bushido_man96

That's what I do when I get the chance to train Aikido. I see little places here and there in between the spinning and misdirection where I could toss in a kick, or a strike, or just make the whole application a bit bloodier.It also gives me different movement options that I don't get in TKD or Combat Hapkido, which helps when I look back on those styles, too. Those styles have also helped me to see little hints to applications here and there in my TKD training, especially in the forms.

GM John Pellegrini is the founder of the Combat Hapkido system. I hold rank in the style, and I've found it is very effective for either civilian self-defense goals or LEO style restraint needs. I wouldn't get too caught up in the "Combat" label. He needed a name, and he wasn't along the lines of a more traditional Hapkido style, so he calls it Combat Hapkido. He made some changes, esecially along the lines of the kicking, where he only does low line kicking, instead of some of the higher, more TKDesque kicking seen in more traditional, Korean Hapkido styles. He also is heavy on the idea of using distraction techniques in order to facilitate the Hapkido; every technique application begins with a distraction technique of some kind; punch, palm strike, low kick, etc, to loosen the attackers grip or to distract them, then allowing the opportunity to seize a limb to take control, or counter grab and defend with a lock or takedown. There is also a focus on a finishing technique at the end of the defense. It may be a strike, or a break if necessary, etc. Another difference is that Pellegrini has worked with other stylists to incorporate other concepts into his system for a broader range of defense options. He has a trapping system that I have enjoyed working with, but its not trapping to the extent seen in arts like Wing Chun where trapping is like a whole world of techniques. There's enough to get by and get into a different defense; the focus isn't on trapping for the sake of trapping. Those are just a few things I can elaborate on Combat Hapkido. I don't have any experience with Krav Maga, so I leave that to someone else.

Totally agree. I don't think there's a pure style out there. Mine is a mix of at least 4 of the styles I practiced throughout the years, so although I state Ashihara Karate, its technically MMA. I think that when the term MMA is mentioned, we all conjure up the same basic idea of what it is based on the exposure we've had of since the early 1990's. That said, I think what we have come to see from the UFC and other companies is this MMA product, so the term has kind of grown into the name of the style. I think when you talk about other styles being "mixed" styles, though, you have to look at the extent to which that mix is taken, and how it mixes. I've learned different kind of joint manipulations from early on in my TKD career, and have extended that knowledge into Combat Hapkido and Aikido. But that doesn't really make me a "Mixed" Martial Artist like we think of in the sense of MMA. Honestly, nobody really cared about this "mixed" label until MMA really came into its own, and we saw the integration of standing and ground fighting like we have. Finally, I think when it comes to the MMA label, the main consideration is in the training methodologies of the MMA athletes and gyms. They work on actively mixing all those components from the beginning, and the focus is on performance, and not rank. They have all the faculties available for the standing game and the ground game, with various coaches specializing in the different aspects, but the overall goal of the gym is the focus on MMA competition. I really think what we have in MMA is the rebirth of Pankration. But, that name is already used now, too, so that leaves us just go with the name MMA, I think.

I completely, 100% agree with this. Are you sure you want to do this? I TOO agree with this, a friendship to me, is more important than "who can beat who!?!" I agree with these concerns, to an extent. But, I've also fought with my brothers in our yard before, giving one of them a nice bruise along his cheek bone. We're still family, though... I'm curious as to whether you and your friend are going to carry on a friendly sparring session to learn, or are the two of you planning to fight it out and intend to win by the score cards or knockout at the end? If its the latter, then I think MasterPain brings up a good point: This would be the way to go. You'd have a referee to make sure the rules are followed, at least. Maybe each of you could sell tickets to family, friends, and training peers from you schools to raise money for some kind of charity along the way. Also, I'd say know the rule set, and train for the rule set from now until the fight.

Well, its been back for several weeks now, and we are nearing the halfway point of the season. How is your team fairing? I'm a Chiefs fan, so, its been a tough go this year. Hoping for a win tonight against the Chargers.

