saw my martial arts blog on the school Facebook page and read an old article I published years ago about a sexual assault victim that I aided in rehabilitation from the PTSD she had developed from the attack through a martial arts program that my assistant Taekwondo instructor facilitated. There was more to it than just martial arts though (consoling and delivery of coping techniques and outlet venting of feelings) and I watched first hand as this woman went through a huge positive transformation over the few months she worked with us. Now I've never had a chance to work with another person who was a victim and as it turns out this girl from my class was on more than one occasion, not necessarily of sexual assault, but of being assaulted in general. She approached me to ask if I'm still doing that type of program. I'm not currently and was very inexperienced when I played my part in the first one I participated in (I was chosen as an attack simulator because I'm a large man but what I witnessed in those closed sessions changed me and stuck with me). This is something I've always wanted to do again as I saw how much we helped that first person, and now being older and more educated I know what emotionally, chemically and physically crimes like rape can do to a person (criminology and psychology classes). I told her about my idea which in a nutshell involves a series of videos with easy to learn and practice self defense techniques that actually work, plus a place where people suffering after an attack can reach out to talk to someone (probably through the web) and receive guidance and coping techniques. Since it's something I've been working on, on the side on and off over the years I asked, since she's been attacked herself, but had gotten past the trauma side of it, if she could work with me and help me to test some of the techniques I have written out to see if a 130lb female can execute them on someone much larger like myself, and if in her opinion these would have helped in her real life defense scenarios had she known them then. I feel this incite is incredibly valuable to what I'm trying to accomplish. She was/is all in and because of our discussing of these topics she started reaching out to me via email and text message to give other ideas on where/how we could develop more techniques. One example being that a friend of her's not 2 weeks ago was attacked in the passenger seat of a car by the driver. She ended up having to jump from a moving vehicle. She came out a little banged up but alive with just some scrapes and minor tendon damage to her wrist. Now the problem and question: Problem: My wife doesn't like that I'm communicating frequently with a single female that's around our age. Some more back story if you think that, based on my above scenario and the fact that after 14 years we've both been 100% faithful, that's irrational. My wife had a rough childhood and suffers from abandonment issues revolving around her father abandoning her and emotionally abusive mother. Most of the time she's completely rational, but in the case of female friends, she's sometimes been quite the opposite. I grew up with a little sister and all of her friends always being around, so I'm very comfortable with girls and having non-romantic relationships with them and she knows that but sometimes, like now, the abandonment thing creeps back in and causes her to get upset if I make a new friend of the opposite sex. Questions: Married men and women out there: what, in your experiences, is the best way to deal with a situation like this where I feel the girls input is super important to the goal, but the wife can only see the girl and not the goal? Also do you think that men and women can be friends in the dojo or in life in general to the point where regular, we'll say weekly, communication is happening, and not have it affect your marriage and home lives? My wife thinks we cannot have friends of the opposite sex, at least not in the way we do with the same sex, which is something I've disagreed with over the years but is a subject on which she can't seem to see my point of view. She feels that over time stronger feelings will develop and it's playing with fire. Thoughts? Apologies for putting this here if it's the wrong place. Not sure what category this should fall under in the forum so if you need to move it on me that's fine.

I've had the same idea. Normal jeans, work pants, shorts etc with the diamond shaped extra cloth in the crotch so you can have full range of motion. Self Defense pants for the street. Love the idea and would be all over it.

