DWx

Welcome oldgodan1994

Welcome Luan Bueno

Loads of great advice on here already but this is especially a good point. Have a few counters to popular attacks already in your game which you have practiced over and over again. From what I've seen, I think the front hand backfist, jab and lead side kick are pretty popular openers so you want to make sure you have a way of counter acting them. For point sparring IMHO the most important thing is speed. Speed is king. Whether you are the one initiating the exchange or the one reacting to your opponent, you have to try to be the fastest in the room. So like 126barnes said above, you need to eliminate all extra and superfluous movement from your attacks. To do this, train in front of a mirror and / or video yourself sparring and look for your tells. Also work on reaction drills; do padwork and react to the padman, do quick fire partner drills and so on.

Whichever diet you go with, I would also highly recommend MyFitnessPal. Especially the apps. Alongside just counting calories, you can use it to track exactly how much protein, carbs, sugars etc you're consuming and like Spodo Komodo said above, it really is eye opening how many calories are in some of our favourite foods. If anything, I use it to help make informed choices about what I chose to eat, especially when eating out. Ultimately losing weight is about consuming less calories than your body is using whichever diet you use to get there. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Sounds like a lot of training and travelling. Your son is very lucky to have parents willing to put themselves out for him

Very true. The 5 from our school that made the team were already friends from being at the school together. But since early this year they spent hours a day with each other, pushing and helping each other toward their common goal. Then they were there for each other at the tourney when things didn't go well, propping each other up. It's been an excellent bonding experience that really strengthened their friendships. Definitely agree with this. My best friends are all people I have trained with as a squad for tournaments. Something about working towards a common goal really strengthens your relationship.

Congratulations to the nominees

That can be said of any weapon to be honest. Barring the cane there are plenty of other everyday objects that he could carry. Keys in his fist? Maybe a kubotan (illegal in the UK though). Heavy duty Maglight style torch? Small bike chain? [/b]

Completely agree. I'm all for functional strength, learning to pick things up and carry them or move heavy objects. Can't remember where I read it but I read an article from a personal trainer once who said he can train guys all day on the barbell and get them doing the big lifts, but most struggle when asked to pick up a 100 lb sack and carry it 30ft.

Ouch, hope you have a smooth recovery.

Congratulations chiliphil1 wish you every success. Before jumping into things I would personally sit down and think about the following and flesh out everything : - Insurance (does you organisation not help to provide this) - First aid training - Relevant safety and criminal checks on you - Venue, what they charge and subsequently what you need to charge to cover your overheads - Are you targeting kids, or adults, families? Any other's want to add to the list? I think you also need to have funds saved up as a good proportion of schools actually lose mobey in the first 6 to 12 months before breaking even.

Sounds like a great training idea. We've messed around with something similar, but specifically focusing on the standing leg strength. We use the longer cables with a harness, sprint out against it to the point you can't pull anymore, then do pad drills. All the time the cable is fighting to pull you backwards so you have to really ground yourself and fight against it all while hitting the pad. So hard trying to kick like that as it forces you to really work hard on staying upright.

Is a practitioner or Bartitsu referred to as a Barista? Sorry, couldn't help it. That title is only unlocked when you have mastered the advanced techniques

Congratulations

Officially for us the rule for us is that you can award up to half your grade. In practice generally a 1st dan (though usually higher) awards the kup grades and then someone else 4th dan and higher awards 1st through to 3rd. 4th dan and above grading is special in that generally a master needs to preside (7th dan or higher) and the governing body usually advises on who this should be.

This is exactly it. Usually your body tells you in some way or another that you should back off and let it rest for a while. I know not exactly the answer you were getting at, but for me, overtraining is just as much an issue when training starts to effect you emotionally and eat into your normal life. What I mean by that is if you are fed up of training or it's causing stress, it's OK to back off for a while. Likewise if it is getting in the way of family life and work.

Good eye for spotting the double hop! I confess to this bring deliberate as I was trying it out; not sure whether it's working for me or not, though I guess not by your comment! I recently went on a seminar with a multi ITF and WAKO World Champ Katya Solovey and it was something specific she was teaching as a way of controlling distance and giving yourself time to do the kick. Rather than switching the legs with the kick out and away with the back kick when being rushed, she was advocating creating the distance with the feet and then taking the kick in. A bit like this;

Sounds like the tournament was a good success with our without medals! What kind of training and how many hours does your son have to put in to be a part of such things? Our own national training can sometimes take a 5 hour drive to get to even in a small country like England, couldn't imagine trying to organise having a team together in a country as big as the US.

Danielle, I'm a firm believer that mobility can be disrupted through angling transitions; cut them off at the pass, so to speak! What I do, is not let them complete movements within the range of the given attack. Someone that loves to dart in and out of range can be dealt with by pressing them just as the attack begins to unfold. But this is a dead end if timing is off for one reason or another. Btw, your link only directs me to a basic YouTube page, and to no specific video, that I can tell. Maybe my 'puter is acting up AGAIN!! Thanks for the input Bob. Maybe try this link. https://youtube.com/watch?v=v_8XHSnn1tU%5B%2Furl We had a tournament today actually. I've been trying to work my footwork a bit more to give me time to get the counter kicks out. Think it worked out quite well. https://youtu.be/yYKpiVXtpGQ https://youtu.be/CyioWgn885s

Welcome to the forum 126barnes

Ditto the cane. It's normal to carry, even useful to carry for a senior and there are even programmes out there dedicated on its use by elders for self defense such as Cane-Fu: http://www.canemasters.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=51 If you want a historical link, could look to Bartitsu, the Victorian martial art of Sherlock Holmes which heavily relies on a cane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu

For me, it's not so much something that happens in class but it is kind of related: people who jump on the bandwagon with fad diets and exercise regimes. Healthy eating is of course very important but too many people hear that you should eat this superfood because... You shouldn't eat this food because... Take these pills to boost your levels... Drink only water collected by monks on the 5th Sunday of the month... And follow it religiously without properly examining the evidence. I once had a room mate when traveling for a tournament spend the entire week eating (drinking?) only kale smoothies and an pill box full of supplements didn't seem much fun compared to my steak!

Could always take up something radically different? Western MA: fencing? HEMA? Or how about Tai Chi?

A belated Happy Birthday Bob. Hope you had a great day.

If I can say this...isn't that the beauty of TKD...the ability to kick to the head; one of the staples of TKD!! Of course, being predominately a proponent of hand strikes and the like, I'm glad to see more punches than kicks. After all, TKD isn't ALL kicks and no Te Waza!! Besides, if one can kick faster than one can punch, then by all means, kick away. FWIW I lost that fight.... Regards to the amount of kicking, I'm a heavyweight so it's not that common and body type is a big factor in how you should spar. Though I thought myself and Brian are reasonable similar so a good comparison. The lower weight division do throw more headshots and are on the whole much more mobile. e.g. . Blue trains at my dojang, same instructor, same training sessions, but the sparring style is different due to body type.