DWx

Who are the governing bodies for Shorin Ryu in the states? Just give them a call.

Congrats Heidi

Yeah, that's the whole point.Which would be worse, I mean, the better leg workout, running on the beach, or hill sprints? I imagine each has their own properties for making us stronger.Try both! Last year we did sand dune sprinting. Try running up this: http://www.richk.co.uk/MMawr/MMawrPix.htm Europe's largest sand dune. (I puked at the top )

Running on the beach is the worst. Can't get any "push" off and it just saps your legs.

Congrats!

Welcome Benjamin

I tend to agree with ShoriKid here. I think that Wrestling entails everything that an Olympic sport should be. Athlete vs athlete, who are very skilled, strong, fast, well-conditioned, and talented at what they do, and the sport is decided by the athletes, and not by a judging committee that interprets artistic design. If the things like the Spartan races continue to gain popularity, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up making it to the Olympic games eventually. OK that is a good point and I don't disagree. It does seem to embody the Olympic values. But with respect to your last comment Brian: "Athlete vs athlete, who are very skilled, strong, fast, well-conditioned, and talented at what they do, and the sport is decided by the athletes, and not by a judging committee that interprets artistic design." What would your thoughts be on gymnastics? That too could be considered a cornerstone of both the modern and ancient Olympics and does require athletes who are skilled, strong, fast and well-conditioned yet it is largely judged on how artistic the performer is.

They don't control what gets shown at all. The Olympic Broadcasting Service films it all and it's up to the networks to pick what they want to broadcast and then to put their commentary and graphics on top. During London the BBC were pretty amazing and we had access to every single sport... could watch whatever you wanted. I suppose this might be a bit controversial on here... but why is wrestling being in the olympics such a big deal? I know that it was part of the Ancient Greek Olympics but so was chariot racing and running in full or partial armour (the hoplitodromos).

Are you currently training and are a member of a school? Which organisation are you a member of as that is probably the easiest way to find tournaments to go to. If you want to compete internationally you have to start making the rounds on the regional/national circuit and get noticed. Then get invited to begin training with the national squad or get asked to come to some sort of trials. At least that's how it works for TKD in the UK and I don't imagine that Karate is dissimilar.

They absolutely smashed the Barbarians earlier. 59 - 8. Looking good for the rest of the tour.

Wow...is headgear going by the wayside for good? I think that it's dangerous for the amateur division, especially for children, imho. Head injuries are a serious thing, and they shouldn't be taken lightly by any governing body. I'm in agreement with Adam. From personal experience I think the negatives far outweigh the positives on headguards. They dull your senses; you can't see as well, you can't hear as well. You feel hot and sweaty in them and it's all round a bit uncomfortable. They're also of limited use when the face isn't covered as a lot of hard shots come in to the jaw or full face. And the type that some people wear with the plastic face part just seems dangerous to me. One hard shot and you've got cracked plastic cm away from your eyes. The only time we absolutely insist that kids wear them (and suggest that adults might want to) is if we are sparring on non-matted floor. In those situations they are of more use as they protect the head if you get knocked over.

ITF TKD experienced all this in 2002 when Gen. Choi died and the politics are still in a state today in 2013. There was a structure in place, there was (and is) a constitution and a set of by-laws, but various things happened and there are now 3 main groups that carry the ITF name and all claim to be the "real" ITF. On top of that there are now many independent ITF groups forming which are led by masters who want to be independent and free from the 3 ITF's and their politics. The result is a complete mess and it's hard to keep track of who is associated with who. It also very much weakens ITF TKD as a whole as there is no sharing of knowledge between the groups and they all have their own championships and seminars. Well I did continue All this began happening about a year into my TKD journey and to be honest it barely effects grass roots students. A lot probably have little understanding of which group they belong to and what that entails. Once you start getting to the point you want to travel to train and you want to compete internationally it starts to become a problem. Often masters and teachers who belong to one ITF don't fully acknowledge those that belong to another. Or at least if you complete a course or grade with one group it means squat to another group. And in terms of competition, with 3 World Championships going on and subsequently 3 "national squads" per country, competition standards are somewhat diluted compared to what they could be. It's all quite sad really as the General had always hoped to see WTF unite with ITF and also South Korea unite with North Korea yet his own organisation and legacy completely fractured upon his death and there is very little hope of the ITF ever unifying.

Good luck Gareth

I agree. To most TKD is no different from Karate. FWIW squash is very popular in Britain and in Europe in general.

I'd be interested to hear his counter-arguments for kids sparring. We start are kids off sparring from the beginning. First no contact then progressing them through to light and medium contact as they get a bit older and a bit more experienced. They learn hit and how to take a hit but it is very controlled. It's for the same reason that adults spar. It's all very well having them practicing kicks and punches in the air but that doesn't give them anymore self defense skill than dancing would.

Interesting post Justice. Posture is definitely important. I'm currently undergoing some physio and have had foot orthotics to try to correct my own posture and sort out my back/spine. When I studied Tai Chi Chuan a lot of emphasis was place on trying to tuck the pelvis under and it's the same sort of thing my physio is trying to get me to do now.

Welcome

Welcome

So I've happened across the new Kukkiwon membership website: http://kms.kukkiwon.or.kr/ Lets you see how many dan members are in each country and how many dojangs (and where they are located). You can click on the map or at the drop down menus to look by country or continent. Some rough stats: 8.5 million blackbelts / 7400 dojangs Africa: 32 000 / 171 Asia: 8 000 000 / 624 Europe: 110 000 / 2300 Oceania: 25 000 / 160 America: 340 000 / 4000 (I have rounded the numbers and I don't think it's a complete list). Can't get over how many blackbelts are in Asia! I figured it would be more than in other parts of the world but not 95%!!! The distribution between grades is pretty noticeable too. Taking Great Britain: 1st dan: 4419 2nd dan: 1603 3rd dan: 688 4th dan: 299 5th dan: 115 6th dan: 55 7th dan: 17 8th dan: 2 Because I'm sad enough to waste my time doing it, if you plot that onto a graph, it's almost a perfect exponential drop in numbers. The website also lets you check to see if someone has a registered poom/dan grade. Might be useful if you're wanting to train with someone and you want to check they do actually have that grade.

To put that in perspective, the Kukkiwon boasts 26 000 blackbelts and 3500 dojangs in the US alone! Nevermind colour belt students.

Welcome kindj

Welcome Mark

Mines a bit boring really . My initials plus an X so that it was 3 characters. Should have gone for something more inspired like DWsupremegrandmasterx

Depends on the fighters and their relative range. A lot of the good fighters who purposely have a longer reach will back up to keep the advancing fighter on the end of their legs. Especially if the other fighter is piling forward all the time. Slamming a good switch back kick or side kick will stop all but the heaviest fighters.

Personally I don't favour going backwards myself because I am a heavyweight and I stand a much better chance if I hold my ground or go forward. For lighter more agile fighters I don't see it as so much of a problem. But not just going back defending all the time. Going backwards and picking your shots, using footwork, letting them come to you, that's fine. But back on the defensive not so much. Eventually, like tallgeese said, you will run into something or run out of space; be it a brick wall or the edge of the ring. Since you do the same style of TKD as me, why not watch some videos of sparring to get an idea of how to move backwards effectively. Search for any of the fights from previous Euros or Worlds and there's loads of good examples of how to move effectively.