bushido_man96

Congrats, and keep up the good work!

I think these are all important. The head instructor and the assistants, or even just black belts, should be good reps for the school, and should provide a smile and some helpful information to those who wander in looking and asking questions. People will remember being helped in such a manner.

I agree with ps1. This is what contracts should be for. I sign a contract at my TKD school, usually for 5 years at a time, because I know I will be training, and it gives me the best deal. Funds come directly out of my account, so I never have to worry about being up to date with dues...I just go train. From there, I just have to pay for testings, tournaments, etc. This guy really was just wanting to rip his students, and it sounds like he snowballed enough people to make some money on it. I don't think things like this happen as often as we might think. Just when it does, the "contracts are bad" arguments come out in force.

Great answer.

Most gyms aren't really in the business of checking to see if you are healthy enough to exercise. They want business, so most likely just have members sign a waiver stating that the member is responsible for assessing their level of health and all that. If ever in doubt, see your doctor about beginning physical activity.

9/29/2014 Evening TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Taught class, mainly doing forms and one-steps review for testing. 10/1/2014 Defensive Tactics Club: 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Mostly review for the club's first self-defense workshop of the year. 10/2/2014 TKD Testing: 6:00 - 7:30. Not a big testing, but we've got some kids moving up the ranks, with some big testings coming up for them! 10/3/2014 3-in-1 Trial Class: 7:10 - 8:30 pm. I spoke more about this class in the Comparative Styles and Cross Training forum here: http://www.karateforums.com/my-recent-experience-with-a-style-called-3-in-1-martial-arts-vt47386.html The class opened with some jogging, which I detest, along with some moving in fighting stances and throwing punches. Afterwards, we did a lot of breathing and stretching. The instructor puts lots of emphasis on being flexible. We did some basic kicking, then we did some rolling and breakfall practice. At the end, we did some finger locking and a kote gashi version using the thumb for the most part. 10/13/2014 TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Did about half the basics, then went into working on forms review and learning new forms after students got their new belts and certificates from testing. Also did some one-steps review.

Boy, that's not one I'm familiar with. Is it a translation of a Karate form of some kind? My guess is it would be from something like that, as most of the forms in Korean styles branched from Shotokan.

Unfortunately, these are both forms left out of my style.

Hee Il Cho was a big name for a long time, and he has produced some good students. His organization also holds an international style of tournament, I believe, either yearly or biannually. He is an original student of Gen. Choi years ago, and he has a different style to his kicking, and this could be different from other styles. As suggested, look into both of them, and see what will fit you better. Let us know which way you go, and why you decide to go that way.

This. Do some checking with the school you want to go to, and see what it takes to get into the competition. If you are looking into ITF specific tournaments, you are going to need to do the form the way they do them, with sine wave and all that. I don't know if Jhoon Rhee does them that way or not.I also thought that Jhoon Rhee made his own forms, and did those for his students. Or does he still do the ITF forms? I'm interested to know. Please let us know!

I liked that a lot. I think it could become another part of the warmup for out DT club. That would be good drilling to do every class! I do have a mount question for you, and any other Jits guys with suggestions. What do you do when you are mounted on someone that is bigger, and you can't get your knees to the ground? How do you keep it secure, and keep from getting rolled or swept more easily?

I liked it. I will try to keep this in mind when I get the half guard slapped on me. I am going to be adding your videos and tallgeese's videos to my youtube account, so I can view them when I need to!

TJ, thanks for the info. Very informative post, and welcome to KF, as well!

Yeah, that's what I wasn't sure on, Bob. I don't know if he meant my GM, or my current instructor, or some GM of his. I just wasn't sure. Either way, I don't see myself joining up at the place for regular training. My main interest would fall into the grappling aspect of the class, and we didn't even touch on that during the class I attended. I don't really need to gain a black belt rank in his style of TKD, because I've got most of it down.Its just one of those things that kind of caught my attention. I may go back from time to time to cross-train with them some, but we'll just have to see what time allows for that.

I do think it is important for an instructor to have an idea of the character of the people he or she instructs. The problem with adults it that they are usually set in their ways, and changing them can be difficult. The same can be said for kids, because we are not their parents, and only have about 2 to 3 hours of their time in a week to affect them. So an instructor fights an uphill battle when it comes to trying to influence their students. It can be done, but not to a great extent. So, the other option is to monitor them, and if they act in a way that is counter to what the instructor wants to represent his school, then it needs to be addressed on an individual basis with the student. Then its on them to fix it.