11/01/2012 Cardio Treadmill: 20 minutes, 1.53 miles. I hate running. Bike: 1 mile cool down, 4:18 min. Stretch Forms Joong Gun x5 In Wha 2 x5 Stretch Forms today were 3rd gup colored belt forms. Joong Gun is the high blue belt form in the TTA. Anslow refers to this form as "the elbow breaking pattern" in his book, and the opening sequence is indicative of that. Both this form and its ATA counterpart have upward elbow strikes, along with crossing X blocks; this form has high X blocks, and a particular fun series of moves going from front stance and double forearm block, back leg side kick and landing in another front stance (very tough transition for me), double forearm block and another back leg side kick into a fighting stance. There are also U shaped staff blocks, and a hook punch. I get a decent pace with this form, and has some palm pressing blocks that help give it power, as well. Joong Gun's floor pattern comes back to the familiar I. In Wha 2 is the blue belt ATA form. Also consistent between these two forms are ridge hand blocks. Both forms have a considerable amount of open hand blocking. The square blocks in this form are open hand this time, too. The kicking sequences become tougher, with a repeat hook kick/round kick combination on each leg, and a side kick followed by a step together hook kick combination. A front leg jumping front kick from a parallel stance also makes an appearance. This form has 42 moves. This form follows the stacked squares pattern of the purple belt form, but movement is to the right from the start, as opposed to the left.

This would be the way to go, for sure. Any time you can do some conditioning work and work that is directly applicable to what you do, then that's bonus. Doing rounds of kicks, punches, and then mixed would good, I think, just depending on what your focus would be.

That's just nuts. I'm sorry that your experience turned out this way. There are good TKD schools out there. I hope you keep searching.

pittbull, its good to hear you've set and met some of your goals in your training. But, in regards to this one... Kind of weird. I've got kind of some mixed feelings about this. I can understand what you are saying about hearing it and feeling it, but I kind of relate it to the feeling of shooting someone. I know its not the same, but I hope it kind of illustrates my point. If it would have been your limb that had been broken, would you have considered it goal met?

Along the lines of what ShoriKid is suggesting, look up Tabata drills. Those would fit in nicely for you, and I think you can do just about any movement with them.

For those of you in the path of Sandy, stay safe, and I'll keep you all in my prayers.

I'm sorry to hear this. As a TKD instructor, this kind of behavior irritates me. I don't know if this guy thought you were trying to come in and prove something, or what, but the tact he took was completely out of line, and very disrespectful. Did you inform the instructor of your prior experiences? If so, then like I said, I'm ashamed of his approach here. If you didn't, then I think this guy has some issues with how he runs his school. At any rate, I hope you don't judge every TKD school to be like this one, because we are not. Again, I'm sorry to hear about this experience for you. Its a shame your exposure to TKD had to be negative.

