DWx

Congrats Nevinyrral

Don't think there's anything wrong with displaying the belt for motivation in your practice room; a lot of dojos do this anyway with all the belts lining the walls. As long as you keep in mind its not yours yet and that you have to work for it I think it could be a good idea for motivation.

Happy birthday to both of you

They don't have to have done all those things to be a good sensei but if they have it could be an indication that they are. Books and the like, especially if they're peer reviewed, can be a good sign of how much someone knows and how good they are at conveying their knowledge. Being known "world-wide" could point to them being a good sensei too if both their peers and seniors regarded them favourably. But someone can be a very good sensei even if they haven't done all those things.

Not often but we sometimes have dance/club music on for cardio and sparring classes. When training on my own I nearly always listen to stuff which can be pretty much anything from the dance type stuff through to hard rock.

ITF schools also wear more gi-like doboks instead of the V-neck style and numerous other schools may choose to wear gis instead so I wouldn't worry about that. It doesn't sound too great but maybe check out a couple more classes to see the one you attended was normal for the school.

Welcome Jason

Nice topic Montana Ok I actually think that both style and sensei are very important in making a good dojo but TBH if everyone could get both they would so I voted as if I had to choose just one. I said sensei mainly for 2 reasons. Firstly to echo one of the previous points people have made: not everyone can teach. In fact some people suck at it and just cause problems for their students by teaching badly. A good teacher will not only teach you things in a way you can understand but will also inspire and motivate you in your training. TBH the main reason I stuck with TKD all these years is because I have a good teacher and through his lessons came to love the style. I have trained for a bit in the same style but with a different teacher (at the uni classes) but because I really didn't enjoy the lessons and because he wasn't a very good teacher (IMO) I quit training with him. Without good teachers the style itself would never last anyway because the sensei needs to first attract students and then educate them well so that they themselves can then go on and teach and further the style. I also think that part of being a good teacher is to have faith in what you teach and to ensure that what you are teaching is worth your students' time, effort and money. Ok some people do have faith in their systems when to outsiders it looks like a load of junk, but I think a good teacher should be questioning whether what they are teaching is effective. A good teacher ought to be have confidence in what they are teaching and to me this means teaching an effective style and improving what they've been taught. People like Kano and Bruce Lee and the Gracies did just that. They took what worked well and modified things so they were effective and then taught it their students. Combine that with the ability to actually convey what you mean and help students understand and that, I think, is what makes a good teacher and a good dojo. BTW I do agree with the comment that some systems (or schools) do suck. You see it a lot in TKD where some schools have such watered down rubbish where they spend their time prancing about doing aerial kicks instead of proper training. Or when people have taken 3 months training in this style and mixed it with 6 months of that style without having a greater understanding of either style's principles or methodologies.

I think last year I just said to lose weight and get fitter. Didn't really lose the weight but I did do a bit of running and have noticed the difference. This year I really want to improve on my flexibility because it sucks at the moment. I didn't really spend enough time working on it and maintaining what I had last year so that's what I want to do this year. As well as keep at the losing weight and getting fitter resolution from last year.

and you can find tons of videos where Muay Thai guys get beaten by other styles. Those sorts of videos are so dependant on the rules of the match and skill level of each fighter that they hardly ever represent each style fairly. If you enjoy your Karate stick with it. Or if you think you'd enjoy Muay Thai more, change styles. You may even find something else you like better. There is no best martial art although some are going to be better at certain things than others. You wouldn't train Taekwondo if you wanted to be awesome on the ground but you also wouldn't go into BJJ wanting to learn to kick. Some styles are also going to have an advantage over some other styles, but not all. Its like rock, paper, scissors; martial art X is better than Y but will get beaten by martial art Z who will get beaten by Y. It really does come down to the individual though and different people are also going to be better suited for certain styles.

Congrats Elizabeth

They're good but sometimes its good to train without them too. certain students will spend way too much time checking their hair or if their butt really does look big in that gi! One of the venues we train at has them but for many years we didn't have them. In most cases they're great to use for solo training, and in group work. Great for the instructor too as they can face the same way as the class and still watch everyone. But there comes a point where you can spend too much time checking every single technique in the mirrors when you should really just get on and train. Can be a bit of a hazard if people crash into them too.

Welcome CrimsonPhoenix

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and enjoys the rest of the holidays

You could probably get that info from the individual kwan's websites or pages dedicated to those men's histories. For a general backgrounds of each of the founders, Wikipedia isn't a actually a bad place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwans There's also a good explanation of the history at the Standford TKD website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/Taekwondo/cgi-bin/content/?page_id=53 Last link at the bottom of the page. Explains the backgrounds of the 5 original kwans + the 4 others.

Ok for starters I'm not an expert of TKD history, I just read about it from books and stuff. I'm not sure which 10 founders are you referring to? If you're talking about all the different kwan founders, I didn't think any of them did study under Won Kyuk Lee. WRT to Gen. I don't doubt that the majority of techniques didn't originate from him. He got a lot of it from students and people such as Nam Tae Hi, who also helped him create the Chang Hon forms.

Congrats!!!

Oops, bit too hasty to post. That's my Wii code (which people can add too if they want), Mario kart code: 0775 1901 4501

Home for the holidays now. Mine's: 4655 3330 5088 3823

Congrats

Congrats Lupin

He founded the Chung Do Kwan, there were many others who also founded their own kwan and could be considered founders of the style. If you read the book, it doesn't claim Gen. Choi was the sole founder, more examines his and other figures' contributions to popularizing TKD. In that role G. Choi certainly did contribute a lot through his political skills and his obsession with making TKD the ultimate martial art. He helped get it in the military and was the first president of the KTA through which he led the tour of the original masters. I think the reason the book starts with that incident is because it led to Gen. Choi being introduced to martial arts and rather than darting all over the place with different characters, it follows his timeline and focuses on each figure as they become involved with him.

Not so much TKD itself was started but the story of TKD starts in 1938. He refers to a poker game where Choi Hong Hi lost all his money and fled to Tokyo. He then started training in Shotokan Karate there so that he could beat the wrestler who he owed the money to.

kozushi, if you're interested in TKD history you might be interested in a book called A Killing Art by Alex Gillis. The author is an investigative journalist and the book is very well researched with lots of original photos and interviews with the original pioneers.

Great article Joe I didn't do psychology at school but we used to do similar types of studies in ethics and I loved these sorts of discussions