DWx

I've taken some before but never nearly that bad. Hope it heals up soon! Kinda bad but throat punches is one of the more "dirty" techniques we use in competition sparring...

Congrats!

I disagree with winning being the important thing. Perhaps instead of seeing tournaments as a win/lose thing, when thinking about rank it might be better to consider whether the student has improved and whether they are demonstrating skills appropriate for the rank the wish to obtain. I do agree with you Brian that you can't just say that the person has to have a certain win/loss record or win a certain number of times to be awarded a rank. But maybe if the examiner or whoever was deciding the rank was looking at how much the student had progressed since their last tournament or how they're holding up against competitors of a similar skill level it my be a more valid way of ranking up. Unless you're faced with someone from your own school or if you compete a lot and know the circuit, chances are you'll have to fight or perform kata against someone unknown. If you can demonstrate a skill level equivalent to your next rank, especially with the adrenaline surging, with all the distractions, with all that added pressure competition brings, and can keep your composure and perform with the same technical skill as a blue belt or purple belt or 5th dan, whilst facing an unknown opponent, then maybe you deserve that grade. You don't have to beat them but you have to at least demonstrate the skills of the belt you're grading to. To borrow a phrase from sensei8 (), if the "proof is on the floor" and you can stand next to a 2nd dan and match their proficiency then maybe you deserve the rank. Doesn't matter whether you won or lost. If you weren't wearing a gi and belt but someone could walk over and say: "He/She looks like a brown belt", maybe that's the rank you deserve. I guess this all depends very much on the ruleset and if you're wanting to evaluate things that won't be demonstrated in a competition setting (like theory) then maybe competition isn't the way you should rank students in your school but that doesn't mean it can't be a factor.

Welcome Katie

Was reduced from £14.99 to £13.49 on Amazon.co.uk. Not bad but I kinda feel like it should be double the size or at least more substantial on the Korean language side for that price. The majority of the terminology itself is stuff you could probably Google anyway or find in most TKD books. From what was said in the book it seems as though you can get an accompanying disk (to hear the writer read it) and that would have been really good. Wasn't included in the one that Amazon sent me though. Here's the listing on the .com site: http://www.amazon.com/Taekwondo-Korean-Language-Terminology-Reference/dp/1445231050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330038372&sr=8-1

Yep that was what I meant pulse the leg by gripping the muscle to raise it. Ah, ok. I see what you are saying now. Didn't mean to steal your idea there!Heh no, great minds think alike

So the latest addition to my MA library is a book called: "Taekwondo: a Korean Language and Terminology Reference" by Benjamin T. Milnes Came up on my Amazon recommendation list so thought I'd check it out. Its not bad. Essentially its a list of terminology and a guide to reading and speaking Korean written by a TKD student and Korean speaker. First third of the book gives a brief history on the Korean language and how to read, write and pronounce words. Its clear its written by a TKD person as lots of the examples are technique names or martial arts related. The rest of the book is just a massive terminology list that the author has collected. Terminology is broken down into WTF Taekwondo and ITF Taekwondo words with the hangul and romanized versions alongside the English name. I'd have liked to have seen more of the explanations of the whys and the hows rather than just a long list of words however its still handy as a quick terminology reference. Its also worth noting though that the author romanizes all the words to how he thinks they should be correctly written in our alphabet, this often doesn't match up with the common TKD spelling of the word. So although the author might be right, if your school spells a word a certain way, you're probably better to stick with the way your school spells it, especially when it comes to things such as written papers at gradings. Was kinda hoping for more from it but still a nice little guide to supplement your training.

Yep that was what I meant pulse the leg by gripping the muscle to raise it.

I've never failed an exam myself but have seen people in my school fail colour belts and dan rankings. I'm not an instructor but do on occasion sit on the examining panel for my school, not sure on the exact figures but usually no more than 1 or 2 people fail at a grading (we probably test around 50 students each time). Most of the time its people who have been advised that they won't pass because they're not up to standard but insist on taking the exam anyway. There's nothing wrong with schools where the pass rate is 100%. But only if they're only testing students who are ready and will definitely pass.

I don't think this is problem specifically for JBBs. An adult can train for a few years, get the belt, then disappear. 5 years down the line they probably can't remember anything and won't have had any practice in it either. I've seen a few people who used to train "back in the day" who turn up to class expecting to be a blackbelt again but wouldn't last 2 seconds in a fight because they've forgotten it all. TBH I would even say that JBBs might be in a better position when it comes to self defense. At least in our school it gets drilled into the kids that they should get free and run if confronted. That's probably going to stick with them even if they forget the techniques themselves. A lot of adult former BB probably would be like: "stand aside citizen, I'm a blackbelt" and then get the snot kicked out of them. I understand and respect what you're saying. When one looks at organizations similar to the ATA and Karate Kids, those organizational types are what I would consider the core of what happens to children in the martial arts. They join those types of organizations for the sole purpose of reaching BB, then they quite immediately right after their BB ceremony, and then they never practice any martial arts ever again, for whatever reason(s). I agree that there are reasons for not awarding JBBs but I don't agree that juniors are the only ones who want the blackbelt and then leave again and won't be able to defend themselves several years down the line. Maybe I'm misinterpreting your case. Maybe I don't understand but I just think that your argument can be equally applied to adult blackbelts. Its no more problematic than an adult doing the same thing and as far as self defense goes, it just brings them back down to the level of the normal untrained Joe Bloggs. Perhaps you could say that this is more common in kids because they burnout and get bored easier but the same could be said of plenty of adults too. It's not the JBB rank itself that causes the student to quit. No matter whether they are a child or an adult they can decide that they've achieved all they want and get bored with MAs. I don't see how awarding a JBB is going to make this a problem in kids. The teacher should be assessing whether the person is just in it for the belt, and then decide whether to promote them, regardless of their age. Organizations that focus on the blackbelt as a goal (i.e. McDojos) may attract a lot of kids due to their marketing strategies and business plans but they'll also be pushing adults through to blackbelt at an equal rate. And if the issue here is their skills, well they most likely won't have any decent ability anyway even if they carried on training. Like I said, maybe I've misinterpreted but I don't see how JBB is a problem here.

