Traditional Taekwondo Techniques

First Know Yourself by Mireille Clark

2012-01-08T07:31:00.002+08:00

The Fourth Precept of Sensei Gichin Funakoshi is

"First know yourself before attempting to know others."

This may sound like a simple plan, but it is deceptive. Many of us believe that we know "who" we are, but in honesty, we wear so many masks, take on so many different roles, and convince ourselves that we are who we are not.

My husband once told me "No one wants to be the bad guy. Everyone wants to wear the white hat." This is so true, and can be seen in the dojo over and over again. We can catch ourselves thinking "If only my partner could have punch properly, I could have blocked that better" or "It's not possible to do this move the way that I'm being asked to do it, my arm doesn't bend that way", or "My instructor is asking too much of me, I'm not capable of doing this"

In each situation we are finding excuses for why we aren't succeeding. We are finding explanations, and arguments in our defense rather than solutions. Being a Martial Artist is taking on responsibility for our own training. We learn to look into ourselves, get to know how to see opportunity, and potential in every moment and action. Are we really as patient as we think we are? Do we look for an easy way out of a challenge, or do we face it head on and conquer it? Are we open to instruction or do we feel that we "know this already"? Can we accept that we might need to try something else, and restructure our perceptions so that we can meet the request of our instructor as best as we can within our limitations?

Our partners are there to do their best, and since they are human, perfection will not be attained. We can learn from these awkward moments, and see them as a potential to cope with the unexpected, and to adapt. Self defense is always a changing situation, and learning about how we personally react to the unexpected, or to inner frustration helps us to find tools to cope in a more stressful moment. Suddenly, we learn about ourselves, and how we can handle these moments better.

Our bodies do not always comply with what our minds want them to do. In fact, when we are tired, or sore, it can be quite a struggle to convince our bodies that this is when we are strengthening, and building muscle/strength/better health. There is a part of us that says "O.K. that's enough.. I can't do any more..." but studies have shown that this is not true. Our muscles normally can do far more than what our head allows them to do. "Researchers from the University of Zurich have now studied in detail what sportsmen and women know from experience: The head plays a key role in tiring endurance performances. They have discovered a mechanism in the brain that triggers a reduction in muscle performance during tiring activities and ensures that one's own physiological limits are not exceeded. " Read more at this site According to this study it is a person's motivation, and will power that will allow them to continue doing more. We have to learn to believe that we are capable of more, and to know ourselves so well that we can see the difference between not far enough, and too far.

Our Instructors are there to challenge us. They see our potential, and ask us to reach for higher than that. Why? because we learn just how far we can go when we stretch beyond what we think we can do. We can never learn that lesson by staying in the safe, comfort zone. Capable, not capable is not the point... WILLING is what is important. Are we willing to step out of where we think it is safe? Do we trust ourselves? Do we know ourselves well enough to believe that there is no such thing as failure when you do your best? Do we allow fear, insecurity, laziness, pride, etc to stop us from growing? Most of us would not want to honestly admit that this might be what is happening. We'd rather blame our environment, and the people around us. This defense mechanism works, but it will never allow you to know yourself.

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Colin Wee
Joong Do Kwan Chung Sah Nim
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Our Super Power

2011-11-21T13:10:00.001+08:00

My Super Power - ability to destress through weekly training!

There are way too many instructors, schools, and clubs in this industry who brag about how good they are, oftentimes with very little to back them up. How many times have I heard: "Our style is the best." "Our black belt gradings are so tough." "Our syllabus is so complete." "Our instructor is so awesome." Yawn.

Several years ago, against this grain, a very accomplished martial artist friend of mine posted that he has even more of a reason not to say he is any good - he simply said he is now dedicated to pursuing and preserving a Koryu tradition. Tongue-in-cheek but solid wisdom from a humble master. Someone I could never beat in the sparring ring.

So ... what would you gain from joining our school?

My aims are simple. To share a small range of hard style techniques from an interesting period in history. Our story is compelling, you should listen to it if you have time. But the reality is that hard styles like ours are a 'meat and potatoes' system. Simple. Unfussed. Otherwise boring to those who would pepper their sentences with terms like MMA, BJJ, CQC, etc.

Our 'program' to black belt whilst challenging should be doable by almost everyone, and can be completed in about 4+ years if you train moderately and consistently. No special physical talent is needed though good coordination is always a plus from the instruction point of view. Come to Joong Do Kwan and gain some good all round skills - some defence capability, some technique delivery, some multiple person tactics, and sparring experience. Just so you know, sparring is not full contact - it's semi contact.

It's the even progress that I think is more important than super dooper sparring skills or having an extensive but superficial collection of techniques. This ability to deal with some conflict scenarios plus the ability to 'power up' a few basic techniques may give you an edge in a confrontation. Come to think of it, just our overall approach increases your preparedness - not just for physical conflict, but mental and emotional ones too. From what I've seen, there's also a major upshot to regular training - the sessions help you to destress from the day, and generally allow you to manage life better on a day-to-day basis.

Now ... what is it that I wanted to brag about?

Colin
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Colin Wee
Joong Do Kwan Chung Sah Nim
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Allowing Rank to Simplify Our World

2011-10-25T09:46:00.000+08:00

Nice belt, Dude.

A beginner feels anxiety going for a grading to win his next rank.
A senior student feels like he needs to put the brakes on because he's 'ranking' too fast.
A shodan feels unworthy of his rank.
A black belt young in the arts feel the weight of expectations to get his next rank.
Qualifying instructors compare the 'quality' of their rank against their peers and others in the arts.
Teachers suddenly become aware that they're climbing the rank structure and start to look around for peer support from people who might understand their stage of development
There is huge dissonance between your expectations of rank and titles you might start to receive. This gets more acute when you receive titles that are 'honorary.' Are you really worthy? Or are these awards actually worthwhile?

In my opinion, there are many martial artists out there that have a set view of rank. Many understand rank only through the lens of a beginning practitioner. Rank is something to struggle with for a number of months, and then there is the need to 'work on' the next rank. The world is simple, uncomplicated, and directed; it is a world where rank is associated with incremental physical challenges.

Pretty soon, the notions of rank and the idea of how it works collides with other expectations and assumptions, and the world becomes less simple. The most major event that arrives is the stereotype of a black belt that everyone has. Yet people in the know understand that a first dan or shodan has really only started the journey. Truthfully, I knew jack when I got my first black belt. Not to belabour a point, the shodan needs to leap over this mountain of expectations built up within himself. It is far from the small incremental challenges previously faced.

I think the internet has been both a boon and bane to rank, the value of your own effort, the quality of your skill, credibility of your lineage, and the validity of your claims. Everyone makes comparisons and seeks to benchmark themselves. But in a world in which there is no standard, you will eventually find yourself on a slippery slope trying to ascertain who is making more progress. But the internet will not tell you who is traveling upwards or downwards on that slope. Eventually you will only see what you were expecting to see.

This was never how rank was supposed to work. It was supposed to be a simple method to structure a 'coloured belt' class, and motivate people to work harder. All black belts were given deferential treatment and duly respected, both for their unrelenting focus on progress and then on their deepening skills and knowledge. No need to jostle for a bounty of rank or title, but if it came, they would graciously accept and take it in their stride. The fuss does not detract from quality or purpose. And the world becomes once again simple and clear.

Links

--
Colin Wee
Joong Do Kwan Chung Sah Nim
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Taekwondo One Step Sparring

2011-10-12T14:55:00.000+08:00

One step sparring is the 'defacto' application of techniques found in patterns and drills of most hard style Taekwondo or Karate schools. For one steps, you have two practitioners facing off, the opponent or 'attacker' steps back into a down block, lunges forward in a forward lunge punch and leaves his striking arm in place. The defender's task is to respond to this attack by using some manner of block and strike, and an appropriate sidestep. You could get very inventive and in fact most Taekwondo schools not only do one steps, they expand this exercise to include three step sparring for good measure.

The one step sparring exercise is the most contrived of all drills.

Using it to practice a wide variety of techniques is one way to achieve diminishing returns from your 'traditional' type practice. In my opinion, the one step is partly an exercise in learning distancing and timing. But the main goal is in the application of basic blocks as effective self defence tools for all students - that specifically means beginners.

In the video you see an application of a lower block to the inside of a strike. The previous week we looked at a lower block done on the outside of the strike. In this week's lesson, the reverse or pull back hand deflects the main strike and the block destroys the striking arm. In actuality if both hands come together quickly as an entire blocking tool, the blocking hand can still block the oncoming strike, and then be used against opponent's body.

Beyond this particular segment of the class, we did the unthinkable - we fold for the lower block, but recognise that the opponent is moving too fast - and from having the right blocking arm next to the left ear, we perform a middle block to the opponent's secondary weapon. It is forcing yourself to use the opening and closing of the arms as an effective windshield wiper to strikes coming one at a time or too fast.

Right at the end you see me deflect the strike with my pull back hand, but perform an eye strike with the blocking hand - before destroying the oncoming strike. This was not rehearsed! But because we perform basic blocks all day every day, we can ad lib like this very easily and still access the basic movements in a self defence situation.

The Problem with Hard Style Systems like Karate and Taekwondo
Taekwondo Pattern Chon-ji Hyung List of Posts
Chon-ji Down Block Drills

Also see Why Taekwondo is Not Good for Self Defence by Soo Shim Kwan
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Colin Wee
Chung Sah Nim (Principal)
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Basic Taekwondo Kick a Misnomer

2011-10-11T20:23:00.001+08:00

The basic Taekwondo kick is a misnomer. It is an undervalued short range powerful technique. Let's talk about the basic kick in terms of the front kick and the roundhouse kick.

