DWx

Can this be done in modern America? Pretty sure you can buy those tube men things anywhere

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011&RL=00452

That's cool guys, congrats to him for his new grade and congrats to you guys for promoting one of your students

Ok maybe I shouldn't have said Grand Opening as that suggests a money-making venture. And I never said the venue couldn't be a local park or your garage/yard

Wow that's amazing.

Heya Joe Yeah that was the move that came to mind for me. We used to do single whip as a block with the kakuto and a strike with the washide.

Absolutely!! Also, Spacers ease the break, while no spacer breaks require near perfection across the board [pun intended]. My only way I'll break anything is without spacers. I've used spacers before, but only when I was learning tameshiwara. I don't think spacers are that bad (although I prefer without). No spacers requires you to hit hard while the same number of spaced boards requires you to maintain the power over a distance (even if its slightly less). Speed breaks are awesome In the far distant future when I next grade, I really want to come up with a nice speed/air break to do to show that bigger people can do them too.

Ok I had to Google these so I hope I understand them right. (Hope you don't mind me weighing in as a non Karateka). But the kumade and kakuto are definitely in my TKD forms which is weird if they don't appear in Shotokan kata (as we copied most of them). As are the keito and washide. Not seen the seiryuto part but I don't know all the tul yet. Used to use kakuto in Tai Chi too.

You've just moved into a new neighborhood. There's no school you can (or want) to train in and you've always wanted a school of your own. So you decide to set one up. You have no students and no assistants. What's your game plan? How do you go from zero students to a full dojo? You've found your venue, its a [insert here] and you've got 30 days till your Grand Opening. What's your plan of action? (this is purely hypothetical, no I do not want to set up my own school )

It is surprising we still use BPA in a lot of things as its adverse effects have been known since the 90s...

Side kick and back kick are some of the most powerful and versatile kicks.. Instep roundhouses will give you a bit more reach than Muay Thai shin roundhouses. But the instep is weaker and you'll have to slowly build up the conditioning so you don't break your foot. Spinning hook kicks are also good if you can pull them off but you'll have to practice getting the rotation fast. When you talk about your arsenal, what do you mean? you mean for self defense or MMA or what? If its for competition in one or the other, you'll have to make sure the techniques you import are ok within the rules. From what I've seen from people cross training in Muay Thai and bringing it to TKD, the techniques are mostly ok within out competition rules set (excluding the elbows and knees) but I don't know if the opposite it true.

You do know you're students are going to despise you?!? :lol I have to say, training for the Bleep test doing sprinting shuttle runs has improved my ability to suddenly up my work rate in sparring. My ability to cope with sudden bursts of activity and then rest again is a lot better. TBH would get a much higher score if I could get the turns a bit better as that's where I start to lag behind the test pace. Can't turn tight enough. There's also a pushup and pressup version of the Bleep test and we used to do that. Kills you off right at the start with the slow ones. Well its my competition team that have to do the tests mainly. And the score is used in conjunction with performance in sessions and rankings on regional and national level to determine whether we get picked for the big tournaments so its not on just the score. But yeah I agree with you it makes training a little monotonous for me as I hate just doing a ton of pushups, situps etc. and I hate running.

If you don't feel up to it, don't do it. You won't be at your best and its not a fair assessment on your abilities. Can always take the test another time. I'd just call ahead and explain it to your teacher and see what they say. Get well soon

Part of the problem is the sport and part of the problem is the politics. Sport because (esp. with those who train just for the Olympics) has taken away from the martial side of it. Its just a game of tag, albeit a hard game. And politics because there is sooooo much bickering between and within organisations that few people focus on the TKD itself and the art is getting lost beneath all the alliances and power struggles.

Boards do hit back. If you don't break it, all that force goes straight up your arm (or leg). Board breaking is the test for "one hit, one kill", because if you don't nail it with accuracy and speed and perfect technique first time, it wont break and you'll be the one who suffers. Anyone can break one 3/4 " board but start adding more (no spacers) and move on to other materials like bricks, and you'll struggle to do them unless you've got good technique. In TKD, board breaking is a testing requirement from about green belt onwards (but white belt adults can choose to if they want).

