DWx

Obviously it depends on what else you're doing but 4 hrs a week is not a lot to make room for. You should be able to do it, sounds like a good idea trying it out over summer too. My dad always says to me that if you really want to do something you'll find a way to cope and make it work. Besides even if you do want good grades I find its important to take time out to do something else (especially good to do physical activity) otherwise you just reach saturation point.

Packages to earn blackbelt can be good but it depends how they work. If its a lump sum and you are guaranteed a blackbelt in 3 years, that's bad. Paying a lump sum up front to guarantee you lessons and to cover grading costs until you reach your belt isn't so bad as long as the belt is actually awarded based on skill and not because its "time". We have an introductory package that works well. New prospective students can pay a sum to give them lessons twice a week for three months and a dobok. If they want to stay on then they can switch over to the normal pay monthly scheme.

Having a small percentage of higher ranking belts isn't necessarily bad. There may be a reason people leave that means the school is bad... or they may be a genuine reason. Instructor just may have really high standards, or take my school for example. When it first started out a large proportion of people were kids, by the time we got to blackbelt most of us left to go off to uni, left home etc. That's losing like 10 people. Took a few years before the numbers of blackbelts rose again.

I go by this rule My uni has a policy that we can call lecturers by their first name but I will still go by Dr. and Prof until they say otherwise. I do call my instructor and his wife by their first names outside class though as they've known me since I was a kid and we're pretty good friends.

Kicks are a bit harder to learn by yourself since most people aren't used to moving their legs in this way, normally most people only move them forward and backwards (as in walking) and not round and to the side. Best thing to do is get someone to teach you them first hand. But if you can't, maybe post a video for critique?

Filming yourself is great for all the reasons Geo already mentioned. If you compete filming that is great too so you can work on your game. Think there are a few videos of me lurking on youtube... might fish them out.

Running away would be the best option. Anyone who tries to stand and fight 3, 4 or 5 multiple attackers when they've got the option to get out of there is stupid IMO. Multiple attacker sparring is great for awareness of where everyone is and learning to move and arrange everyone to deal with them one at a time. Or even just sparring in a room full of other people sparring would be beneficial as you have to be aware where everyone else is in order not to crash into them.

Imho, this is an inappropriate way for any black belt and/or any instructor to act/react to that type of situation, especially during class. What did that really teach the entire class? One who isn't the instructor has no business taking corrective actions on their own. Matter of fact, the instructor has no business taking corrective actions, and that's what that was imho, in class because instructors have, or should have, other professional methods of disciplining their students. To cause a student, especially a minor student, to cry isn't how we're suppose to help our fellow martial artists. To bully a bully in class would've led me to tell that black belt to go home for that day because this isn't how these type of situations should be dealt with in class; not by any black belt or any rank, and not by the instructor. How would I have handled that situation? It's simple. I would've quitely instructed that bullying student as well as the parent into my office immediately, and then I would've suspended that student for a week minimum for bullying and I would've explained to that student and parent why bullying isn't allowed in my dojo. In that, I would've also explained why bullying isn't an appropriate action for anybody to display, especially for a martial artist. Bullying and the martial arts are a oxymoron, and therefore, they should be treat as such. Fair enough, you're entitled to your opinion. But I don't believe I was bullying the kid at all. Maybe you had to be there to understand what was going on as as with a lot of internet communication, maybe I'm not conveying what happened properly. He was unpleasant to the other kids so I joked that I would spar him properly (even he laughed when I said it).

I don't believe in such solutions. In a dojo setting students copy instructor behavior and if you do that, the students will "punish" lower ranked students as a result, and you have a horde of bullies on your hands. Maybe it didn't come across as I'd intended. Re-reading I suppose it does come across that way. But I wasn't punishing him by beating him up. I don't hurt kids. Instead I just closed up guard and kept dodging his attacks, moving off so he couldn't score. Usually when I spar the kids I'll be easy on them and leave myself wide open so they learn where the shots are and give them plenty of opportunity to take it. With this kid I didn't make it easy and since I was just tapping his headguard I think the tears were more frustration than anything else. It was definitely not my intention to make him cry and I felt extremely bad about it and stopped as soon as I saw he was. It wasn't outright crying anyway, just a little sniffle which stopped as soon as I taught him some stuff to do to stop me catching him. I'm not the instructor btw.

I know nothing about the ITA. Choi did do it, but with the the power of a military dictatorship behind him, and the assistance of many talented people who trained full time. And even low dan ranks in karate at the time were probably worth a lot more than they are in most schools now. Despite that, much was lost in the process - proper hip mechanics, speed and precision in stances and footwork, many of Shotokan's excellent block/attack drills with partners, conditioning exercises, an inestimable wealth of kata, insight and refinement.... Ouch. I know you have prior ITF experience Tony but surely its not all that bad? I like it anyway...

