DWx

Well haven't lost weight as such, just rearranged it Been working out more and doing more weight training so the fat is being replaced by muscle - least that's what I'm going to tell people!! I've not done much with my flexibility other than maintain it so I'll call that a goal failed Tournament-wise I just haven't been doing them this year. I did one in March but didn't even place in the forms division and got another 3rd place in June. But I'm not too bothered as I did better in the other disciplines (sparring and breaking). WRT to the running, after messing around for most of the year, I started properly in October with a TKD buddy of mine and so far we've gone from couch to doing 4.5 miles twice a week. I foolishly agreed to do the 1/2 marathon in May so have planned to try to gradually add in an extra mile each month until I'm comfortably at around 9-10 miles. In the interim, there's a 6 mile (10 km) cross country run I'm signed up for on Dec 30th. Not a bad year but 2013 can be better

Sounds awesome Do you know who's going to be teaching? What kind of stuff do you get up to?

Congrats guys Think it's great that there were so many nominees for things - obviously goes to show how many great people are on the site!

I disagree. Although it's not technically "martial arts", I think a martial arts themed physical education program is great for that age and that karate schools with properly trained instructors would be great places for that. Kids at that age are growing in leaps in bounds when it comes to motor skills and having a place for them to practice those motor skills is awesome. They can gain more control of their movements, balance, etc, all while learning social skills, following directions and being a part of a group. If it's well-run and pays close attention to physiological development, it'd be just as worthwhile as enrolling your child in gymboree or other programs designed to help young children gain those same skills. There are also a few basic self-defense skills you can teach even to kids that age like dropping to the ground, holding tight to something big like their bicycle and yelling "you're not my mommy/daddy!" if an adult they don't know tries to take them. I like it. I'm with Lupin1. It's most likely not proper martial arts but a class that teaches basic motor skills and things like stranger danger and general awareness. We run one at our school. It's no different from sending your kid to some other activity like acro or swimming or something. They're great for development and feed in nicely to proper classes later. They also make money for the instructor which can help support a main adult program.

Welcome mocochoco

Great topic. I'm a bit late to the party but have some thoughts on a couple of things: Although I have no issue with someone studying a martial arts primarily for self defense, I don't think it's fair to say that if you aren't learning self defense then you are just exercising. Martial arts encompass so much more than that and there are many different reasons for people to study. Yes self defense can be a focus but Karate, Judo, TKD, Kung Fu are all art forms too. As such, just like dancing or painting or playing an instrument, martial arts are also about expression and can be an art form to be mastered, not just exercise. Studying a style in this way can involve more of a focus on preserving technique and history rather than studying it for self defense. TBH some martial arts aren't even that relevant as a self defense system nowadays anyway because they were developed in a different era for different situations but that shouldn't mean you're not doing martial arts if you study them. Also the problem I have with this statement is that some martial arts weren't developed for self defense anyway. Ninjitsu wasn't for self defense - it was for espionage and assassination. Boxing developed as a combat sport and not self defense style. I suppose in a way this kind of also goes back to that thread on whether Karate has no soul without kata. If you aren't studying the system in it's entirety when does it stop being Karate and become just techniques? As far as this goes, I kinda agree with him. Largely because there can be reasons buried in the history, philosophy or culture surrounding a style that mean things are taught in a specific way. And often, either due to ignorance or sometimes to justify the way things are done, people give meanings to things which are plain wrong or make little sense! Or things are done in a way that is no longer all that relevant. But without looking more into the whole style and not just the self defense component, you might not explore this. For example, for both of us, since we both do TKD and the same forms, it's worth remembering that the vast majority of it comes from Karate (Shotokan). I don't know about you but the idea of the non-punching arm being used to pull the opponent isn't something which is taught specifically in my TKD or looking at those crossed-arm chambers for blocks, the idea of them being a trap or part of a tuite sequence isn't taught either. Yet it can be applied to that move. Without studying more outside the self defense focus and looking at the martial art as a whole the you'd be unlikely to find that info yet it will only strengthen your self defense.

