DWx

You could always buy her a soft green colour gi. Light greens are supposed to make you feel peaceful and calm so her opponent might not do much

sine wave, its really only an ITF thing although some other non-ITF schools do it (and some ITF don't).

I'm a lil' sceptical. At first I was impressed by her flexibility and ability to hold her legbut when I tried to find her doing any "traditional" kata or sparring there's none to be seen. I can't even find any action shots from tournaments that aren't her posing for the camera! Even on her website, under tournaments, she only shows pictures of her freestyle and doesn't speak much about her TSD training. She calls herself a "weapons expert"?!? But she only got to 2nd dan in TSD and has been training a relatively short time to be "expert" or am I just being picky? Also she doesn't seem to remember when she was selected for her national squad. On one of the video clips of her on some tv programme, she says she got on to the national team aged 9, in her bio on her website, she states she didn't start competing in local tournaments until the age of 10?!?! There's loads more I could moan about, to me she looks like a gymnast, a very talented one, but still only a gymnast. Oh and she invented the "scorpian kick"? To me it looks exactly like one of the advanced stretches my friend used to do when she did gymnastics. The only difference is she's not holding her leg. But without meeting her or at least seeing her, I can't really make a judgement...

How is a spinning heel kick different from a reverse turn kick? Just trying to understand the terminology... The spinning heel kick is done primarily with the leg straight, driving all of the momentum through the target in a big circle with the heel. There is a lot of weight and momentum in this kick. What's the reverse turning kick then? I've always called the kick describe above as a reverse turn...But then again I've heard a twist kick called a reverse turn and a a hook kick called a snap kick (cos of the leg action) I think the reverse turning kick is the reverse hooking kick. Maybe? Ok I'm really confuzzled now Well what I call the reverse hook kick is where you spin around into the kick rather than keeping your body stationary and performing the hook kick with just your leg?!?!?

I thought they Taekwondo was recognised in the 50s? Uh, yeah, your right: 1955, I think. lol, I just panicked cause I thought I'd got my dates messed up in my head!

I thought they Taekwondo was recognised in the 50s?

How is a spinning heel kick different from a reverse turn kick? Just trying to understand the terminology... The spinning heel kick is done primarily with the leg straight, driving all of the momentum through the target in a big circle with the heel. There is a lot of weight and momentum in this kick. What's the reverse turning kick then? I've always called the kick describe above as a reverse turn...But then again I've heard a twist kick called a reverse turn and a a hook kick called a snap kick (cos of the leg action)

There's loads of differences. What about the issue of sine wave? ITF uses it but WTF don't at all. And who's forms are they gonna keep etc. I don't envy the person in charge of the logistics of the merger...

I've always felt that a blackbelt is just the beginning. It's like learning a foreign language, you learn the basic vocab and sentence construction through the coloured grades. Then acheiving a blackbelt means you're ready to start speaking it and discovering its hidden secrets. Only practise helps you to become fluent and everything stems from your basics which you will use nearly 99% of the time in some way or another. You only know when you've mastered it when you begin thinking in it and it feels so natural that you no longer have to translate it back to what you were brought up with.

Just have a positive attitude and believe that you will do the best that you can do! What type of tournament is it?

I did not like the way that 2nd guy's chest was looking. I can't imagine all the bruising and possibility of a cracked rib being worth the "benefits". Putting your body through all that is worse than subjecting it to drugs and the only reason IMO that it works as conditioning is that its killing off all the nerves. That kind of training can't be good for you either mentally or physically.

You wanted to see me do a pattern, here's eui-am, I'm the one on the far right on the front row: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8396063408882799085 If anyone is still unsure what the twisting kick is, its the first kick I do. Just ignore the other kicks because I'm completely ashamed of them as that was a very poor effort

I've always been told that the reason why Gen. Choi introduced Juche was because Ko Dang wasn't physically demanding enough. The kicking techniques in Juche meant that those moving on to 3rd dan were of a higher calibur

I don't know about anyone else but I can get crescent kicks to work for me. In sparring I've used them to pull down an opponent's guard so that I can follow through with the opposite leg or hands. I don't advise this too much though as they might catch or trap the leg. It has to be fairly quick with a bit a bit of mass thrown in so when I do them, I make sure I commit with follow up techniques. Crescent kicks to the blind side of an opponent can be good to..

Best thing that I can think of is to try the ITF websites, either the regional orgs or the international.

All I have to say is... Ow! Not sure whether that is the right way to go about it, how old was that person at the start? Looked like a kid to me, then there's the machete type thing in the after 3:30

Awesome, i go the Loughborough Uni The Wado ryu club is a university club, is that the one you're referring to? Is the main difference between Kyokushin and Shotokan and Wado ryu? is it just the sparring being full contact? I think i am going to watch the club train this Thursday and get some more information from the instructor. James Oh ok, I was actually thinking of somewhere different, I think... still might be the same guy but I will have a look. I think the wado ryu club that I'm thinking of trains mainly at the leisure centre...

Ooh, you live where I go college! What a small world it is... I've heard of that school supposed to quite good, but depending on your style preferences, I know of a wado-ryu that trains in Loughborough (I think it might be the same one you're on about) and a number of friends go there. Without knowing much about I'd recommend the Wado-ryu school as I've heard they have a good atmosphere and the teaching is good too. Definately go and have a look at the schools first hand though

I'd heard that he was taught by the General but I didn't realise he was one of the first blackbelts under him.. Yep, if I remember my history right.... just goes to show that you learn something new everyday

I'd heard that he was taught by the General but I didn't realise he was one of the first blackbelts under him..

Hopefully you wouldn't throw a crossbow... Joking aside.. I swear I've read something about shorter, lighter spears being thrown.. didn't the greeks use spears a lot in battle? I suppose it depends on what type of spear, if it was shorter and lighter then maybe you'd throw. If indeed it was more like a bo, then mabye you wouldn't..

I wouldn't think you would want to throw your weapon away though. You could throw it if you wanted to. That would be at the point when you were backed up into a corner thinking to yourself about how to get away. *pointing up into the sky* "What's that?" at which point you'd throw the spear. Anyway, the spear was the predessor of the javelin.

Just sifting through my bookmarked internet pages and came across this which I thought was quite appropriate: Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies. ~ Alexander Pope I wonder how many samurai etc. acted their part? (whatever that may truely be)

Kicking without kicking, lol, using just the knees, makes sure you don't fall over

hmm, forgot about mentioning bowing to the opponent, I do that anyway. I've always been told not to bow when they tell you to begin. In all the tournaments I've done, the head judge shouts "ready" in korean and then after that every move is marked. Any additional motion after moving into the ready position is not liked, say for instance if you straightened your gi (why you would desparatly need to do this when you've only just walked on is beyond me but i have seen it happen) ...