bushido_man96

Something to keep in mind is that longer stances are going to be less mobile than a shorter stance. A shorter stance will mean better mobility, which in turn can help you avoid getting hit more. Also, footwork helps you control the stance, and control how much you get hit, so if that is a concern, then make sure to work on your footwork a bunch to get it up to par.

Welcome to KF, and welcome back to your journey!

If you don't like to get hit, then I don't know why you'd want to try compete in an MMA fight. If an MMA fight is your goal, then I think a good Kyokushin school would put you on a straighter path to your goal than a kata-based Shotokan school would. But, there might be a Shotokan school in your area that does some good fight training, too. You would just need to do your homework on the schools available to you, and see where it gets you.

The technique Dan demonstrated is the one Royce taught us for the GRACIE defensive tactics course. Pretty much verbatim. In the book, its referred to as "umpa with swim and trap." We use that variation if the attacker is postured up and striking, and we have a variation that we use if the attacker is choking, but they are both umpa variations. Your version is not one I had seen before. I do have a concern with the umpa with swim and trap technique, though. Its a problem I have, but I don't see it with many others doing it. There are times when I will do the hip bump, but it doesn't get the desired result of knocking them forward and off-balance. I don't know if its because I have short legs, and don't generate the angle needed to get them off balance, or what, but I have trouble with it a times. I fix it by instead sitting up and wrapping my arms around their body, and then pulling them down onto their hands, and then swim and trap; I thank the head instructor at our DT club for showing that variation. My question to you, Alex, and anyone versed in BJJ, is what do you think is going wrong for me there? I loved seeing a glimpse of the drills you did, and seeing how they were used in class. I also love the compare and contrast approach you had in this video between sport and self-defense. Keep up the good work, Alex, and keep the videos coming!

I think that if this is the lowest point in your training journey, then you are going to do pretty well.

Yes I would have to agree about the way parents can be, I think this is often true add many sporting events as well. My kids are involved in soccer and cheerleading and I can tell you I see a lot of the issues with the Parents. I do however, disagree with not allowing the parents and for the children's class especially. As a parent, I would not be as comfortable paying for something I could not view to see what my kid is learning. I teach with an open door policy and I encourage parents to stay and view their children hard work and class material. I think this happens to be one of the key points that keeps us successful at keeping students. I also have seen parents that help their kids out at home, because some of the athletic techniques we do as adults are very complicated for children. It's a great way to give them something to do together. I'm definitely not cutting down your place for doing it, I'm just saying it would not be a preference of mine to do so and offering insight as to why, take care. I tell the kids who turn around and look at their parents. Question do your parents go to school with you? They all say no, so I tell them not to look at their parents. We are lucky at my school, because the facility is set up in such a way that we have a separate viewing room for the parents. Our workout room has a security camera in it, and in the viewing room, there is a projector and screen that the parents can sit and watch the class from. No parent feedback during class, and no children distracted by parents during class. I know this isn't feasible for every school, but its something to consider if the school can manage it.

I would imagine these figures are pretty close. You might have some that try to cover the fact that they got bored and use job/time constraints as a convenient excuse, but by and large, I would guess they are accurate. I know my own training took a hiatus here over the last quarter due to family duties and job time constraints. I work a rotating schedule, and go from day to night shifts throughout the course of the year. I can see where this can affect training time, and those who don't have as much time invested in it might be less willing to try to make it all work out in the end, and its easier to just drop it.

5/28/2015 Range Training: 8:00 -11:00 am. Pistol qualification, shot 48/50. After the pistol qualification, we played a little poker, and put together a 3 of a kind as my high hand in the first round, so advanced, but then got beat out by better shooters. We did pistol/shotgun transition work with pepper poppers: first, we would load two shotgun rounds, and 5 in the pistol, and shot the color of the popper announced in order with the shotgun, then transitioned to handgun for the last one. Next, we started with the pistol, then transitioned to shotgun, and then back to hand gun if we ran out of shotgun ammo. We finished with patrol rifle, doing a relay shoot at 100 yards. TKD Testing: 6:15 - 7:15. Tested 5 kids and one teenager, the teenager testing for 1st dan. The kids did pretty good, and the 1st dan candidate had a really good testing.