This is just conjecture but I would have thought that MDK developed in a similar way to the various styles of TKD. Most likely Hwang Kee was exposed to Shotokan (as were the other Kwan leaders) and developed a style from there. He probably just kept using Karate kata because he didn't feel the need or want to create new ones just for MDK. This is a brief biography which does mention him learning from Karate books but doesn't specifically mention any Shotokan teachers: http://www.tangsoodoworld.com/reference/reference_history_of_MDK.htm

Great post Shizentai Look forward to reading more

Congrats! What did you have to demonstrate?

Unfortunately egos will always be there. It doesn't help that often we're supposed to pay extra respect to our senior grades and we put them on pedestals which just helps fuel the fire. With martial arts, often grades seem to = respect so people assume that they must be more deserving of respect because of the colour of their belt and not just based on their attitude and skills. I'd rather not single out individuals but I could name a few people I've met in my style who are guilty of this. Even in my school there's a few who need to watch themselves or pretty soon their massive heads won't fit through the door! Fortunately my instructor is a really down to earth guy so no worries there. IMHO when people start developing this attitude that they're better than everyone else, their peers and their own seniors need to step in then and there and stop it from developing into a worse problem.

Sounds like a good testing. We've got some 1st and 2nd dan blackbelt candidates testing today and tomorrow at an area grading. Are there set breaks or can you pick your own as long as there's a jumping one, a spinning one etc.? In our org we have to demonstrate both hand and leg breaks; one of which has to be a power break and one has to be a "special" break (something jumping/flying or just difficult to do) + whatever else you want to demonstrate. Then on the day the examiners can ask you to do some other ones too if they want. My 3rd dan breaks were fairly run of the mill stuff because the following week I was due to compete at a big competition and couldn't afford to injure myself. With hindsight I probably should have waited to grade until after. I am eligible to do my 4th dan at our next testing cycle (but I'll most likely wait longer) and when I do it, I've provisionally decided I'm doing a knifehand brick break and I want to try a flying 2-directional split kick... Good luck to your guys who are testing

News report speaking to the head of the Ban family of the Koka Ninja clan and to Masaaki Hatsumi of the Togacure clan, founder of Bujinkan. http://bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20135674

I was thinking in class today, do you guys learn the "official" meanings of the forms? Like how Se Jong is named after the King Se Jong, the 24 movements represent the 24 letters of the Korean alphabet, and the diagram represents scholar? If you do have to learn them, must be pretty futile when what you're doing doesn't match up? I mean it doesn't really matter so much that what you're doing is different, but I bet for some students it causes some confusion if you didn't know about other versions of the form.

It's an unfortunate that you no longer have any of the old photos as that's a little bit of history lost. Have you asked around current and past students to see if anyone had any copies? Or if they are lost forever, start new memories and make your own history. Take photos in classes and any events you hold. My instructor routinely takes class photos and grading photos every year and whenever we hold or attend a special event like a tournament or seminar, out comes the camera. If you're looking to have a new collection of memorabilia, yourself and the other high grades could donate things to build it back up. Stuff like Bob sensei's first belt or someone else's 9th kyu certificate from 40 years ago etc. If you're feeling nostalgic, another nice thing to have might be some sort of book that the longtime students can write down memories of Shindokan related things. Like that time ... visited the dojo. The photos are lost but the memories don't have to be. Also, if you have some free time on your hands, now might be a good time to start filming Shindokan. Videos of yourself or others performing your kata as they should be, examples of set sparring, free sparring, people doing tameshiwari, 10 min lessons from yourself on a particular subject. Then not only can you make these videos available for the student body to access whenever they want, you can preserve Shindokan for the future.

This is a great idea. This is what I was talking about-- took me awhile to find it. You'd only do that with adults, I'd think. I spar against the kids all the time and 190 pound 25-year-old me going against a 70 pound 10-year-old is awkward. They're afraid to get close to me, so I usually encourage them and leave myself open and let them get me a few times before I start trying to hit them back (and then I usually just barely touch them, if at all and go slow and tell them when to block). We spend so much time nowerdays telling kids to keep their hands and feet to themselves and discouraging any form of physical contact that it's really hard to break kids of that mentality and let them know it's ok to be aggressive and hit each other and get hit in a safe, controlled environment. You can do it with kids but it's probably best to have parental consent first and only with kids who you can trust to have good control. We do it in class to get used to contact levels and as a conditioning exercise. A lighter version is to get one person to hold a focus pad over their stomach or chest and the other person throw strikes. The one holding the pad still feels the strikes but at slightly reduced power.

