What are the Basic Movements?

[karatekid1975]

Sometimes, he warms us up and then just talks to us for 45 minutes...

Hey, that happens in my dojang too! Right Laurie !!!!

Not that I'm complaining or anything.....afterall it's not always about the physical training is it.

Yes it does Specially when Master Kuek wants to get something into our heads! LOL

[markusan]

I start off class with joint mobility, then warm ups, running, sit ups pushups burpees squats, then horseriding stance hand strikes to start groin stretches then into stretches/ These are done in a specific order along modern scientific stretching guidelines. When we're warm and stretched we do kicking techniques to keep the length in the leg hip and back muscles. After that we do sparring then basics and patterns. I always put basics toward the end of the class because they tend to shorten the muscles. If you put them at the start you tend to waste the initial stretches. Also self defence and one step is toward the end of the class for the same reason. always finish with stretches and warmdown.

At the start of class I concentrate on stretching antagonist muscles like hamstrings and groin because they work against full extension. At the end of class I stretch agonist muscles like hip flexors, quads and hip rotators because they are the working muscles that get tighter during training.

I thinh instructors these days should have some logic behind their training order rather than just follow tradition/ Also I have problems withe basics being done always in the same order. My brain goes to sleep. But that's just me.

[Sam]

I try and keep things varied with the warmups - but stick to a general pattern , make sure all the basic stuff gets done.... try and keep a theme throughout or a certain style.

[karatekid1975]

My instructor did basics last night (finally LOL). He did all blocking techniques for basics. It was forms night, and he's been picky about forms lately (and the way some people block), so that's what he had us do. He went around the room and corrected everyone. I still have a habbit of doing TSD style blocks (same blocks, different execution) once in a while and he caught me LOL.

[taekwondomom]

Wow, Markusan, I wish I could take your class!

This is the way we begin in ballet, which I also take: with very carefully planned exercises to get us ready There's a real logic to the order of the warm up exercises at the barre, and they all work toward getting the body ready to dance, stretching at certain times, flexing muscles at certain times, etc.

Are there places where TKD teachers learn these scientific guidelines?

[Sam]

Not that i know of - but im from UK so there may well be places you can learn it in America.

I guess one alternative is to take a course in fitness instructing, or something similar.

I get most of my stuff from books like "stretching scientifically" - or just tlaking to the guys on crossfit.com

[markusan]

I picked up my routines through reading, practicing yoga and more importantly pilates. Also by putting every piece of gleaned knowledge to the test. By the way the woman i learnt pilates from was a highly qualified ballet instructor.

[Sam]

Reading definitely a good start - tehre are a HUGE number of good boooks out there about stretching; exercise, and the scientific principles behind them. I only really started getting in really looking at how and why stretches / exercise works recently, and just reading ive found out a lot; but like all things there is a LOT of junk out there with people trying to make a quick cash from people who want quick results

[younwhagrl]

In our school, we start out with our streches and warming up, and we do situps and pushups, then we do kicks..then we do, as a class, basic technique as follows:

all of this is in a front stance:

down block

center block

center punch

inside block

outside chop

inside chop

double center block

high block

side punch (riding stance)

Yellow belts and up after side punch in a back stance:

double knife hand high

double knife hand low

double fist low (or double down block)

This is what we do in the Youn Wha Ryu system, everyday, then after this we do forms!