bushido_man96

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!

On Oct. 3, I attended a "bring a buddy" trial class for a Martial Art called 3-in-1. The instructor referred to is as a Jewish Martial Arts system combining TKD, Hapkido, and Brazilian Jui-Jitsu. I was invited by a co-worker, so I accepted, because I always like to check out something new, and just train. We started with quite a bit of calisthenics, including jogging, some fighting stance footwork and punching, breathing, and stretching. After the stretching, we did some kicking. We did front snap kicks, using the ball of the foot and the instep. Next we did an ax kick that used a little different hip movement than I'm used to, and then we did round kicks. The round kicks, they chambered like front kicks, and then rotated the hip over with a snap upon extension, and at a 45 degree angle. I don't mind kicking this way, but its not my preferred way of doing it. From there, we did some punching work from horse stance, which was nothing new for me. After kicking, we did some breakfalls and rolling. From there, we did some Hapkido, working on a 3-finger lock as a defense against a push from the front, locking 3 fingers and pressuring down to take them to their knees, and then reversing the pressure to bring them up into an escort. Next was a thumb lock that ended like a kote-gashi/wrist turning takedown. All in all, I had fun at the class. I would have preferred less time exercising, and more time doing technique, but that's just my preference. It appears that the instructor is of the Jewish religion, and takes from the basic tenants of the religion as far as his moral and ethical code for his style. That's just a guess on my part, and I would have to talk to him more at length about it to be sure. One thing I wasn't too game on was that he wanted me to wear my regular TKD uniform and belt, and I was lined up at the front of the class. I would have preferred training in do-bok pants and T-shirt, and lining up at the back; its his class, and I was just there to learn. But he was very respectful about it, even though I preferred him call me by my first name, as opposed to a title. But, I imagine that I what I will face if I go back and train. Anywho, there's my recent new MA experience. I'd love to discuss it with you all!

ps1, jaypo, and AdamKralic have all made very good statements, and I don't think I could add more to it. Very well put! As mentioned, it depends on what you are seeking in your Martial Arts training. Lots of people could care less if they ever fight or not. And on the other hand, there are plenty of fighters out there that could beat a Martial Artist, but aren't Martial Artists themselves. Fighting and self-defense is part of it. But not all of it.

I enjoyed watching this. He has some interesting views on some of the techniques there. I really liked the circular motion in the single had block he did, and the slower demo of it. Thanks for sharing this.

I'm not sure on the Kyokushin styles, but Thai kickers will rise up on the ball of the base leg to drive the kick around. In most "traditional" styles that I watch, kickers tend to keep their base foot flatter on the ground, more in contact with the floor. That's just one subtle difference I've noticed, at least in the way I kick usually. There could be some differences in the way the base foot pivots, and how the hip drives the kick, as well, but someone with more experience in them than me will have to put forth an answer there.

I agree. Its really tough to find a happy medium. Competing helps build up certain skills that can translate to helpful self-defense, but there have to be rule sets in place for safety. Likewise, its important to realize the deficiencies in the rule set and do what one can to alter the training from time to time to work on them for self-defense purposes.

Its not that you will be able to "take on anyone after 4 hours of training." I trained for 5 days, 8 hours a day. The goal isn't to take anyone on. The goal is to provide some tools to individuals in the form of certain concepts to make them easy to pick up, so that people that need to use them, but don't have all the time to train that others might, can learn to do so.I would also caution that "becoming combat effective in the least amount of time possible" equals being done learning and training sooner. The guy I trained with is a "career" Krav Maga guy; he believes in it, and studies it, a lot. He was also a Muay Thai fighter in Thailand quite a while back, so he's a guy who knows some stuff and has seen some stuff. Anyone who sticks with it is going to gain as much from it as from any traditional style.