DWx

Welcome Paul

Welcome back

Welcome Sylvia

I love competing not for trophies or medals but for the fact I get to meet people and get to go to places I never would have done otherwise. Its awesome when we go away in a group as a team as well, these people become like family. And it is nice in a way to see how your school stacks up to others, it kinda confirms that you've trained hard if you do well and if you've not done so well it inspires you to train harder. But it is expensive so I have to sacrifice other things in order to go.

A good principle but "coordinated" does not necessarily mean "simultaneous". Is the intention of the creator of this principle to mean "simultaneous" or is it meant to have a more holistic application? Well it is generally taken to mean simultaneous. I suppose I am thinking of the head turn as in extreme cases where the head turns and there is a gap. In practice I guess we are more along the lines of the videos Chitsu posted. Eyes-closed is very different from seeing it out of the corner of your eye. I used to play netball and a drill we used to do would be to have people throw balls at us from either side so you could only just see it, both when you were standing still and when you were running as an advanced drill. If you train well enough its not that hard to catch without even looking first. And if you did need to look you'd have to try to look whilst already raising the arms to catch, otherwise you'd probably get smacked in the face.

I still don't understand this whenever I read/hear this. Are martial artists of this methodology so afraid of one additional movement? Turning the head may be an additional movement, but, imho, it's such an infinitesimal amount. Surely, that one additional movement won't be the end of all things. Of course I'd be signaling my opponent which way I'm going because I'm going to defend myself against THAT opponent. So what if my opponent knows I'm about to turn and face them, I've no secrets, besides, my opponents attacking me, so, I've got to defend myself, and if I announce that I'm going to turn to face my opponents attack...well...cool...and it won't be such a surprise after all! I'd suspect that my opponent will have already expected that of me and my turning to face them. But how do you know to look that way in the first place? You've either already seen them in your periphery or sensed them there so you don't necessarily have to turn the head to look to see where they are before starting to move. Reflex vs concious decision. You can turn and reflexively raise your arm to block and look at the same time rather than turning the head to look first and then decide that you need to do something in that direction. Its the delay between turning the head, looking and then moving which is counted as an additional movement; it doesn't need to be there if you're going to turn and look at the same time. As far as alerting your opponent that you're going that way, if you've got time to turn the head and look first before moving then its not that urgent. If they'd already started the attack its too late by the time you've looked and registered it then started to move. IMO, better to turn with the hands up ready just in case that motion you saw in the corner of your eye was a punch, if its not, then no harm done. If they weren't already throwing the punch then you've given them that split second to react and decide that now you're coming their way to deal with them so they better do something to stop you. If anything by turning the head first you've just presented your face to get smashed while the rest of your body is catching up with the turn. Not saying your method or reasoning is wrong, we just do it our way for the reasons I gave.

Define a stack please! Sometimes I do a stack, and sometimes I don't. Circumstances determine whether I do or I don't. Do you always break one board/brick? As I mentioned in my OP, quality is superior to quantity. If the technique isn't there, big deal that someone can do a abnormal stack. What I meant was I'm not too familiar with non-ITF breaking competitions. Are the boards/tiles whatever always stacked (held horizontally) in these comps and you break downwards, or are they held like this: http://www.taekwondo2009.com/gallery/17-10-09-1/pages/%20677.htm I wasn't asking about quantity. And I agree about the technical aspect. That's why I said I like the way our competitions are run. You can break and still not be awarded points for it if it wasn't a good technique.

We specifically do not turn the head first. By us its considered wrong. To turn the head first is to add an additional movement and to signal to your opponent which way you're going. And to protect the neck by avoiding snapping the head round. You should use peripheral vision first and can look with the eyes but never turn your head. We have 9 "training secrets" to good pattern (form/kata) performance and number 3 is: To bring the action of eyes, hands, feet and breath into one single coordinated action. Of course you can't use peripheral vision to turn 180° but these turns nearly always result in a block before the strike, (there is only one exception in the colour belt patterns but you could argue that it is easily modified to a blocking motion).

Do you always do stacks? I like the way we do it in our comps, have to break boards which are held vertically in front of you and 3 or more out of 5 judges have to score it as a good technique. BTW that vid is a little bit ridicuolous

Welcome Reaper

One of my housemates is American (he's studying over here in the UK instead), I correct his pronunciation all the time and tell him he doesn't speak or spell properly. Even if its not slang you guys use loads of words for things which just aren't right!

It did get shown at the Edinburgh festival last Sat but its not on general release until July sometime. Its annoying because you hear about these films but we don't get them until months later. We haven't even had the trailers for Karate Kid shown on tv yet and Shrek's only just out later this week (finally!).

I don't think you can learn effective self defense without sparring. For all the reasons mentioned already. Even forgetting the actual moves themselves, sparring teaches you about distance and timing and being able to look for openings and weaknesses.

Really want to see it as I grew up with the other two and loved them. Not out over here for another month

Good post isshinryu5toforever. I agree that the correct pronunciation, whilst it should be attempted, is going to be hard for non-Japanese/Korean/Chinese etc. speakers. The patterns and sounds found in these languages are hard for native Romance and Germanic speakers to pick up and vice versa. I have a number of friends who are native Chinese speakers and they really struggle with the concept of plural and make mistakes all the time. Certain words are near impossible for them to pronounce too no matter how hard you tried to correct them. And they've all been through the English school system since they were like 10. It just can't be helped. Personally I try to be correct most of the time but I do find myself slipping and adding the -ings and even -ed to get the tense "right" in an effort to explain stuff properly. But if I know the Korean versions I make sure I use them instead.

Maybe check out: http://www.trickstutorials.com/ I've used their stretching guides a bit in the past and if that's anything to go by then their actual tricks section should be good. Always loved watching tricking, never been able to do it though; gravity loves me too much

One of the things my instructor does is to ask us the questions about how a movement should be done and why. Or he'll ask us to infer the application or why it should be done one way and not another. I think if you can come up with the answer yourself then it'll stick with you much longer and you'll hopefully understand why a move is done in a certain way. Other than that, I think he uses a mix of what's already been said. He usually demonstrates, we copy, then he corrects and explains. I guess my own teaching style mirrors his. Although I think I tend to use more explanation before correction. I like to see if people will correct themselves first.

Looks similar to gear I used to use (Macho brand dipped foam). Good thing about that type of gear is you can wipe it down easily after training. So having cloth gear that you can chuck in the machine isn't that much of an advantage. Also pretty light stuff, good for light or point fighting. Its not really appropriate for full contact though, doesn't offer much protection at all. The foam's too thin if you're really going to strike hard. Also I didn't find it that durable. Went through a set every 6 months-ish so any saving you make by buying a cheaper brand may cost you in the long run. (The shin guards are the exception to that. My first pair lasted me years and I've only just got around to replacing them.) Shockdoctor's are pretty good for mouthguards although I prefer a dentist made one myself. As isshinryu5toforever said, its probably best to go with what your instructor recommends. Some tournaments will require you to have enclosed fingers

Welcome

Welcome David

Welcome Ev

Meanings of the belt color!? Interesting. Can you give me an example. When I took TKD in high school, GM Young Ik Suh, for example, said that the yellow belt meant "spring beginner". Is that what you mean? http://www.comdo.com/reference04.html

Tae-Kwon-Do, Wing Chun, Krav Maga and one that will remain anonymous. Cool what style of TKD?

I usually eat something high energy and slow release in the morning before I leave, porridge/oatmeal or something like that. Usually eat sandwiches and stuff through the day. Bananas are good too. And chocolate biscuits Make sure you drink enough as well Good Luck