Congrats Patrick Nine years is a long time!

I was bullied for a while in primary school. Although not in the strictest sense as I didn't really feel victimised by it, more irritated than anything else. My mum's side of the family are Chinese so I used to get picked on as a kid for that. Just name calling and stupid attempts at trying to "speak" Chinese to me. There was a thing when I was about 14 or 15 where I upset one of the school bullies. They started on me after school once about the whole Chinese thing and something to do with walking in their space or whatever and threatened to break my legs. I kinda let my mouth run away; said something sarcastic and invited them to try (been training in TKD for 4 years then so had delusions about being unbeatable). Anyway they just walked away. It wasn't a big deal though and I just walked home a slightly different way for about a week to avoid aggravating the situation. If anything I think TKD definitely helped me overcome bullying as it gave me so much confidence. I thought I could sort of defend myself and once you remove that worry about being physically beaten up you just have to deal with the verbal abuse and that never really bothered me. You know, I think most bullies target the weaker or different people because they have this vulnerability about them so once you overcome that its so much easier to deal with the bullies. As for helping someone who is targeted by bullies, I usually do because I know what its like to be there (as a kid anyway) and its just one of those things that really peeves me. Actually I sorted out one of kids at TKD the other week who was bullying the other kids. He was boasting to all the other kids he was the best sparrer there and kept smacking some of the others on the head and in the arm saying their reflexes weren't good enough. Didn't realise I was there so I told him I'd spar him in class and the we'd see how good his reflexes were. In short, I didn't hit him hard as he must be only 13 or 14 but I didn't let up, he ended up crying. Which I felt really bad for but I think he learnt a lesson in humility and was an excellent student for the rest of class.

I don't meditate in the strictest sense but have a daily stretching routine I do in the evenings and while I'm doing it I try to not think about anything else but concentrate on the stretch itself...

I have this as part of my training playlist Really an awful song but the lyrics of "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor are great for motivating during hard training.

Wasn't sure which bit in the poll fit me but, I wear: Mouthguard, foot pads, shin pads, and a pair of gloves. Sometimes wear headguard (open-faced) but only when the contact is really upped or the floor is hard.

First off let me compliment you on an excellent post comparing similar level forms from three different styles of Taekwondo. I appreciated watching them and comparing them. But I guess it's a matter of opinion, since you have essentially three different forms represented. The power and decisiveness of the ITA and ITF are similar as compared to the WTF where most of the form is executed from a walking stance and seems more free-flowing. I think if we weren't comparing an adolescent to an older and more experienced man (ITA vs. ITF) the forms would seem more like one another. What might be interesting is to compare simpler forms. in the ITA we do Chong-Ji and Do-San, and so does the ITF, I think, granted they look somewhat different from each other. Another thing to consider is that ITA's Ho-Am Taekwondo states that it is derived from General Choi's style. It's safe to say, you'll never hear a WTF person claim that. Also, consider things such as the round kick. WTF kicks with the instep. ITF and ITA with the ball of the foot. ITF and ITA both emphasize escape techniques and self-defense. I was in Sang Lee's WTF school in Colorado Springs for over a year (he was many times the head coach of the Olympic team) and we didn't learn one self-defense technique. Also, the sparring is different, as in what's allowed and how it's scored in competition. ITA uses the traditional 3 point, point and break type contest and strikes to the head are counted. Having said all that, I will grant you that I'm new to ITA. However, I probably couldn't have attended a school much more steeped in WTF than Sang Lee's. And the Taekwondo I'm learning is not the same thing. It's much more like Karate, which is much more like the ITF style. Nonetheless, I will certainly grant you that there are significant differences in the hyungs and the way they are executed. Well I picked forms I thought were similar. That ITA form I chose was basically Juche apart from they've made minor changes such as the direction of the stepping (eg, ITA go forward on the twin knifehand, while ITF keeps going backward) and swapped some of the kicks around. Maybe its easier to tell once you've learnt one of the versions first. Watch them side-by-side and you'll see they're 90% the same. I also picked Koryo for comparison as I know its a WTF form that contains kicks and a lot of the same blocks as used find in Juche and its for a similar belt level. Anyway the actual ordering of the moves doesn't matter. Its how the moves are done which I'm using as a basis for comparison. As far as skill level is concerned I don't now who you'd regard to be one of the best technical performers for ITA so I just picked a reasonably good version. But like I said, the actual performance itself isn't what I'm trying to compare but the stepping and ready-positions and such like. Maybe comparing easier forms such as Chon-Ji would be better but I couldn't seem to find any ITA versions. Do you know of any? For the kicking, ITF does sometimes kick with the instep. I don't know if WTF sometimes kick with the ball of the foot. But the ball of the foot is pretty common in a lot of styles anyway and not specific to either TKD or ITF. As for what the styles focus on, you can find ITF schools that focus mainly on the competition and sport side of it and you can find WTF schools that focus on self-defence. That'll just depend on individual experience. Maybe this is a subject for another topic as it would probably be very interesting comparing the different styles. Might even be worth looking at ATA style vs ITA as they are pretty similar in a lot of respects including the marketing side. Or even TAGB (a British org) which again is very similar.