A front kick is done on a vertical lane where the roundhouse kick is done on a horizontal plane. It is a short range kick and thus 'compresses' the body, generating power because the upper body and the lower body come closer together. The roundhouse kick does the same but rotated 90 degrees.

The long range version of these kicks seem to be valued more because they are techniques done to keep an opponent at bay - essential for beginners dealing with the pressure of a dynamic opponent. Long range techniques require expansion of the body - meaning both the upper body and lower body travel further away from each other in contrast to short range kicks. In this case, both the long range and roundhouse kicks generate power in a pendulum swing - using the upper body as a counter weight and the hip as a fulcrum.

The vertical and horizontal plane are explored in order to establish the outer parameters for these two kicks. Each slice between zero and ninety degrees are legitimate kicks. If you talk about short range and long range techniques too, the articulation of the hip also allows for a 90 degree variance in angle of entry.

Two exercises that allow a practitioner to more fully explore this are 1) exercises to challenge the practitioner to land the technique and 2) exercises the challenge the practitioner to be aware of the flight path of the technique.

Landing the technique through obstacles and weaseling the foot through three dimensional space forces the practitioner to rotate the hip on the vertical and horizontal and extend it sufficiently for it to land on small targets on the opponent's body. Understanding the flight path of a kick allows you to take advantage of blind spots from the opponent's point of view (e.g. under arms, behind shoulders, or under outstretched legs.)

I urge all practitioners not to devalue the short range kick - it is a devastating part of your arsenal and has to be the cornerstone on which all kicks are based.

Colin

Links

--
Colin Wee
Chung Sah Nim (Principal)
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I see Hwa-rang on the Lawn

2011-10-08T23:48:00.001+08:00

A couple of senior belts and I met to go over requirements and specifically trained in Hwa-rang on the lawn at College Park today.

I wasn't dressed like anything resembling the flower warrior youth group- with a baseball cap and my 'competition' gi from century ma. But we sure looked at techniques that were hard hitting indeed.

The few that I'd like to mention quickly are - a counter against a front lunging technique using a deflect then choke associated with a cross body punch; an attack to the neck as a counter against a lapel grab; a response against a punch and cross using the double blocks to parry and attack; and a ruthless joint attack or arm destruction off steps 4-6.

The Hwa-rang were known for their kicks, or their reputation was built off formidable kicking techniques. We looked at the low x block, crescent kick, and the low block/elbow strike as a response against a lunge strike. The x block is a deflect and arm capture - the crescent kick is an attack to either the hand (if the opponent is carrying a long range weapon) or if not, is aimed at the elbow or bicep. Once done, the practitioner can access Toi-gye level apps and when bringing down the leg - could expand the body and send the leg strike into the oppnent's knee or thigh on the way down.

Surely, something a Hwa-rang would appreciate.

Links

--
Colin Wee
Chung Sah Nim (Principal)
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The JDK Sparring Program

2011-10-03T14:47:00.001+08:00

One of the few things I wanted to accomplish for the Joong Do Kwan was to introduce a sparring 'program' in which students, especially beginners, would learn sparring skills and would steadily improve in their abilities. Last week, we had a few friends visit our kwan, and we took the opportunity to look at the beginner to intermediate stages of our program.

The main problem when it comes to sparring? Sparring should only be part of your entire bag of exercises. Everyone however equates great sparring skills with great martial art ability - and this is a mindset that many instructors try to dispel.

Basic Skills Start Way Before You Spar
Lots of good sparring skills can be introduced way before opponents go head to head. During warmups, students can be prompted to raise their hands above their jawline, and to tuck their chins down into their shoulders. If you get your students to do side skips you can also make sure they're moving on the balls of their feet rather than on their heels. See Warmup Drills to Increase Coverage for Sparring

Non-Contact Drills
We have this multiple person non contact sparring drill where we get one person against two opponents. The 'defender' in the middle has to try and align both of his opponents and use one of them as a shield. After some time he drops the shield and goes to the other person. The rules of the game doesn't allow opponents to grab, so this allows the 'game' to proceed fairly fluidly. This exercise helps students increase awareness, increases cardiovascular fitness, and helps introduce some really good tactics to use in a multiple person scenario. See Taekwondo Non-contact Sparring Training, Multiple Person Drills

Moving Around
Beginners start their sparring training just moving around each other in a circular fashion. They back themselves into a circumference of the circle around each other. Every four seconds they are told to switch and change direction. Hands are held up defensively, breath is managed, and footwork needs to be light.

Calibrating Power
Beginners not only land kicks or strikes on to kick shields and striking mitts - they MUST land and practice strikes on an opponent's body. This is the way in which they are taught to moderate their strikes and control how hard to launch a kick and how to appropriately target an opponent's body. Their opponent should accept strikes comfortably and should communicate whether they need to be struck harder or softer.

Basic Coverage
I think that going up and down the line doing kicks and blocks is great to make sure everyone is getting basic movements correct. But trying to resolve 'the block' as a technique and the speed at which an opponent comes at you is very difficult. So what we do is to repeatedly fold for blocks, swinging the arms together and using that fold as a basic skill for providing coverage.We then use this move - bringing the elbows together against strikes and covering the body to ensure that there is enough speed to deal with an attack. Beginners are paired up with intermediate or above students. They are instructed to only block, and opponents are told to attack with large looping techniques that are easily seen. Students need to continue Moving Around properly.

Basic Coverage is tested using attacks that are less telegraphed. Once the student can continue Moving Around smoothly, breathing naturally, and able to recognise attacks, it is time to up the ante.

Distancing and Attacking
Beginners are now allowed to use one or two techniques (typically a lunge punch and a front kick) to attack their opponent. The opponent should be an intermediate belt and above and is told to cover and block only. Beginners learn to move around, target, and place strikes on opponent's body in a dynamic environment.

Applying New Techniques
The beginner and intermediate practitioner has a lot to learn and needs to improve the speed at which he is processing things around himself. One tool in which can be used to help the beginner is the use of the 'Sparring Bingo' game. The student is presented with 9 techniques and whilst sparring needs to cross out techniques used. This lightens the mental burden the student has, and yet allows them to try different techniques against an non-compliant opponent.

Links

--
Colin Wee
Chung Sah Nim (Principal)
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Taekwondo History

2011-10-03T11:12:00.003+08:00

GM Choi Hong Hi was requested in 1952 to train the entire army in the martial arts. In 1955, 'Taekwondo' was accepted as the name to unify the kwans in Korea.
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Colin Wee
Chung Sah Nim (Principal), Joong Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do
School of the Middle Way - the point between old Okinawan predecessors and modern Korean innovations. Started as HRGB April 2000, reborn as JDK Sept 2011.
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on Traditional Taekwondo FB page. And help us rank on Google by clicking the '+1' icon, why don't you?
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How to Improve Reaction Time

2011-09-28T09:59:00.004+08:00

I assume because of the V neck uniform these guys are doing WTF Taekwondo - specialists in kicks (that's why they're not using their hands). The How to Improve Reaction Time video discusses a few solid ideas that can be applied even by traditional practitioners.

Improving Taekwondo Reaction Time
I really don't like the use of this term. Many people have a set reaction speed, and no matter how much training will not really significantly improve their ability to react to a specific external stimuli. Most often it's about just reducing the additional spare tyre you have around your gut, but that's something else altogether. Let's talk about what other things can work for you:

Slow Down the Opponent
Yes, forget trying to get fitter and faster. First do something that can immediately take effect. You can slow down the opponent by hitting him hard in places where he doesn't enjoy. Getting tagged in one spot creates pain. Having your opponent keep going for that spot creates uncertainty. Uncertainty can be used to open up other holes in his defences. And you don't necessarily have to kick him in the groin to make this happen - but that *is* one way to do it.

Distract Your Opponent
Have you ever talked to your opponent while sparring? It's an interesting experiencing - communicating to your opponent while they're trying to launch something at you. It's tough focusing on higher order thinking whilst trying to dish out attacks. Hint.

Reducing Combination Lag Time
I am a big proponent of training for competition. If you want to hit a person, you may need to launch more than one technique. So put a few sequences together involving gap closing tactics or feints, and make them work for you by drilling them over and over again. Choose different sequences for both left and right side to keep your opponent guessing.

Mirror Opposite Training
Do you think only the biggest losers will telegraph? No ... EVERYONE should telegraph. Many people telegraph by swinging the arms in a certain way for kicks. Or shifting their body. You do it all the time. My challenge to you is to get yourself in the mirror and either 1) reduce the amount of telegraphed movement, or 2) do the exact opposite of that move. Yes, if you tend to move your arms in a certain way, move them the other way and confuse the crap out of your opponent. It's game on!

Pretend to be Hurt
Oh you po' thing. Sun Tzu says All War is Deception. Or do you think you're not man enough to act? Start limping after your first encounter. Hold on to your cup. Nurse your hand. Sparring is all about getting into your opponent's head and messing around with it.

Train the Opponent
Bill Wallace says the way to 'train' your opponent is to just throw the technique. You don't have to do it with force. You just have to throw it out. Do that once. Do that twice. The third time however switch it in mid air to a new technique. Or start it, wait for the reaction, and follow through with another technique.

