DWx

If you have the ability to do them and have the right opening for one they are good techs to pull off. Getting the kick right can easily lead to a KO... And of course in a lot of point fighting you'll get rewarded more for the head shots.

Pretty good article. Watching videos back is great as when someone tells you you do something, you can see for yourself too. Even when you're just sparring normally in class I think if your partner sees stuff like tells/signals they should be telling you anyway. And your instructor. In fact most regional tournaments I go to people will tell their opponent stuff like that and give them tips on what to do instead.. after the matches of course. I like the bit about signalling. If you have a ringside coach, this is what they should be looking for in your opponent. Although in addition to what the article says I'd also include as a fix the ability to throw your desired tech from a number of positions. For instance, the article says "if you always shift your front foot out before executing a rear-leg roundhouse kick, you should occasionally shift your front foot out and not kick". Well that's one "fix" but sometimes people do this because they can't physically throw the kick from any other position. So learn to throw the kick straight off, after shifting your back foot, etc. and learn to do this with all your kicks. What you end up with is a situation where, like Superfoot Wallace (as the article insert states), any kick can come from a chamber/preparatory position but then you go one step further and have several of those too and any kick can come from. Do the same with the arms.

Well yeah but I have seen a guy having the hard plastic type crack in two before from a hit. What can I say.. we spar hard And it wasn't just a bog standard tourny either, everyone did have proper equipment.

Interesting. Same kick yet it is called a hooking kick, golcho chagi in TKD because it hooks the arm, as in our hooking block. We do have a crescent kick as I explained in my earlier post.. Maybe its a case of Dobie's style/instructor borrowing terminology from another style he's studied.

Welcome esoteric2892 I'd recommend YouTube. Loads of stuff on there.

We have a hook kick and a hooking kick in my style. People often confuse the names. I think what you're describing Dobie is our hook kick (as in Chitsu's link) but what everyone else is saying would be our hooking kick. With my limited Japanese (Google ) I don't even think Mikazuki geri translates as hook kick? The hook kick for us is primarily defensive and can be used against an armed opponent... but I wouldn't. Too risky tbh. Big chance of slicing your foot open. You'd use it to block the arm (or leg) or to hit an object out of their hand. We have a couple of very similar kicks (don't know if Karate distinguishes between them as have heard them collectively termed as crescent kicks) that are used for offense as that video seems to show. Our crescent kick is also for blocking and is very similar with a similar application but whereas the hooking kick comes across and down, the crescent just comes across. The vertical kick is basically the offensive version of the crescent kick used to strike the torso, face etc. I guess any of those applications could apply.

Welcome Dobie

I've got, I'm also in the facebook group for here. Think there was a thread somewhere with everyone's links in it... Love facebook . Its great for keeping in touch with people I used to go school with. And of course the photos... although there are some I have to untag myself from.

He was - its mandatory for the guys to wear them. Probably still a hard enough hit for the guy to be at a disadvantage.

Heh in one of the tourneys I did last year I saw one of the other countries coaches (from what I could tell) telling his competitor to kick the other guy between the legs "by accident" at the start. He took a warning penalty but that's nothing when the other guy can't really fight anymore. Actually in the same tourney in my 2nd round fight the girl I fought went for the KO right after the ref said go at the start of the second round. Took a yellow card for it but I wasn't really in a position to fight back properly after that and lost the match.

I need a new one as have bust the screen on my current one. Its a Creative Zen X-fi and while the sound was very good I'm not overly impressed with everything else. Anyone got any recommendations? Ideally I'd want one that also does video... I used to have an iriver H300 which I had for like 6 years and only stopped using it because it was a bit too bulky and the battery died from overuse. Am thinking about going back to that brand but I dunno. What's everyone else got?

Good luck Ryan Just relax and I'm sure you'll do fine. Let us know how it goes.

Was it this? I saw a couple of episodes and it was ok. We also had Last Man Standing and now Last Women Standing which were kinda similar.

I think any sort of safety equipment should have the dollars spent on it. Gloves, foot pads, shin guards, whatever, don't go cheap on it because you pay for what you get. More expensive stuff tends to last longer anyway.

Yeah...I call this..."I'll get a turn too!" Yep! In the dojo, or in a tournament, you gotta "play nice" but in a real self-defense situation, the rules go away. You gotta do what you gotta do to get away safely! Don't even have to play nice in tournaments.... Not proud of it but in our higher level comps our coaches expect us use dirty techs because everyone else does. Sneaky elbows to the face, kidney shots, low kicks... you'll get penalized but only if you get caught. Don't like doing it really but if the other person does it to me, game on.

Yes but we pay TV licensing to cover the cost of running them ad free. I'd imagine there are plenty of boards that give you the option of paying a premium for no ads.

No offence but I really think its stupid to take a punch before you fight back. That one punch could be enough to KO you or seriously injure you and you've already lost. First strike for me is the first sign of aggression...

Welcome Mac

Dentist made is definitely the way to go. Mine's saved me from concussion and lost teeth several times. Got my first one free off the NHS Had to pay about £70 for the second (think that's about $110) but its well worth the money. Cheaper than dental work and doctors bills if you do take a hit badly.

In TKD we apparently wear white because its the traditional colour of Korean costume and it represents purity although seeing as we evolved from Karate styles anyway (in my branch namely Shotokan), its probably a reasoning attached after the fact. Or maybe Karate styles have a similar reasoning attached.

Definitely an extended-family social aspect is always good for keeping numbers up and getting people to bring along friends. If you don't mind teaching kids and teenagers, I think one of the biggest things that helped my instructor was to target the local schools. Once you get a certain proportion of the kids joining, it becomes the club all the kids have to join just because all their friends are doing it. He also did demos and lunch time/after school lessons for the local primary and high schools. Also getting in the local paper helps. After a big grading or competition or some other event just put a short write up and photo in the paper creates a lot of awareness about your school as well as the local kids see their friends in it and think its cool. Of course when you get the kids joining their parents may want to start too. To get the revenue, unfortunately you may have to do stuff that seems a bit McDojo-ish but as long as you keep the quality and teaching

I think in most cases people that do this are the people who have set up their own schools but still train with their previous instructor. If you have a close group of schools (in an org maybe), most of the time people are quite willing to share between all the different schools anyway. TBH as long as you were clear about your intentions and your competing school wasn't only a block away from the place you want to train, I'd imagine a lot of teachers would be ok with this.

Welcome back Brian

Something my instructor said to me when I was mid-way through the colour belts really gave me an "Aha" moment once I figured out how to do it. He said something along the lines of "if you can do it with your arms, then you can do it with your legs". He was talking about the power and snap that's "easy" to do with arms when blocking or striking but, for whatever reason, was really hard for me to get with any of my kicks... got it in the end though

My dad has an Aprilia Futura that I have my eye on Although I have been forbidden to ride it by my mum until I move out (should have seen what she did to the helmet my dad bought my sister).