Do any of you guys get fitness tested or do you test your students? We get made to do the Bleep test every so often and just recently we've had the McCloy test introduced. Doesn't matter what we get per se. but we have to have improved every time we take the tests (and we can't get below a minimum score on both). I guess this is more applicable to those that compete and that's why we do it. I dunno but I find myself training specifically for the tests rather than hoping an improved score comes as a by-product of my training.

I was just wondering whether it'd be an issue for you guys. Probably right about it being the mid-level student and not the beginner or advanced person. And I get what you're saying about knowing when you've got the control and you're just waiting for them to realize it rather than using the tap to signify it I guess you've just got to make sure you've not programmed yourself to think tap=let go, if you do, it'll probably happen under duress. Seems like a smart idea to me.

This might be a moot point... but When you've got someone in a lock or choke or whatever and they tap, do you guys automatically ease off or is it a conscious decision each time? I know when I'm sparring in TKD and someone shouts "guman" (stop) or "hechyo" (separate) its almost like a reflex to stop attacking and relax a bit. Do you think when in an actual fight you could get duped into letting go if someone tapped?

You're crazy Wolfman08 j/k Probably best thing is to run up stairs themselves. Run up them and then walk back down and then run up again. We do this a lot at training. Or find a hill and sprint up and jog back down. Biking will probably help too. Anything that works the legs. Squats? Burpees?

I'd go with the white belt too unless its the same style. Why presume that a rank in one thing means you are automatically of the same standard at the another style. Not wanting to hijack this thread, but do you guys insist that people wear their current grade when they come to you from a similar style? I've only really trained at one school where this was the case for me (my university club). It was a TKD club that roughly did the same style as I'd trained before but there were enough differences that I didn't feel comfortable using my current grade so I wanted to stand at the back with the rest of the white belts. Did so until the instructor realized I'd had prior training and then he insisted that I wear my current grade. This then made me senior student! Knowing the forms & techniques wasn't a problem but I didn't have a clue about his class protocol and it resulted in a ton of embarrassment when I kept doing his bowing-in procedure, warm-ups etc. "wrong".

TheHighlander I know it sucks not passing a grading but it isn't the end of the world. Could be any number of reasons why she failed but if she's really into her training its not a reason to give up. IMHO the best students (both in attitude and skill) are the ones who failed somewhere along the line but kept training and decided that they were going to try their hardest to never fail ever again. Often those types of students put a ton of extra work in to make sure there's no reason to fail them in any exam. Few people pass their driving test 1st time, sometimes on the day things just don't go according to plan. But that's no reason to give up learning.

Welcome

Congrats Dimorte!

Just seems like a portmanteau of "Isshin Ryu" and "Kung Fu". Sounds like somewhere along the line, someone studied both and decided to combine them.

The nature of TKD is that we have a lot of high kicks so we'd be stupid not to train defenses and counters for them. But then because we have defenses, the high kickers have to get real good at kicking high to get through their opponent's defense and avoid the counters. They're only easy to avoid and counter if you're no good at them and you shouldn't really be telegraphing that they're going high until you've already kicked the person anyway. In that they're no worse than mid- or low-line kicks. They chamber from the same positions (the exception being the axe kick which only really works high anyway) and the same motion applies. What you do for defenses against them depends on the kick and the situation really. Just a few examples of what I do; Axe kicks are hard to block so in most cases move, but if you can, step into the kick and take the calf on the shoulder. From there its easy enough to sweep and finish them or you're in a position to strike. High roundhouses again, if you can step on the inside of them and check the kick you can strike or sweep. You run the risk of taking a hard hit on your arm but its no worse than if they kicked you in the ribs or thigh. Side kicks to the head are more difficult to stop but knocking them upwards to upset their balance works. Things like a switch/spinning high back kick or switch high spinning heel are a lot more difficult to deal with as they are mostly used as counters and come out much faster.