Use Invisible Techniques (see How to Hit Opponents with Invisible Techniques)
They're not so much invisible but harder to see from the opponent's point of view. The techniques hide behind cover for longer, they enter from the opponent's blind spot, under their extended limbs, or are done much closer to the opponent, so he only really recognises it just before he gets hit. Again work in front of the mirror or experiment at slower speeds with a training buddy. For examples of what you can do, check out the above link. Have fun!

Links

--
Colin Wee
Chung Sah Nim (Principal), Joong Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do
School of the Middle Way - the point between older Okinawan predecessors and modern Korean innovations. Started as HRGB April 2000, reborn as JDK Sept 2011.
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on Traditional Taekwondo FB page. And help us rank on Google by clicking the '+1' icon, why don't you?
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Toi-gye Jams the Leg and Throws the Opponent

2011-09-27T13:35:00.002+08:00

Taekwondo Toi-gye Step 29 and 30 - jump into a low X-block in cross stance and then execute a high double augmented forearm block. We do this predominantly as a side drop ala Aikido's Sokomen Uchi. The following video will show you what I mean.

Taekwondo practitioners however don't move like Aiki practitioners and thus the tenkan or the turn may not be accessible from our kit bag. What we do have however is this 'jump into X stance' - which means rather than slipping past and turning the opponent around us, we plough more or less straight into the opponent and apply forward pressure to oncoming strike.

From a front on lunging type attack, you slip to the back of the opponent and may apply the cross block as block to oncoming punch, or as a strike to extended knee or groin. This disrupts the initial forward momentum of opponent allowing you to apply the double augmented block as a nice takedown.

In a close range situation you might choose to use the X block as a defence against an oncoming knee strike, perform a headbutt strike coming up, shift hips aside and then apply the throw similar to above.

I don't really like lunging into the opponent and ducking so low unless I make the strike really worth while. I personally would tend to use an upset punch against groin when a person raises his leg - but that requires you to really surge in deep and compact your body. To make this technique much more pragmatic, I would choose to attack the front leg with the X block in a lunging stance, then step closer with the X stance to throw the opponent.

In this way you get the forward momentum supported by back leg and lunge stance to do some real damage. If it fails, you can rise into either a headbutt or bring your hands up into a protected upper block ala Po-eun step 2 to strike against neck region. Irrespective, if you strike either with the initial move or the secondary rising move, the throw using double augmented block is still a viable follow through.

Links

--
Colin Wee
Principal, Hikaru Dojo Traditional Taekwondo School
Coordinator, IAOMAS
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on Traditional Taekwondo FB page. And help us rank on Google by clicking the '+1' icon, why don't you?
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Hwarang: X Block Drill

2011-08-17T12:23:00.003+08:00

Just found a list of beautiful pattern diagrams at Taekwondo Club of University of Virginia - though I wished they could have included a list of numbers along with techniques. And to include the front face of techniques during a turn. This post is about step 24, a downward X block - though all you see from the diagram above is the back of the guy. Anyway, we use the x block - possibly one of the most ill taught of traditional techniques - very much as a 'sequence' of related block-deflections, starting from the open hand/elbow strike in Yuk-kok to the swipe down next grab in Toi-gye, and the upward x block-stripping away striking arm in Choong Moo. Hwa-rang's x block is done against a mid section strike, either directly to your gut or upwards. It strikes down hard on the arm, and rotates the opponent's arm inwards toward his body, ending up in a 'mountain block' as you would see in Toi-gye, hyperflexing the arm at the elbow. If the opponent is doing this drill with standard basic punches, your lead arm will be ready to come down hard on the next strike, and you can continue doing the rotation and applying pressure to the next elbow. Tips for success are to strike the oncoming arm hard and early, and to apply lots of forward pressure on the arm and opponent. Not to do so will have the opponent pulling the arm back quickly and will result in you getting yourself stabbed or punched multiple times. There is an absolute winner post 72 Bunkai to Juji-uke at KaratebyJesse covering multiple applications of the x block.

Just found this cute video of this kid performing Hwa-rang ...

Enjoy!

List of Posts on Taekwondo Hwarang

Colin
--
Colin Wee
Principal, Hikaru Dojo Traditional Taekwondo School
Coordinator, IAOMAS
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on Traditional Taekwondo FB page. And help us rank on Google by clicking the '+1' icon, why don't you?
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Deliberately Losing Your Sparring Match ...

2011-08-12T15:38:00.005+08:00

... But Not Your Game.

You need to get used to having strikes thrown at you. You need to be able to defend and cover. You need to be able to control your breathing to increase your endurance. You need to be able to exhale sharply to be able to absorb the hit if have to. Then you have to learn distancing and timing. You should know how to land just one technique consistently. Not a whole bag of different strikes. Just land one upper body strike. Once you get confident, this distance calibration helps you land other strikes far easier.

The person you are working with should not be thought of as your opponent. He is your training partner, and it is his job to make it appropriately simple or difficult for you so you need to work towards improving your own game. But his role is to help you, and therefore when beginners partner off each other, an environment of mutual cooperation and respect is needed. Such collaboration requires you to exchange strikes, not engage in mortal combat. One-upmanship will result in slower progression ...

Your mindset should therefore not be on winning, nor about deliberately losing. You should be using such an opportunity to learn about body movement, distancing, dealing with a dynamic situation, and applying the techniques you've learned. Respect your partner for offering you his or her body as a target by applying good control and keeping each other safe!

The real fight? It's both out there and in your mind. It is never on the mat.

Enjoy the weekend.

Links

Colin
--
Colin Wee
Coordinator, IAOMAS
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on Traditional Taekwondo FB page. And help us rank on Google by clicking the '+1' icon, why don't you? Have you checked out the Shop we've just set up?

The 3rd Precept of Sensei Gichin Funakoshi by Mireille Clark

2011-08-07T08:41:00.006+08:00

Karate is a great assistance (an aid) to justice.

Justice has always been a severe concept. Justice has no mercy, and no compassion. Justice is about setting things right. As in, someone breaks your window, therefore it needs to be replaced by the one who broke it. Justice embodies "An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth." and one can assert that this can be a difficult balance to achieve. Usually when one seeks justice, they can easily go too far into revenge. How many times has one been in the place of "you struck me hard, therefore I will strike you harder"?

The mental state and training achievable in Martial Arts aids the practitioner to find balance, and to seek appropriate levels of justice. We train to anticipate the strike, avoid it, deflect it, or even to use it to our advantage. Justice becomes a creative expression of power, and balance which puts us in a position of control of the situation. We learn how to "stop the battle". The literal translation of the Japanese Kanji of the word "Budo" is "to stop the spear" or in other words to protect/ stop combat. Martial Artists seek "power" over justice. The character Schindler from the movie "Schindler's list" explains it extremely well in this clip:

http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/schindlers-list/that-is-power

Each movement of our Kata is meant to take control of the situation, and stop that confrontation from continuing. Within less than 30 seconds we seek to either put them in a locked position, break a limb, throw the opponent, blind them, etc. Take for example this random bunkai video that I found on youtube showing some various applications for the very first movement sequence of the Kata Seienchin (Goju Ryu Karate)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TXEi80xRFM

In that short video we see demonstrated by Sensei Tom Hills approximately 5 different locks, and 4 throws which are based on one simple set of movements. Each one of these applications allows Sensei Hills to take the position of advantage over the attacker, and changes the outcome of that moment. The attacker now becomes the victim, and probably only would wish an end to the shock, pain, and embarrassment. He/she may even think twice about attacking again, and walk away from the fight.

Our training allows us to blend justice with power and affect our world in a positive way.

Links

--
Mireille Clark
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap].

Black Belts Start Young and Dumb

2011-07-30T16:55:00.000+08:00

This was in the early 90s, a period when I was officially training at least 5 times a week. Getting rather good at what I was doing, submerged, wrapped up in the microcosm of the dojo.

Exposing yourself to as much training as I had, or 'the school of hard knocks' as some of the black belts would call it, gets you inured to the pain that's part of the intimidation students feel when they start sparring. Putting on my uniform, I felt like I was donning body armour ala Batman. Yeah, as you can see, I was feeling pretty good about myself, lucky to be in a semi-contact environment, and getting quietly cocky about the skills I was acquiring.

I was at the stage where sparring against opponents was less about stringing together strikes and blocks than about mental strategy. Part psychologist, part accountant, I was playing a mental game against my opponents. It was a kind of interactive 'Art of War' where time seemed to slow down and when you easily slipped into 'the zone' because you were able to slough away all extraneous thoughts.

What I loved were explosive attacks that were able to beat an opponent's coverage or defenses. I'd also love feinting and landing unbelievable strikes - those coming from impossible unexpected angles. Of course, I took great pride in my improving coverage - just because I started out with little skills in that department.

What gave me a real buzz however, were that the rules of engagement allowed many things other schools at that time wouldn't promote. Controlled strikes to the knee and groin for instance were staples in our arsenal. Hair grabs, throws, and take downs were commonplace. The only rule? You can hurt, but you can't injure. Opponents were expected to walk out of our dojo on their own two feet - adjusting their groin protectors on the way out.

It was all great fun ...

... and while such rules allowed our black belts to gain an impressive array of skills beyond the usual kick-punch combinations other schools might gravitate towards, it also meant that visiting opponents from other systems had to play catch up with our more bawdy tactics.

