DWx

No no it was April Fool's, I should have read to the end of the issue before I jumped up on my soapbox

O wait... maybe I'm being a little slow.. that was the April edition lol April fools?

According to issue 26 of TotallyTKD the chest protector and headguards for the TKD in London 2012 are going to be pink and lime green! Apparently its because "red is associated with blood and blue is associated with bad moods". Er ok, I get how you can get those meanings from those colours but you can also get "passion" or "courage" from red and "tranquility" from blue which are positive things. I don't think that that is a good enough reason to change the standard colour of the athletes.. presumably other sports like boxing or wrestling haven't changed their colour schemes! Plus lime green and pink is going to look hideous!!!

That sucks Holley Rest up and get well soon!

We work up to free sparring by getting students to do one-for-one sparring (taking it in turns to do one technique), then expanding this up to semi-free sparring (where they are taking it in turns to do combinations), before letting them free spar. Contact levels also increase over time, starting from no contact/touch contact and building up to heavy contact for the more advanced students.

Thats true if you are a world class athlete. Most people have plenty to improve on during application hence to get better they need to do lots of that. It also depends on what facet of training you are concentrating on. For endurance well the best thing you can do is probably your sport as you body adapts best to something it is exposed to alot. You want lots of stamina sparring, then you need to spar because your body will adapt to that particular interchange of aerobic and anerobic rhythm. Obviously strength training has advantages you can't get from sparring, but I think for the most part for point sparring its not that useful, grappling probably more so. I don't think its just true for world class athletes. Surely, if anything, martial arts are about turning your body into a weapon (i.e. making you a fighter) and being the best you can be, as cheesy as that sounds. To get your punches faster you need to build up your triceps & biceps as well as core and build up your explosive strength through plyometrics - so that means fast push ups, clapping push ups amongst other things. You wont develop that from just doing normal class stuff: forms and sparring. You can try all you want to get your arm moving faster but you'll see minimal effects compared to if you were supplementing your training with calisthenics and plyometric training. Same with the legs. For point sparring you definitely need plyometric/explosive strength because its all about speed; who gets the point the fastest.

I think it should be a part of your training; whether you have enough time to do it in class is a different matter. An hour's class doesn't really give you time to do it plus teach techniques/strategy and get some free sparring/forms in. If its a longer class its feasible to dedicate some time to it. Even if you don't have much class time I still think you should do it in class once in a while (same with more advanced stretching) even if its just to show students what they need to be working on at home. Obviously if you're competing you do need your physical fitness but even if you're not into competing I don't really think just drilling forms and sparring is enough if you're serious about developing your body. You're not going to develop the muscular strength and explosiveness by running through your forms a couple of times 2-3 nights a week. You need to load up the muscles and force them to work harder and faster and then go do your forms on top of that. My instructor is a firm believer in physical conditioning, especially the core, so we do a fair number of situps, push ups, planks etc. as well as running round the field, hill sprints, skipping... as part of our training. In fact conditioning is regarded as one of the 5 facets of our training (part of the TKD training circle). Admittedly we do do a lot of competitions but our training isn't solely geared towards them. I don't agree with just doing what you're doing for comps either. If that were the case then olympic cyclists would only ever go for bike rides, swimmers would only go swimming - no one would ever hit the gym or cross train.

Sorry to derail the topic slightly here, but double palm block? Its usually done with a knifehand guarding. Double palm would make for some interesting and different applications instead of a simple jump-spin-guard. Doh! You're right, Danielle. The double palm block comes before the jump spin, not after. I had a bout of dyslexia, I guess. Thanks for setting me straight. The double knifehand block does come after the jump spin.ah ok. I thought it was another change by your GM - was thinking up some scenarios for its application

Sorry to derail the topic slightly here, but double palm block? Its usually done with a knifehand guarding. Double palm would make for some interesting and different applications instead of a simple jump-spin-guard.

It'll depend on the style of TKD but I guess if she's from the south it'll most likely be WTF/Kukkiwon TKD. Expect lots of legs, maybe not so much hands (but that depends on the style/school). Get inside them early on or she'll just pick you off with roundhouses, backkicks, pushing kicks, maybe side kicks if she's ITF style. Her hands may or may not be any good, it really depends on the school as to whether they emphasize it or not. I'd just get in close and be wary of them on the way in. Probably no ground game to speak of or if she does it'll most likely consist of stuff to facilitate her standing up again as quickly as possible so I really think your best bet is to get in close early and take her to the ground. If it was me trying to fight you (as a TKD person), I'd be wary of the takedowns and try to keep you on the end of my legs by picking my shots and moving a lot. My style does emphasize hands so its not so much of a problem if you try to close the distance but I'd still want to avoid ending up on the floor so if you did come in close I'd want to make the gap bigger again. To give you more of an idea of what to expect, try to find out what style she is because there is a fair bit of variation between them (its about as broad as using the term "Karate"). I'd then look it up on YouTube to get a better idea of how she might fight. Sounds like it'll be some fun training though so good luck

I think this is important to bear in mind. Not everyone is as obsessive as us lot . Some people are only in it for a casual hobby, and that's ok. While every instructor wishes that their students will practice with the same determination that they do both in the dojo and outside but that's not always going to happen. Sure these students will advance at a slower rate and won't be as good as they would if they practiced everyday, but then that's their choice, not the instructor's. You can suggest that they might want to do some homework but you can't make them.. But yeah I agree that if you're serious about your training it should be something which becomes a part of everything else you do.

