DWx

This may be the case, but why would we let the layman define what we do, when we are the ones experienced in it? The problem with bringing the definition along for the Western arts is because most of them have gone the route of sports, and no one wants to call a combat sport a Martial Art. Because the layman is probably upwards of 80% of the population (don't quote me on that, its just a guess) and they will carry the majority opinion. As the ones who experience it, I think we probably all have our own personal bias and opinions and considering we are the "educated", our own views may not reflect the general concensus. In that case, are we defining the term TMA from a general perspective or from the perspective of an educated martial artist?

These, again, are mostly Eastern procedures for doing Martial Arts. We just don't do those things in the West as a natural thing. So, does that mean that because the West has a more "liberal" approach to things, that there can be no "traditional" Western Martial Arts? I don't believe so. It depends on whether you are going to take the title "traditional" as in the dictionary definition or as word to describe a particular branch of fighting arts. Whether its correct to do so or not, the term "traditional martial arts" is more closely linked to the East rather than the West. If you ask a general member of the public who has no experience of MAs at all to name a "traditional martial art", chances are they are going to name an Eastern style. They probably wont even view most Western styles as "martial arts" even though technically, by definition, they are. In fact some of the lads I know that box wouldn't dream of calling it a "martial art". Sure they'll admit that by definition it is one, but they wouldn't lay that title on it. Its all down to semantics in the end. To elaborate on my earlier point, what I was getting at is that the styles which are seen as "TMAs" tend to be styles that haven't really changed their teaching methods from the "old ways" as in they are steeped in strict doctrines and philosophies whereas, IMO, certain Western (such as boxing or wrestling) arts are more liberal because they adapt are are perhaps more suited to today's culture. But again that is my own opinion.

Sine wave is generally only done by ITF practitioners, although some other Chang Hon schools may do it as well. It was originally introduced by the ITF as a way or introducing more power into techniques because it is supposed to utilise more mass than the standard linear motion used by most other MAs. Whether it does this or not is open to debate. I've never really come across an extensive study comparing the two. However to do a fair test will probably be very difficult. The whole mantra that "it is not the style but the fighter" holds true with comparing sine wave vs. no sine wave and I would expect that there are certain techniques too which favour either one way or the other. Personally, it works for me, its the way I've always done it, and to be honest I find the linear approach extremely unnatural, but then again my opinion is biased. The main problem with sine wave is that it is over exaggerated way too much, either because of competition or simply due to a misunderstanding of how it is supposed to work. A lot of the videos you see are either teaching videos (like the one of Gen. Choi Ed posted) or tournament videos. Both of these are going to show an exaggerated sine wave. Sine wave is less about conciously going up and down and more about relaxing between each movement. I once had it described to me as having your whole body sigh. When you sigh normally your upper body relaxes and naturally goes down, this is what your whole body should be doing. Thus the bent knee comes from relaxing your muscles rather than gripping them to bend. You then push up above your baseline (the height you started from) and then drop back down to your baseline. The amount you go up should neither be greater than the amount you went down nor done faster, this leads to a smooth sine wave rather than the jagged version you sometimes get. Stuart Anslow has quite a good article on it, as does TKDTutor.

I was subjected to racial bullying at one point in school (I think I was about 7 or 8 ). The best thing I did was to tell my parents who then went and explained it to my teacher. It may seem cowardly or whatever but it saved a lot of pain and I walked away from it. Sometimes your teacher can't see it happening so bring it to their attention. If they are a decent teacher they'll do something about it, if not, take yourself and your money elsewhere. In the meantime take precautions such as ensuring that you're not in the changing rooms alone or that someone is always with you. Also acting confident will make you come across as though you are confident and you will be more likely to be left alone.

IMO I think TMAs tend to be those that are much stricter in the way they are taught. By that I mean that they tend to have a set syllabus and students usually have to do rank testings. Also (again this is a generalization) students are taught in more of a formulaic way, such as bowing in, lining up, practicing forms etc. MMA or "modern" styles seem to take a more liberal approach.

Thats probably very effective. I know its not the same but a lot of TKD style sparring KOs tend to occur when the opponent is hit upwards into their jaw. It doesn't take much if you hit the right spot and say if you did it in self defense all it would take is one technique to KO them.

That's a real responsibility. Congrats to him.

That's a good point. Paying monthly means that the student will also ensure that they turn up to your lesson. Particularly after a hard day or whatever, there are a coupla time when you really can't be bothered to get your stuff together and travel halfway across town. Of course once you get there you feel it was definately worthwhile but if you've paid in advance you will want to make an effort to go because you've spent that money.

I actually think they're really scary! I mean cmon, if a big guy is wearing it, coming at you non-stop, can't feel most of what you're throwing because of the padding, it would totally stress me out!

When I first started our club used to operate a pay-as-you go system every lesson but that meant would would spend up to 10 mins of the lesson doing admin and it was just one more thing for me to remember. I have a S/o now so the money comes straight out of my account every month. I still pay in cash if I want to do additional lessons but try to keep that aside until the end of class.

Not really into sleep cycles and all that but I'm pretty sure that the full 8 hours would probably be better. That way you go through the 4(?) full stages of sleep rather than visiting the first stages repeatedly. Wikipedia has quite an interesting article on it.