What I couldn't understand, and what nagged at me time and time again was something my instructor, a man that I highly respected, commented on what we were doing. He said, "sparring only makes you good at sparring." Additionally, in formal classes we'd spend an inordinate amount of time practicing kata. What would then really confound me was the fact that other black belts who got it, who knew what he was saying and were spending time working out at kata, were good all round martial artists - technically proficient with their kata and great at fighting. I just couldn't understand that.

But of course my instructor was right, and my obsession with my growing skills, of what I thought was one of the most important things I had to develop at that point in time, was only a small part of the large bag of skills every martial artist should be working on all the time. Many years later, I decided that growing such meagre abilities in that arena was somewhat of a distraction, and I actually benefited from returning 'back-to-basics' (another unfortunate concept my instructor kept nagging about which I then blatantly ignored), and think about things such as strategy, the place basic techniques had in my arsenal of weapons, power generation methods, and also perhaps exactly why I was practicing a martial art at all.

Links

--
Colin Wee
Coordinator, IAOMAS
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.
Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo on FB.

The Ranking System and Delusions of Grandeur

2011-07-29T14:48:00.001+08:00

I approach the Kyu-Dan ranking system cautiously. For kyu or coloured belt ranks in my school, students in a specific rank learn specific skills and applications for that rank, and the line up of colours helps me organise myself and the lesson plan I have for each class.

But who cares really cares about what I think. Martial art students get off on the colour of their belts. The belt you wear shows off effort invested and it identifies progress, seniority, and growing experience. Being proud of what you've achieved is not all that bad. You should be proud of what you achieve. In fact, even a white belt should be proud to wear the white belt!

In my opinion, the slippery road begins when a person becomes prideful - overly valuing rank over its usefulness to progress you through a system, exacerbated by the very environment many martial arts schools seek to develop. The Kyu-Dan system is a Japanese system, and exists surrounded by people who are naturally conservative and ultimately very humble, who understand their place in the grand scheme of things. Out of Japan however, I have seen martial arts clubs and organisations place so much emphasis on the ranking aspect of the system that everyone becomes really concerned with their grade, an instructor's particular title, or when the next award is coming.

I myself hold ranks in the Kyu-Dan system as well as the more traditional Menkyo system. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I can hear all those purist nerds out there say Colin is full of it because Taekwondo is a Korean art. My point, without having to bring up my own family tree and to show you that I am really ethnically chinese (and born male), is that I squirrel them away in my filing cambinet and get on with life, the pushups, and the teaching I've got to do. It's not that I value my ranks any less - I'm very proud of what I've earned.

What I know I'm saying is that I'd like my students to keep a balanced approach to their training and not have to deal with an instructor who's trying to be larger-than-life, signing cheques their bodies can't cash. Remember that movie?

Colin
--
Colin Wee
Coordinator, IAOMAS
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 28 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.
Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo on FB.

Lower Block Beginner Drill

2011-06-13T23:01:00.001+08:00

I thought I should use a photo which doesn't look like those pretty kata photos you see in many martial arts books. Here you see me doing a down block on top of my attacker's arm. Of course if I was doing it in the air and keeping still, I might still hold out for a picture perfect Kodak moment. The down block is one of the first few things I teach beginners. Often I teach it ahead of the punch! It's tough making a punch work right: you need proper angle, skeletal support, muscle tension, speed and distancing. But taking an attacker's limb and shearing it between two arms ... now that's much easier.

Chon-ji teaches you one clear combat strategy - if something comes close to you, you break it, you strike it, you take it down, and stomp on it. It's a great form for beginners to understand that you need to make up for your lack of experience with commitment and a clear plan of action!

In the above photo, the attacker has moved in with a grab, and it shows me applying a down block hard on his grabbing arm. If I was not fast enough, then I would have to deal with his secondary weapon. Yes - my blocking arm will need to become a windshield wiper, before it is used as a hammer on the grabbing hand. To make this a little more fun, I could have chosen to grab his fingers rather than his sleeve, and I could have applied the blocking strike on to the back of his hand or wrist instead of on top of his forearm. Similarly, something in which a lot of hard stylists don't think of ... when I strike the extremity, I can move backward, or diagonally sideways in order to stretch out the limb.

For a cool beginner's exercise ... and without needing much tutoring, get your beginners to first swing their arms back and forth. Then clap. Then clap their palms on their elbows. Make sure the arm which is 'folded' is held like they're 'answering the phone'. This exposes the 'corners' of their bodies (essentially allowing their elbow to connect with the oncoming limb). Get their opponents to make a grab for their t-shirt or uniform. And get your 'defenders' to 'clap' their palms and their elbows together - sandwiching the oncoming limb.

Aim for sensitive areas, and play around with timing and distancing.

Links

Taekwondo Pattern Chon-ji Hyung List of Posts

Ten Ways to Improve Your Front Kick

2011-05-17T12:09:00.002+08:00

The front kick we learn is introduced in the third Taekwondo pattern Do San.

These are my ideas on how to make your front kick more effective:

Strike with your hands! Learning to land a strike with your hands teaches principles of timing, distancing, and application of power - all great skills to have whilst dealing with a less responsive striking tool (i.e. your leg).
Train to improve yourself - increase your flexibility, spatial awareness, strength, and endurance. BUT don't forget your limitations. Always apply your strengths, not your limitations!
Use a variety of training methods. If you just stick with one type of equipment, you are not doing yourself any favours. See the above picture where we've ditched the kick shields and are landing controlled kicks on the body.
The striking 'tool' as you see it is a leg extended out to the opponent, so when you try to increase power, you 'juice' up the leg muscles - your quads. The way I increase kicking power is to connect my support foot solidly to the ground, to shift my hips forward providing structural support, then tightening my abs to transmit this mass shifting, and then lastly to accelerate my foot towards the opponent. The secret to good kicks is that it starts from the ground up!
To gain more control over your kick, try to understand the flight path of the foot as it shoots toward the opponent. This flight path has to bypass obstacles through 3D space to land solidly on the opponent. Lots to think about, so when you start sparring, make sure you spend time observing how your opponent moves to block your kicks.
The kicking tool is not very large - you can make the weapon fit into a very small area. When you train, ask your partner
Start with less power and aim to get more control over your kicks.
No kick is going to work if you're firing it at a huge distance. You are a beginner. You need to step up to the opponent and then fire the kick! Please do it quickly and smoothly.
People don't like to get punched - so make like you're going to punch your opponent and then launch your kick.
Most beginners move or shift their upper body up and back to haul up their kicking leg. Worse still their arms open up and or shift downwards. This telegraphs your kick! So don't do that. Kick lower if you have to. Apologise for groin strikes if you hit too hard.

What other tips can you add which have helped your front kick?

Links

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo on FB.

Why Yet Another Set of Side Kicks?

2011-05-11T11:27:00.001+08:00

In Taekwondo Pattern Won-hyo, you have the first introduction of a defensive (stepping backwards) and offensive (stepping forward) side kick.

There is the inclusion of the side kick yet again in the following Taekwondo patterns:

Yul-guk can be to highlight the difference between lead leg and rear leg side kicks.
Choong-gun can be to highlight 'hooking' side kicks to exploit gaps in opponent's guard.
Hwa-rang can be to highlight short range side kicks for close range combat: using chambering as a knee strike and kicking towards the lower extremities, or performing a side thrust kick to kick 'upwards' into an opponent.
Choong-moo can be to highlight strategic use of jumping side kicks on mid to low range targets, and combinations of kicks to increase chances of landing your strike.

While it looks like the same kick, you should be schooled in various tactics in which to make sure your kick lands on a non-compliant opponent. It's also an exercise in mental gymnastics; to look at one technique and to see it applied in various ways allows you to break free from basics and to respond to the risk at hand, not the situations you were taught to deal with.

What have you found works for you when using the side kick?

External Links for Choong Gun

58 Bunkai to Kakete

Traditional Taekwondo Perspective on The Chambered Fist

2011-05-06T10:21:00.000+08:00

We chamber the fist on the ribs.

You find this level at a tug of war - pulling that rope back, you don't hold it above your shoulder or at your hip. You hold it somewhere at your ribs so that your lats can apply as much pull on the rope as possible.

But the level isn't the only thing we look out for. The forearm of the chambered fist points forward. In a lunge punch for instance, the chambered arm is readied for the next iteration of the punch. In the case of the back balance and soodo marki (knife hand block), the back hand (all the way to the elbow) is pressed against the body again pointing forward to strike the target in front of the practitioner.

From the soodo marki knife hand block in back stance, slide into a forebalance and pull your chambered fist from where it is at solar plexus to the side of the ribs. Do it at the same time, and repeat back and forth. You should see that the arm should stay more or less pointing forward.

From the front stance and with the chambered arm held tightly against the ribs, now pull the back leg slightly forward into a loose fighting stance. Bring the chambered arm up with fist at shoulder height. The fist is now right in front of the shoulder joint, and ready for a straight jab or roundhouse punch.

What I find important to communicate is that there is an optimal tension for the chambered hand. While relaxedness is important, 'linking' your arm to your main body mass is important -- and thus your reverse hand should be stabilised to your side using your lats and your pecs. This is more so for when you're chambering on your body, rather than holding your fist up for a jab or roundhouse punch.

Links

My Perspective on 'Taekwondo Sucks?'

2011-04-30T13:55:00.001+08:00

I typed in 'Problems with Taekwondo' and the first post I see is 'Taekwondo Sucks?' by an online friend Bob Paterson from Striking Thoughts. His post presents a fairly even debate, so I don't think I've got to rehash the dialog much. What I'd like to do is bring out issues with highlight how we do things.