No, no, no Top Tomcat, I don't study McDojo Taekwondo. It's actually called Ho-Am Taekwondo, and from my study of Taekwondo forms, it's indistinguishable from the traditional Taekwondo of the ITF. It's actually very good, in my opinion, especially in a world where everything seems to be going to sport martial arts. In addition, we spar every class, we do calesthenics and line work and target work, too. There's nothing wrong with the Taekwondo or the class for that matter--it just so happens to be taught in a McDojo. I hate to criticise what people do but I'm sorry Martialart, from what I've seen on Youtube and elsewhere on the net, Ho-Am TKD is far from ITF style. In fact from watching a lot of ITA forms videos, I'd say it was more akin to WTF style based on the way the stepping is done and how the moves are executed, the ready positions and the like. Eg. Here is a guy doing what looks like the ITF form Juche (although a lot of the moves have been modified) the , compare it to Juche ITF way and say Koryo . I'd say it was more similar to the latter.

Earplugs won't do anything for you. Nothing wrong with wearing headgear, especially if contact is high. A lot of people wear them. If you're embarrassed about it, talk with your instructor and get his take on things.

I don't think there's anything wrong with staying at a grade for a number of years or even indefinitely. Just make sure you are doing it for all the right reasons. And that you still continue to learn and improve. First dan is not the end of the road; its just the beginning. Saving face so you don't get beaten by a lower rank is totally not the reason to stay at a level. Rank's not really that great a indication of skill anyway. I know a number of 1st dans who are awesome sparrers and could beat me if they wanted. Neither are the higher-up dans a class of superheros that always kick high and break every board.

Fair enough if you want to teach your audience. I'm just saying there's nothing wrong with spicing it up if you're main purpose is to entertain. And if you do want to teach maybe a free lesson as opposed to demonstration may be a more productive format.

Saying "always" puts every practitioner of the martial arts in the same category, imho, this isn't a fair statement because each practitioner is different for one reason or another. Will a punch with a step through seem to be more telegraphed than the punch off the front arm? Yes, but again, that'll differ from one practitioner to another. Experience/knowledge is still a key factor, imho. Kuma, I too like your drill and it's worth trying...thanks! OK, well maybe "in most cases" might be more appropriate. However I think that if you've trained both the lead arm and the reverse equally and tried to minimise telegraphing in both cases, then the step through punch will be more telegraphed compared to the punch off of the front arm. Having said that, if you spend 99% of your time drilling the step through punch as opposed to 1% of your time on the lead punch, maybe then you're step-through will be less telegraphed than the other one.

I talk about it if asked; even my dentist knows I do TKD! He always asks what's new with it when I see him every 6 months or so for a check-up and is really interested in what I do. I didn't use to tell people much about it but I figure its just another hobby and will talk about it if people ask me and if they want to know more. In that respect its no different from any other sport or hobby. Plus its hard not to let people know where I get bruises from or where I disappear to on weekends. As far as family and all that go... I usually get told to shut up by my parents and my sister (who does TKD herself!) for talking about it too much as they don't really care. Only person who listens to me is my grandma who's really interested in it... actually I found out a while ago that my grandad was heavily involved in the Guyanese boxing association and so I think she has an interest there..

Making you spar and teaching you to spar and two different things. If all they are doing are telling you those 4 pointers you mentioned in your op, that's not teaching you to spar. That's telling you those 4 pointers. Teaching you to spar is drills, pad work, instructor's sparring students and kicking the student's butts until they can kick yours back. Teaching someone to spar is giving them combinations that work for their body type and letting them develop them. You can't just simply say "spar" and expect everyone to be good at it. Those with natural ability might develop it but most people will just flounder around like the blackbelts you described. If you want them to be better maybe you should start leading by example. I find nothing works better for getting people to keep their guard up than clocking them round the head with a kick or backfist or whatever. They learn fast that way.

I'm gonna agree with tallgeese here. A punch with a step through will always be more telegraphed than the punch off the front arm. No matter how good you are or how experienced. Its got further to travel and the leg is moving too. Whole lot more to see. I like that drill Kuma, might have to try it sometime.

Boys look great Joe