Happy Birthday Patrick

I agree. Your best bet with a roundhouse, if you intend to block it rather than move, would probably be to knock it upwards. Lifting the leg somewhat redirects the kick and has the added bonus of knocking the opponent off balance too. Like the dollimyo makgi from Won Hyo or duro makgi from Yoo Sin. There are also some instances of assisted blocks that may be an option; blocks where the other hand and arm brace the blocking arm. But I wouldn't use those unless absolutely necessary.

As has already been said, diet comes first. Otherwise the abs are just hidden underneath a layer of fat. Having said that, crunches alone won't give you the aesthetic abs, you might want to work the other muscles like obliques too.

Do you do Sam-il? Because it's also seen towards the end of that. Probably the most useful application is when say someone has grabbed you round the neck and is pulling you down to knee you in the stomach. The hands form like a cup which "catches" the knee.

I can't see the video on my phone but I think I know which one it is. There are full contact TKD tournaments out there. Not as popular as what you see in the video but they do exist. The other thing with what you see is that they are fighting under rules which reward acrobatic kicks because those at the top want the style to evolve towards that so that it moves away from Karate. Also, although semi contact, the majority of fighters in that video are the light to middle weights. The heavyweight fighters are a world away in how they fight and you'll see less spinning and risky moves because there's more risk of getting hurt. As an aside, if that's the video I think it is, I've trained with a couple of the people shown. edit: yeah it is the video I thought it was

I'd rather break my arm than take a full power kick to the low section. The best defence is not to be there in the first place but if you don't have time to move, better to attempt a block than not to. Also, I don't know about you, but in my school the majority of low blocks move the leg across rather than meeting force with force.

Welcome Tommo-san Congrats on both your grading and great tournament result!

Welcome ossemon

Unfortunately I can't comment too much on Se Jong as on our syllabus it's a 5th dan form and I don't know it. Coincidentally though, last thurs my instructor made everyone run through it in class so I roughly know what's going on even if I don't understand the finer points. As I kinda mentioned in the Ge Baek thread, the provenance of these videos has to be examined to see why the person did the form that particular way. That video is from the Legacy series made by Gen. Choi back in the day and is kinda considered to be a bit old now or at least what you're now seeing in the style has changed a bit. If you looked at how people currently do it, I think you'd probably say there is more individualization of the techniques. (Here's the whole series anyway.) As a side note, all of the videos are of the world champions of the time and virtually all of the people you see in those videos are now masters and grandmasters. Good job again on yours Can see the power you're putting in. I don't suppose it matters at all. Doesn't exactly have a bearing on anything really. From my short lesson on it, I find Se Jong has really weird stepping and movement anyway. See now that's interesting. In our version of Se Jong that is a twin palm pressing block which is a technique I know already because it's seen in Choong Jang. We do it to catch or block a knee kick or a front kick / back heel kick kind of situation. If you have the condensed Encyclopedia, it's the block on the top of pg 226.

This is what I've been told in my training; the crossed arms position is a guard that builds upon your natural response to lift your hands up in defense. Having your arms crossed is also a much stronger position than having two separate arms parallel absorb an attack. And even though not specifically taught to do it, I find this carries over into my sparring and in situations where I cover up to absorb a strike, I naturally find myself crossing my arms and ending up in this position. Then means I'm in a position to come right back and strike too. However I would say that since much of the style I'm in comes from Shotokan, this guard reason could just be an explanation for what we've brought from the parent style without having to go utilize the idea of the trap or joint lock. That's interesting to see the difference between your TKD and mine. Even though in my style the vast majority of blocks and strikes come from this common crossed arm position, we have rules about how the arms are crossed depending on what the technique is. For example, for a basic low block, the blocking arm is on the inside and the backs of the hands are together. But when doing a middle block, the blocking arm is on the outside and both arms are palm outwards. Largely the positions are related to making both arms twist and if you're blocking or striking pinky finger side, that hand tends to be on the inside and for thumb side, it tends to be on the outside. How did your ATA method work for something like a low section strike (if the striking hand has to be on top)? Or a block that travels up? It sounds like a nice simple way to do it and you don't have to remember what's what for each technique (like we do) but it seems like sometimes your non-blocking/striking arm might get in the way?