Taekwondo is largely based on Shotokan, so there is a great deal of overlap. Normally, the body mechanics are different in TKD than in Shotokan, though, and training both will get you confused and hold you back. It is possible that the TKD instructor at your dojo has changed the way they do things to match Shotokan, though. In that case, it may not be much of an issue. Its really going to depend on the style of TKD you get. I do a style that does ITF forms, but not with sine wave. I think we have a very "Karate-like" approach to how we do technique, so if you have a place like this, then it may be beneficial for you. As far as looking for bunkai goes, you could look up Iain Abernethy, who has done a lot of work in researching bunkai. Some agree with his points of view, and some don't, but either way, he's worth a look. Welcome to KF, and we look forward to talking with you!

Well said. My knees hurt quite a bit, and I'm not even in my 40's yet. I think whenever anyone stays active for so long, it eventually just starts to wear on the body. I think for Martial Artists, the joints especially take a beating, especially doing hard striking in the air for so long. The answer, some anti-inflammatories, taken as needed.

Very nice, Patrick. This might be helpful for someone like me, who has to find time to work out at home anymore to get something in. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Thanks for the tips here, Alex. Sorry I just saw it, I've been sick. I did dig into one of the Gracie books I have, and found that where I messed up is by not blocking his hip with my arm. At least that was one problem, anyway. I plan to work on it with him when I get back to training. 9/22/2014 Defensive Tactics Club: 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Warm-up with shrimping and pummeling. Self-defense review. Then we reviewed the shrimp defense, and getting guard back from side mount along with elevator sweep. After that, we had the students in small groups, and they had to talk their way through the process of getting guard back from side mount, and the shrimp defense, while demonstrating it. This was a really good learning experience for them, and they did pretty good. 9/29/2014 Defensive Tactics Club: 1:00 - 3:00 pm. We got the opportunity today to train with a former club member who was also an All-American Wrestler at Fort Hays, and is now a professional MMA fighter out of the state of New York. His name is Andre Harrision, and the guy was a real treat to work with. Very nice guy, very humble and soft spoken. Here's a link to an article on Andre: http://combatpress.com/2014/09/ring-of-combat-champion-andre-harrison-healthy-and-ready-to-do-work/ We worked some stand-up and some ground stuff today. With stand-up, we did some stance work, hand position, and worked jabs for measure, and jab/cross combo. We did some close-in work, doing a combo of an elbow strike and a step-up knee strike. We also did a repeat jab, followed by a grab with the rear hand, followed by a back leg knee strike. From there we went to some ground work, starting by drilling a sprawl. Then he showed us what he called a Bravo choke (I think), which started from the sprawl position. Next, we went to some guard work, where if the top guy postured up to punch, we would squeeze our knees together and crunch him towards us and control them. From there we went to a Kimura, and then did a variation that started with what he called a knee shiv that worked into a triangle. Overall, I had a great time working with this guy, and learned a lot!

Welcome to KF! Glad to have you!

mal103, what is your experience with Krav Maga?

I think I'm happy training at home. Going to see Kukkiwon would be interesting, but I don't do that style, and an ITF headquarters wouldn't work well either, because I don't do sine wave. And the old politics of Korea screwed up TKD history so bad for so long, who knows what I would get? Yeah, think I'll stay home and train.

Thanks, Bob. I think the instructor wanted it to have an intro feel, so I wasn't going to see anything really advanced. I realized stepping onto that mat that my TKD career itself is probably only a few years younger than most of the students that were there. I missed a chance to return to a follow-up class because I got sick this weekend. Maybe in the future I will get to see something more. He did say something that struck me odd at the end of class...he mentioned if I wanted to join, I'd have to like take a ride with him and talk, and talk with the grandmaster or something to that affect....? Not sure, but I just let it lie.

This is a well written article, Bob. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us. There will likely not be agreement on this topic, ever. I think the problem arises in the drawing of hard and fast lines for one or the other. That makes it easy, though, either you qualify or you don't! What needs to happen is informed discussion over each candidate, in my opinion.

Congrats!