DWx

That's exactly what I was going to post. Depending on your level, start off holding a wall or chair then progress up to no support. Also search for any videos for strengthening your abductors and abductors as these are important for holding your kick up.

Congratulations

What design did you go for? Looks like not much difference in the price between Funky Gums or Opro. You'll have to post your review so we can compare

As mouthguards have come up one or two times on this sub I thought I'd review my recent purchase from Opro. http://mouthguards.opro.com/ In short I've had my new custom mouthguard for about a week now and honestly it's the best mouthguard I have had to date. I've had several dentist made ones over the years and had a couple of the "boil and bite" style (Shockdoctor, Venom). Whilst the dentist made ones were good, they've not been this good. It's a very tight fit, very slim profile (so I can breathe easily!) and in completely my own colours / design. I even have my name imprinted into the underside. I picked out the premium level of protection as it wasn't a great deal more expensive than the next level down (+£4) and it still came out cheaper than what the dentist quoted me. (Dentist quoted me £90, I paid £57)*. So the process is fairly simple, you go to the Opro website (http://mouthguards.opro.com/custom-home) and choose your level of protection and colours (I went with one of the special designs). Then you fill out the forms and pay. Opro then send you an impression kit which you use to take a mold of your teeth to send back. The kit is easy enough and they send you a dvd to watch alongside so you get the steps and timings right. All in all this took about 15 mins. You then post your impression back and they then make the mouthguard and send it you back. In the UK I had my impression kit with me a couple of days later and I think it took about 10 days start to finish to receive my mouthguard. Only used it a couple of times but honestly best one I've ever had so far so would definitely recommend them and probably recommend them over a dentist made one. *if you're in the UK and under 18, you might want to check with your dentist first as both myself and family members were able to get mouthguards free on the NHS whilst under 18.

Welcome back cathal If you don't mind me asking, what were you in the Arctic for? Must have been fun to train with the ulu.

Happy Birthday Alex hope you had a great day

What is your explanation for this move Bob? What did your Soke and Dai Soke teach? (I have to say, watching this kata for the first time, this is a very weird movement!) I don't have a better explanation, only assumptions!! I believe that the hops were added because of having an obsessive need for uniformity: to reach the start of the Embusen/performance line!! Surely, as intelligent as one is, a way to reach the same start/end of the Embusen could've been achieved other than adding three bunny hops. Soke and Dai-Soke offered up their interpretations of the three bunny hops "could" be used to escape wrist holds and from freeing oneself from a full-nelson hold!! I just don't buy that either!! For me, it's like saying I can escape a wrist hold and a full-nelson by sneezing, and those movements of a sneeze would be effective. I also don't believe that any kata is gender specific. This is one explanation that's been floating around for as long as I can remember. Chinte is believed to be a kata for females...I doubt that! Why? It would be like saying, this technique and that technique is for females, OR males, only!! Why are women mostly found executing Chinte in tournaments? I've no idea! Possibly because a male karateka doesn't want to be seen doing a kata that has not just one bunny hop, but three. It attacks the male ego, I suppose. Do you think it was a case of "my teacher hopped so I must hop"? And no-one know how it got started. To the ignorant (i.e. me!) if it was to get back to the start point it seems bizarre not have just made it a more purposeful step or single jump rather than bunny hops back..

What is your explanation for this move Bob? What did your Soke and Dai Soke teach? (I have to say, watching this kata for the first time, this is a very weird movement!)

In that case, check out Brian's excellent thread for some more info on forms across the TKD styles: http://www.karateforums.com/tkd-forms-a-running-comparison-vt47646.html A lot of the early forms borrow heavily from Shotokan kata and you and your son should see some familiar bits. Pretty awesome your instructor encourages learning outside of Shotokan too. For your son you could always tailor the forms to his needs and swap out high front kicks for lower ones, high side kicks for kicks to the knee etc. as that's what I'd suggest for students in our dojang. The kicking action itself is more important than the height.

If we're talking minimal kicking requirement rather than no kicks at all, you could also add: Do San (low front kicks) and Toi Gye (low and middle front kicks). Any particular reason you want to know skullsplitter?

Welcome Nijil Jacob

Welcome Bulltahr

Welcome Rab

How so? I would argue that laws and restrictions like this are the reason why recent homicide rates in the UK average only 1.2 in 100 000 compared to 6 in 100 000 for the US. There was a WHO report earlier this year which showed there was a trend between violence and both the levels of preventive education and weapon control laws in each country. See here: http://www.karateforums.com/who-global-status-report-on-violence-prevention-vt47762.html

I've seen these dobok before. It just seems odd to have one rule normally then to ignore it for competition. There must be a reason surely?

