wingedMonkey

That's pretty awesome, yea, it was only like a two months ago or so when he finished training with them. He seems to be really good friends with our master so he told her some training stuff. Yea black belts also still midterm. A lot of people don't like it but i do because it makes it so a black belt doesn't just memorize his form and does it at the end. Also, you must now do the prequalifications before every testing i believe. Awesome isn't it! So you HAVE to be in shape...ooo soo many blackbelts are struggling right now lol. I am happy cuz I won't be one of them...i mean come on I'm in better shape than some 2nd degree 17 year olds!

Well, the thing everyone has got to remember is that the kicking techniques were always there thanks to warfare during the three kingdoms era. But TKD as a style is brand new, and consisted of mixtures of other styles. I'm sure he trained a bit with Kung Fu but i didn't mean he was like a direct practitioner, kind of like how our recent master was training with the Shaolin Monks. But yea, the third degree was based on Kung Fu though. And i'm tired, Now i'm running three miles every Monday and Wednesday after practice of those days...yikes..my mile time i believe is actually 8 minutes! i thought it was like 9:30 for the black belt prequalifications!

Yeah, he did all his learning from General Choi but that doesn't mean he stopped there, and no one else should stop at one person or style, but yea, i believe he continued to look into the history and stuff when creating the upper ranks stuff.

The previous master made the forms.

I know he did, and in fact the grandmaster recently came back from training with the Shaolin monks and showed us some exercise moves because our master, she is really good friends with him . In fact she is always mentioning how she has him on speed dial .

Hey, I just found out today that I was right, it was second and third degree about the soft and hard one. Third degree is based off of Kung fu, it has those circular brushing away movements, kinda from some Wushu Styles, and even has a monkey block.

i'm starting to do jump hook kicks and it's crucial to get it right when doing the ground one so that when you do jump ones all you have to do is jump and then execute the rest of it normally.

hmmm, I'm probably thinking more of the urban ninjism that E.M.C. does..

Yeah, you're right, he should try and do more equal work out on both legs to be completely perfect, uhh..even though I'm probably not as good as him, I do try and keep both legs even.

Yea, these are the red belt ones, I don't think they used to have sparring combinations on some of the manuals before because i've noticed when i look at old sheets they don't have sparring combinations down but they do have the One - Step combinations.

So you are saying that jumping from rooftop to rooftop, or stepping on the railing of stairs about five stories up brings no danger?

Not sure I understand... do you have to do X of them in per sparring match? I personally hate to use them when sparring. For one, my size means I can't disguise it well and two, I just don't find it effective in scoring/hitting. nah, ATA has what are called sparring combinations which are quick umm, i guess what would be considered, example combos of what you might do in sparring.

Yeah, its a required combination, but i think it is good cuz it shows you how to link up butterfly kicks with other stuff and builds up your endurance. Cuz it's like anyone can do butterflys but can you do them for like a long time, nonstop, and with correct technique, that's why i probably love the sparring combinations.

I've been doing my first sparring combination with a butterfly kick and it is freaking tiring now in practice. I have been doing butterfly kicks all my life, but now at red belt sparring combination i have to do like the combination about 20 times in a row, which gets super tiring, i'm excited though..what do you'all think?

Thank you! That actually gives me lots of needed motivation because I am also around 5'5 or 5'6. The weird thing about me is that in the past four years I have lost 95 pounds (yes, 95) I used to weigh 275 in my freshman year in college, I now weigh 180 pounds. Thanks again though because I was starting to have a voice in the back of my head tell me, "hey this isn't possible..." but of course anything is possible if worked hard enough for.

Well you shouldn't let your leg go loose, you are supposed to tighten your muscles...

Hmmm, I can see using this motion to kick with the free leg, or to do as I described and push off the "gabber" to escape, but I can't see how you would intend to "kick again with the leg that was trapped" until you have somehow broken the trap. That's the whole ponit though, twisting your whole body causes lots of torque, which is more than likely impossible for the other person to hold on.

Well, I've always been into TaeKwonDo all my life, and when I was a kid growing up I always thought, "oh no!, what happens if i get into a fight with a boxer or somethin, he'll beat me!" but as I went on through my life and different styles I learned that as you go up to rank, that's what TKD works on, for your feet to be as fast as another persons punches, to be able to get out of a corner using reverse jump kicks to the person's abdomin or a jump reverse side kick. You know, these techniques sound too tough to do, but that's because they are. That's why they recommend that anyone who is a yellow belt and below, not to fight, in fact it's discouraged because you could get seriously hurt, but in ATA there are a lot of people that have a really good saying that goes, "When you get to Black Belt, that's when the Real learning starts." I think I agree with that so much that when I get my ceremonial Black Belt, my engravement that I will choose for the other side will be "White Belt" in Korean.

That is awesome what you did ps1 and yeah, it seems like all they were, were bullies because they are afraid when confronted face to face with options of settling things.

Well if he trapped your inner crecent coming to his head, you would then twist your hips and lift your back leg to bring it around in the opposite direction, so you would do a 360 behind you, and then kick again with the leg that was trapped, or i guess do what some styles call a universal kick and kick with the back leg too if you couldn't get your front all the way back forward again.

wow, this is wayyyy off topic but one more comment is that i'm guessing more tougher forms also allow you to develop your mind which TKD is supposed to do not just ur body. So yeah, my master told us that one was based on Kung Fu and that's why it was really circular and smooth. I like the third degree form a lot too But back on topic, one of the weapons we practice is actually the Broad Sword. Which i noticed when the time came around to practice that, a lot of TKD people couldn't get used to the whole circular and smooth motions around your body, I noticed a lot of people were really stiff, so that may be another thing, that once you learn either Circular or Linear, its a challege to learn the other. We have one guy that did Kung Fu for a long time and i notice he tends to have a harder time getting used to specific stances where you must be in a perfectly aligned position.

Yeah, its just basically honoring him for starting the whole thing since he is now passed away and a lot of people usually think why some dude, created a TKD style but he actually learned straight from General Choi and was a third degree black belt when he first headed to the U.S.A. He created the Songham Forms after believing that the traditional ones didn't show enough of the vast kicking techniques.

Oh, that's just a honorable thing they call the 1st Grandmaster of ATA, the one that made the Songham TaeKwonDo forms.

if they trap you thats when you rotate ur body and do a reverse butterfly kick to their head using ur other leg. or i guess a double kick would work well because either they'd be so strong and quick they would catch both legs and hold you up in the air, or both would fall to the ground.

hmm, it might be the first and second degree form i'm thinking about. Like i said, there are two forms i know where one is really stiff and hard, and the other is super circular with lots of circular blocks and hits, basically are master told us of how our Eternal Grandmaster based one on kung fu.