DWx

That's awesome still kicking. Especially about the lady who got her 7th kyu. We've just had a guy get his 1st dan after nearly 11 years. He's deaf and blind on one side (after having a stroke a number of years ago). So awesome to see people who stick with it and try so hard finally get ranked up.

Welcome markniklas

Oh ok cool. What sort of problems did you have? Just wondering because I'm also ITF, maybe its something I should be protecting against in the future... From what's on YouTube, CKD does looks a lot softer but with stuff like this I'm not overly impressed: Especially with the pad work there seems to be nothing there, the pad's not even moving due to the strikes. Maybe its not that representative of the style, so yeah I would check it out. If you've had prior training you'll know what to look for

Welcome

Can't say I know much about it but Kwang Jo Choi (who founded the style) was one of the 12 original master's of TKD and he was ITF TKD based so the style definitely has some pedigree to it and a good lineage (if you care about such things). He also developed it because of a TKD training injury and wanted something that was better for him so maybe it is better for you health-wise. TBH I wouldn't say that TKD is particularly bad for your joints. The majority of the original masters still train even after a lifetime of doing it. FGM Rhee for example still trains and I'd love to have half the mobility he does at his age. I mean, he's the same age as my grandparents yet not old and decrepit like they are

If you can, go shopping just before closing time. Most places will reduce everything fresh down because they have to get rid of it. It does mean you have to be pretty open to what you're going to cook that evening and things can get pretty ripe but if you don't mind you can get great bargains on loads of things. Go down a fresh fruit & veg market when they're getting ready to close up and you can get loads really cheap. Even can negotiate with the sellers if you're feeling confident. Another thing to do is grow your own. Salad leaves in a plant pot has to be the easiest plant to grow (even I haven't managed to kill ours yet & I kill cacti!). Pay out once for the seeds and you can have fresh salad all year round and you know where its from.

Welcome

Maybe going against the trend here but I can honestly say blackbelt wasn't my ultimate goal when I started. I wanted to be able to smash boards and bricks with my hands and feet and land 720° kicks after running up the wall and backflipping off it. Too much Jackie Chan I guess Having said that, blackbelt kinda became my goal when I was sort of mid kup level but then it was something that was in sight and eventually attainable (unlike the 720° kick!).

Congrats!

We have a similar move in one of the 3rd dan TKD patterns, Yoo-Sin. We do it slightly different (elbows more at eye level and shoulders up as if shrugging). I wouldn't totally discount it as an escape from a bear hug, works for me against a non-compliant partner (angry sibling ). Yes it is a problem as their arms do end up in that region but you have to take the opportunity to strike them or get out before they can get you. Although obviously the best defense is not to let them grab you in the first place

Welcome Chris

Not my significant other but I do train with my sister. It has its great points in that we're excellent partners for each other because we know exactly how we both move so its easy to suggest improvements and get the finer points down and we know when to push each other. On the downside though, any argument from home can get carried on into training and we can end up trying to take each other's head off during sparring Or any argument that starts in class can be taken home!

Welcome Paul

That's cool, at least you got some. What's it in do you think? Fencing? Turns out TKD must be more popular than it seems. The majority of my TKD friends applied for tickets (the whole school wanted to go down together) and I'm the only one who got any. I only got one of the events I applied for too. Have to decide who to take with me now.. won't be nice trying to pick between people. Well its either fencing, or hocky and diving. I used to play hockey and have always wanted to try fencing so its a win win situation. The diving is for my mum and sister. Take me heh I told everyone else I'm open to bribes wow diving will be cool. Love watching the synchronized diving. Always wanted to do fencing as well. Not a big hockey fan (too many awful memories from high school p.e!) but I'm sure that will be awesome to watch too! Couple of people from our squad got accepted onto the trials. One of them got down to the last 20 people but in the end they said she sparred too ITF (too many side kicks and full face punches )and they couldn't convert style her quick enough for 2012.

hmm ok well the thing with leather is that stuff soaks into it. Try the bleach mixture as I use that on my leather sparring gear.

Yeah I'd go with that theory. The Gen. himself apparently trained in it when he was younger too. I'd guess that part of it too was to make it "better" than Karate as well. As far as I know Karate guys don't try to pull all the spinning, 360+ jumping kicks. "Special techniques", as they're called, definitely play a part in Gen. Choi's TKD and are kinda what you see in Taekkyon.

