CTTKDKing

The video that Dano posted has a very good all around explanation of the tornado (spinning or 360 degree) roundhouse kick. I've been doing it for 2.5-3 years now, and I couldn't explain it better. BTW a hurricane kick is something different (at least it is in my school). It's almost the opposite of a tornado kick. You lead in like you're doing a regular roundhouse kick and then without putting your foot down you jump off the posted leg and plant a back kick on your target in mid air. Not a beginner kick mind you but I've scored some real sold hits in tournament with that set up. The hurricane kick leads to learning the jump spinning hook as well. Just thought you may find this informative.

I have to tell ya that you shouldn't even worry about becoming a black belt. That comes in time, but really doesn't mean as much as a lot of people think. It's all about how hard you train and what kind of goals you set for yourself. I've seen black belts that are terrible, and I've seen orange and green belts that can kick major tail because they give every training session everything they have and train in there spare time on there own as well. Forget about belts and status, and start thinking about forging your body to do what you want. If all you want is a black belt go online and buy one, if you want to be a martial artist then start at the beginning and train hard in a good school.

I always check the WTF website, but they post the really big tournaments, and they don't seem to post the smaller ones (regional, locals). I'll look into Olympic sparring in the AAU circuits and see what's in my area. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

Does anyone know of any WTF championships in the next couple months in CT. I want to start competing in my style regularly, and am having a hard time finding a directory for local tournaments. Open style championships are good too if you know of any, but I would prefer TKD.

When I started TKD, I weighed 358lbs, at 5'11". I have been doing it for 3.5 years and have earned a 1st dan (as of a month and a half ago), and dropped 115lbs. My instructor just had me start out slow, set small goals, and work my way up. Now I sometimes will help lead lower belt classes and will encourage some of the thin people that have a hard time keeping up with me. I still have some weight to loose, but martial arts has done nothing but positive things for my health and moral about exercise. I hope this helps.

I gotta tell you guys (& girls) if you're wearing them and they restrict your movement at all then you have one that's not sized for you correctly. My instructor takes measurements off you when he's ordering them for you so you know it's going to fit right. They are required for WTF type sparring, so we have to make sure they fit right. You also should wear them when training (at least some of the time) so they are better broken in and conform to you better. There are several different styles of them too, so just go to a supplier and make sure the one you get is fitted properly for you. Mine doesn't bother me at all, and I know most of the people in my school have no problem with them because we took the time to find the right ones for each of us individually.

I agree. It can cause problems. I don't think there would be any content problems from what he's learn at the 2 schools, but I think if you are going to mix 2 styles in your life then it should be 2 unrelated styles (ex. TKD and Judo). I know his ITF instructor is not happy about it, and I know my instructor wouldn't be happy about it if he found out. I have talked to him on this subject and he didn't seem to worried or phased at all. He says it's no big deal, and that he'll do what he wants. I'm not going to press it because I don't want to get in an argument about it with him, but it has been brought up. I'll leave it to his decision, which like i said I think he's already made.

We only learn the ITF forms once we have earned our black belts. Then over the however many years it takes you to get your second degree BB you also learn the ITF color belt forms. That's all I meant. When we're color belts at my school we learn the standard Taeguk poomse, and palgwe poomse. Black belts learn Koryo as their form, and as it's the only 1st dan form that's the reason we then practice the ITF tul.

His ITF instructor knows, but our WTF instructor doesn't. I don't think it really makes that big of a deal. My WTF school teaches the ITF forms (also without the sign wave, or at least without the direct reference to it) as well.

That was one thing I did like about this school. My school is very strict on no punching to the head, and the ITF school did allow light contact to the head. I adapted to that very quickly.

I doubt you will. Most people that practice one or the other are biased toward one or the other. It's too bad really because they both have their good points. If the WTF schools put the ITF's precision and focus on the technical side into practice and the ITF schools put some more of the WTF like sparring drills into practice it could better both systems as a whole. I'm not saying that ITF has to spar like the people in the Olympics or anything, but it could be beneficial to practice more contact sparring. Don't take this the wrong way either, i know some ITF schools practice a lot of sparring. It's just that the only ITF experience I have is from the school I visited. It's a very well accredited school too. The grandmaster there is in his 70's now and he personally got to train under General Choi for 5 years. This is no McDojo. His son teaches a lot of the classes there and is very good himself. Check out their web site. https://www.unified-ITF.com

Ah the sine wave. I do them with the sine wave although it's not explained with that term in my school. They call it the bounce and snap. I heard the term sine wave for the first time while I was visiting the ITF school. The way my instructors do it though is correct based on what I saw at the ITF school and the way they show us how to do it in my school. Sine wave is an interesting explanation of how to do something in martial arts, because I'm an electronic technician and I use sine waves for measurements on my scope here at work. I actually chuckled when I heard them use this term.

Actually I have been to 6 WTF only championships now, and they all have been 3 division tournys. The divisions are sparring, forms, and breaking. My instructor always says to us if we want to spar then we should be doing forms too, because it shows that we come from a well rounded foundation. I think it's a common misconception that WTF schools only focus on sparring. We also learn the ITF forms once we get out black belts in our school, to keep us well educated in the most major forums of TKD.

