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Welcome to KF pwen arye

http://programme.rthk.hk/rthk/tv/programme.php?name=tv%2Fkungfuquest2013&d=2014-01-18&p=6052&e=244991&m=episode Documentary from RTHK looking at WTF Taekwondo, ITF Taekwondo and Taekkyon. It is in Chinese but lots of footage make it a good watch.

Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger? TED Talk by David Epstein Interesting talk on how athletes bodies have changed over the past few decades and the influence of technological advances. It's pretty amazing what the human body can do. Do you think over time (or maybe even now) we will see better and better martial artists and fighter's arise? I think, among both the MA community and the general public, the Golden Age of Eastern martial arts seems to be the late 1800s to mid 1900s. Figures such as Itosu, Kano, Funakoshi are revered as having god-like wisdom and physical ability. Are the martial artists of our era better than their predecessors?

That's not always the case, imho!! Physical reason(s) might force one off the floor. Emotional reason(s) might force one off the floor. And these two considerations might not allow one to train ever again. What I mean to say is that the physical side isn't the only thing to consider. There is also, for me, a mental part of training, such as I might obtain from books and meditation. Good post. I think this echos my philosophy. Even if training physically is not possible, it is often possible to continue to learn mentally.

Thanks for the answer How does your kumite factor into your training? I'd imagine you have to make some adjustments here and there.

Could you define "rotational dynamics"?

Not enough. One of our classes in the week is very cardio intensive and outside of that I try to run between 3 and 6 mile per week. Ideally I'd like to be skipping and then either swimming or rowing too but I just can't fit it in my day to day schedule... Occasionally my training partner and I also go Hill sprinting but we only manage to make it around every 6 weeks or so. Got to try to work on it this year.

Congrats to your son I've been competing abroad for a number of years now. My absolute number one tip would be pack your belt(s), gi, mouthpiece and anything else that is absolutely crucial in your hand luggage. Too many times my team's gone away and the baggage hasn't made it with us! Sparring gear and the like you can usually find replacements for but it's nice to have that comfort of having your belt travel with you. Other than that, if this is something you have control over, I would also suggest arriving a good few days before the competition so as the jet lag isn't too bad. This also gives you a few days to get familiar with the area you are staying, where the amenities are and some time for last minute training. Oh and if is England, all I can say is bring clothes for both sunshine and for rain! One minute you can be fine in just a tshirt, next it's pouring down! If you have any questions about coming to London, quite a few of us on the forum are British so I'm sure someone can answer it. Best of luck to you both!

My friends have 3 proper tarantulas, when I'm over at their house I'm constantly looking to make sure the tanks are locked. One of them is a bird eating spider, it's still a baby but it can grow to the size of a dinner plate I think my friends are secretly trying to get rid of me! M. Yep you wouldn't find me at their house! My mum is actually from South America and bird eating tarantulas are a major reason why I'm really really hesitant to ever visit family over there.

Thanks for the kind words

Congrats on getting back in the dojo! It's one of the hardest things to do as life always seems to get in the way for people.

We have the same situation often in TKD with a few notable examples recently. Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do but to get your head down and train hard yourself. In the end people realise that those who falsely obtain rank don't deserve it and those that do get taken in by it are students you can afford to lose anyway. To borrow a sensei8 maxim: the proof is on the floor!

I agree on the learning curve aspect. Proficiency in the so called traditional styles takes much longer to gain and you could argue that this is why they are less effective at producing good fighters quickly. I would say that traditional styles have more complexity and depth to them. There are a great many intricacies that do not lend themselves to an overnight study. It's an average or 3 - 4 years in most styles to gain blackbelt (what most would consider basic proficiency). The relative simplicity of kickboxing / boxing means that individual techniques can be learnt much quicker and in the same 3 - 4 year time span more time can be devoted to practicing them. As Bruce Lee said "I fear not the man who has practiced 1000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 1000 times". Without wanting to get into and effectiveness of kata debate, non-"traditional" styles also have a greater amount of training time allocated to sparring and partner drills. Their practitioners have all great deal more live training and are pressure testing the techniques every session.

I'm with you on the spiders! Paralysing fear is probably an accurate description. I currently have one trapped under a bucket on my landing which noone has volunteered to help me with... At least I hope it's still there! I'm also a little bit claustrophobic... Things like lifts and the like are fine but anywhere like tunnels where I might have to crawl through are a major problem.

Welcome to the forum Mark I have a very strong history of diabetes in my family. My grandmother developed it in her teens and over the years slowly went blind until it effectively made her entirely dependant on others for care. Watching her go through that has made me appreciate my sight so much more and my worst nightmare would be to lose mine. What I'm trying to say (badly!) is that it is inspirational that someone such as yourself has still been able to train. If you don't mind answering, why did you pick Karate as your chosen discipline? With a background in Judo anyway wouldn't a grappling style have been a more natural choice? Especially given that a lot of BJJ/Judo/wrestling can be based upon touch?