Chuck it in the washing machine would be my guess. Or if you cant do that. Maybe disinfect it with a 1:9, bleach:water solution.

Interesting perspective Justice. I agree to a certain extent that you can try to recreate a style by just learning the core principles. In fact to be honest, over the years I've found that if your students have a good base in the fundamentals, you can give them any move to do and they do it right straight off. If they've got the principles and body mechanics sorted you can ask them to copy something like a punching action and they usually just fill in the blanks like correct hip rotation, timing, breathing etc. When looking at the TKD example, you can't talk TKD history without talking about the political climate of the time. They didn't want their martial art to be linked to the Japanese and they wanted some link to their own culture. Enter Taekkyon. Nice 1000yr old Korean style that looks a lot different to Karate. They tried to make what they were doing into Taekkyon, or at least closely related, so maybe your theory of the yellow belt trying to reconstruct a style would be appropriate. Even so far as in naming Taekwon-Do, Gen. Choi was supposed to have pointed out the link and similarity of the name with "Taekkyon".

That's cool, at least you got some. What's it in do you think? Fencing? Turns out TKD must be more popular than it seems. The majority of my TKD friends applied for tickets (the whole school wanted to go down together) and I'm the only one who got any. I only got one of the events I applied for too. Have to decide who to take with me now.. won't be nice trying to pick between people.

From the TKD angle it'll depend on the style too. Its a generic term really, like saying "Karate". The term encompasses many different schools and systems. Like Shotokan is not the same as Goju Ryu which is not the same as Kyokushin etc. the different TKD styles vary too. Maybe its not so obvious to the outsider but within TKD it all seems very different. You wouldn't happen to know the substyle tkdkid123? If you really enjoy the TKD, stick with it. Can always branch out when you're more experienced. Plus you're more likely to stick with it if you enjoy it. Having said that, you may find you like Hapkido so I'd give each class a go and see which I'd want to stick with.

Dunno about which film its from. Does say X-men in the description but I know the guy's played Boyka in the Undisputed sequels. yes I agree on the physics part. Does not make any sense to spin counterclockwise then try to throw the kick in the clockwise direction, makes for no power even if it does look cool. Hard to pull off though. We sometimes mess around with stunt fighting at training and getting 360+ spins in is pretty difficult. Nice bit of acrobatics though?

Just go for it. Maybe try scheduling in one class a week and then slowly work up. Don't be regretting that you didn't do things when you're older. Can always make time if you need to. For example, how long do you watch tv for in the week? Skip a 1hr long tv show and that's 1hr for class time. My friend (who has ADD) has a watch that beeps every hour and on the beep he has to say to himself "what have I done in the last hour?". Its supposed to be a technique to get him to concentrate on and finish tasks but I've also started using it purely to stop wasting time. Surprising how much time you can spend doing nothing in particular.

Some of the fight choreography from the X-Men Origins: Wolverine film: http://youtu.be/l_OHCjZnT4A Know you guys don't go in for flashy kicks and all that but it is pretty sweet. All unwired too.

your thoughts please I think this, while possibly thought provoking, really comes down to a matter of semantics. Unless you have never entered a MA school and come up with a fighting system all your own, you will be drawing your technique base from somewhere. So whether you decide to say, "your training Dobbersky's Karate" or "Shotokan Karate mixed with some other things," is really quite irrelevant. Personally, I would want my students to know how their technique base was derived. I think it's only proper to pay that respect to those who taught me. That in itself is also good from the perspective that if your students want to go away and develop a particular area of their training by working with someone else, they can do because they know what style to look in. If they want to develop the striking that they've learned from Shotokan, they know not to go looking for an Aikido teacher. Same as with if, for some reason, they can't train with you anymore they can find something to train in which is close to home.

Yeah only takes a about a min to test Bob. I tested mine and yours earlier and it came back medium quality: good for audio, ok for video. Only thing is you can't really work out which end is responsible for the lower quality (or if its both) and you have to do it when the other person is online. It can be pretty confusing at first but just shout and I'm pretty sure people on here will be able to point you in the right direction.