Montana

Perhaps brought to us by the same people that brought us the Pet Rock?

I agree that if a kick to the head connects it can end the fight immediately. No argument from me on that one. The objection I have to high kicks is that they are relatively easy to avoid and couinter if you train for that, and watch for the signs of an impending high kick and are ready for them. Those of you who have expressed that high kicks are effective, I'd be curious to know if you train to defend against them, such as attacking the groin and knees, sweeps and take downs,.

High kicks are good for one thing IMHO and that's for flash. Which I'm totally against in the martial arts.

Photos, authentic certificates, movies/videos, confirmation from verified other sensei that are their peers, etc

We use the groin as a viable target area, so we like high kickers,.,.,.A LOT! Also vulnerable are tghe knees and inside of the thighs. In a street fight, which is what we train for with no rules, high kicks are great...if they connect. But if not, they leave you off balance and quite vulnerable to countestrikes. There's only been one person I've met in my 30+ yearas in the arts and watched spar in a tournament that really impressed me with the speed and accuracy of his high kicks. I don't remember his name, but he was a Canadian (I think out of Calgary) that practiced Savate. Man, that guy was fast, balanced and accurate! The bnext month he was flying to france to compete in (if memory serves me...) the Silver Cup?

TODE SAKUGAWA 佐久川 寛賀 (1733-1815) BUSHI MATSUMURA 松村 宗棍 (1797-1889) NABE MATSUMURA Nabi (c.1860-1930). SOKEN HOHAN (1889-1982). KUDA YUICHI (1928 - 1999) DENNIS MILLER, GREG OHL, RON LINDSEY, JIMMY LEE ME

Yes here also. Your instructor needs to know these things and talk to you about what happened.

I hold a 3rd Dan Black Belt in TaeKwonDo issued by the late President and founder of the American Korean Karate Association (long since defunct...thank GOD!), and interestingly enough, I've never so much as taken ONE SINGLE CLASS of tkd! My experiences with TKD are based on my observations while visiting around 50-100+/- dojangs in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Georga, Florida and the UK. Also, I have been a tournament judge and referee (usually center judge/ref) at all-style tournaments since 1978 where I have had the opportunity to watch students AND instructors of TKD compete in sparring, kata and weapons. As to your question about how long it took me to learn the TKD punch? Based on my observations of TKD over the years, I wouldn't be the least bit interested in learning it from the vast majoprity of people I've seen use it in kata or sparring, as it goes against evwery basic principle that I believe in for proper execution and technique. That's ok if that's what you want to do, but with 30+ years in the arts I feel I have a better than average grasp of good versus not so good technique.

All parents think their children are the perfect little karateka, yet in my experience, the vast majority of parents rarely watch every class their child is in, or quite honestly can't look at their childs progress through an unbiased eye to really see how their kid is doing. I've had many parents ask me why Little Johnny hasn't tested yet because he has been in longer than that other kid that did test. I have to explain to them that kids develope and learn at different rates at that their child just isn't ready yet. Also, put some of the responsability on the parents. Ask them if Little Johnny is practicing at home, and how often. Are they watching them, or just taking their work they practiced, when in reality they were playing video games in the basement. As the parent to coem to class on a regular basis. Basically, get the parent involved. You never know, you might just get them interested in taking classes too!

Over thinbking? Oy yeah, most definitely. Where you said "Still I did not have a great increase in skill from green until my brown, my fitness has not changed much, in fact my knowledge of kihon, bunkai, and kata are almost the same. I have merely logged in more hours, and refined some of my kihon.": Well, I don't know where green and brown belts fall in your system, by changes in skill levels happen gradually in general, with an occassional "WOW!" thrown in for those "I finally got it!!! moments. I've been an instructor since 1978 and believe me, your instructor can see your improvements better than you can.

You're kidding, right? Boxing and grappling are easy to learn? Im sorry, but I'm going to 100% disagree with that statement.

You live ian London, one the the largest cities in the world...surely there is an embroidery shop somewhere that if you take in the kanji it can be compouter scanned and reproduced on a cap. I did that with Shorin Ryu kanji for a baseball cap and back of one of my coats. You'll probably have to pay for the firsttime computer setup, but after that it should be pretty cheap.