Is Taekwondo primarily a kicking art?You may be surprised to learn but there are actually more hand techniques in Taekwondo than leg strikes.

I've heard this logic and reasoning before. If you look at Traditional Taekwondo forms, kicks not only make a very late entry, they are outnumbered by hand techniques all the way to black belt! But look at the video posted on Striking Thoughts and you see two hard style fighters who are predominantly kickers who do not cover for hand strikes to the head - and from this I presume have not yet spent enough time on hand strikes, proper coverage or defences against a person who is going to come out from their corner punching.

The issue is not whether or not there are more hand techniques, it is that these hand techniques are not being applied in training so that the practitioner can rely on them for strikes, coverage, or defences. Having them in the form is not sufficient for them to be assimilated by the student practitioner. What students need is for techniques to be pulled out of the form and to be used in a reiterative sequence, offering practise for one or both hands.

The problem is that somewhere in history taekwondo proper decided to emphasize kicks over hand strikes.

That would have to be after the mid 1950s, after early Taekwondo was brought to the US by GM Jhoon Rhee, the father of my lineage. This is evidenced by my system treating both hand techniques and leg techniques rather equally. This however doesn't mean that hand techniques are optimised from what is available from the syllabus. Techniques MUST still be synthesized from the forms, as I mentioned above, so students are able to have the right upper body skills. The analogy that I use in my class is that of a 'windshield wiper.' All you do is turn on the windshield wiper and it works, without you having to think too hard about it. Of course this is not the be all and end all, but where would you find techniques within the forms to create this 'windshield wiper'? Yep, start thinking. When you have some answers, perhaps we should reconvene and share notes?

Even now I realize that with taekwondo’s popularity there are some pretty watered down schools out there.

While I don't think I run a watered down school, I've thought about this long and hard. I think some of it is because of the myth that 'masters of old' would pass down only an incomplete portion of their knowledge. You would think after several generations of this, most arts (not just Taekwondo) would have been eroded, and would have significantly have diminished their worth.

I don't think this is the entire story. I think lots of the degeneration which afflicts any art or seen through McDojos is created through apathy. A combative art can't promote the institutionalisation of thought. There is a huge need for independent thinking which leads to the questioning of assumptions, and the identification of the objectives of practice. Think that all you need is kicking speed, fitness, and flexibility? Then join an aerobics class for crying out loud.

I'd like to hear from anyone interested in keeping things fresh. Instructor or student alike. What has inspired you to look at things differently? How have you improved lately?

Links

Common Strategy

2011-04-14T10:24:00.000+08:00

I don't see fight strategy being discussed in books or magazines much. With martial arts, discussions always seem to dwell on the most powerful kick or how good Bruce Lee was. So I decided to highlight long standing fight strategy, and state them in plain English.

Response to Attack

You avoid the attack by blocking or moving out of the way and then countering by launching an attack.

(You kick me, I deflect and knock you out with a punch to the face.)

Simultaneous Counter

You see the attack being initiated and you launch your attack to land at the same time.

(You kick my face, I lean back slightly and kick you in the groin. Ouchy.)

Pre-emptive Attack

You launch an attack on the opponent to block any future attacks or ability to defend.

(I know you're going to kick me. So I gap close, trap your lead hand and punch you in the face.)

Links

Taekwondo Pattern Yul-guk Close Quarter Drill

2011-04-11T11:42:00.003+08:00

This is a video of a drill we use for intermediate belts based on Taekwondo Pattern Yul-guk steps 15-20. These steps describe an outer open palm pressing 'block,' done using one hand after the other and a mid level punch at the end of the sequence.

The primary application that I teach using these techniques are two takedowns similar to an Aiki Takiotoshi and a Sayunage. One throws the opponent forward and the other, backward.

I associate the above close quarter drill for this sequence to help develop good hand skills for the intermediate belts. Intermediate belts need to start using both hands fluently to get out of the habit of having their reverse 'pullback' fist at hip or ribs. Aside from this particular drill seen above, we have 4 other drills that have hopefully developed patterns of hand movements allowing students to have both hands in front of their faces - covering, blocking and returning fire to opponents.

Jacob is speeding through this drill, but there are two blocks/deflections occurring. The first parries a punch from the outside with back hand and raises what looks like a knife hand but using the forearm to contact the oncoming punch. The second parries a punch from the outside with open backhand and drops what looks like a hybrid knife hand/lower block to the outside of the oncoming punch. Both 'knife hands are held vertical, similar to the onset of the fold for the pressing block.

The use of both hands for the oncoming strike allows the practitioner student to gain the ability to use both hands in an effective practical manner. The final 'block' with the mid or upper end of the forearm allows the practitioner to use the hand as a striking tool. So the point of this coverage is not to just tie up the hands waving off the strike, it is to free the hand in order that it can be used as a striking tool. Essentially you are 'endowing' the tip of elbow to tip of hand with two main tools - one is the elbow end of the forearm, the other is the hand/wrist bit of the forearm.

Success with this drill is improved with generous hip rotation, chin held down, and both hands held tight to centre line. Intermediate belts getting used to the drill can play around with gap closing, stepping into the opponent just after parrying/blocking.
1. With hand held up, you may try an open palm strike to face.
2. With hand pushed downward, you may try an open palm groin strike and grab.

With both hands deployed, a number of close quarter strikes and takedowns are easily added on to expand on the above sequence.

Good luck.

For more information on this technique, please see Soo Shim Kwan's The Hooking Block.

Links

Taekwondo Pattern Yul-guk List of Posts

The Art of the Head On Collision

2011-04-08T14:54:00.002+08:00

One of my instructors told me once that hard style martial arts were concerned with one thing. And that one thing is in the way your centre of gravity moves in relation to your opponent. The goal he said, was to ensure that your centre of gravity takes the place of your opponent's centre of gravity. Knock him back, or knock him out, then take his place.

Taking over your opponent's centre of gravity is very different from how many student practitioners practise sparring. Sparring becomes a duel, a play of technique and strategy. It does not entirely help you learn about hard style concepts. Don't get me wrong, it's a good exercise, but it isn't the be all and end all of martial art training.

This picture above shows how even the simplest of techniques - a forward stance - can be applied in a devastating 'hard style' manner. Once the knee strike is applied, you can be sure the next move will allow the operator to take the place of his opponent.

We need to seek instances during class, like when you practice self defence scenarios ... or when you do one steps, to apply our bodies and our techniques in such a manner than we are literally using our techniques to attack the position of our opponent's centre of gravity.

Links

I've Broken My Finger and Have Lost the Will to Fight

2011-03-16T10:06:00.002+08:00

Taekwondo Black Belt student practitioners in my system learn a handful of Shotokan Karate kata. One in particular is Basai, or in Shotokan, 'Basai Dai'. According to Kyoshi Bruce Clayton PhD in his book Shotokan's Secret, Basai was a Matsumura form that prompted the technician to attack multiple persons from the inside.

In the version of Basai I learn, we do a jump backfist ala Taekwondo Yul guk (step 1 Basai), hammer fist/inside forearm block to the face (step 2) and then a scoop block ala Taekwondo Won hyo (step 3). The shotokan version does the inside forearm block in step 4. But as you can see, this sequence is repeated several times at the start of the form.

If Basai is done against a team of multiple opponent - and if the technician is attacking multiple opponents - and if the first step is a leaping forward foot stomp ... what everyone will see is only the person going down screaming after a bloody scary looking backfist.

The technician then turns to face another attacker who would probably be mentally unprepared for what has just happened - and distracted by the screams of his compadre. The technician raises his hand to go for a strike to the face. The opponent is now shitting himself and raises his hands to protect his face.

The hammer fist inner forearm block/strike either hits or not. The scoop block however starts off by grabbing hold of two or three of the fingers held upright. The scoop then 'steering wheels' the arm and wrenches the fingers along with the motion. The result - same side does a kotegaeshi/yonkyo (wrist turn out or flexed back), opposite side into a sankyo (wrist turn in). If you're not going for a finger lock, a quicker sharper motion results in a finger break or dislocation.

For those of you who need to ask ... yes I've dislocated someone's shoulder before during sparring. Accidentally, of course. And had to do first aid with the help of medical advice over the phone.

Dropping a person by breaking his fingers is far easier than raising your leg and kicking him in the head.

Also a person nursing broken fingers becomes extremely compliant - use him as your shield, he stumbles along with you and you don't even have to hold him upright!

Have a good day!

Colin

Links

Taekwondo Sparring Past and Present Guest Post by Craig Lightner

2011-03-05T23:00:00.001+08:00

It was nice to meet Craig Lightner and to visit his very respectable website Martial Art Book. I thought to invite him to do a guest post on Traditional Taekwondo Blog as a way to help promote his site. Please help me welcome him to this Blog.

Taekwondo Sparring Past and Present Guest Post by Craig Lightner

In the past, it was common for a Taekwondo student to practice a given technique day after day, year-in and year-out. The beginning student would have to develop proper moves to perform the techniques and then learn how to apply them in a real situation. They were about safety and not the lack of it. Traditionally, free sparring was about practicing control. The idea being that if there was constant touching in sparring - the mind would become wild, but if controlled sparring was practiced - the mind would be more controlled.