The WTF Sport Poomsae rules for black belts are a bit odd. Once one is Dan rank (so, 16 years old or older), the Poomsae one may have to do is dependent on age, not rank. For example, if one is a 1st Dan "under 29" but older than 17, one may need to any poomsae from Tae Geuk 6-Shipjin. If one is a 1st Dan between 50-59, one needs to prepare to do any Poomsae from Koryo-Hansu (8th Dan Poomsae). 1st Dan or 7th Dan at 53 years old means nothing in sport Poomsae. Everyone does the same Poomsae. The way it work is a tournament coordinator will choose what Poomsae they want for see for each age group and post them to the tournament website about 2-3 weeks prior to the tournament. For example, "for 20-29 BB's will all do Tae Geuk 8 in the first round, Pyongwon for second round, and Tae Bek in the finals." Therefore, if you're in that age range, you train those Poomsae in your age category, and focus on the one's when a tournament posts their list. *ninjanurse: I didn't see your last post until after I posted this. My intent is to add further to your post above.* It does seem a little strenuous for the competitor! And a little bit odd as presumably from a syllabus point of view only an 8th dan should have the knowledge and ability to tackle Hansu etc. It also doesn't allow much room for individual preference or style. Do you compete in grades of just all black belts together? In ITF, 1st dans compete against other 1sts, 2nds vs other 2nds and so on.

Watching this is almost like deja vu! There are whole sections of Yoo Sin, Choong Jang, Moon Moo and Ul Gi in there!!! Almost looks like it's an amalgamation of the ITF 3rd and 4th dan patterns. Like seriously the same ones but spliced together with some extra kicking combinations thrown in. Must be a nightmare trying to learn this plus the ITF ones too.

Wow the ATA form looks quite taxing on the legs with all the jump kicks. Does this follow a particular diagram on the floor?

That's an interesting argument. Similarly in ITF you must be a 4th dan and have passed an International Instructors Course to open your own dojang. The only thing with this is that it presumes everyone will want to teach.

This is just a side note, but I've been re-reading A Killing Art, and after all that happened in regards to the relationship between Korea and Japan, it seems a strange juxtaposition for their to be a Japanese TKD team, with a Korean coach. But, that was all years ago. I think he is actually one of several generations in his family to have been born in Japan. Fun fact: Japan is the only nation to be able to submit two teams to ITF championships. One for Japanese competitors and one for Korean expats now living in Japan. This second team competes under the Korean Unification flag rather than the Japanese flag. In practice I think they all train together anyway but it's nice that they have always been allowed to do this.

It's one of those things you have to force yourself to do until you can do it better. Try to do 1 minute rounds on the bag just using your left side. Or next time you spar someone who might not be as good as you exclusively spar left side only. Not only does this give them a chance, it forces you to work harder.

I don't mind at all! That's a cool tool you used there, and that just takes this thread to the next level of awesome! Thanks for showing it here. As I watched the video more, I did see that my front stance was quite wide, which doesn't make much difference going forward and backward, but does when turning. Like I mentioned, I tried to focus on that when I practiced further, and it seemed to make a difference. Another issue may be the way I do back stances (L-stances). I was taught that in back stances, the heels stay in line, and I see in a lot of ITF manuals that they are not lined up, so this could be causing part of the issue, as well. MS Paint is a wonderful program It's the backward turns at 0.29 that is where the big shift occurs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6nuE0F8dpfXbHlKZVR2VFJlVTg/view?usp=sharing You should be on the red lines and then land on the yellow lines when you turn. Then when you turn into the L-stance at 0.33, your back left leg is on the yellow line and on your start position. That will lift you across so that you end back up on your mark at 0.50. You can make up the difference with your L-stances if you made them longer but they would have to be long enough to make up for the ground you've lost. Pro tip: on YouTube you can click the gear icon on the video and you can set the speed to as low as 0.25 so you can watch frame by frame. FWIW I think your L-stance width is correct by ITF standards. Official ITF standards say the front foot big toe should be inline with the back foot heel. Although for greater stability I would say it can be a little wider, maybe to the point you can put your own fist between your heels but no more. Thanks for putting those up! They look really good. The balance on Yoo Sin just killed me. As I practice and review my forms more, I'll try to get some more videos up. We can compare and contrast the differences in our forms, and that should be fun, as well. This is a slightly better version of Yoo Sin I did in a competition: http://youtu.be/MpmNW_i_Yr8 But as you can see I messed up the kicks! There's also one or two areas that I don't get my stances or turns right, e.g. 0.55 I step in too far on the turn and at 1.18 my L-stance is far too wide. I finish about a stance further forward than where I started. So cool! Like I said, you have just added the next level of awesome to this thread! I did love that game. That guy is something else! So quick with his feet. Hwang Suil did the motion capture for Hwoarang. He's now the Japan team coach and still competes in the veteran division. I've met him a couple of times and was fortunate to train with him a couple of years ago. Really nice guy and I learnt so much on his seminar.

I think this is one of those things that gets lost in translation. "Master" is about the closest we can get to "Shihan". I just like to think of it as a parallel to Master Craftsman. Someone who has obtained a comprehensive knowledge of a skill and is now passing this on. I don't really associate "master" with the control or authority definition. It's not really got anything to do with it.

Btw here's a clip of Hwang Suil alongside Hwoarang in Tekken doing the Sam Il victory bit

Sorry to take us back a few posts but I find this really interesting. Admittedly my experience in TKD is a lot shorter but it has always seemed to me as we regard patterns as being really really important in ITF. You very rarely get sparring seminars, all seem to be on in depth pattern study. There is also a real pressure for everyone everywhere to be the same, there is very little room for personal touches, especially when it comes to competition patterns.