Very rarely do any of my students fail a belt test. Why? Easy...I don't test them until I know they can pass. I don't have formal testing days, and my students all know they are tested EVERY day in class. When they are where I want them for the next belt level, they are awarded that belt and we keep going. Each of my students knows what I expect of them and what they need to work on to advance.

Since you don't list any information in your bio, like where you live or any systems you study, I'll try to figure out what you're trying to say here. If I understand you correctly, you want to know if you can just do a little bit of this system, a little bit of that system...mix them all together and be any good? My response would be....no. Like building a house, you need a good foundation of basic principles and techniques, regardless of the system, and somebody to show you how those principles are incorporated and built upon as yoyu progress in learnibng a system. Now, once you have learned a system and understand fully the pribnciples of that system, THEN you can incorporate other philosophies and techniques from other systems into what you are doing.

Your best advertisement is your students. See if you can challenge them to each bring in one new student and maybe offer to give them 1/2 off each month they bring in a new student that signs up and PAYS a full month fees. Offer is good only for one student per month, but if each of your 6 students brings in a new student, then all of those bring in one the followibng month, you'll have a huge class ian a few months. Of course, not everybody will stay, but if you make it a continuing offer you'll develope a core group of students that will be out there recruiting for you. That worked pretty good for me when I started teaching at first.

Yep..me too! Couple of old ...uhhhh...dudes I guess.

Practice, practice and more practice...and when you think you've practiced enough, practice some more! Also, try to relax your entire body when you punch and tighten only at the moment of impact.

I don't believe it's as "hard" of a system as Gojo, but is more like Shorin Ryu in the sense that the system gets "softer" the more you learn and understand it. In all honesty though, I really don't know for sure. What I do know about it though, I like!

In a word, No...I haven't made any changes to what I teach because of MMA, movies, pressure from students to add breaking or flashy techniques. I teach my students what I was taught by my sensei (and various other higher sensei that I have worked with) as closely as I can. I believe 100% in my chosen system, flawed or not, and have successfully defended myself numerous times, including against 3 younger opponents ON THE STREET, using what I have learned in the past 36 years. That's good enough for me, so why change it? Now, if I was training students for the ring, not the street, then yes, I'd probably start doing some modifying of the system, but since I'm not, nor ever will...the system stays the way it was taught to me unless somebody over my head tells me I'm doing it wrong.

Great topic! And one that fits me perfectly, as I'm one of those that pops into dojo's every chance I get, especially when travelling. I try to keep an open mind when visiting another dojo, especially one that doesn't kbnow that I'm a martial artist also. First of all, I look at the discipline of the dojo. Is it run like a military organization with a lot of "Yes Sir/No Sir" or is it more relaxed. My preferences are to the more relaxed schools, but that is me. If you like a more strict environment, that's ok too. Secondly, I look at technique of the higher belts. I wouldn't even want to guess at how many black belts I've seen that, IMO of course, are generating the power that a lower ranking kyu/colored belt would generate. This alone will tell you if you're in a good dojo, or bad. I watch sparring, which despite the system, is generally pretty mu7ch the same everywhere, with only slight differences, such as Korean systems using more kicks and less hands (generally). As an Okinawan system instructor, I favor the 50/50 hands/feet and kicks to be lower. I look at weapons usage. Do they know what they're doing, or is it all for flash? If the students/instructors are holding the nunchaku higher (close to the cord/chain) then that tells me they are either self-taught, or just plain haven't a clue as to how to use the weapon. If time allows, and I like what I see, I will attempt to talk to the head of the dojo and introduce myself and let them know I liked it. On the other hand, if I didn't like what I saw, I would most likely sneak out the door at the end of class before they try to sign me up!