Traditionally, if one master touched another during a match, he would acknowledge defeat. At times, the defeated master would even kneel and prostrate while thanking the victorious master for sparing his life. There was never any need for a master to strike hard just to show his force. It was understood that a master would have trained to be very powerful and he has the capacity to kill with only one strike. There used to be no rules or referees and the combatants simply fought.

Normally, there would be no injuries as the sparring partners could defend themselves well and if they were caught off guard the opponent would throw controlled strikes. In situations where actual fight was necessary, there were no random movements, only calculated forceful strikes to vital spots to put the opponent out quickly and efficiently.

Previously, masters would never use any form of protection, such as gloves or padding, when sparring, because the art taught self defense and control. That was partially because using gloves to spar with methodical training almost results in the apprentice resorting to boxing and kick-boxing techniques. Also, previously the idea was that if one practices control, they can easily choose to hit when the need arose. Sparring was elegant and safe, but could be destructive when circumstances required it.

Today there is a large assortment of sparring items to assists with you and your opponents safety. From the headgear like Warrior
headgear to the Ringstar sparring shoes everything is made light and tight to keep the fighters quick on their feet. There is also a lot of technology that has started working it way into the Taekwondo tournaments. For example, the detection vest or chest guard that can sense the impact of an opponents kick or punch and give them a scoring point.

Modern sparring is all about the display of ultra fast kicking, so it vaguely resembles the authentic art. Modern Taekwondo sparring has blocking but not the hard blocks of traditional Taekwondo. The kicks come so fast and furious it is hard to block anything past the third
kick and is the reason so many just back up during a match.

Historically, few techniques were used in sparring so the art was perfected; nowadays, the main goal is to learn as many different techniques as possible. However, as someone said, "Don’t fear the person that has done 10,000 techniques once. Fear the person that has done one technique 10,000 times".

Craig Lightner
Owner and Writer at http://www.martialartbook.com/

Links

Taekwondo Sparring Posts

-- Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Searching out the hidden secrets of Martial Arts by Mireille Clark

2011-02-18T07:37:00.004+08:00

The Tenth precept of Sensei Gichin Funakoshi states:

"10. Put your everyday living into karate (put karate into everything you do) and you will find "myo" (the subtle secrets, the ideal state of existence, exquisite beauty)."

How many fervent Martial Artists are seeking for the hidden secret, or technique that will give them the advantage over their opponent?

I believe that have found these secrets thanks to the hint given by Sensei Funakoshi, and the good training provided by my Sensei. It's in consistency of application, and awareness of possibilities that come from every day life.

A beginner in the Arts might see a mid-level punch as just a thrusting out of power into their opponent using their fist, but someone who has done the same movement over and over suddenly sees other possibilities that stem out from their accumulated life experience. The "punch" transforms into various other effective attacks depending on where, when, and how it is sent.

I have learned that the hidden secrets are actually simple to understand once they are revealed, and very easy to do, but demand that body knowledge earned through good solid experience. Without the right muscle and movement development, achieving success with the advanced techniques is rare.

There has to be a real mental/physical commitment into the techniques that are made to start to build up that body experience. This is where you will start to feel the possibilities, and recognize the weight shifts. It also makes each movement extremely tiring, challenging, and demanding. Ten minutes of training may now sap you of all energy because you are pouring forth your body, mind, and spirit into each strike/block.

"You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning Karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do."
- Gichin Funakoshi

You have to put your whole self into each technique. Do not allow your mind to go numb because this is the 30th middle punch that you sent.. wake up, and feel the changes of that moment. Now that your body is tired, is it moving differently? Is your arm flying out rather than straight? Are you using your feet, legs, hips, back, and shoulders in that technique? or is it all of your concentration focusing in your fist? Is your breathing coordinating with your effort, or hindering you? Where is your weight going?

Also, you have to look at how do you move during the time that you aren't training? Are you holding good posture as you work, walk, rest to help your body stay fit, and healthy? Those few hours of training help to boost your body, but it is what you do the rest of the time that will dictate how much success you have in keeping that positive effect. Good daily posture can ward off health issues such as headaches, back pain, foot pain, digestive problems, etc.

"Most people do not realize how important posture is. Posture related pain ranges from the most common low back pain, shoulder and neck pain to frequent headaches and TMJ dysfunction. Bad posture is a downward spiral because your body typically compensates for bad posture with worsening posture. Your lower body posture changes too, and when you start walking around with bent knees, you really look prematurely old, and probably feel it as well. You probably wouldn't connect bad posture and anxiety, but they connect through changes in breathing patterns. Bad posture can cause GERD (reflux) symptoms, constipation and other functional problems. " taken from http://www.mortonsfoot.com/badposture.html

If you actually need to defend yourself, you would want your body to have good posture so that you can have good balance. It is in the everyday constant training at home, and at work that you teach your body to hold itself, and strengthen those posture controlling muscles to achieve that goal. It's in how you sit, and walk everyday.

Are you conscious of your environment, and aware of what is happening around you, and how to take advantage of each moment? Karate training lives in the "now". We cannot worry about the pain that happened when the person struck us just a moment before, nor fear the pain of what will happen if that kick hits, we have to focus on what is coming at us now, and handle it as best as we can with the skills that we have accumulated. This experience helps us to calm down, and face each moment with confidence, and decision. We know that we will make it through, and that each choice that we make will help us learn how to do it more effectively. If we apply this to our daily choices, we can deflect the negative impacts of our home/work environment. We give each moment it's own attention, and do not allow past negativeness, or future fears to control us.

Martial Arts training is like a doorway to seeing ourselves, and our goals truthfully. The more that we invest ourselves into what we do, the more we reveal the hidden depths contained in that activity.

Links
First Precept of Sensei Gichin Funakoshi
Following Sensei Gichin Funakoshi's 20 Precepts

--Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Do-san: Taekwondo's Short Range Front Kick

2011-02-14T21:39:00.003+08:00

Taekwondo Do-san

Why would anyone want to throw a short range *kick* when it is so much easier throwing a long range kick keeping the opponent at bay? Well, short range kicks allow you to keep balance, engage the opponent with your hands, deliver deceptively powerful basic kicks, and allow you to recover your COG so you can strike with upper body tools. Short range kicks are not to be dismissed!

Links

Taekwondo Back Kick is Risky but Lucrative

2011-02-11T09:22:00.000+08:00

I hesitate talking about flashy techniques because it's too easy to identify Taekwondo with flash ... and getting older, phrases with flash in them like 'flash in the pan' just doesn't do it for me. Know what I mean?

Just lifting up the leg and firing a back kick is not too difficult. Keeping both knees together and not rotating your hips so your legs separate means you might get a decent back kick which looks a little less than a side kick than a mule kick. If I wanted a side kick done backwards I would have asked for a sidekick backwards. But I want a back kick.

Tactically it is a great kick and can be used outside the context of kicking backwards - a kick coming up at an opponent from 'underneath' presents a huge problem for coverage and blocking. Think Marilyn Monroe - she'd find it way easier holding that skirt down if the wind was blowing from the front rather than from that vent under her feet. Don't listen to that advice if you have rules to prevent you kicking an opponent in the nuts. I mean groin.

Most intermediate belts have a problem doing a stepping forward taekwondo back kick. Call it what you will ... doing a back kick against a target held in front of you is difficult. Most practitioners would spin too much, do a side kick and tend to lose balance and stumble backwards. The key to doing the back kick is to turn only just enough - meaning turn 1/4 way, and then move your backside toward the target in a straight line. Think too much of the rotation and you'll lose control of your leg and will end up looking really dumb.

Again I think it's way easier to learn the kick with little power at first so you can coordinate all those limbs. Don't forget to cover your face with your back hand, and you might cover the front of your body and the side of your head with the other. And like all other kicks, breathe out for goodness sake.

The stepping forward or spinning back kick is a risky but lucrative technique if you get it right. The risk is if you are faced with a knockout artist - and if you miss. I'd choose to do this technique only on the slowest knockout artists. On other practitioners and for fun ... go ahead. Try not to lose too many friends ... it is a very powerful kick and hard to pull back once fired.

List

Taekwondo Back Kick

Grandmaster Slips Up and Smiles

2011-02-04T20:21:00.000+08:00

I was at a martial arts expo today here in Perth, and was honoured to see Grandmaster William Cheung partake in a demonstration with four of his senior instructors.

In a part of the demonstration where he's showing techniques against multiple opponents attacking him, Grandmaster Cheung accidentally slips up, loses his balance, and is forced to recover.

You know what happens then? He smiles, smooths out his next step and continues the demonstration confidently and effectively.

Contrast this with beginners who do the smallest error, beat themselves over the head, look down, berate themselves under their breath, get flustered, and then try their technique yet again - resulting in a worse performance than before they slipped up in the first place.

Martial arts isn't about choreography. It is about dealing with risks in a dynamic changing environment. If you can't deal with small mistakes because of an inflated notion of what you think you can do, you'll find greater difficulty coping with yourself when someone is trying to beat the crap out of you.

Take a page from the Grandmaster. Smile, recover, and get to it!

In the arts,

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Doesn't Have Orange Belts

2011-01-25T17:57:00.001+08:00

"Taekwondo doesn't have orange belts!"

That's what a student of mine got from talking to a friend who is a Taekwondo black belt, and who was adamant that Taekwondo didn't have Orange belts. Instead the kyu or gup range had other colours plus lots of 'stripes.'

How many times do I hear what Taekwondo is and what Taekwondo isn't? And how many times do I have to use the word 'Traditional' in front of Taekwondo to denote that what I'm doing is the old forgotten cousin of ITF and WTF. The misbegotten love child of Karate.