I have been practicing WTF TKD for 3.5 years and am a 1st dan, and I wanted to check out the differences between the ITF and WTF systems. A friend that goes to my school suggested I come and do a trial class at his other school (which is ITF), so I did. Their form is so perfect at this other school and everything was so technical. I joined up TKD to get in shape and learn to spar. I was a little disappointed with myself because my form was not as good as the other students at this ITF school. In the last segment of class though the instructor had us put on some gear and spar. I was SHOCKED because these guys can't fight. They put me in the ring with a black belt of 5 years experience that was bragging about his tournament metals to me and stuff, and he couldn't hit me. I backed him into a corner and scored point after point on him with almost no retaliation. He just seemed to not know what to do. I'm used to Olympic style sparring and I think this guy is used to point fighting, but i was fighting with their school rules. Maybe it was just the guy i was fighting I don't know. I was a little curious though (and I'm not trying to get into a WTF vs. ITF debate) do ITF school not focus on sparring that much?

My favorite kick in sparring is a push kick at about chest level. It's always great to throw that kick and watch the shock wave from the massive impact. I like a ballet kick for demos though. And for those of you who don't know a ballet kick in my school is a tornado kick with an extra 180 degree turn after the kick. I'm kinda big so that looks inpressive when I do it. (Not to brag or anything)

That's quite cool. I'm keeping an eye on this topic, so if you get the info, let me know.

Really?!? That's cool. What type of measurements did they take on the show. I've never heard of anyone trying to measure it before.

That reminds me about a guy we had come in and tell us he was a shaolin master. I saw him in a championship and he's a yellow belt at a local kung fu school. He was also wasn't even good compared to the other people in his class at the championship. He came in and told everyone in my school how he challenged Grand Master Wu of the CT Wu Shu center to a fight and beat him up. My assistant instructor just looked at him and told him that if he wanted some bologna then he'd go to the grocery store, and to take his elsewhere.

I'm not very diversed in the internal arts, but I recently read an article on Tai Chi, and the man the article was about said that he practiced Wu style Tai Chi for 20 years, and it did many things for him. He was able to heal very fast from injury's, and was able to keep in excelent shape. He also was always very very focused. However he never really thought of Wu style Tai Chi as a fighting art. He then me the man who's ancestors founded Chen style tai chi and was shown how he can put all the movements from Wu style into practice for a fighting art. He then realised how brutal a fighting art Tai Chi actually can be. I guess this probably wasn't very helpful for what you want to know, but i thought it was kinda cool.

I've got a great one. A drunk guy came in from the bar up the street from us. It's not unusual for people to walk in off the street, and watch, but we've never had anyone come in drunk before. He then proceded to whistle and cat call at the teenage girls in class. Our assistant instructor became irritated after a couple minutes of this and told him that if he was going to do that he should leave. The guy didn't listen and our assistant instructor then proceded to make him leave. The guy started putting up a big fuss. When our head instructor came over to see what was going on, the man said he'll beat the crap out of all of us if they didn't leave him alone. My intructor then turned to the class and gave a short, but comical speach on the hazards of drinking and how booze can make you insane. Everyone started laughing at the guy and he got a shameful look on his face and got up and left. It was rather comical. I went down in July to go to class on a afternoon but I got there early. The childrens class was still in session, so I started stretching on the side. The doors were proped open because we just had a wave of heat break and it was relitivly cool out. All of a sudden a golden retriever comes running in the open door, and charges one of the smallest kids and starts licking the kids face. The kid was so startled by this that he crapped his pants and then fell back on it. It squirted out the top of his pants and everyone was pretty grossed out. Then the owner came running in and appologised profusly for letting his dog get away from him. We joke about it for several weeks thereafter.

I don't know about yoga, but as far as Pilates I know one of my family member used to use the Windsor Pilates tapes and she loved them. If your looking for a just good all around work out video, my wife got the Turbo Jam dvd's and she loves them. I thought it was kinda a joke when she first got them, but I tries it a few times with her and I have to admit they are a great workout. They are like a aroebic/kickboxing/capowera based cardio kickboxing dvd set. My sister uses them too and likes them a lot. Hope this helps.

For breakfast I go for a big bowl of oatmeal, and some hard boiled eggs. Then I bring a couple power bars, and bananas with me for the day. I like propel fitness water too for hydration.

I live in Hartoford county. You're welcome to join my school. I think very highly of my school compaired to a lot of other schools I've visited in the area. I believe someone else said Hwangs TKD as well. They are a good school also, but you said you wanted WTF, and they are ITF. If you want ITF though they'd be the ones I'd say to go to. Come check us out. Hope to see you around. U.S. Tae Kwon Do Broad St. Manchester,CT 06042

As far as using HKD as a street appliable martial arts form, I'd say if it's a good school , and you're a dedicated student, HKD is a very effective style. I looked for a HKD school in my area before I joined my TKD school. My instructor mixes a lot of HKD into our self defence techiques so I have a good idea of what it's about. Unfortunatly I couldn't find a good HKD school, so I checked out my friends TKD school and ended up loving it. All in all, for street application, you have to find what works for you. JKD didn't work for you, but maybe HKD will. You have to find something that fits you.

Your instructor is right about the power and technique stuff, but if you want height, you have to stretch. I don't mean doing splits on the floor either. You should start with an axe kick, simply because in my opinion it's the easiest kick to get height on. After a work out (because that's when your muscles are still hot, and most pliable) just keep doing the kick over and over. Start low at a very comfortable level, and each time you do the kick push it higher and higher till it's a strain. After a few weeks of doing this you should see some gains. Another trick we use in my school to gain some height, is have some one kneel in front of you. Put your leg in a side kick position over their sholder with your back sholder against a wall. Have them slowly (very slowly) lift up on On your leg untill it begins to hurt. Tell them to stop, but to hold it there for 10 seconds. then do the other side. You'll see results in kicking height go up in a few weeks. Just gradually increase the height each time you do it.