bushido_man96

Half-swording was a much used tactic, and probably safer than one would realize.

The only issue I have with this concept is that kata have become a tool used in curriculum to determine rank. The first form I was taught was the ATA white belt form, Songham 1. In the TTA, it was Chon Ji. These are white belt forms, and as such, although may have many applications, they may not cover it all. In the past, forms weren't taught according to rank. But it is, now.

I agree, and this is another concern that those who participate in styles like Wrestling and Boxing don't have to worry about.

Bob, when you do your bunkai and oyo bunkai, do you ever present it in a step-sparring fashion, like what Danielle alluded to in applying forms applications?

What I do like about it is, at Blackbelt level, because you don't know what your partner is going to do, you have to learn to get really good at reading the signs. Broadly I tell students to classify attacks into: - straight, such as front punches, front strikes etc. - outward, anything coming across the body like a knifehand side strike, back fist - inward, such as ridge hands, swinging haymaker type punches - downward, downward strikes, getting hit with a beer bottle or something - miscellaneous Roughly speaking you can usually tell which class the attack will fall into based on how they shift their weight and start to move their hips/body. This gives you a split second heads up to start your block or evasion or whatever and then react further enroute. But if in doubt, always dodge. I like your classifications, and working towards learning the tells the body makes when attacking. When you do your higher ranking step sparring, do you do it all from the typical down block, front stance starting position, or do you change it up? One thing I did like Sang H. Kim's book Taekwondo Step Sparring is that for more advanced step-sparring, he shows the use of sparring stances as opposed to the down block/front stance typically used.

Great points, Danielle, and great descriptions of how your step-sparring training changes as rank goes up. I also like the different styles, as in block counter, evade counter, and intercepting. Very nice, and a very good program that builds. That's how I'd like to do it. I also like how you use it to break apart the material learned in the forms. It would make it fun to pick apart and apply the moves, as is, in the patterns.

I think you make a good differentiation between the two, Danielle. Solid points.

Great responses, Bob. Thanks for the reply!

This topic is another that sprouted from a passage I read in Grandmaster Hee Il Cho's book, The Complete One and Three Step Sparring: The emphasis is on the word use is Cho's. A few things I agree with here: continual practice, yes, and mental fortitude, yes. But, I don't think that learning self-defense necessarily takes as long as it does to actually master the physical aspects of the techniques. I think it should all come along together. Cho goes on to say: He goes on to point out that this exposure to sparring helps students to get over their fear of physical confrontations, which I tend to agree with. However, in the class room, sparring is much different than the approach will be in self-defense, and sparring helps more if it is geared more towards what self-defense will be like, and less like point sparring. So, some things I think he hits on the head, and others, I think are off base a bit. What are your thoughts on this approach?

Welcome to KF!

That's a cool honor. Congrats! Where it with pride!

I think this is how the flashy technique thing gets started. We learn a kick that is "a little flashy," but we can find an application for it. I imagine this kicker, if he looked into it, he could find some applications for each of these kicks that he performs. I also tend to agree with Danielle, in the idea of pushing oneself the way he does can be quite rewarding in the pursuit of the Martial Arts.

Very good observation here. I do agree that kata is good at training those things mentioned above. But, I point out the bold highlight, because I don't think it is the sole possession of kata training. Posture, transition, and breathing are taught more "on the fly" through the concept partner training, and emphasis isn't put as much on what is a "proper" stance, and more so on how functional it is for the given situation.

Wow, you were lucky! You could have ended up getting nailed in the eye. I think I would have had words with that student, and they would have likely been very nasty.

Great video, thank you for sharing that with us, Zoodles. It does a great job of showing how Western Swordsmanship is a precision system, and not the clang and bang system it gets reputed to be in movies. That video shows the footwork and precision involved in the use of the sword. Great stuff.

Sounds good to me!

That's cool. At least you get to watch that. Aside from Olympic Judo and TKD and a bit of boxing, most combat sports for us are on the paid networks like Sky and Eurosports. I remember getting to see some of the Judo last time, but didn't get to see the TKD. I'm not sure if it was on TV or not. But, NBC did a bunch of streaming stuff on the internet, too.

Do you feel the jumping tornado kick is a practical kick, then? I know some that would not feel that way.

I respect his desires, as well. I agree that is a loyal showing, although I don't think its necessary. I don't think it would be wrong to seek out leadership from someone else after losing an instructor in order to continue progressing. Loyalty is good. Blind loyalty, not so much.

I was thumbing through Hee Il Cho's The Complete One and Three Step Sparring, and came across some of his ideas as to the uses of each: Three Step: for building sparring skills. Cho says, One Step: for self-defense. Cho says, Cho mentions that typically, three-step sparring was taught first to beginning students, as he felt it took longer to acquire the ability to defend oneself, and it was best acquired through sparring. I can see the points he is making, and I understand why he makes them (although I don't agree with them all...more on that in another thread). In my experience in two styles of TKD, I have done one-steps as a component of curriculum. In the ATA, we had one-steps up to green belt level, and in the TTA, we have them through all colored belt levels. They do advance in difficulty, and some I even see some good self-defense applications in. Others, not so much. In the TTA, we also have a set of three-step sparring, but they are a bonus component, and not a requirement for any testing yet. I do like what some of the sets offer, and some not so much. I would like to hear from others that do one and/or three step sparring, and hear how you use it for your students. Do you have pre-set one-steps, or do you have random step-sparring practice? Do you advance the concepts of step-sparring, and if so, how do you change it up? What are your feelings towards how Grandmaster Cho views the use of step-sparring, and how is your view similar or different? And most important of all, how do you think we can make the use of step-sparring better?

Personally, I don't think that Kata training has to be the one single tie to making Karate training Karate, but that is just my opinion. One could still have partner Kihon and Kumite, and learn concepts that way. I believe Karate means "empty hand," not "empty hand kata." But, I'm not interested in trying to disect the the three K's from Karate, or taking Kata out of Karate training. I am interested in viewpoints in regards to the two ways of training I described in the opening post.

I think some people get too caught up in the idea of "my Art is older than your art, has been around longer, so it is really traditional, like, the very first traditional traditional Martial Art." A tradition is really any action or custom that is carried out over time and is viewed as or deemed valued by those that carry it out.

I think this tends to be more applicable to Karate than other styles. In Taekwon-Do (or at least in the style I study) we really don't have a concept of bunkai or applications beyond what you refer to as basic strikes / blocks. You learn the movement in the tul and learn the application. A punch is just a punch. What we focus on instead is to learn the principles behind every movement and then try to apply them to whatever we do. We don't take an x-block and translating that action to a strangle, we just go for whatever strangle and then apply the general concepts of leverage etc. learnt through other movements. I'm basically in the same boat as DWx, although I have been researching outside resources for new ways to look at things in the forms.As mentioned earlier, different people learn in different ways. I've also noticed that many of the "Do" philosophies that many traditional styles put forward as a marketing strategy that "the Martial Arts are for everyone" tends to attract people who aren't always natural athletes, and therefore will need to have things elaborated to them more often than natural athletes will.

As far as ranking goes, there are lots of organizations out there that are not style specific, but tend to be more specific about concepts that are taught. You could look into various associations available out there, and see what you can do about joining them for certification purposes, if that is what you want. Best of luck as you strike out on your own!

Solid post!! Agreed. Its easy to teach the techniques. Not so easy to convince a sheep to become a sheepdog in a moment.