In GM Keith D. Yates' Taekwondo Forms Book, it does explain, "colors will vary" due to the differences between "various schools of Taekwon Do" (1982 p29). And yes, if GM Yates says there is Orange, Orange is good for me.

What he doesn't mention is the presence of 'lots of stripes'.

Man ... I gotta keep up!

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25+ years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

What Good is a Taekwondo Kick?

2011-01-21T16:37:00.001+08:00

What good is a Taekwondo kick if only for kicking?

I'm not trying to be funny. If you only need a powerful kick, you'd probably just settle with the basic front kick, the side kick, and the roundhouse kick. See the opponent and fire off the kick and hope it lands. Most often it does not. Sometimes it does.

Lots of beginners and intermediate belts see the kick as a backup strike, firing it to keep the opponent at bay. There's no difference between this kick and a battering ram. Just do it fast and do it powerfully.

So let me ask you, why don't you just punch the opponent in the face, or finger him in the eye and be done with it? The arms are a whole lot more accurate, and certainly the ability to land the strike is a whole lot higher.

The kick if compared to the punch seems to be a more attractive weapon. You can strike the enemy at a further range and land a more powerful strike. Wow. Too good.

This however is not the best strategic way to use kicks from Taekwondo.

Advantages of the kick as a weapon:

1) Versatility of Taekwondo Kicks: Due to the joints of the striking tool (i.e. your leg) and its length, there is much more articulation along the length of this weapon. So far from being just 'a battering ram,' the leg is a versatile weapon which can place strikes into surprising angles of entry and bypass defenses. Students just need to start 'calibrating' their use of their kicks to a) land strikes more accurately, and b) to see 'flight paths' of the kick around 3 dimensional space.

2) Visibility of Taekwondo Kicks: Due to the height of the hip joint, kicks originate from lower than where most amateurs hold their gaze - at eye level. Amateurs looking at your eyes can hardly see your legs. They have their hands held between you and their eyes, and legs can work their way up this blind spot. As a result, kicks can literally appear out of nowhere, cresting the shoulder and knocking your opponent out. (See Invisible Sparring Techniques).

3) Feints with Kicks: The fear factor allows you to distract and set your opponent up with a diversion. Go for one kick, let the opponent fall for the bait, and then fire off a different kick through loopholes in his defence. No one wants to get kicked, so a well executed feint will ensure an opponent reacts in very predictable ways. Let him fall for your kick and either kick him with a different tactic or use a punch whilst he's occupied.

Colin

Links

Eyes Wide with Shooting Pain Shows Me You Understand

2010-12-27T16:08:00.000+08:00

I had a fighter come to my school a while back.

He shared with me an overview of his experience and his exposure to several fighting arts.

I insisted to show him Taekwondo's basic blocks. Chukyo marki, yop marki, hardan marki - Taekwondo's staple techniques.

The application of the blocks however, seem to be done very differently to what he's used to. Against a punch, a grab, or an attempted arm control - the folds of the blocks were done as limb strikes. No I didn't go for joint strikes - didn't have to. My elbows connected with his forearms, his wrists, the back of his hands, and fingers. The pull back hand? Provided me the other side of the 'jam sandwich'.

You could see the look in his eyes as the pain shot up his arm directly into his brain.

It's not like I've not talked about block applications like this before. My point is - I earned my black belt at 17yo, and it took me literally years ... yonks ... to return to these basic lessons, and to learn them correctly. My implications of the use of the word 'correctly' is to use such basic techniques to get every ounce of power and striking force as possible from them. We should see them as the lethal techniques they are - and not for them to be neglected for other more 'advanced' techniques which might be better used in a point scoring competition.

Link

Amateur Hour

2010-12-18T21:58:00.001+08:00

Move aside instructors, it's amateur hour.

Call for a front kick. Amateurs think of only the foot and putting as much power into the leg as it strikes the bag.

Think about a jab. The amateurs again only focus on their fist and flip it out. Their elbows are low, and the punch is only powered by tricep strength.

In my hard style system, power is generated by body mass and momentum. A good stable stance is only good to propel the mass of your body toward your opponent. The breath out tenses the abs so that there is transmission of power from the lower body into the upper body. Finally, the upper body tenses in order to send the power of the entire body through the respective weapon.

The weapon is the last bit of the equation, and is chosen for it's tactical advantage.

The weapon should not be thought of first.

Unless of course, it's amateur hour.

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Yul-guk: Side Kick and Cover

2010-12-12T22:57:00.001+08:00

I could talk about the side kick from Won-hyo, but I won't.

The side kick from Won-hyo is introduced as either a proactive attack-based kick or a defensive kick.

Just found this really cute video of this kid doing Yul-guk ...

What I wanted to talk about was of a side kick that gets you to attack an opponent and attack again. That means, your opponent has tried to hit you, is hitting you, or will hit you. You are going to perform a side kick, deal with his attack and then counter.

You cannot do this unless you are prepared to cover and defend yourself during the kick itself. Look at the side kick from Taekwondo Pattern Yul-guk. One hand is extended, and there is the retraction of the chambered fist. Something is going on! Furthermore, after the kick is launched and retracted, the practitioner is required to counter with an elbow strike either to the neck or head.

What is the main place that beginners s*** themselves on? It is during the side kick when your hands are flung every which way. The front hand is swung to the back. The back hand is swung away from the body. You're just flailing around with your hands. This is no good at all. You need to keep your hands between you and the opponent at all times. Whatever kick you launch, you need to have the leg raised by hip muscle alone. The upper body should not move and should not telegraph any kick. If you have to move your upper body you are doing the kick wrongly.

The hands should - as a rule of thumb - be either up or down. One hand up, the other down. You should try protecting both your head and groin at the same time, and interchange your hands whilst doing the kick. Yep - it's not easy is it? But don't ... and get kicked there, and it's GAME OVER. There's no point in dreaming of other ways to end the fight, because your fight will be over for you.

Links

Front Kick as Hard as a Side Kick

2010-12-10T09:54:00.001+08:00

If the front kick were 'leg only,' you'll only be able to hit as hard as the proportionate size of the muscle.

A teacher told me once that the side kick is the most difficult, non-gimmicky kick to do correctly. It is also the most powerful. It can be one of the benchmarks to measure all other basic kicks in terms of striking power.

Most beginners focus only on the lower aspect of the leg whilst kicking. Similarly most beginners focus on the end bit of the weapon when trying to generate power. For instance, if punching, they'll focus on the fist. If kicking they'll focus on the leg extending. In my school, I try to emphasize the power from most basic techniques coming from the ground up.

Stable base. Dynamic leg action. Knee drop. Hip twist. Breathing out. Abdominal tension. Shoulder rotation. Tightening of muscle structure to focus the strike. And then landing the weapon. See? The weapon is the last to impact. Beginners only think of the last few elements whilst trying to increase power.

For the front kick I was talking about, we want to send body mass through the leg. The leg muscles shouldn't have to work any harder to increase striking power exponentially. The support leg has got to be supple and dynamic. A stiff support leg is only good to hold you in a standing position. Bending the knee allows much more maneuverability and allows the support leg to push down and backwards on the floor.

The body in a state of forward motion cannot have it's mass transmitted easily if the hips are freely rotating either clockwise or otherwise. I try to tell beginners to align their hips so that the kicking leg is directly in front of the support leg. If you kick like you're doing some red army march, you'll see the kicking leg quite unaligned to the support leg. On point of impact there's going to be some triangulation occurring. Reducing this triangle allows you to transmit body mass through the hip and into the kicking leg.

If the kicking leg is kicking forward, what does the support leg do? The support leg has to drive into the ground and push back as hard as you're intending on going forward. Part of this is to shift body weight towards the opponent so the support leg doesn't have to do so much work. But you can't think that the kicking leg is doing all the work. You're learning a system aren't you? Well, this is the system. Everything is connected!

On point of impact you'll need to follow through and maintain optimal muscle tension. Are you kicking the shield or the person holding it? Stopping the leg on the wrong surface doesn't allow you to feel how to apply your power correctly.

Good luck!

Links

Martial Arts Effectiveness and Religion

2010-12-01T09:34:00.001+08:00

I'm talking through my hat when I say there are many instructors who extend their martial art practices to include not only spiritual growth, but religious thinking.

Much of good martial arts training focuses on combat effectiveness but also covers ancillary aspects of personal growth. I would like to think that this is a value add aspect of the training and in fact beneficial to combat effectiveness. Engaging in combat requires a person to be able to mentally focus on the task at hand (overcoming the opponent and reduction of risk) whilst being confronted with physical and mental intimidation.

Spiritual growth through the various forms of meditation and dedication through training creates maturity but more importantly is an activity that allows the practitioner to 'get into the zone.' Getting into the zone or mentally focused for optimal performance is an accepted part of modern sporting endeavours - but has been included in traditional training for a very long time.

Where we nowadays identify this aspect of traditional martial arts as being part of 'spiritual growth,' it was probably not always like this. Martial arts, mostly influenced by Asian culture, has practices intertwined with cultural norms. Where we now practice things such as bowing or other reverential motions or intonations, back in the day this was part of normal everyday living.

So when I visit a modern day martial art studio with instructors that have no cultural background that is similar to the source of its lineage AND I see that the instructor has taken some liberties to include additional religious information along with his training - I have to fight to keep a straight face.

