DWx

Welcome conrad

Welcome Chuck

Adidas have always been good for me but I only wear TKD type shoes. Right now I have a pair of their Adi-Luxe and their TKD 2000 shoes. The Adi-Luxe are great for training outside and give a decent amount of support to the foot, however they are slightly heavier and the grip is far too good. Can't slide in them and pivoting is difficult because they just grip the floor really well. For normal training the TKD 2000 ones are better but they don't offer that much support to the foot. If you're going to go with the low top TKD style shoes, I would go with no laces if you can but you need to make sure that the shoe is a good fit. For wrestling shoes I guess you'd need the laces to keep them in place.

I would like to try a spinnig class, could you link a video or a site on how to perform it? I never heard of it before They have them at most gyms over here, don't know how popular they are elsewhere. Basically its a gym class where everyone is on bikes and the trainer at the front makes you do a set of racing or off-road "courses" to music. Like this.

Good luck! What did you write your essay on? I was pretty nervous for my 1st dan but I think my 1st grading to 9th gup was worse.

I sit on our testing panel but as a sort of junior member so I don't award any marks on the practical side of the testing although I'm allowed to express my opinion to the instructors. At lower grades we're just looking for spatial awarness and a basic understanding of what targets and what techniques go together. Mid level colour belts we'd mainly be looking for control over the techniques and starting to demonstrate counters and set ups. At advanced colour belt the contact gets upped and your expected to try to "win" your fights. I don't really know about blackbelt as I've never sat on the panel for a testing but I'd expect they'd be looking at more of the same stuff.

All valid points. I myself find it very difficult to do that kick slow and so I've had to work a lot on my flexibility and strength and I've definitely noticed an improvement in other areas of training. In sparring for example the added flexibility is an obvious bonus but I also feel I have a lot more control over the leg. I guess its down to what you expect from your TKD (or any martial art) and what you expect from your students. With regards to Mr Anslow, If don't want/can't wait for the book, he publishes excerpts in his magazine, TotallyTKD. There is also another regular feature in there looking at some of the applications of the patterns but I can't remember who writes it. I think its called "What's the point?" or something like that. There's also this guy I came across on Youtube a while back that looks at the forms from a more practical and Karate perspective.

I hate running, it seems to tire me out really quickly but I bike when I can. Has anyone ever tried a spinning class? My coach made our TKD squad do a 1/2 hour session once during training and it was probably one of the best workouts I've done, really killed my legs.

A major problem that I see a lot is where on getting to a side kick chamber position, instead of kicking the leg out in a straight line, the lower leg will move in an arc as the top half pushes outwards. So you'll end up with the roundhouse movement on the lower leg and a very ineffective kick. To combat this I make people go and stand with their back against a wall and kick parallel to it, then they can't do a roundhouse because the wall is in the way.

I do think it has some use. In order to do it you have to have a strong core, very good sense of balance, and strength in the leg, not to mention you have to be able to pivot properly and demonstrate correct part of the foot used. In the case of Juche (or Kodang which its also now called) I was told it was brought in to make it much more difficult to get to 3rd dan and to keep the standard high. Moon Moo for a similar reason. My instructor actually taught us the first section of Moon Moo as a strength exercise, try doing it with ankle weights on and it absolutely kills the legs.

Welcome back Ranpu

Those are some good drills. I prefer to use thai pads myself for drill work but for the kickshield: Switch back kicks. Start close to the pad so your shoulder is almost touching then back kick off of the back leg whilst switching and moving away from the target to create the distance (so the front foot ends up further back than the back foot was). Progress onto having the person holding the pad chase after you and keep doing the switch kicks. Good drill for when you get rushed in sparring. Jamming the side kick. Attacker does a side kick (front or back leg) and the pad holder comes in closer to jam it before full extension. Attacker then has to somehow react; just move off, move off and attack again or retrieve the leg and throw out a couple of in-fighting attacks against the shield. Front/side pushing kicks. Can do any combo leading up to the pad and then finish with a strong push kick and try to push the shield holder backwards.

I train ITF style TKD so we have to wear their dobok which is covered in embroidery. Most people will have their school's/group's badge on the right chest which is great for recognising people at a tournament or other event or sometimes they have the name of their school or country on the back underneath the tree. As far as our tournament regs go, these are perfectly fine and I actually like seeing them because you can see where everyone comes from. There are assistant instructor/instructor/master/grandmaster patches that you're supposed to wear on the shoulders but not many people bother with them and its only really the masters and above who bother putting them on. Personally I don't mind patches as long as there aren't too many.

7 forms from white to yellow belt? Sounds a bit overkill. How long before you're allowed to test for yellow? I can't imagine trying to learn 7 forms in the standard 3-6 months period. I'm ITF so we do their forms.

Congratulations.

Congrats!

Welcome

Think they were probably just made up for the game. although all the moves the characters do in the forms are moves you can actually do in the game.

Don't bother with it. I made the mistake of buying it after I played the demo and got bored very quickly. All of the gimmicks like making your fighter and working up through the tournament rankings do little for the gameplay and it just gets very repetitive very quickly. Also very glitchy and hard to chain techniques into a combo. Was a thread about it here. I have Soul Caliber II on the GCN. It is pretty good and from my rather limited weapon knowledge it looks pretty authentic. Even has these you can unlock where the character performs a "kata" with their weapon.

I've never liked the full face head guards... for one I think people need to know what its like to be hit in the face. If you're worried about your teeth a good mouthguard is a better option, cheaper too.

Found two tutorials for the side kick; what this guy calls the and a version. I find it quite interesting that this guys varient is actually what I'd been taught and use as standard and his normal version would be the varient. If I get your descriptions Tony, would you say the first is similar-ish to your thrust kick and the second to the piercing version?

Congrats still kicking

Takes you back to the problem of not having enough officials to keep the tournament running.

Interesting analysis Tony. Master DeSilva and GM Rhee are certainly a strong background to come from. I'd never heard the thrusting kick described in the way you did and had always been taught that it was very similar to the side kick motion albeit thrusting instead of piercing. I'm not very good at explaining that but when I've thought about it a bit more I may offer up my definition. The whole ball of the foot distinction I just took from the (condensed) Encylcopedia but as far as the photos are concerned it looks pretty much the same as the side kick and it doesn't suggest rotation.

Congrats