10/31/2012 Treadmill: 20 min, 1.36 mi. Bike: 1 mile cool down, 4:37 Stretch Forms Yul Gok x5 In Wha 1 x5 Po Eun x5 Stretch Forms session today was 4th gup session for ATA and TTA forms, with Po Eun thrown in for fun. Yul Gok is the TTA's first blue belt form. I like this form, as I feel I can really power it out. Its one of my favorite colored belt forms. This form follows a modified I, with some angle work, and some tension moves. The TTA does tension knife hand strikes, where as other ITF stylist do this more as a hooking, grabbing motion. The way I see it is that any time you have an open hand in a form, you should look at grabbing applications, as well as striking or passing type blocks. This form also has a nice series in which you do a one leg stance and guarding blocks, followed by a side kick and land into an elbow strike, then turn and repeat the combination on the other side. This shows balance, power, and body control, and is a fun section. Anslow refers to this form as "the grabbing form." The ATA purple belt form is called In Wha 1. "In Wha" means "Unbroken Glory," and there are two of these forms. This form introduces the high/low block, and also the "square block," which the TTA just describes as a double block. The square block is the same move found in the opening sequence of Won Hyo, but it is done a bit differently. One hand to the opposite chest, and the other to the ribs, the chest hand moves across to an outer forearm block position, and the hand at the ribs moves up to a high block, but comes up and passes across the body to block anything coming to the center line on its way up. Both done simultaneously. This form also adds vertical punches, forward and back elbow strikes, and single outer knife hand blocks to the moves list. New kicks in this form are inner outer crescent kicks, repeat round kicks with same leg (at different levels, mid and hi, if the student can do that), and also a consecutive kicking sequence with the same leg; back leg front kick to the front, rechambered and followed by a side kick with the same leg to the side. The layout of this form is new, too. It is basically two squares stacked like boxes, and is like a figure 8 pattern. Just think of the 8 as a square, digital one . You start on the right edge, which is the top of the bottom square and the bottom of the top square. You go to the left, down, to the right, back up to the start, and then left from the start point to the right again, then up to the top of the top square, back right, and down to the start. Kind of tricky, with some 3/4 turning into square blocks. ATA purple belt really starts to up the difficulty as an intermediate level form, delving more into the TKD double kicking, and more turning in the form. Here, basics are starting to come together into more advanced techniques. This form has 44 moves. My black belt form of the day was Po Eun, mainly because it is short and sweet. Po Eun is a lot like Naifanchi in that it is done mainly in sitting/horse stances, with some back stances and cross legged stances thrown in. It follows a -- pattern, as well. This is the TTA 2nd dan recommended form.

I am of the opinion that strength training programs are always beneficial. If you want Kyokushin to be your main thing, then you won't be as focused on strength training as others might, and that's ok. I think if you did 2 days a week strength training, you would probably see some benefit. You could try for 3 if you like, but with that many classes in a week, you might fatigue more. But, you could try and see what you can do. Just listen to your body. Programs like Starting Strength and Wendler 5/3/1, or even Stronglifts 5x5, are good to start with. Of the crew I chat with, 5/3/1 seems to be the program of choice, and Wendler has several variations of it that you can modify, and he even discusses conditioning. Those are my thoughts. And don't be afraid to squat parallel!

Pretty cool opportunity.

Evil Dave gave good advise. Like anything, practice and experience will help you there. The main thing is to be consistent. And remember, its not like a testing where you basically judge a student against themselves; you are judging the best out of a group. Its just a different mindset than a testing setting.

Well we can't, now. You already broke the first rule....

Thanks for the reply, DWx. I think I may have been confusing in my initial post. Here is another clip of a kick more like the TTA side kick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_FgD2_uvXY This is actually the set-up we use in basics. The knee is tight to the leg, like a front kick chamber, even on front leg kicks, without the step. Just pull it up tight like a front kick, as opposed to the high table top like that ATA style. Here is another good example of what I was trying to describe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4baJ-SQBa0&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Sorry if I was confusing, and I hope that clarifies. I'll keep an eye out for more videos, too.

Hello all. I've done two styles of TKD in my Martial Arts career; first with the American Taekwondo Association (ATA), and then with the Traditional Taekwondo Association (TTA). Since I've been involved in two different TKD styles, I've learned two different ways of side kicking. I wanted to present both styles for discussion of the pros and cons and thoughts on each. The first I learned was this ATA style: As you can see here, the chamber is up pretty high and in what we referred to as a "table top" position. When I taught the kick this way, I actually referred to it as such, and would put a target pad on the knee and have the students balance it there when doing slow concentration kicks on the wall to control the knee height. The second way I learned was this TTA style: The TTA style kick has what I would refer to as a more "Karate feel" to it, thus the Karate instructional video shown here. The chamber is tighter to the base leg, but in more of a front kick chamber position than the high table top position of the ATA style side kick. After my years in training, I've come to prefer the TTA way I do it now to the ATA way. I'm a big person on the bottom; God built me a really good base. This has base I have has always made the ATA way of chambering a challenge for me. My leg never feels close to my body, and the heel feels way out of line at the beginning of the kick. I also feel it doesn't allow me to engage my wonderfully ample hips as much as the TTA style chamber does. The benefit to the ATA style chamber is that from that chamber, if you modify it slightly, you can throw three different kicks from the same chamber; a side kick, a round kick, or a hook kick, much in the fashion that Bill Wallace did when he fought. However, I feel that power I can generate from the TTA style chamber outweighs the benefit of disguising 3 kicks, so I don't use my old ATA way of chambering much anymore, even when I practice my ATA forms. I'm curious as to how everyone else feels as concerns these two approaches to kicking. Bob and I discussed this a bit when we trained together, which sparked this thread. I look forward to hearing the thoughts and opinions of everyone else.

