DWx

I somewhat agree with mal103. Yes he probably should have taped down the wire for safety reasons but spacial awareness is part of Martial Arts. I would also say a 10 year old is old enough to make the connection between expensive laptop = stay away from it. Grading days are especially stressful for instructors as they have a large number of students to organize and examine. They're usually accompanied by a whole load of paperwork to fill out and it is actually quite a big thing to sit there and ensure you examine people thoroughly. So I'm not saying it is right that he shouted at your child but he was probably already pretty stressed anyway. Besides which, instructors do not have to be your friend; they just need to be good at teaching. Do you expect his school teachers to all be friends with your child? TBH looking back on my own school teachers I'd say the best one's were the one's who didn't care if I liked them or not but cared that I paid attention and did as I was told. You do have to draw a line between professional life (Karate teacher) and personal life.

Go to the school you most feel at home at. Matters less what style they actually teach and more how they teach and what the focus is. Do you know what style the TKD is? Just as Isshin Ryu is a type of Karate, there are many styles of Taekwon Do also.

Happy Birthday Bob! Hope you had a great day

Welcome

Welcome Dave

Great article Brian. Media supplements should definitely be embraced but students have to be discerning.

Congratulations Shodan melbourne! (guess you better change you're username )

Welcome Tony

Welcome ozm8

We just had one last weekend. 1st to 3rd can be conducted on a local or regional basis. For 4th and above you have to apply to headquarters and they choose who you should test under and subsequently where you will have to go for it (may be another country!). Anyway, 1st to 3rd testings start several months in advance of the actual testing date. You attend a "pre-grading" where your general ability and physical fitness is assessed. If you pass you get invited to the actual grading. - Start by written paper (multiple choice) theory questions and those going for 1st dan must submit a short essay on any aspect of TKD they like. - Non-examinable are warm-up and any line work the instructor wants to get candidates warmed up. - Then all forms up to grade. - Set-sparring including 3-step, 2-step, 1-step. Unlike some schools were don't have any set combinations; you have to come up with your own responses to both pre-determined attacks where the examiner will tell your opponent what to attack with next then also one's where your partner can attack with whatever they like. - Hosin Sul or what is essentially self-defense against grabs and more realistic "street" attacks - Normal free sparring, 2-on-to-1, 3-on-to-1, foot only sparring - Power breaking and special breaking Then just for fun students can opt to do pre-arranged fight/self-defense sequences using their TKD.. non-examinable.

Somebody rang? So I too wanted to get the proper pronunciation and meanings of things. A really good book I found was this: http://www.amazon.com/Taekwondo-Korean-Language-Terminology-Reference/dp/1445231050/r Although it is mainly Taekwondo terminology and the author can't get enough of telling you that English TKD students butchered the Korean language, it should be pretty useful. There are plenty guides online to learning how to read and pronounce Korean. The great thing about Korean compared to other languages is that it is fairly easy to learn to read and write (and subsequently say). Unlike the vast majority of languages that evolved, Hangul was actually invented so it is somewhat systematic. Look here for a list of loads of great resources for learning: That is true. Dojang (도장) is the Korean version of the Japanese Dojo (道場). In fact if we write dojang in hanja it becomes: 道場 which, of course, is naturally identical to the Japanese kanji form. Go back a step further, Do 道 itself is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Tao 道 (note that it is the same character). Tao is quite hard to explain briefly so I would point you to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao but essentially Tao is a concept that there are underlying pathways or currents throughout the universe. You become attuned to Tao essentially through disciplined and balanced mind and body. Hence martial arts dojos are places of the way. Fun fact: in Zen Buddhism meditation halls can also be called a dojo.

I think encouragement vastly depends on who is giving it out, who is the recipient and their relationship. Unfortunately there isn't a one size fits all approach. With my own instructor you know when he is encouraging you when he comes over and gives you corrections - he sees potential and you are worth his time. His wife offers praise. Of my two coaches, one shouts insults and tells you to "get your fat backside moving!!" whereas the other one doesn't say much at all and you have to read his body language to know if you are doing well or poorly. At the end of the day some people thrive on being told that they've not given enough, that that last kick sucked. For other's it might have the opposite effect and they might take it as discouragement. That's where as an instructor, coach or even training partner you have to get to know the other person and see what motivates them.

Yes sorry to hear about your grandmother - I hope she has a smooth recovery. You do get bad classes... and unfortunately bad students. With people like the 1st kyu you described, if they don't want to put any effort in, I don't put any extra effort in to help them. Just let them coast along and they'll have a rude awakening sure enough when the grading date comes around.

