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Good interview. Both yourself and pitbullJudoka have always seemed very knowledgeable about all aspects of martial arts and I look forward to reading your posts

Great read. When I first joined the staff I always looked to your's and Heidi 's examples of how to approach situations and how to resolve them

Great interview I enjoy reading your posts as it's great to read another UK perspective on things

Well I'd say no because I'd assume you would you have to be able to define a martial art and if said martial art was teaching effective skills to determine if it was lethal. Would systematic martial arts practice make you any more lethal than 2 guys messing around in their basement with a punching bag? Is an old lady practicing Tai Chi for her health lethal? Also does it mater if the training is effective or not for you to be considered a lethal weapon? Martial gymnastics or something like XMA isn't necessarily trying to teach you to be a top fighter per se. And if some styles are exempt from the lethal - label, how would you go about deciding which are and which aren't? MAs aren't all too well regulated so I could teach something dangerous and call it Tai Chi to my students or I could also teach what I call full contact Muay Thai when really it was about as lethal as ballet. You might also argue that a lot of budo styles also impart a moral code alongside physical skills so there is a sense of responsibility.

Yep totally agree with this. Do whats right by you and your school then you have nothing to worry about! All this is very dependant on why you are practicing the kata in the first place: what are you hoping to develop our improve by doing it? That should dictate how you should practice.

Yes it most certainly is. Just as you may find TKD tul or hyung odd, kata practiced in the traditional Japanese / Okinawan way has always looked odd to me. Wrt the height of the kicks in that video, it's funny because in ITF you would be severely marked down for that. For us, ideally tul is fighting an attacker(s) of similar build to yourself. We would question who he is kicking in the head? For us a high level kick would be directed to the temple / eye level at most, no higher, so any high section kick in you tul should be at exactly this height. Mid section kicks as in my earlier posts must be between hip and shoulder height (shoulder is better for artistic value) and if they go above this height you have not executed the correct move. If you don't mind, what was it about the stances that was considered poor?

For ITF yes they are - world championship videos. Stances are spot on too for dimensions and weight distribution. TKD as a whole prefers more mobile thus higher stance so that it is easier to kick. ITF is probably about half way to Karate when you compare it to the WTF poomse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnvGcIqCPFs How would they differ for Shukokai? Maybe you could post an example of a good demonstration?

The breathing? We are dictated to sharply expel air / grip the core on impact. To brace for impact and stop any secondary movement but also to function somewhat as a method for regulating breathing. A sort of kiai I guess. Again much louder that usual because it's competition.

That is a crazy amount of countries... Feel a bit self-concious that so many people could be reading the idiotic things I might say

To be fair the Canadian is good but the Korean is in a different league altogether. IMHO I think the Canadian dips down too far - makes his movements bigger but also slower. Might be personal taste though. Looking at a finals match shows the practitioners more in sync with each other: I can't say how it is for Karate or other styles of TKD but there is most definitely a preferred tempo for the style I practice and this is to do with the up down motion (we call it si e wave... Just don't ask ). In both videos I've posted, the competitors have most likely never met each other yet they maintain the same rhythm because that is what we are told is correct. Now this is competition so style and aesthetics are part of it and an individual may decide it is better to hold their kick for a fraction of a second longer or pause ever so slightly. When you have a lower level competitor vs a more experienced one then theycan end up out of sync because of this. In this video you can see that the Russian is perhaps a millisecond behind on his moves and over the course of the whole tul this all adds up and he ends up finishing behind. He does hold his movements a fraction of a section longer.. Although he is also quite a bit taller so that does come into play slightly too. In all honesty, I don't this there is a right and wrong method for doing kata.

Anything to Welsh is a bit challenging You guys need to learn to be less about the consonants and start using all 5 vowels!!! I have to drive through the valleys a lot and can never stop and ask for directions because I can't pronounce the place I'm trying to find

That's a side to the discussion I'd not expected! This Ryu is different to that Ryu as the other Ryu is different form the Ryu over there because.....blah ...blah....I think we all get that and understand, but ..... the same Ryu in a different organization differs? Really? Kinda of surprised and confused by that! Not to derail the topic but to shed a little bit of light on this: in TKD the organisation often dictates the style practiced and the two terms are used interchangeably. TKD is about as diverse as Karate is as the name "Taekwondo" was all but forced on anyone teaching martial arts in Korea in the 1950s. So we have rely a whole range of styles that fall under the TKD name. It's long and complicated and tangled up in North / South Korean politics but largely we have 2 main "styles", those allied to ITF (North Korea) and those to WTF (South Korea). In addition you also have groups that either didn't join either of the federations or that broke away at some point thus resulting in another sub-style of TKD. I know that this is Karate topic but it is interesting to see how different groups practice the same kata as there is also a lot of difference in TKD too. To explain it a little better, here's an example of what's generally considered right by the ITF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Z6bhDHDDA although because it's competition it's over exaggerated. Compare that to this rendition: The differences should be obvious yet both renditions would be deemed right by their respective organisation. Even if we look at ITF on its own (because that's what I know about ) there are most certainly stylist changes between country and depending on who your master is. Subtle but definitely noticeable. You can usually tell whether someone was trained in Russia or Czech Republic or England for example by ever so slightly stylistic differences. And also if we look at what was "correct" 10 years ago it most likely isn't the same today. For example, compare this video to my first link (skip to 3 mins in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ-z1p74SQI That's an official training video from the 1970s or 1980s. Even to non-TKDers it should look different. How should a kata be performed? However you have been told to! It depends on what you are using it as a tool for.

Sucks.. Hopefully you'll have a speedy recovery!

Thanks for sharing yamesu - great read

Great interview CredoTe. I always like reading your posts for your knowledge and experience.

Great read - always look forward to reading your posts. I think everyone is guilty of this to some degree. It would be more worrying if people never re-evaluated their stance on something despite receiving new information and experiences.

10 years was a massive achievement and your posts have always been top quality - I always look forward to reading them

Great read.. always enjoy reading your posts pittbullJudoka

Great anecdote about Mr Clark.. I had always wondered Always been funny to me because Mr Clark just happens to be the name of one of my TKD coaches!

Love reading your posts Devin and it's great that KF made you feel part of a community and motivated.

Nice article, these would be some great drills to integrate into a class

Congratulations

It seems like it would be a little difficult to properly observe all of those students thoroughly. Our gradings tend to run around 15 or less and then students are assessed in 2's or individually by the panel.

Congratulations Patrick! 500 000 quality posts is a massive milestone

Simple answer: depends on who's judging. If you have a couple of categories or matches before you, watch to see what's winning them make a decision based on that. Although as you've said: Shouldn't you be demonstrating TKD and thus perform Choong Jang?