That video was pretty brief, but that coach has taught the deadlift, along with other power lifts, for quite a few years. He is not affiliated with CrossFit anymore, either. Here is a better video of how he teaches the deadlift, but its a bit longer: I would be willing to bet that he would have been correcting the technique issues in the first video, if the whole thing was recorded. Her back didn't appear to be that rounded to me, with her later reps. The second video is a bit more detailed, and that issued is addressed. You are right, the knees do have to bend to get involved in the deadlift. I'm not disputing that. I just think that referring to it as a knee exercise doesn't do justice to what the exercise is.

Thanks. I liked the sectioned forms work they were doing there. Its an especially favored training tactic I like to use. Break it down into segments, and work on those segments.

Try to keep in mind that an instructor, no matter how good an instructor he is, can only teach you what he or she knows. It could be that he didn't have the knowledge to pass on what your current instructor does. Perhaps he did the best he could, and didn't think he was doing you a disservice. Instead of being disappointed in your prior training, just focus on the road before you.

In my time in TKD, I've always seen a timetable between each black belt rank, usually equal to the number of years as number of dan testing for. I'm a 4th dan now, so I have to wait 4.5 years before I'm eligible to test for 5th dan.

5/27/2015 Strength Training Squats: warm-ups: 45x5x3, 135x5, 155x5, 180x3; work sets: 245x5, 245x5, 245x5. Press: warm-ups: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x5; work sets: 104x5, 104x5, 104x5. Deadlifts: warm-ups: 135x5, 165x5x2, 195x5; work set: 305x5. Stretch.

The Deadlift is a knee dominant exercise because the knees are the major joint moving (moving the greatest). But it does activate the gluteals, hamstrings and a certain amount the quadriceps. If you are bending with your back and then straightening it then there can be a risk that you can injure yourself. That is why you have to squat down and then straighten. Deadlifts yes you straighten your back but the musculature in the back (Latissimus Dorsi, Trapezius, Erector Spinae etc) you don't use as much. Because this exercise is basically a squat with resistance. Well, then it sounds like its being redefined, then. The deadlift, as a barbell exercise, is one of the greatest exercises you can do with the lower back, and its an exercise that lacks a stretch reflex, which is why its such hard lift to do. If the deadlift, as a barbell exercise, is performed properly, its done with the back quite horizontal to the ground, and the knees do very little work in the exercise. In fact, I'd say that the "knees do the work" is incorrect, because the knees are merely one of the joints that moves through its range of motion the act of lifting the weight. The muscles do the work, not the knees. Here's a video on how to do the deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8jgCFXYTU The deadlift is not a squat with the bar in the hands, its a pull from the floor. The knees really don't get too involved, not anywhere near like they do in a properly performed squat.

I really enjoy the Poomsae applications you are linking here. Is that Ik Pil Kang in the video? He is very fast, and very skilled.

I like seeing all the points being made here, for and against the practicalities of this technique. One thing I try to remember about the BJJ techniques I see, no matter how crazy they appear, is that none of them, none of them, happen in a vacuum. Not like a fancy TKD kick that can be done outside of sparring for board breaking, or in a freestyle form. If you are seeing a BJJ technique being taught, its not because someone thought it was a fancy technique done in a one-step type of an environment. It was most likely trained in a free-rolling environment, and pulled off multiple times in that environment, against various levels of skill and experience in the opponents, and then refined and the kinks worked out, so that you know that it CAN work. Not that it always will, but it CAN.

He seems quite young, as well. What is his rank?