Great article They seem somewhat similar to the Confucian Virtues... Though I guess they stem from the same school of thought.

Loads of sparring based games: - Mirror game where one person moves forward and back, side to side and switches stances. Partner has to try to keep up and do the opposite movement. So they go left when their partner goes right. - Variation on the above. Have the "attacker" try to tap the other person's shoulder and the "defender" has to use their footwork to keep just out of range. - Another variation is to have some focus pads and the reacting person has to track yet still throw punches. - Same drill but for balance: do it hopping on one leg - Play tag sparring. Using footwork & fainting to tag each other on the shoulder or on the inside of the knee or (lightly!) stand on the other person's feet. - Tag sparring but introduce rules like you have to spin 360 before every tag or at least one foot inside a small circle at all times. - Games like dodge ball or normal tag - Stand both feet parallel facing your partner and either forearms to their forearms or palms to palms and try to get each other off balance. Like push hands drills. - All sorts of footwork in between cones or through ladders

Congrats Hawkmoon

Congrats

Welcome KarateGiUK

TBH you can use them and sometimes it is necessary but like danbong said all it does is make people associate pushups with a punishment and not a good thing. I think it's better to ask the person to sit out or threaten (and then remove) a good thing that was going to happen such as a game you were going to play at end of the class. If you are going to dish them out for kids (or even adults) instead of punishment for the single kid, make everyone do it as peer pressure can be really effective.

Welcome to the forums Sifu88 I second the social media suggestion: FaceBook, Twitter etc. make your own personal brand get noticed. Aside from that, can you do something like taster sessions in schools or run mini sessions in conjunction with other kids groups? And of course: demos. As much as you can at local events.

Congrats Injuries suck but at least you did the smart thing and took some time off to let it heal.

Too be honest it's probably because Tang Soo Do is not too disimilar from Tae Kwon Do, and by extension Karate. And the public in general aren't all that interested even in watching Tae Kwon Do films. Martial Arts is just Martial Arts to them.

The way I think some differences come about is from Joe Bloggs adapting the form to fit his particular body type or ability or even just personal preference. Over the years he teaches his version to his own students and then this just becomes how he and his school do it. Until one of his own student's starts changing things and the cycle repeats. I study ITF Taekwon-Do and for the most part the student body as a whole seems to be fairly consistent with how things are done. Our founder, Gen. Choi laid everything out very clearly in a 15 volume encyclopedia series so what we have is set in stone. However over the years we have had a number of different changes implemented, minor ones grant you but changes nonetheless - usually because one of the masters decides that it is a more effective way of doing things. These changes do seem to be pretty consistent globally though as you will see practitioners from all over slowly implement them. What I have noticed though is that you can actually see various masters' influences on their students as often you can actually tell which country someone comes from based on subtle variations in how they perform.

Sad story, RIP. I compete internationally in TKD and it is an issue in our team. Fortunately for me I fight in the top weight division so personally it does not matter what I weigh however my team mates aren't so fortunate. When we go out to tournaments usually you will weigh in 1 or 2 days before the start of competition and even if you are 0.1 kg over your weight category, you have until the end of registration to weigh in under the bracket. For some competitors this means practically starving themselves weeks before and even then as soon as we arrive at our hotel it's straight into the sauna fully clothed to sweat it out. I've known someone to cut near 5 kg in the space of few hours before. TBH one of the issues we as a team face is that at ITF continental level and above, each country can only enter one competitor per weight category. Our best fighters all tend to naturally be in the same weight bracket so one or more people usually end up having to cut to drop down a category or risk not competing. The thing is with weight categories is that you do have to have them to make fights fairer. A lightweight would understandably struggle to fight a super heavyweight. However it is artificial in a way as all it does is push people to go to extreme lengths and massively dehydrate themselves - weight which they put straight back on after weigh in. A fighter that has done this will also usually not have enough time to recover properly before fighting and will subsequently perform poorly. As a result I think the points that are mentioned in the article that the NCAA implemented for wrestling are positive things.

Heh funny reading my OP 5 years later... To shed some light on what I said in my OP all them years ago, the ITF under GM Choi Jung Hwa do still practice what the rest of the world call Juche however they now call it Kodang. Still think they should have just done away with Juche completely if they didn't like the name and meaning behind it because now the meaning doesn't make much sense and doesn't match what the student is actually doing. Either way it's great to watch it when it's performed well... sucks to have to perform it.