That was one thing that was nice about the ATA. Yeah, they had closed tournament circuits, and what many assume as a McDojo mentality. But, they are always tinkering with things. When I was there, the Pro-Tech systems had several different paths you could follow, ranging from weapons to BJJ and the PPCT options. Now, they have weapons requirements built into their black belt requirements, offer XMA style tournament divisions for those younger and athletic types, and they continue to grow and try new things. I think they are tinkering with an MMA styled tournament division now, too. You can say what you want about the ATA, but they don't stagnate, that's for sure.

Well, that I can't say much on. The Aikido club I practiced in, and still keep in touch with, pretty much stays with a traditional Aikido approach, but where they have evolved has been more in their spiritual approaches. They still retain the Aikido philosophies, which is what I still have trouble with in the style, but the club head is also a religious guy, who is active with missionary things, and communicates a lot with many of the churches in the community. He has dedicated mediation times, where they meditate spiritually on a more christian level. He also has a "Godly Warriors" class, in which they discuss the matter of the Martial Arts and their role in their christian spirituality. I've been wanting to check these classes out myself, but haven't had the time to do so yet. As for our TKD school (stepping back into my circle ), we did add Combat Hapkido to our offerings, but it wasn't a requirement; just extra if we wanted to give it a try, and our head instructor wouldn't allow students to do it until they reached green belt. I understand why he did this, but I don't see it as necessary, and if I had my way, I'd get my 1st dan in CH and add it to the overall curriculum, so that when a student tests for 1st dan, they would earn a 1st dan in both TKD and CHD. I hope that kind of answers your question. If not, I'll answer some more!

I love the season two pony tail...

10/29/2012 Treadmill: 1.37 mi in 20 min. Bike: cool down, 1 mi, 4:56 min. Stretch Forms Won Hyo x5 Songham 5 x5 Naifanchi x5 Ge Baek x2 Stretch Won Hyo is the TTA's 5th gup form. It follows the similar I pattern we've been seeing for the past few forms. We do double blocks, with the lead hand in a fighting guard position, or outer forearm block, and the rear hand in a high block position. The opening sequence has the double block, a reverse upset knife hand strike, followed by a lead punch. Its a nice opening sequence, which I think shows power through good hip motion and twisting, with some good self defense applications. There are two side kicks and two front kicks in this form. Songham 5 is the ATA 5th gup form. It follows the rectangle line once again, but this time you start in the middle of the long line on the back, then move to the right to the first corner, up the short side, across the top line to the next corner, back down, and to the beginning. The hand attacks are all head level, and includes the introduction of the ridge hand strike. The new kicking challenge is the stepping reverse side kick, which still causes me problems. But, its something to work on. There are also quite a few of twin and double blocks, with twin low blocks followed by twin inner forearm blocks.

Good stuff, Alex. Thanks for posting this up. It sounded like you got to get some good coaching from the side of the mat, which I think is great for learning in competitions. I loved your coache's line, "That's real life Jiu Jutsu right there!" Good stuff!

That's cool. Didn't realize that.