DWx

I think a dedicated sparring class was one of the things that really brought the standard up in our school. Just dedicating a full hour to pad work, drills and then free sparring really improved everyone because it was more practice time. Was so hard trying to fit it in a normal class and we'd never spend enough time in it. Depending on how they change up the 3-step it could be good. Think you know my opinions on step sparring from that thing I wrong on forms a while back. They can be useful if used in the proper way.

As a contrast to that ITF will mainly focus on roundhouse (we call it the turning) and side kicks and front jab punch. These are then supplemented with axe kicks, hook kicks, front kicks, reverse turning and back kicks depending on the competitor's own preference and individual style. Again fair number of variations on each. As far as competition goes it will actually depend on which ITF you're in, e.g. in the one I'm in there's a push towards making sparring a more technical display compared to just fighting. A number of additional rules have been introduced such as no more than 2 consecutive jabs chained together and now at internationals you must perform one aerial kick with at least one full rotation per round or you lose two points! Really not good news if you're a heavyweight like me! Because of this the sparring games are adapting I didn't mention earlier that we do have an additional discipline which I've never come across in other MAs or styles called "special technique". Although unless you want to do it in competition hardly anyone focuses on it. Basically the goal is to break one board (or move the board on special hinges) with a technique whilst jumping as high as possible. The heights people get are ridiculous and you still have to have executed a proper technique for your attempt to count. btw if you are interested in comps, the official videos do explain it nicely and explain what ITF is all about:

Welcome back

Good luck Blade96

Don't know about in the States but over here most tournaments say that by signing the registration form you agree that videos/photos may be taken of you by tournament officials and spectators. Still something to think about though..

Have PMed you. BTW, I think the Olympic TKD squad have their training facility in Manchester now so could be some really good WTF training in your area too.

ITF is better j/k, ITF is what I practice though. There are people on the forum far more qualified to talk about WTF so I won't even bother, but from my experience in ITF: Probably the biggest difference from WTF and from Karate is that we do "sine wave" in our forms. Don't know if you've ever come across it but essentially we use knee spring to the point where it kinda looks like we're bobbing up and down. It is a pretty alien concept to other styles of MA and looks wrong but if taught right can be pretty effective (at least I think so) so don't let that put you off. Probably best to just watch for yourself though, Youtube has tons of videos, just search for "ITF patterns" or "ITF tul". There's 24 patterns in total to learn, one for each colour belt and 3 per dan up to 5th where its 2, and 6th where you learn the one. Also contrary to popular belief its not all about the legs in the patterns either, we do kick but only low level front kicks up to 6th gup then its just side kicks until blackbelt. For sparring it'll depend on the school but ITF can range from no/light contact right up to full contact with the balance probably more towards the heavy contact side. Competition sparring at least is on the heavy side at nationals in the UK and internationals are definitely very close to full contact just without the legal KO's. Again Youtube is probably your friend here. We do step sparring too (1-, 2- and 3-step) with it being a grading requirement in most schools. Also don't tend to have fixed sequences to learn for step sparring, you are meant to take techniques you've learnt from the patterns and apply them. The sparring I guess is a lot like how kickboxers spar as we're pretty much equal hands and feet (well maybe a little more feet). As for application of forms/self defence, we don't really have a concept of bunkai (although there are individuals that do try to take this approach), everything is just what it is. There isn't a lot of joint work on the whole unless the instructor specialises in it although most will teach basic locks and manipulations. The preferred approach to self defence is strike hard and strike fast to disable the opponent(s). Most schools will train defence against common weapons too such as knives, sticks, bats etc. Breaking is a big part with the majority of schools making it a grading requirement only a few belts in. Pretty much every strike/kick you learn will be broken with and many of the blocks too. Since 2002 it has been a little messed up though and there are now 3 groups calling themselves the ITF plus numerous splinter groups teaching "ITF style" stuff. Not a lot of variation between each and shouldn't matter so much at beginner level but there are technical differences in each group where things have been improved and movements changed slightly. Actually that is one of the things I like about the organisation itself, things are constantly updated and improved. All the time things get tweaked and adjusted to improve them and it filters down pretty well to all students so there is standardization across the board. In the UK the politics is even worse than just the three ITFs, within each one there are numerous sub-organizations that belong to one of the ITFs instead of just having one governing body like most other countries have. Hope this helps btw, I know of a good ITF school in Manchester if you're interested..

