ITF TKD

[aefibird]

Jake, a good friend of mine teaches ITF style TKD. He's been asking me for ages (read: years!) to go and train with him at his club, but I've never had the time or opportunity to do so, until now.

 

This Christmas he's running a "holiday club" type intensive course for his students. I think that it's so they don't just sit on their butts and each chocolate all holiday! The course is for a fortnight (the length of the UK school Christmas holiday) and is mostly aimed at beginners and lower grades.

 

Now, for once, I've actually got time off over Christmas and I'm able to go and train at Jake's club on this course.

 

However, I've never trained in TKD before and my knowledge of it is based on watching one session at Jake's club (which looked very interesting!) and also from reading about TKD on Karate Forums.

 

So... (finally getting to the point!) can anyone give me any tips for starting in TKD? It's unlikely that I'll be able to carry on with it after the 2 week holiday course, but even though I'll probably not be training in TKD after Christmas I'd like to get it right for the short time that I do train.

 

Also, can anyone point me to any links with video clips of ITF patterns?

 

Thanks!

[Keumgang]

Here is a link that will show you some downloadable Taeguek poomse, but I seriously doubt that you'll be learning all of them so concentrate on Taeguek #1-

 

http://www.deestkd.com/poomsevids.asp

 

Also, here is another link to some Taekwondo terminology -

 

http://www.tulsataekwondo.com/Terminology.htm

 

Good luck and have fun. I think you'll enjoy it!

[tufrthanu]

OK not to contradict Keumgang too harshly but if you are going to an ITF school you should know that they do do their forms somewhat differently in that they have a sine wave motion. If you want to see how they do their forms the way Choi intended...I have Legacy on cd-rom which has videos of the various hyungs and I could send one. This is their main site...well its the main site they used to have the ITF has since splintered a little bit http://www.itf-information.com/main.htm

 

And heres another site that has clips if you want to look at this...I cant recall how accurate they are though.

 

http://mchenry.homeip.net/TangSooDo/forms/

 

Otherwise the most important parts of TKD that you may not have dealt with in Karate are to stay on the balls of your feet when you do a spin kick, and remember to get a good spring off when doing jumping kicks.

[Keumgang]

Ahhhh that's right. He did say ITF and what I posted more or less pertains to WTF.

[The Saint]

When I was looking to start learnig of TKD I attended both WYF and ITF classes. I found that WTF was not practical for me. I decided to train traditionally (ITF), as it is quite useful. At white belt and yellow tip the was no head contact and only hands. Then at yellow the kicks started (just one kick at a time). When I got to Green Belt the kick evolved into multiple (no head kicks yet). Now I am a Red belt and I am allowed to kick to the head. The theory behind this is to crawl before you walk, walk before you crawl, run before you sprint...etc you get the point. Hand skills are really nice and a lot of ITF fighters fight sideways. Lead jab, Lead back fist, sidekick and round kick are used a lot and can be quite useful. My side kick is my best kick and it keeps 3rd and 4th Dans away from me when we are sparring.

 

Why not try it....just like reading, the more you read the more you'll know.

[John G]

Aefibird,

 

With regard to patterns, if you’ve had exposure to karate and wing chun you’ll find it a walk in the park, especially if the camp is for beginners and lower graders.

 

Don’t be too concerned with learning the patterns up front, as there are many subtle differences between ITF TKD and other martial arts you may have been trained in, especially when it comes to stances, sine motion and crossings on techniques.

 

Keep an open mind and have fun.

 

Respectfully

[SloMo]

Stretch, start now and keep doing it. If eelse you'll be amazed at how much you can increase your flexibilty in a short period of time. Plus, it's something you can keep doing after it's over.

 

Since you are only going to go for a couple of weeks, I personally, wouldn't worry too much about the forms. Focus on the basic techniques and the exercises.

[Sam]

Hello, just like to start and say HI to everyone. I just joined literally five minutes ago.

 

Been reading stuff here for a while and thought I could comment on this one.

 

Just to voice my opinion on this one.

 

If he teached traditional Tae Kwon Do International recognised ITF Style TKD and the lesson is for beginners you will likely end up with a lot of line work, some basic 3 step sparring maybe a bit of free sparring or 1for1 sparring [not sure how popular that is in america].

 

As regards your sparring - ITF differs from WTF greatly in that the use of hands are allowed and the contact should be [for most cases] semi contact [as unlike wtf chest protection isnt worn]. Also ITF styles greatly favour front leg attacks with a side kick being the most commonly user probing technique. Most of the better sparrers [for points] tend to keep the leg chambered in the side kick [yop chagi] position and consectutively kick [yonsok chagi] at varying heights drawing the guard and then without placing the foot down following through with an axe kick [naeryo chagi] and a flurry of hand and foot techniques to the mid / body section [kaunde].

 

If you have epxerience in Martial Arts [which you obviously do] and the instructors class is not huge such that he is unable to concetrate that much on one student, you may end up doing some jumping kicks [twigi chagi] along with any other experienced students.

 

Generally these should be performed without a hop before the jump at all from an L stance [niunja sogi] [if you do karate its pretty similar to Cat stance ive been told], with the legs a shoulder width and a half apart in the shape of an L with the base of the heels lining up with 70% of the weight on the back leg and 30% on the front.

 

Favourite jumping kicks: side, reverse side, turning, reverse turning [leg should be completely straight througout]; 360 reverse turning for fun, double 45 kick.

 

Hope this helps - flexibility and plyometric strength are the things that will help you most in Tae Kwon Do.

 

does that answer your questions?

[aefibird]

Great answers! Thanks everyone!

 

I started the beginners course earlier this week and I'm really enjoying it.

 

Apart from my tendancy to 'karate-ise' everything (my karate stances are wrong for TKD for a start! lol) I'm learning a lot and seem to be doing well, according to the instructor.

 

I'd love to keep training in TKD after the beginners camp is over, but there's not much chance of me being able to fit in training in TKD along with my other MA training.

 

A pity, since I'm enjoying it so much.

[street fighter]

If you have trained in wing chun then may i ask what is the reason for the other arts, is just to expand your base of knowledge, for fun, or for some other reason. This not meant to be inflammatory just a question into why different people train in various arts and some never do anything different. I find it to be a good thing to see and experiance what others do so that you do not windup training in the dark.

 

Thank Ya'll