Taekwondo does use all three variants although you are probably right in that the instep and ball of the foot are the more favoured. Why do we use the ball and the instep? For a couple of reasons: Firstly ball of the foot gives you a longer reach than the shin. The instep even more so. In points competition this is naturally an advantage as it allows you to spar at greater range and keep the opponent away. It is also a part of our methodology in that we are taught to keep the opponent at the greatest range possible and to be very hesitant to give away range. Hence the emphasis on kicking ability. Choice of ball vs instep for us it to do with the angle. Ball of the foot is stronger but it has its limitations. For proper use of the ball of the foot, the target is almost always on the 45 degree angle in front of you. This is so that the ball is pronounced and there is less risk of catching the toes. If the target is directly in front then the instep is preferable as it can be angled properly. Another consideration is that invariably when using these techniques outside of the dojang, you will be wearing shoes of some sort. Most shoes aren't flexible enough to pull the toes back so instep can be used as a) it is a natural position for the foot in shoes and b) it is also better protected. Of course the shin would be fine too but to use that would be giving up range which goes against our methodology.

I find that interesting. Especially given we are talking about your absolute dream student. I'd rather have a 50:50 split maybe even lean more to physical ability. I think you can work on the enthusiasm and interest but if there is zero natural ability I think even the 100% passionate student will really struggle and become disheartened. You asked, but you find my answer interesting, but your 50/50 is ideal! I find that interesting!! Not everyone is physically gifted!! You gave me two choices; physically gifted or enthusiasm, and I selected the latter of the two. I didn't choose physically gifted because, imho, teaching the MA isn't suppose to be easy. Physically gifted also eliminates teaching students who are handicapped in one way or another. This is what I've perceived!! I'll still take enthusiasm 100%!! Well ok I can understand enthusiasm being the most important trait for most, but I assumed (wrongly so) that everyone wouldn't go for the extreme of one over the other and we'd get a spectrum. Only meant to be a fun question. Doesn't matter whatever answer anyone chooses to give.

I hate to say it but I actually think something like ITF TKD would be a nice middle ground. The kickboxing sparring elements align such as pivoting on the ball and the way you'd block and to extent the kata and traditional elements are also present. That said, if you really do feel like it's causing a problem, go with what enjoy more. Maybe this means training exclusively in boxing /kickboxing and perhaps picking up Karate at a later date.

I find that interesting. Especially given we are talking about your absolute dream student. I'd rather have a 50:50 split maybe even lean more to physical ability. I think you can work on the enthusiasm and interest but if there is zero natural ability I think even the 100% passionate student will really struggle and become disheartened. For me, I don't think that I am naturally talented at MA in the slightest. Everything that I have done and accomplished I worked very hard and it was disheartening at times! Especially when some new student would become the favorite because they just naturally picked up on things and that was never me. That being said, because of my enthusiasm I became the first BB for that teacher, and those that became favorites usually didn't make it all the way. I can teach technique and I can help those who find themselves disheartened, but it is much harder to implant enthusiasm in a student who has none I don't believe that I should try to. If it's not something they love I shouldn't make them love it. I can show them why I love it, but that doesn't mean that they are going to love it in return. Well I can empathise with that as it is very much similar to my own journey.. I was always mediocre even though I was trying my hardest and watched my peers automatically be able to do anything they were taught. Often though other students in a similar position found things so frustrating that they just gave up instead. With regards to your last point, whilst I don't think you can force someone to love it, I do think you can excite people and show them why is such an awesome thing to do. Especially kids who have a natural ability and can take things to the next level. I guess this is dependent on how you view my question: my thoughts are that "ideal" was a completely hypothetical dream student that you only get one of and 0% ability to really mean absolutely the complete opposite end of the spectrum: 0 strength, coordination, fitness etc.

I find that interesting. Especially given we are talking about your absolute dream student. I'd rather have a 50:50 split maybe even lean more to physical ability. I think you can work on the enthusiasm and interest but if there is zero natural ability I think even the 100% passionate student will really struggle and become disheartened.

I make mistakes all the time; most people do. To err is human.... I've watched international competitors at the top of their game completely botch things before. Masters too. At least you can recognise you've made a mistake as that's half the battle! You can then identify yourself what you need to work on and start fixing rather than get stick in a rut because you don't know you're doing it wrong.

I totally agree. Like other sports, if they want to increase viewership, perhaps look at the structure of point scoring and perhaps the rounds. But stay true to the sport. I think just getting rid of the padding would make the event more exciting, and much less of a point game. It would also change the strategies just a bit, but not so much that it wouldn't be WTF TKD anymore. More contact related strategy would ensue, making it much more fun to watch, I think.It certainly would change things up a bit I think. But I don't think more contact will automatically make it more fun to watch. Interestingly enough, over the past few years there have been some rule changes in ITF sparring to make it more "technical" and exciting to watch. Each competitor must now throw a compulsory technique or be deducted 2 points each round. The compulsory is something with at least a 360 aerial spin or a 180 switch back kick. Punches are also limited to no more than 2 in succession. Whether it's more watchable is personal choice but we are starting to see more and more matches like this:

http://www.kidokwan.org/articles/teaching-special-needs-taekwon-domartial-arts/ Great article on teaching students that have some form of special needs; physical, mental or emotional. Thoughts? Anyone have their own experience to add?

Happy Birthday Noah

Great responses thus far Here's a follow up question: Taking a look at these two qualities: physically gifted vs enthusiasm What ratio of each would your perfect student have? You've got 100% to allocate between the two. Would you want 50% enthusiasm 50% physical ability? Or maybe 60:40? 25:75? or maybe even 99% of one of those traits and only 1% of the other?