We do an exercise in class where we point stop spar and if someone scores against you, you have to go and do 10 situps or 10 pressups or whatever. I wasn't really good at point sparring (still not amazing) but this drill really helped me because the prospect of doing the situps wasn't very appealling. Its also good if you continous spar because it lets you see where you are letting the other person in. With tall guys you gotta watch their legs (obviously) so you have to be really good at getting in quick and scoring your point. Once in it depends on how good your opponent is at close range. Some people are just as good with their hands so you may want to back out, but don't get caught by their legs. If they are not good then you can stay in and keep racking up the points. However in my experience tournament judges only tend to give you one or two points for a flurry of punches anyway so don't do more than is necessary. Since this is a tournament senario you have to make sure your techniques look like they score and are clean. You don't want the judges to be undecisive about whether a technique actually scored, you need to make sure they press the clicker (or whatever they're using). Might be worth looking up the rules and seeing how different techniques rank with the scoring. Good luck.

This is a good point to make. Those type of targets only measure the impact power, the peak power. If anyone is into board breaking than you will know that hitting a stack of boards with spacers requires you to sustain a certain level of power over distance in order to go through the boards; whereas not using spacers requires a more power at the moment of impact which you don't have to sustain it over distance (as much). Those type of pads are really only effective for the first type.

We have one of these: http://www.imptec.co.uk/html/strike-measurement-products.html

We hold gradings every 3 months for coloured belt and depending on your grade you have to average 2 lessons a week (1 lesson for absolute beginners, typically 3 lessons for higher grades). We have a 10 belt system up to black but if you study hard and have good ability it is possible to double grade at the lower kups. You are usually required to spend between 6 months and a year at 1st kup before taking the blackbelt exam. All grades get tested on: - your pattern to your grade + the examiners' choice of 2 others - Sparring (1 step, 2 step, 3 step and free), - some self defense (grabs & releases, takedowns, defense against knife, senarios etc.)depending on the level you are at - Breaking. At the lower grades you don't actually break but are expected to at least "measure" for your technique and show appropriate distancing and positioning. Around greenbelt level (halfway) you have to start demonstrating power. - Theory. Anything from history to terminology to physics.

Congrats. As others have said above, don't let the test bother you. You obviously did well and passed and that is the main thing. Your sensei was having an off day but we are all only human.

I think you have to look at what context you are using it in. Often we tend to hold the title "master" in high esteem whereas really you wouldn't be wrong to refer to a teacher or someone you respect as "master x". In ITF taekwondo you officially receive the title at 7th degree but to get promoted to 7th it is less about physical ability and more about what you have contributed back to the art. I think for me "master" is someone who has great physical ability, has dedicated a significant amount of their life to attempting to master their style (can this ever be acheived?) and passes on their knowledge to others.

We have a similar thing at our club.. I'm not quite sure what units it measures in, whether it's PSI or whatever but 800 is pretty impressive. Just to put that in context, I think a standard fire hose (like on a fire engine) usually exerts up to 300 psi.

Like I said before, it depends on what definition of "sport" you are using. But TKD, Judo, Boxing, and Fencing are in the Olympics. The masters and founders of these styles certainly aren't complaining.

In Sept I'm off to uni which means leaving my current TKD club behind. I really want to keep it up (and possibly explore some other MAs too) and I will still train with my club in the holidays but: One of the universities I'm looking at only has a WTF squad whereas I do ITF. Has anyone done the transition before, either from ITF to WTF or the other way around? How easy was it? Any issues? I want to keep the ITF style going because I think the style really suits me, and I would love to explore WTF too but I'm thinking ITF might be a hinderance. Because they are so similar yet so different I'm worried that I'll end up with bad habits in both.

No no no , that the wrong thing to do , you should never throw the first punch. Because you leave yourself open. Not necessarily. You can throw a punch but keep your body out of the way. And sometimes throwing the first hit is the best option. Especially if the person is bigger and is the type that once they get started they don't stop. Also with a bully sometimes you need to let them know that you can and will be fighting back.

Bruce Lee. For obvious reasons. Sammo Hung. He's a big guy yet he proves that you can be big but agile and fast. From within TKD: Hwang Su-Il, Jaroslaw Suska and Truls Hotvedt. These guys have the most amazing ability with their legs. I'd be happy with half of it. And of course my instructor and the people I train with.

I think it all comes down to what you define "sport" as. Physical recreational activity? I bet most of us see MAs as that. Competition? Probably the first form of competiton was fighting. Just to quote Wikipedia: Doesn't martial arts fit under that umbrella?

I'm not a student owner but... we generally use a leisure centre, community centre and one of the high schools. A while back we were looking at a permenant location but the council were reluctant to agree to anything because they want to encourage more commercial enterprises in town. Our biggest problem is getting somewhere that's big enough but not too big and has decent facilities (or if we choose to buy, opportunity to build facilities into it). Something you may want to check into is planning restrictions but that's only here in the UK, don't know if its the same in the US.

I've used both and I must say the lifespan of leather gear is almost 3x as much as dipped foam. Dipped foam usually just tears after a couple of months whereas the leather doesn't. The foam is easier to clean though.. I always buy my gear off people I know I can trust so I've never hand the authenticity issue. I would imagine though that certain things like width of the straps, any tags or etc. could be a clue to whether the gear is genuine.