While I can't argue that traditional weapons are not applicable in this day and age, study and diligent practice of them is IMO. If you learn the various traditional weapons you will find that that practice will transfer over to many every day objects because you are not only learning specific techniques with specific weapons, but you are teaching your mind and body to use a weapon, each of which has it's own way of working and being manipulated. Sure, you may not have a jo/bo handy to defend with, but you might find something similar and your body and mind would already have the experiences of drills to know how to utilize it as a weaspon. You may not have a tinfa handy when attacked by a baseball bat, but maybe you have a MagLite that can be used to block that bat from cracking your head open. You may not have a set of nunchaku handy, but you know how to use a rope to block, a set of jumper cables to flick, or a towel to trap a weapon, leg or arm. Personally, I have a "bull cane" in most of my vehicles (my wife won't let me put one in her Rav4) and I think they are GREAT for self defense! If you don't know what a "bull cane" is, check out your local farm and ranch store (I know you all have them, right? lol) and you'll see they are a bit longer than a normal cane and a bit thicker. They are also quite light weight...rattan I think, and they are not only nearly industructable, but they are LEGAL TO CARRY ANYWHERE, including on an airplane. I took one of mine to the UK once about 6 years ago, mostly to just see if I could. I faked a bit of a limp, they looked it over and x-rayed it and on the plane with me it went.

I've judged and ref'd open tournaments for 25 years or so and would recommend them over a single style tournament any day. If you want to test your sparring skills, open tournaments are the only way to go because yoyu are fighting against possibly Japanese, Korean, American and who knows what other systems, not just your own. in my experience, most systems all fight pretty mucgh the same, but there are differences. Some systems use more kicks than others, and higher kicks. some systems view the groin as a viable target, others don't. Some systems use their hands a lot more than others, etc. As has been mentioned, watch as much as you can prior to your event to get a feel for what you're going to run into. You might want to also check out a thread I posted a while back called From a Tournament Judge and Referee's Perspectiveon this topic. GOOD LUCK!

DWx, I meant no disrespect in my post, but rather to attempt to answer the question of the thread, which was why does TKD get disssed. As to what organizations the various TKD schools belonged to that I've visited around the US and in the UK, I haven't a clue. I drive by, see a sign in the window that says TKD (and karate schools also) and walk in the door to watch a class if possible. I have been doing this, and continue to do so, since around 1975. The only TKD class I know for sure what organization they belonged to was an ATA (American Taekwondo Association, long defunct now I believe)school in Great Falls, MT (USA). It was operated by a self-promoted "9th Dan Master" that for a time, before he started promoting himself and basically going a little crazy, was my friend. As for the dojang in the UK I visited, it was in Norwich back in 1998 when I was there for personal reasons. My host and I were driving and I saw a sign on a window, so we stopped and went in for an hour or so. I have no idea what organization they belonged to, nor did I ask because it had no bearing on my wanting to observe a class. I also went into a Shotokan dojo during practice in Lowenstoft, where I was staying and had the opportunity to practice with them for an evening.

The question is basically, "Why does TKD get bashed so often as being ineffective?" There are a variety of reasons TKD gets bashed all of the time. Namely: 1. Black belts as young as 6 years old (I've seen them). To other tradition martial artists, this is a joke! It makes no difference if you label them as "Junior Black Belts...as black belt is a black belt. 2. Emphasis on high, flashy kicks which if they connect, are great, if not, they leave the TKD practioner HIGHLY vulnerable and off balance. 3. Emphasis on kicks, little on hand techniques 4. Literally no grappling techsniques. 5. No defenses against weapons, or weapon usage taught. 6. Break a board, get a belt testing mentality. Commercial schools especially are typically geared towards easy belt tests to retain students. (this is where the term McDojo origionated I believe) There are probably others, and of course, there are always exceptions. There are hybrid TKDschools that teach grappling and weapons training, but those aren't "pure" TKD. In my 25+ years as an open, all styles judge and referee, typically the TKD fighter will 90% of the time lose their matches because they don't kbnow how to use their hands, protect their groin or block punches. I've also had the opportunity to watch and talk to instructors from many TKD schools (various organizations) in California, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan and one in the UK, so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with what I'm seeing taught and practiced in TKD schools. Now, if the mods want to delete this post, they most certainly have that right, but I did answer the question that was posted from my own observations and experiences.

If you allowed head punches, the high kicks would be seen a whole lot less. Allow full contact groin kicks (street fighting) and the high kicks would undoubtedly disappear.