DWx

Don't do karate bit did do TKD and Tai Chi Chuan together for a couple of years. My teacher taught us the 24 form. The biggest benefit for me was the emphasis placed on the hip motion and the idea that the hip drives all other movement. While we of course know this in TKD, in Tai Chi we'd spend hours just walking up and down the room in stances paying particular attention to the hip movements. Improved my TKD no end. Also helped me relax a lot more. Bad habits such as tensing throughout a movement or holding tension anywhere in the body. TBH I found it very difficult to be completely be relaxed. There'd always be some tension somewhere. The problem I had was that Tai Chi was too slow for me. I'd want to do all the movements as fast as we did the "slow" movements in my TKD forms, which compared to Tai Chi isn't all that slow. But that's my fault not the style's. Other problem was that because it was a public class, it was full of older people (my mum even went along too). A lot of them were more interested in the health benefits so we didn't spend as much time on applications and partner work. The pace was also slower too. Maybe because of TKD I could pick up the sequence faster that most of the rest but we'd spend ages going over and over things.

Know what you mean as I've been reading this I'm starting to slump forward Least you're aware of it now Joe and can correct yourself.

I would disagree. This kick is used in Muay Thai, MMA, and Olympic TKD. I've seen KOs in all of them. It's an extremely powerful kick. It's power is generated more from the momentum of the movement and pivoting of the entire body into the kick rather than from the snappy turn of the hips with the strike, however. The power generation of a more traditional round kick comes from the rotation of both the hips and leg as you turn it from the vertical to horizontal position. Both are very powerful kicks though. I really like to mix it up with both versions of the kick in order to keep an opponent off balance. If they start checking low line kicks, I'll switch up in order to rise over their knee. Additionally, I like to rotate the traditional kick to come in on a downward angle, striking the bridge of the nose, clavicle or outter thigh (using shin). I agree it is very powerful kick. Less hip rotation but because its swings in a straight line to the target it can hit very hard indeed. Just like a baseball bat .

Sometimes on tv they do show real reactions to films as part of the advertising campaign. Usually they're just a camera on members of the audience who've just come out of the film. Not seen it for a while but definitely a couple of years ago this was used for films (over here at least). I don't really think it could be as staged as it was for this film as it probably would come across as corny. Definitely an interesting way to present a trailer though.

Welcome cncn Setting yourself a non-kumite goal sounds like a really good idea to get over the mental block. We have someone similar on our team. She is an awesome sparrer but tends to flag a bit after securing a medal so even though she really deserves the gold she usually gets stuck with bronze. Fortunately in our comps the team spar is always the last day, after all the individual events so she didn't have exactly the same problem as your example, but in her individual events you can see her start to run out of gas once in the bronze position. At the last major comp the coaches didn't tell her how many fighters she had in her category or when she did win a medal (bronze) they told her she still had two more bouts to go before a podium position. I think it did help her because she really did want a medal. I don't know whether you could employ the same strategy or not but it might be a short-term solution?

Bit of an unlikely one but you could possibly have what I have. My feet point outwards and I look duck-footed/out-toed but my actual legs are not rotated. Can't remember what its called but its a condition where the shins almost corkscrew slightly outward. They're supposed to be about +3° (left foot) and +4° (right) outwards than they should be in a normal person. So my legs, knees, everything points forward but because of the rotation on the shin, my feet point outwards. Only fixable via surgery where they break the legs and reset the shins rotated inwards so the feet now point the correct way. Anyway it makes it very difficult to do a proper horse stance without the knees or shins giving way so its kinda farfetched but maybe you have something similar? But perhaps try everyone else's advice with the stretching and strengthening training first.

I said their athleticism allows them to be good at both. The people I see winning both divisions do tend to be the ones with more natural athleticism. Having athleticism, the strength and flexibility and everything else, will mean that each will be easier for you to do. If there is an overlap between kata and competition kumite, its the physical attributes you need in order to do them both. But I would have also voted that they need to work hard at both if they want to win both. Being good at one wont mean you can automatically do the other. I do fairly well at sparring but not so well at the forms part of competition. I know plenty of people who are the other way around too.

What confused me is the labelling of the TKD style kick as the traditional version. TBH I'd call the mawashi geri style more traditional compared to that. Part of its probably because I have never done kicks like that. Seems a bit weird to me.

I was confused a bit by mawashi geri vs traditional roundhouse kick too. Anyway since the terminology isn't what the topics about: I think from the videos you guys posted I personally prefer the mawashi geri over the "traditional" because you can get more mass so you get more power. The traditional is faster to throw and can be disguised because of the chamber. Although having said that, if you are kicking fast enough, concerns over your opponent identifying the chambering position shouldn't matter too much as its a transition stage and they won't be able to react quick enough. The version we get taught in our style is more like what Brian described. But in sparring the movement gets cut shorter for speed, so more like a hybrid of the two versions.

Red Lizard is a UK company that do really nice MA tshirts, also buy books & DVDs from them. Buy most of my equipment from Bytomic.

Welcome Cameron

Surely that all applies to kata in general and not just competition kata? Unless you do your kata significantly different.

