Kuk Sool Won Practice Schedule

[taiji fajin]

So for those of you that practice Kuk Sool, what is the general lay out of your practices? I'm a fairly new instructor at it and would like any possible ideas to incorporate into my own practices, which are about a hour and half long. Here is how I run it now:

 

First 15 min are a light warm up (jumping jacks or light kicks / punches to get muscles loose), and then stretching so we aren't hurt.

 

Next 30 minutes are teaching new techniques or forms, or just refinement.

 

Next 30 minutes have the class split in half. People can choose whichever they want, depending on what they want out of Kuk Sool, but they are encouraged to do both options every week (we have 3 practices, or 4 for brown belts and up, each week). One half does a Kuk Sool oriented workout. The other half continues to practice techniques, forms, etc.

 

The last 15 minutes are when we meditate, along with announcements for the class.

 

So, what do you guys do in your practices?

[krzychicano]

Our classes only last 50 minutes and we do 15 minutes of stretching, 20 minutes of techniques or forms (depending on the day), and then the last 15 minutes doing some form of cardio like running nak bubs or practicing kicks where you start on one end and have a partner and you kick down to the other end and back. We have various things that we do, but that is the usual breakdown. We spar about once or twice a week.

[SBN Doug]

taiji fajin,

 

Are you teaching at the same dojang you learned KSW? I ask because giving a choice is not always a good thing. As we are taught, we need ballance. Just because someone like techniques better (like me) doesn't mean I should be allowed to choose working on that and not my forms, or basic kicks & punches, etc. Esspecially when we are under black level, and might not see the need to work on it all.

 

Everywhere near headquarters (meaning most of Texas and surrounding area) they stay pretty consistant to what krzychicanno wrote. If you go 2-3 times a week, you are supposed to choose Mon./Wed. or Tue./Thur. The Monday and Tuesday classes focus on forms and sparring. Wednesday and Thursday are techniques and kicking/punching. KJN always throws in different stuff to keep up the variety, but those are the focus.

 

When I was in CT, driving an hour on Fridays t train, I would stay for 3 hrs and go from A-Z on all my material. If I was due to learn more, my instructor would teach it when I was in the general material area (i.e. forms, techniques, etc.)

[taiji fajin]

KSN Doug

 

Yes, I'm teaching in the same dojang that I learned in. With the choice aspect, I think I came across a little the wrong way. People are not allowed to only do one or the other. They have to do both each week. There is just a leftover day since we have an odd number of practices where they can be in one or the other. I do understand your point about people avoiding what they least like to do (and usually need to do the most) though. We specifically focus on our problem areas during the practices that are brown belts and up. I will definitely take into consideration your advice on the splitting of class, though.

 

Kicks, punches, etc are trained both during the warm up, work out, and the practicing sections. We don't avoid those, though I admit there is more emphasis on techniques and forms. Part of this comes from the lack of teaching we had from our old instructor on any kick mechanics, part from my own dislike of kicks.

 

What I do feel we actually are being undertrained in is sparring. We grapple a lot, people love to stay after class and drill or live grapple, but sparring time is almsot non existant. In the 4 years before my old instructor left, I think we had all of 5 or 6 days where he had us do anything remotely close to sparring. Even worse, about half the "techniques" for sparring would get you a point in a match that stopped for every point, and get you thoroughly beaten up in real life. I honestly just don't know any profession type drills for sparring, just things I can think of on my own, and then different kicking and punching drills against pads. Another problem is the lack of padding the students have. Most of them are on a very tight budget. The class is made up of college students, and we try to keep the cost low for them.

 

Sorry for the long post, I am usually long winded and will try to keep things even shorter in the future. Thank you for your input.

[SBN Doug]

I'll have to agree with you on the point sparring training. That's one aspect of being up North that I liked. They sparred with throws and take-downs allowed (carefully of course).

 

If they can't afford the gear, then you can break out the blocking pads (or punching bags would be better) and have them practice combinations on moving targets. We would normally go a minute straight, no breaks, and work their way up to 3 minutes straight after a couple months.

[ZR440]

When I was in KSW, our two hour class usually went thru 20-30 mins of stretching and warm up exercises. Then we would proceed with all of our punches and kicks. After that it was on to forms. Techniques were usually last, unless PSBN decided to make us do falling techniques. I do say usually, because he might emphasize kicking one night with rebreakable boards or pads, and then might skip warm ups entirely the next time and go right into forms....forever. We didn't do a lot of sparring because he really wasn't a fan of the point system that's used, but he would get the gear out in the last half hour of class if we pestered him enough.

[KSWDanMan]

Sup... Kuk Soolers!! Been reading here a long time, but finally decided to post. Down here in the Woodlands Texas, we do about 10-15min warm up, followed by all of your forms. When Sa Bum Nym, is happy he usually has us do Kyo Cho 1time, Cho Geup 2times, Joon Geup 3times, Go Guep 4times, etc... until you reach your last.. so Form night is usually just that forms, and then with time left it's nak bub, or technique.

 

We also get continually drilled on stances, on technique night, we usually do horse stance facing one direction, then turn into a long stance slide forward, then, turn and face the opposite direction in horse stance.. But he has us do all kinds of stance work.. This is such a cool Forum!!!

 

DBN. Danny

[taiji fajin]

We do have a fairly large number of pads. Not enough for everyone, and no place to store them, but I think I might start bringing them more and doing more of those drills, thanks. We also just recently got a few rebreakable boards.

 

Dan, you just reminded me of a fun stance drill we do. Horse stance, turn one direction for long stance, pull it back into cat stance (half of the time hold it, half of the time do front leg front kicks), then step with the lead leg across in front into dragon stance, then turn around into horse stance and repeat. All stances are done in the same amount of time (usually 30 seconds or a min) in a nice, low stance. Once you've gone through it twice, you end up back where you started, counts as 1 rep. Not that many people in my club can do that many reps of that . . . . .

[KSWDanMan]

Sa Bum Nym, really drills our stances. That drill you mentioned sounds like a good one. Since I'm on SWAT, I'll make sure to remember that one. And put it to use.. We don't do much grappling, I wish we would though. We do spar really frequently, and I enjoy that. We don't have that many people that like to spar, but our dojang is growing. So maybe in the near future I'll have some more fellow spar'ers

 

Anyone here going on the Korea Trip this year? I would love to go, but my 2 year old may not like that plane ride.

[krzychicano]

No I will not be going to Korea this year, but I know there will be quite a few people from my school doing and various instructors. I can't wait to see the pictures and hear all their stories.