The Iceman asks, and you all shall receive! 8th Dan WTF/Kukki Poomsae, Hansoo: This form works in an * pattern, if I recall, and appears to have in the neighborhood of 33 moves (probably off, by the way the WTF counts some combinations as single "movements," but close). I like the way this form changes directions. Its really smooth, and especially like the kicking aspects of it. The first section of form has several of the mountain blocks, and some wedging blocks that are open-handed, then followed by moving forward with inward blocks (or are they strikes?). On that first line, when going backwards, the student remains facing forwards. In the second segment, the twin upset punches in the cross leg stance is interesting to me, and then its followed by an interesting and curious inward down blocking motion into the other hand. I also like the change of direction from this line to the next, with the chamber of the side kick, and then the tur to side kick in the new direction. We get a target kick section, too. From then on, its pretty much mirroring what has already been done, which I like to see. 8th Dan ATA Poomsae, Jeong Seung: This was the only video I could find of this form. 98 moves, with 32 custom moves beginning with technique 48 and concluding with technique 80. The form meaning is, "continually moving forward toward the right ideal of vision." New basics are listed as 360 degree spin palm strike, half figure-8 block, and upward back elbow strike. A new concept is advanced simultaneous hand and kicking combinations. I noticed that in this form, most of the techniques are fairly basic, at least in kicking, with the hand techniques growing in complexity. Most of the kicking is becoming more basic, with some spinning kicks and jump spinning kicks for good measure. I imagine that is by design, as the practitioner is getting older by this rank, and likely out of their physical prime. Something I've noticed more of is combinations of hand techniques with starting with some alternating arms movements, followed by repeating movements with a single arm, with no retraction arm movement, which develops some different coordination and power. The pattern for this forms seems to be like an * with a box around it, and you go through the X in the middle, as well as around the outside of the box. A long form, and the middle section of custom moves again allows the ATA practitioner to put their own personal stamp on the forms and style of the ATA. Now, with 8th dan forms complete, I'm not sure I'll be able to find much on the 9th dan forms, but we shall see what we can turn up! If we can't scratch anything up, then I plan to continue with dabbling in the other forms, and reporting my thoughts and feelings on them here. I've also found some good PDFs on the black belt ATA forms, with some information on the forms I will go plug back in, and will let you all know when I do edit a post. Thanks for being apart of this examinations of TKD forms so far!

I'm 5'7", about 270 lbs, and have never been able to do a pull-up. I haven't always been this heavy, either. Its always been a tough exercise for me, but in a few weeks, I will probably work it into my strength program.

5/25/2015 Strength Training Squats: warm-ups: 45x5x3, 135x5, 155x5, 180x3; work sets: 240x5, 240x5, 240x5. Push Press: warm-ups: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x5; work sets: 105x5, 110x5, 110x5. Power Cleans: 80x3, 80x3, 80x3, 80x3, 80x3 Power Snatch: one set of 3 at 65. I just wanted to try it a bit. I'll need some technique work, but might start alternating it with the power cleans. 5/26/2015 Defensive Tactics Club: 2:00 - 4:00 pm. Did some arm bar reps on the grappling dummy. Reviewed some pistol disarms; front, side to the head, rear to the head. Observed a couple of guys doing some sparring with striking only, giving pointers and what not. Some single sick work. Some rolling, working on some positioning stuff. Finished working on some kicking techniques, some Olympic style round kicks, and some 360 round kicks, mainly on the ground, working towards the jump and spin. TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Basics (changed up with some different combinations for tournament use), forms (Choong Jang...got through it), one-steps - working with an orange belt, and a recommended black belt for testing this week. Sparring, just a few matches. Got some stretching in between basics and forms.

Deadlifts shouldn't be a knee-dominant exercise, I should be a back/hams dominant exercise. The knees shouldn't be affected too much. But I'm thinking of it in the barbell version. I think all the exercises Nidan Melbourne mentioned would be good substitutes for leg work.

Welcome to KF! Glad you have you here!

I'm sure your skills are pretty well up to the need! That said, any rolling sorts of recovery can look really daunting. And again, it's a process. This shouldn't be first thing a person learns from bottom side. Nor should it be the first option for everyone else. Even with that, it's actually easier than it looks at first glance. Take the time to set into the position. Then, look at adding the roll step by step. I might venture to give it a try, at least really slowly, and see how it works out.

Looks like he's really into the philosophical side of the art. He has some interesting approaches. Thanks or sharing it.

From what I've read, it sounds like the roots of this kata are relatively unknown. It does seem to be tied to him, but whether he created it or not isn't necessarily proven?