Why can't under 18s take the same test? what were your Soke's reasons for that rule? And how do the tests differ? Surely that again is the same sort of unfairness because you are still stopping the under 18 from achieving the rank even though they may be equally as competent. When you tried to change the rules as Kaicho, did the rest of the board give reasons for their refusal? btw the way, on my earlier post I meant "well argued" rather than "we argued" stupid L key keeps sticking on my keyboard, edited it now

Laws are not always 100% right. Less than a hundred years ago women didn't have the vote in many countries. Slavery was abolished not so long ago. Laws are changing all the time. So if there was a situation where the under 18 really deserved an over 18 belt, maybe its time for your Hombu to change its rules. Well argued. I guess I would agree with you that being responsible is having integrity. By your own admission holding a junior blackbelt is less than that of a full Shodan. So it is a lesser rank is it not? If your, judgement, all you morals and principles, your integrity, tells you that an under 18 fulfils the same criteria as a similar student who is 18 or over, how is it right to deny them the same rank? Its like saying "Sorry kid, you passed just as well as Mr X but because you are a couple of years younger you get this half belt instead". Fair enough that a JBB ranks higher than the kyu grades but why should it rank lower than a full 1st dan if they did the same test? That's just creating an extra rank for someone who happens to be talented and hardworking at a young age. This is a different case altogether if a student fails the exam then of course they shouldn't get the belt. If however the 15, 16 or 17 yr old passes the blackbelt exam on the same terms as an 18 year old shouldn't they also get the same belt? They did the same test after all.

In my classroom, one of the benefits of my students being in the high school years is that they're so "antsy" that they don't stay in one position for a long time. However, if they do stay in one position, it's a forward lean, a slump forward as they write notes. That's history. In my electives, because they've had to take their own notes and refer to the textbook's examples and definitions, they tend to sit straighter. However, when they're in the library media center, meaning they're at the computers, the actual desks the students sit at have a see-through plastic top, and the monitor is seen by looking down "within" the desk, at an angle. The hunching over is automatic--and sustained for as long as they're hitting that keyboard or mouse. Those desks were put in in the past, when monitors all had a great deal of depth and took up a load of space, so it made sense at the time. Although now we can use slim monitors, giving plenty of space, who wants to remove and a fortune in specially-ordered desks? And they'd have to be replaced. My problem as a classroom teacher is where to draw the line. Would I be going beyond my position as a teacher to correct teenagers' postures at their desks? We used to have some of the same desks in my high school. Didn't have to use them that much though but I know what you mean. You had to sit like that otherwise you couldn't see a thing. I guess how far you go as a teacher depends on you and the school you teach in. And the individual students too. I used to have a teacher who told us to sit up straight all the time. Used to drive her nuts because I turn my paper sidewise to write She'd turn it round and as soon as she'd walked away I'd turn it back.

Must have been a cool experience. And a great opportunity to train with him

Oh wow. Was a shock to find this here. thankyou But now I just feel old!

It's constantly correct posture or else balance is off, especially with slower motions. You can't shoot through from one stance to another as quickly as in karate; you have to stand there and be in proper alignment--or fall over! I wish Tai Chi were offered in my hometown again, but its nearest locations are a distance away. You mentioned that you feel your posture isn't what it ought to be, Danielle, and yet you're just a day shy of 20. At least you're catching it now, before it becomes so ingrained a habit that it's a losing battle. When I worked out with free weights and cables, I feel that my posture was better, and I did these workouts till age 52. I can say this b/c in profle photos, I could see that I was standing correctly. Six years have gone by, and though martial arts can be of help, when I saw the bad posture photo in Jissen, I thought of a profile photo I'd recently seen of myself; it's like a wakeup call. You know, I don't think many younger people have good posture. All the sitting slumped in class or in front of a screen. What do you see in your classes? Do your students generally have good posture? It's interesting what you've written, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar with what you're saying. Is there a certain Wii program that is particularly for the back/posture? Should have elaborated on that one . On the Nintendo Wii, on the Wii fit "game", one of the tests tests your posture, where your centre of balance falls where you stand naturally. All of the Yoga programs on it also monitor your centre of balance and there are a number of games that use your balance to control the character (like skiing). My posture sucks, all the weight seems to be set back so it falls down my heels rather than through the centre of my feet. makes snowboarding and skateboarding challenging, I just go in circles!

Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks this. In the ITF TKD world we've a similar lark going on, and people need to stop wasting their time learning half-baked hapkido moves from people who don't even know them properly - while delivering them from awkward stances and angles just so they very roughly conform to the kata - and actually learn their basic techniques and core applications! The prime advocates tend to be the people whose grip on the subtleties of basic techniques is so slight that they'd run out of things to teach in 6 months, so they wander off into ninja-fantasy land doing bits of anything from the most unlikely positions. Cheers, Tony I totally agree with this. It really irks me when people drag out the most ridiculous applications from a simple punch or kick. Gen. Choi didn't create them with hidden meanings behind all the moves and intricate little locks and takedowns from the simplest of punches. No offence to him and the other masters who helped create them, but they weren't that clever. When you're training 1000s of soldiers you don't have time to mess around with hidden applications. Everything's at face value. A low block is just a low block. If you want to learn a certain additional move, go learn it properly, don't try to extract by slightly changing this and moving that. TBH it reminds me of literature in high school, totally ruined poetry and most novels because we were always trying to extract hidden messages and meanings from the smallest of things.

My Tai Chi teacher used to comment on posture a lot. We'd do an entire class with no arms, just working on posture and stance. My posture's terrible, think its also partly to blame (or maybe a symptom) for upper back pain I get sometimes. Again I think its so bad from sitting slumped in front of the computer/in lectures etc. TBH the Wii fit really highlighted it for me in how I stand. Lately I've been trying to sit and stand better so keep correcting myself.

Welcome Snake

Welcome Phil

Congrats

The Taekwondo will depend on which style too. Just as Isshinryu is different from Shotokan which is different from Wado ryu, Taekwondo comes in a whole range of "styles" too. ITF style differs greatly from WTF style and the smaller styles such as ATA are totally different too. You wouldn't happen to know what the TKD is? That might have been that particular school or style. At least for us, when you learn the form for a belt level you learn it properly. That includes application as well as just learning the sequence of movements. TBH we don't have so much hidden bunkai, each move is what it is.

Congrats