Great article JusticeZero very very informative

Would be an awesome idea and I'd buy it. TBH though I don't think they register the movements fast enough. Playing boxing on the wii and you have to slow your movements right down or it doesn't pick it up. I've seen the guy who did the motion capture for Hwarang He's the coach for the Japanese national squad for ITF taekwondo. my one claim to fame

If I intend to get out of the car on the way home, I'll always change my top or put a hoodie or something over it. Dobok bottoms just look like loose trousers (but white ) so its not so bad going round in them. If I'm getting out of the car for more than a quick 2mins, I'll change anyway as don't want to get stuff all over my dobok. Is it weird that we all tend to get changed in the room together where I train? guys and girls. Not a big deal really for us & everyone does it, from the junior girls right up to veteran males. Probably got a 60:40 ratio of guys to girls too so its fairly equal. But if you're not happy Lupin1, you should definitely demand somewhere to change, and that the guys stop doing it in front of you too. Back to the original topic : Never been in a (physical) fight. I think girls tend to fight more with words anyway and I think I can hold my own there/it doesn't bother me what people say. Sad to say that in high school I think my reputation preceded me too in that people knew I did an MA (even though I didn't go round telling everyone) and so nobody really tried anything.

In my post I didn't mean that your techniques would be weak; you could have a killer sidekick but not know how and when to use it, or have the experience to be able to set up for it. Even if you trained a whole range of techniques to be really powerful, you still need the experience using them because without being able to give yourself the opportunity to do the technique, its useless.

That's not something you can really learn about from reading or watching stuff more just learning it over time through experience. TKDtutor.com has loads of good sparring articles though which are great no matter what style of MA, (see the menu on the left of the homepage). Here's a few of the better ones: http://tkdtutor.com/TOPICS/Free-Sparring/Feints-Fakes/Feints-Fakes-01.htm http://tkdtutor.com/TOPICS/Free-Sparring/Control-Ring/Control-Ring-01.htm http://tkdtutor.com/TOPICS/Free-Sparring/Drawing/Drawing-01.htm http://tkdtutor.com/TOPICS/Free-Sparring/What-To-Watch/What-To-Watch-01.htm http://tkdtutor.com/TOPICS/Free-Sparring/Sparring-Strategies/Sparring-Strategies-01.html

Welcome Bushido Brown! Sounds like you're pretty sorted for choosing a style. Just go with whichever class you enjoyed the most

Awesome, you've got the bug Know what you mean at kata, I hate doing it and its my worst event. But I still do it because I figure if I'm going to travel all that way just to spar I might as well have a go at the forms. Not saying you have to, but maybe have a go at a couple more kata events? Training really hard for them leading up to a tournament improves you all round and its a nice little warm-up for sparring later Besides, sounds like you did pretty well at them to get 3rd! And you don't have to wait for a higher belt for nationals. Even if you don't place you can learn a lot from watching and competing against better competitors who have more experience. You can make mistakes now but when you get to purple and brown belt the level goes up and so does the competition.

Congrats to him

Welcome Sarah!

Welcome Jane

To (sort of) quote Bruce Lee: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." No good having 100s of techniques if you don't know how and when to use them. Can't really teach the finer points of that, all comes with experience. And if we're talking about experience in the sense of life changing experiences, would take them over volume of techniques any day.

Good luck! No rush for 1st dan, better to be an awesome brown belt then test when you're 100% ready.

Congrats KumitePanda! Great that you enjoyed the experience. You think you'll do more of them?

Can't really remember much about mine. I do remember my instructor's wife talking to me before and saying that I was actually double grading along with the adult beginners rather than single grading with the kids! Was frantically learning all the extra theory for it at the back of the room and then he never even asked me any of it..

Congrats and good luck

The one's that bring them down. You don't even get the second option until after you've felled them; no matter whether that "technique" is running away or kicking them in the kidneys. Its also more important in the sense that how you bring them down will determine what its available to you immediately afterwards. If you are going to run, you have to bring them down in such a way that you have a head start and time to make your getaway. If you're planning on incapacitating them, you need to remain in a position of control and how they land will determine what you can do next. You could argue that in some ways how you fell them is as much of a test of character as what you do after you've brought them down. If you knock them out and then just let them fall face first onto the concrete, that's not so good.

Welcome Adamo

Happy 1/2 bday! Think we should have cake... and lots of it Wow though, 10 years is a long time!