Welcome to KF guys

I'm not Muay Thai but I'll add my 2 cents on the headguard issue because it's a similar problem in TKD. The problem isn't so much that the headguards lessen blows to the head, the more common head injuries we see are full face shots or whiplash type injuries and headguards don't do much for those. The headguards are there to stop further injury if you hit the deck as it lessens the impact when your head smacks the floor. If you've got mats they're not as necessary but without mats its a risk which may mean its a good idea to wear them. Re. the getting kicked in the head and knocked over: I wouldn't say that is a major cause for concern because you could just as easily be knocked over with a strong punch to the head or sweep/throw or sometimes even a strong body shot will do it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/theweekinpictures/8407364/The-week-in-pictures-25-March-2011.html?image=1 Anyone think they can beat him?

There's nothing wrong with tournaments if you and your kids both enjoy and have fun participating in them. I think within training everyone should have a go at competing in at least one. Even if you don't want to do it again, tournaments can be a great learning (and sometimes humbling) experience. Tournaments are be pushed in my TKD school because my instructor believes that is one way we keep raising our standard. By competing against and meeting people who may do things a slightly different way, we can learn from the experience and get better ourselves. If you only train within the club environment its easy to stagnate. Personally I love to compete because its a way of setting myself short term goals and is something to look forward and work towards.

I personally think that respect is earned and not demanded and this is how it is in my club. The ones that are respected are the ones who have the skill and knowledge but also have respect the other students. However outside of my school, within the style, respect takes on a whole another level and I don't necessarily agree with all the practices even though I do them. Maybe its because of the military background to my style but respect and protocol based on ranks plays a huge part and its is expected that you show "respect" because someone is a higher rank. For example, if a master walks into the room, the first person to see them shouts stop and we all stop what we are doing and bow to them (providing there isn't already a higher rank present) before carrying on. Or if you are sitting and a master approaches you, you have to stop what you are doing and stand up to greet them (again unless there is a higher grade already present). Or you have to take things with both hands, even if you are just passing a pad or piece of gear across. There are loads more examples. I don't really have a problem showing respect in these ways for someone I think deserves it, its only when they demand it that I'm inclined not to give it. Actually in Totally TKD (issue 6) there was a really good article on the subject of protocol written by the late GM Trân Triêu Quan which is worth a read.

Congrats holley

Congrats to her

Both tbh. The rear leg is for the powershots and the front leg for the quicker shots. I very rarely, if ever, start a combination from a back leg kick. As a rule we're taught that that is very bad. As soon as the hip goes to do it your opponent can read it and pick you off. Its either covered with the hands or leg first or if I do start with a back leg, its a counter shot because my opponent has left themselves open.

They can see me for emergency treatment wherever but something like this, which may need long-term treatment, isn't classed as emergency. Even if I went to A&E and waited there for hours (which I wouldn't like doing anyway because its not something that needs emergency treatment) they can't get me physio appointments at home or other long-term treatment, would have to be at uni. I was registered at home and I can see them for emergencies but like when I hurt my neck (another training injury ) just got told I probably would need physio but I'd have to go back to uni and see someone there. I can re-register at home but then I have the opposite problem of getting treatment at uni (should I need it) and they would have to keep sending my files back and forth. Just a whole lot of hassle.

Yeah I know I probably should go to a doc Its just a pain getting myself an appointment and I don't know if I can be bothered. The NHS is a great system for free healthcare until you're a student like me and get held up by the bureaucracy that goes with it. I have to be registered for healthcare in the town I'm at uni. Not a problem really... until I'm on vacation like I will be for the next month! Because I'm registered in York, it means I have to get treatment in York, not in my hometown. I've had problems before getting treatment because they wouldn't treat me at home during the Christmas holidays and they basically told me to travel the 200 miles back to uni to see a GP up there because they couldn't book me hospital appointments, scans etc. outside my local health authority. So yeah.. if I want it seen I have to hang around at uni instead of going home for Easter and its not bothering me enough to do that.

Doing it this way is great if the student can work out the hows and whys quickly, if not all they are doing is committing wrong movements to muscle memory. What's the point in doing 100 wrong movements? You're not committing anything useful to memory, just 100 ways how not to do it. Much better IMO to be shown the how, you do it correctly 100 times, then discover the why for yourself but with input from the teacher. TBH by doing it wrong 100 times you're making it harder to learn the right way. Its easy to correct a white belt, correcting a blackbelt for the same mistake is much harder because they've practiced it wrong too many times. The teacher at my university TKD club seems to be fond of this method.. In fact its one of the reasons I stopped training there. I just don't get how you can say to someone "do a side kick" without any explanation of how or what a side kick is. I think it reflects in the quality of his students and how quickly they learn said sidekick. Comparing his method to my instructor's method (he breaks everything down and teaching from first principles), the quality at my instructor's school is much higher and there is a better understanding of the techniques across the board.

So I think I sprained my wrist 4 weeks ago.. not sure how but did something during training as woke up with it the next day. Basically it doesn't hurt normally, just when I rotate my wrist. Its not so bad rotating outwards (although hurts a little), I just really can't rotate it inwards at all (as in palm up). I get a sharp pain about 2 inches down from the wrist above the ulna. Its weird because I have a friend who's a physio and she said it seemed like a sprain so I had it strapped and iced and everything but still no obvious improvement after 4 weeks. Anyone had anything like this before?

I used to love lego! I always wanted my parents to take me to Legoland but they never did

Welcome back Soda Popinsky