bushido_man96

Welcome, Moegster! The best advise? Listen to your instructor, and practice, practice, practice at home!

Welcome to KF! It's great to have another Chinese stylist on board!

Our school held its first testing since all the Covid ruckus kicked off. It was held this past Thursday, and it was a fairly small affair, with only 6 testing. Although the numbers were down, the students that did test tested well. It's been a tough go, and numbers have really dipped since the plague started. I'm hoping we are able to push through this and more students start coming back.

Congrats, skullsplitter! That's great news!

I'm praying for you, Bob. This is terrible news, but I know that you'll fight this tooth and nail. Please keep us posted as to how the scans and tests go. I'm keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers, and you can always reach out if you need to!

It does look like an intriguing setup. I'd be interested in what the physical feedback feels like.

These are all good instructions. I would especially emphasize the thrust of the hip forward to generate power. Snap out fast, and snap back fast.

I have several of my certificates framed, and they are on a shelf in my basement. My kids see them, and their friends when they come over and hang out in the basement, but I didn't put them up there to show them off to my kids' friends. It was a convenient place to put them, and I didn't want them sitting in a box somewhere, and I don't have a home dojang. My wife's college and master's degrees are on the shelves, too, along with my law enforcement graduating class plaque. I do them consider them as serious achievements. I have many of my other certificates from colored belt ranks and various training certifications in a binder somewhere.

That sounds like kempo. So say you break off from the ATA form "Joe's Taekwondo", then you end creating made up forms like "rising demon tiger" and 'combination 42', which you just created. This is pretty much kempo. Can that stuff really be called taekwondo? What is the value of learning a kata that Joe made up last year (or 10 years ago) because he broke off from ATA? If Joe gave you a black belt, are you really a TKD black belt? It depends on how the forms are designed, why they are designed the way they are, and the like. Although ATA forms don't necessarily have applications or bunkai, they are designed with the rank of the student in mind. Each new form introduces techniques that will be taught at that rank, and they are incorporated into the form in such a way that both sides get trained in the techniques, along with techniques from the previous ranks. They did a very good job of designing forms that drive the skill level of the students up as they go up in rank. As to your question about break-aways from styles or organizations; only the person breaking away can answer why they made what they made and why you should learn them. As far as if someone is really a black belt or not, I would defer to sensei's quote, "The proof is on the floor."

I agree with Spartacus in that in will differ from school to school. In TKD, we don't have 'senpai' per se, but we look to our higher ranked colored belt students in a similar way. As an instructor, I expect the senior students to be good examples as far as working hard in class and how they take instruction, and expect them to be able to assist any lower ranked student with any and all material they are required to know (otherwise, why have that rank?). I don't necessarily expect them to teach new material to students; I'd prefer to do that, and then I allow them to help the students with the material from then on out.

We just had our first testing since the plague started, this past Thursday. It was a smaller testing, but those that were in there testing did a good job. I'm really hoping our numbers are able to bounce back after everything that has happened.

7/28/2020 Firearms Range Training: Got 5 hours of quality range time in. Shot duty and back-up duty weapons, rifle, shotgun, and bean-bag rounds. Went over use-of-force as well. Although I hadn't practiced in a while, I was still very happy with my performance. Just need to get back out and practice again! 7/29/2020 Martial Arts TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt class, and today, it was a kicking class. I got through 6 stations, and each station had 5 variations of kicks. Station 1 was variations of front leg side kicks; station 2 was variations of front leg round kicks, station 3 was variations of back leg side kicks, station 4 was variations of kicking combinations, station 5 was variations on axe kicks, and station 6 was variations on crescent and hook kicks. The first 4 stations were done on Powerline bags, and the last 2 were done with clapper pads. I estimate I got in around 350 kicks. Finished class with a stretch.

7/27/2020 Strength Training Lat Pull-downs: 145x10, 145x10, 145x10, 145x10. Triceps Push-downs: 120x10, 120x10, 120x10, 120x10. Not training heavy right now, due to Meniere's. Hoping to be able to soon. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black belt class. Pre-class, tried to stretch a little, and walked through three-step sparring 1-9. Also did a walk through of Choong Jang. For class, warmed up with Do-Kangs 1 and 2, then worked on Ho Sin Sool. We worked shoulder grabs (grabbing cloth, not just putting hand on the shoulder). The defense we did was coming across with an elbow strike, securing the hand, and twisting into an arm bar, then modified it to go into an S-lock, each time finishing to the floor. Then we modified it to defend a punch before addressing the grab, blocking/deflecting/covering while crashing down with the same side arm into the crease of the elbow, following up with a strike and driving them to the ground. Next attack was double lapel grabs, defending with the same elbow to cross-grabbing the wrist, then to arm bar/S-lock and takedown.

Yeah, their forms are copyrighted, as are their one-step materials, weapons forms, all that stuff. That's why people that break away from the ATA either invent new forms, or adopt something that already exists.

These are all great points. Something I've considered for some time, should I ever run my own school again, is providing new white belts with a notebook to start out with, and tell them to write something down in it every night after class. Mark the date, and then just make notes....what was hard, what you found interesting, what you hated, etc...and then I'd have them bring it back periodically just to see things from their perspective. I think they would be quite revealing, and help instructors out in teaching their students. And, to see the adventure through their thoughts, and not how I see them progress. That's a good idea, might start implementing that I think they will just be full of little treasure troves of enlightenment.I'm just guessing here, but if I had to guess about the length, depth, content, etc of the entries, I'd believe they would be quite lengthy in the early ranks, and as time passed, the length of the entries would get shorter, but probably be more concise and more clearly written; brief, but more descriptive. But, that's just a guess.

Great support, Pred! My training is pretty consistent right now. How is yours going?

That's great to hear, Danielle!

Ah, those are some names! I've still got some of my TKD Times magazines, too. I can't bring myself to get rid of any of them, either!Yeah, to get rid of them is like getting rid of your MA soul. Perhaps that's about the only thing that might label me a hoarder of MA magazines. I agree!

One thing that I thought the American Taekwondo Association did right, regardless of how other stylists feel about the organization as a whole, is copyright their materials.

These are all great points. Something I've considered for some time, should I ever run my own school again, is providing new white belts with a notebook to start out with, and tell them to write something down in it every night after class. Mark the date, and then just make notes....what was hard, what you found interesting, what you hated, etc...and then I'd have them bring it back periodically just to see things from their perspective. I think they would be quite revealing, and help instructors out in teaching their students. And, to see the adventure through their thoughts, and not how I see them progress.

In a way, you've already been doing that, Brian. Like here... https://www.karateforums.com/the-martial-artists-training-log-vt30246.html Well, you make a good point here, Bob!

Well, I wouldn't have to worry about paying for testing, so that would help out a lot. It'd probably open up some more time for me to train, too.

Three times! The Triple-Threat! Congrats, Wado Heretic!

Welcome to KF, Baka, and to the Martial Arts journey!

Welcome aboard, Joe! Feel free to dive in and ask questions all you want! We're a pretty friendly bunch here!