I don't think this is problem specifically for JBBs. An adult can train for a few years, get the belt, then disappear. 5 years down the line they probably can't remember anything and won't have had any practice in it either. I've seen a few people who used to train "back in the day" who turn up to class expecting to be a blackbelt again but wouldn't last 2 seconds in a fight because they've forgotten it all. TBH I would even say that JBBs might be in a better position when it comes to self defense. At least in our school it gets drilled into the kids that they should get free and run if confronted. That's probably going to stick with them even if they forget the techniques themselves. A lot of adult former BB probably would be like: "stand aside citizen, I'm a blackbelt" and then get the snot kicked out of them.

I picked physical training. Its not all I do, I do all the rest too but I tend to spend more time doing that kind of stuff. Class time isn't long enough to do serious conditioning and I'd rather go to a lesson and learn things instead of spending the time running and doing push ups.

I'd say its to do with strength. But not just the supporting leg, but the kicking leg too. Easiest thing to do to improve is just to keep doing slow kicks at a height you can reach and then work at slowly increasing the height each time you do it. Can hold on to a chair or wall for support at first. Focus on the whole kick, from the chamber right through the execution and the retraction of the leg. Another good one is to do a slow side kick, hold it, then grip and raise the leg ~2cm, relax and raise again. Do it about 20 times and you'll feel it all down kicking leg thigh. Similarly, do the side kick and move it side to side. Make it more difficult by using ankle weights. A horrible one to do is one legged squats whilst holding the kicking position. Best done with a partner. Do the side kick facing your partner and have them hold your leg in position. You can hold onto their other hand or belt. Bend the standing leg so you squat down and the push back up into the kicking position. Make it harder by exploding up i.e. a one legged squat jump.

Welcome Addykip

Yeah you're totally right, communication is key She probably should have told you but again, its probably embarrassing asking a "lower" grade to ease up. You get used to these things though. Eventually you'll be able to sense how your partner's coping and adjust your contact accordingly.

Don't bite people. Don't know where they've been or what they've got. Could end up with something a whole lot worse than rabies In answer to the OP, I'd include stuff like stomps, kicking the knees, raking a (stiletto) heel down someone's shin, clapping someone round the side of the head (burst eardrums hurt) etc.

Welcome IntelligentSEO

No offense evergrey, but perhaps you should have eased up on her a little more if she couldn't handle it. Not everyone is used to such heavy sparring. Slightly different to Dobbersky, my rule is that the dominant sparrer lets the weaker one control the pace and contact. Forget about grades. Nevermind the fact she was a blackbelt and you a kyu grade. If you've got more experience in fighting heavy then you've got a duty not to go in like a bull in a china shop. Especially if you're bigger like I am (and I guess you are from your previous posts). We can take and dish out more so have to be careful with our control and its up to us to ease up or pull techniques. Yes she should have expected to get hit hard in a Kyokushin dojo but she's not coming in with a Kyokushin dan rank and she's mostly like got zero knockdown experience. Even if they are feeling pushed a bit with the contact, they've still got to feel safe when sparring you and know that you're not going to go crazy and beat them to a pulp. Don't worry about the injury though. It happens. Just a shame she got upset by the whole thing, could have been a good learning experience for you both.

Kicking high isn't just about the flexibility. You need strength too. Besides you're better off concentrating on lower kicks and getting the technique right before trying to kick high section. However, check out: http://www.trickstutorials.com/content/flexibility Its aimed at tricking and XMA but is pretty comprehensive in explaining stretching and lots of stretches to try out.

Although I agree that this nidan's attitude was wrong and she definitely was disrespectful to her hosts, I can see where Wolverine is coming from in that she's either embarrassed or a little annoyed at someone lower in rank correcting. I can put my hand up and say that it really winds me up when people correct me sometimes. Our school has a similar feel with the shouting out and encouraging when sparring. I'll take advice and criticism from almost everyone but cannot stand it when someone who doesn't have a clue suggests something that clearly wont work. Not to say that you were evergrey, just maybe she had some preconceptions and thought that since you were a lower grade you didn't know what you were talking about. In my case usually its either a parent who trained "back in the day" long before dinosaurs roamed the earth, or a parent who has watched their child's class for a couple of years but has never had any mat time. I'd advise just leaving her be. If she doesn't want your help, don't bother giving it to her and don't get into a needless fight.

I've never paid that much attention to my diet other than eat healthily but since I've now decided to lose some of the weight and build up more strength, was wondering whether I should look into things a bit. Did you guys just decide yourselves to start using them or did you have stuff recommended to you by like a trainer? Did you come up with how much and what to take or did you follow any meal plans? Wolverine, what's the NO2 supplement do? Just curious.

might as well put your time to good use In all seriousness, I've been finding it really hard to sleep lately too Brain does not want to stop switch off lately! Dunno if sleep tablets might help you? I've always tried to stay away from them as didn't want to get reliant on them. But last week was really bad for me so I went out, got some and took some. Made me super tired but still couldn't switch off!

Yep, practice loads. Try walking on the balls of your feet too. Also got to remember to get the foot in the correct position too. Heel slightly higher not toes/ball higher.

Welcome Sainthood

I feel your pain Been suffering for a while now.. which is just great seeing as I have an exam tomorrow! Just use the extra awake time to browse KF