Wow this is really inspiring. I just started Wado-Ryu Karate at 420lbs, and I've already lost 10 in my first 2 weeks. I'm also on a nutrition plan and walking a couple of miles every day. It's very cool to hear about someone else who started at my weight and got down so far. That's my goal. My motivation is to get better at martial arts. Cuz right now, I'm a 6'3" 400lb bear and I look ridiculous in that mirror compared to the scrawny folks lol. Can I ask you something? Where did you get your Gi? I've only been in karate for 2 weeks and my Sensei is very kind about me just coming in gym shorts and a T. He says as long as I'm comfortable and can move that's what matters, but I really would love to be in the uniform of my class mates. Plus if I do a belt rank test one day, is it just going to be like "ok you passed, go find a rope at lowe's and wrap it around you"? In the past I've gotten uniforms here http://oddessy.com/supplies-equipment/uniforms-equipment/size-charts/ and they've held up well. At my height/size when I ordered I went with a 10 and then paid to have it tailored length wise. I might be able to do an 9 or 8 now but will still have to get them tailored because they always make them too long. Big and Tall in martial arts is difficult and the small guys don't get that a size 7 is not big. Ha ha. Here's a few others I've looked at, but not tried. http://www.sakuramartialarts.com/Martial_Arts_Uniforms_Karate_Big_And_Tall_Pants_p/uni-9993-a1.htm http://www.sakuramartialarts.com/Martial_Arts_Uniforms_Taekwondo_Big_and_Tall_p/uni-9990-a1.htm http://www.gimasters.net/ This one seems to be out of order but I figured I'd post it anyway in case their site is down for maintenance or something.

I've seen it both ways. I do the traditional arts in my school and in the karate class most wear T-Shirts under their gi tops. In the BJJ classes though most seem to do the opposite. Men don't wear anything and women a tank top underneath, or many just rock a sports bra. Nobody cares because the adult and children classes are totally isolated from each other and it seems the attitude in my school is, people are there to train, not gawk at each other anyway. I guess you do see some rash guards in the mix too. Our school recently handed them out with school branding on them if we wanted them, so some wear those to show school pride.

You're student is only an inch shorter than I and about the same size as I was when I first started martial arts (I used to wear 52inch jeans). I ordered from Oddessy Martial Arts Supply and, while the uniform needed to be hemmed length wise, they fit and have held up fantastically over the years. I got a size 10 from them, and still use one of them more than once a week. Go size 10 for him because they will shrink in the first handful of washes. A 9 wont cut it long term. You'll have to talk to them to see if they'll ship international, but I can't see why they wouldn't. http://oddessy.com/supplies-equipment/uniforms-equipment/size-charts/

Interesting. I always thought the WTF and the Kukkiwon were one and the same, but upon Googling around for a min I see that you are correct. While I now get the point, I still feel like this further deteriorates the meaning of earning a high level black belt. I know some universities have granted honorary doctorates in the past (i even knew one who received an honorary doctorate) but, this person went to the university to give a talk in a specific subject and blew them away as a self taught expert on the subject. So much so that their own professors started collaborating with him to bolster their own courses. A year of this activity granted him an honorary doctorate from that college. I feel like this is the same thing without the activity of having to prove yourself. Honorary doctorates from universities is exactly the paralell here. Nearly every college & university gives that honor to every commencement speaker around the US. It doesn't mean they can call themselves "Doctor" in any real way. Putin is a genuine Judo practioner, but no one would ask his advice on Taekwondo given his honorary rank. If they did, they'd deserve the bad advice they'd receive. Fair enough.

Interesting. I always thought the WTF and the Kukkiwon were one and the same, but upon Googling around for a min I see that you are correct. While I now get the point, I still feel like this further deteriorates the meaning of earning a high level black belt. I know some universities have granted honorary doctorates in the past (i even knew one who received an honorary doctorate) but, this person went to the university to give a talk in a specific subject and blew them away as a self taught expert on the subject. So much so that their own professors started collaborating with him to bolster their own courses. A year of this activity granted him an honorary doctorate from that college. I feel like this is the same thing without the activity of having to prove yourself.

https://whitedragondojang.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/the-wtf-giving-vladimir-putin-an-honorary-9th-dan-black-belt-was-a-mistake/ So maybe this is old news, but I stumbled across this last night and I can't help but wonder what the WTF was thinking. I hold a 2nd Dan in WTF Taekwondo myself and I know how difficult that was to achieve. Awarding an honorary 9th Dan to someone who's not earned it seems to be unethical and degrade the meaning of black belt. Thoughts?

This is a tree I've been barking up for a long time. My wife has a thing with getting sweaty and having to touch other people that drives her away from it and toward things like boot camps and yoga classes. Those types of things are great and have their benefits, but she's a very passive person and I wish she'd either come to classes or let me teach her. She also has some trust issues, with people who are not me, so there's more issues with the touching/grabbing. That and there's always excuses to not do it when i try to show her something at home.