I feel that very little value is added to 'accepted' practises leading to spiritual growth by forcing students to ingest semi-religious concepts labelled as Buddhist, Zen, Taoist, or what have you. Worse is to propagate these concepts in the name of Budo. Somewhat bad is to decorate your dojo with religious artifact to hint at a higher level purpose of your style.

If you want to transmit a religion, transmit a religion. Don't disguise it as a martial arts class.

And for goodness sake, if you find yourself having to continue talking about pseudo-religious Buddhist thought, at least please read about it. It's not at all about waving joss and bowing to a Buddha statue!

Please convince me that I'm talking through my hat. Anyone?

Links

Being a Parent is Not Easy

FAQs

2010-11-01T17:09:00.000+08:00

Taekwondo FAQs

Q. What does Joong Do Kwan mean?
Joong Do Kwan - 중도관 [中道館] - is a nod towards 'Chung Do Kwan' the first of the original kwans and means 'the school of the middle way.' Joong is the point between predecessors of our art and modern Korean innovations from the mid 1950s and beyond.

Q. What do you mean when you call what you do 'traditional'?
It is 'Traditional Taekwondo' insofar as to distinguish it from the evolution that occurred in the mid 60s factioning Taekwondo into the ITF and WTF. We use the Chang Hon Taekwondo Pattern set similar to how it was practiced in the mid 1950s or the good old pre-sine wave days. Our style has however intermingled with karate practitioners since, and this has meant that in some ways what we do has devolved into being more karate-like than Taekwondo was in the 1950s. See My Traditional Taekwondo, The Problem with Hard Style Systems like Karate and Taekwondo and ... and that's found in Traditional Taekwondo?

Q. How do you see Joong Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do differing from ITF Taekwondo?
The professed Traditional Taekwondo philosophy is the equal use of both hands and feet. Similar to a traditional Karate school, we value the 'focus' or kime to generate power for basic techniques. Where we differ from both Karate and Taekwondo however is where we work on covering or drilling techniques on our 'centre line.' Philosophically we aim to engage opponents at mid to close range, and this really affects the kicks we choose and the type of combinations you see at our school.

Q. How do you see Joong Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do differing from Karate?
Anytime you have an over-institutionalised training methodology, there are huge benefits of injecting innovation and relaxedness to allow for greater self exploration and adoption of natural movement. While we adhere to Karate's Kihon-Kata-Kumite for some of our classes, two drawbacks of Karate have always been its line drills and the prescribed (read 'contrived') official bunkai or pattern analysis. JDK seeks to break free from such rigidity but continues to value some of Karate's basic fundamentals.

Q. What makes Joong Do Kwan better than Taekwondo or Karate?
Joong Do Kwan is a meat and potato program offering little entertainment to spectators aside from the quips and whatever slapstick action can be found in class. In fact, you will find neither the spectacular kicks of some Taekwondo schools nor the crisp competition-oriented kata of some Karate schools. The training program of note has been developed to take a beginner naturally and systematically from white to black belt, but offers many of the same skills that other good hard style schools offer. We do however encourage a student practitioner to explore Taekwondo from various perspectives, and offer a good range of material in our student manual (on sale below to non-members at a very exorbitant price), syllabus and this blog for continued study.

Q. What is your view on Taekwondo's Sine Wave?
I don't practice the Sine Wave, but that doesn't mean you won't see me compressing my body, or expanding myself upwards if I find myself crouched lower than my opponent. In my opinion it's unwise to focus too much on one training methodology to build combat effectiveness. But there are opportunities for practitioners to explore aspects of the Sine Wave for tactical advantage. For more information see Only True Taekwondo Practices the Sine Wave.

Q. Who writes this blog?
Colin Wee started training in 1983, got his first black belt in 1987, started training in American Karate and Aikido in 1991, and started the Hikaru Dojo Martial Arts Academy in Perth mid 2000s. He has trained on three continents and in three styles. Since 2003 however Colin has worked tirelessly to research and promote meaning and applications of Taekwondo's Chang Hon pattern set. See Man of Tradition: Australian Taekwondo Magazine Interview, with additional links on the history of Taekwondo.

Q. What is Colin's official rank?
Colin is ranked to 5th Dan by Molum Combat Arts Association through his affiliation with MLCAA Director Hanshi Tim White since 2003. Colin holds a 3rd Dan from his direct instructor Master Bryan Robbins from American Karate and Taekwondo Organisation. Note: I would like to add that in our system, promotions above 3rd dan are honorary and do not require physical testing. I also hold shogo awards, ask if you're really interested.

Q. How can I navigate this blog better?
Try Sitemap to Traditional Taekwondo Techniques and Taekwondo Patterns.

Q. Where else can you connect with us?
Find us on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/traditionaltaekwondotechniques and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/taekwondo_au.

The first precept of Sensei Gichin Funakoshi by Mireille Clark

2010-09-26T22:58:00.003+08:00

" Karate begins with courtesy and ends with courtesy."

Trash talk is common in many sports. Verbal insults, swear words, and threats are sent towards one's opponents in order to "psych out" or intimidate their opponents. It is done to unnerve, distract, frighten, and/or lower the confidence of the person in order to gain an advantage. Talking trash talk also seems to help motivate, and build up the person sending the insults. This behavior happens despite the fact that each sport has sanctions against disrespecting one's opponent. Why does this happen? Because the benefits of using this competitive "tool" outweighs the penalties that might occur. "By distracting and unnerving their opponents, while arousing themselves at the same time, athletes hope to shift the sometimes fine line between victory and defeat. As LoConto and Roth explained, "The goal is demean opponents and cause enough imbalance to diminish their performance"" Website

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/periodicals/201009/2111895311.html#ixzz10eJrBliP

Young athletes learn by the age of 11 years old from their peers, opponents, parents, and even coaches that trash talk is not only effective, and accepted, but that it is a desired behavior and attitude. According to studies, 42% of boys, and 22% of girls felt that it was acceptable to trash talk their opponents, and this number may be rising.

Traditional Martial Arts training however stresses the opposite behavior. We are exhorted to control our emotions, de-escalate violence, avoid engaging in the fight if possible, and show respect at all times. I believe that this is due to the understanding that we are not training in a sport where no one is injured at the end of the confrontation. According to Sensei Gichin Funakoshi, "When two tigers fight, one is certain to be maimed, and one to die."

When we are placed in a self defense situation, we have to be ready to do whatever is necessary to survive because our opponent is seeking to harm us. It is not an accumulation of points, or goals that we are hoping to achieve, we need to walk away from that moment with our lives intact. This may mean breaking limbs, gouging eyes, even killing the attacker since they are threatening our lives.

We need to feel a deep respect for what we can do, and would do if placed in that situation, and therefore we seek to de- escalate violence as much as possible.

In a website dedicated to prison staff learning how to control violent behavior in inmates it emphasizes "NEVER THREATEN: Once you have made a threat or given an ultimatum you have ceased all negotiations and put yourself in a potential win lose situation."website

Verbal de-escalation techniques is to use closed sentences that stops conversation as responses to questions sent in your direction:

"If you're asked “What are you looking at?” the easy answer is to say something along the lines of, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone I knew. My mistake, sorry," and start to move away. If after this the guy pursues the issue, you know he is just out for a fight and you must then prepare for self defense. To reduce the ‘squeaky voice’ effect common when you get a heightened level of adrenaline in your system, look down slightly as you speak. Looking upwards makes your voice squeakier.

Making open statements only invites more conversation. If someone has engaged you in a verbal confrontation, they haven't yet justified in their mind a physical attack. They may still be trying to figure you out as a fighter, looking to distract you to set you up for a proactive strike, or simply cannot yet justify physically attacking you yet. What they are looking is for a reason, and using open statements and questions keeps you in the conversation longer. Give yourself more rope, and eventually they'll find a reason to escalate to a full out attack." website

Therefore, you respect yourself enough that you do not need to defend your pride, masculinity/femininity or honor against their insults. You respect your opponent enough that you chose not to confront them if unnecessary, and you allow them the option to desist. You focus on your goal of walking away safely from any potentially dangerous situation as quickly as possible. If the situation comes that you must fight, then you make sure that you are the tiger that goes home. You do not spend your time or energy with words, but go straight into action.

--Colin WeeTraditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo's Fighting Stance

2010-09-22T10:04:00.000+08:00

We're all in a Taekwondo fighting stance. Weight is more or less equal on both feet, with a little more on the front foot. Hands up up for coverage, chin is tucked in for support. There's optimal tension in our bodies. You hear the count, "1," and you lean back, bring your knee up, send your hips out, and fire off the front kick. Then you snap it back like a champion, and set it back on the ground.

Except you're not longer in a fighting stance. Your COG is now on your back foot. Your hands were flapping around, and you're not covered as well as you were before.

Line drills notoriously screw around with your brain. You get to the line and you typically switch off thinking about what you're trying to do. That's why you need to visualise your opponent in front of yourself. In Taekwondo, there is NO POINT just kicking for the sake of kicking. You need to aim and tactically launch a kick that's going to land. If there is no angle of entry or target exposure, don't fire a kick or make to strike the opponent. It's foolish.

So at the line, after you fire off what you've got to fire off, you have to force yourself back into a Taekwondo fighting stance. The opponent must always be kept guessing as to what you've got to do. Favouring a side kick or back kick or roundhouse kick without thinking about it is not to your advantage. Unless of course that is what you want your opponent to think!

Keep kicking!

Taekwondo Sparring Posts

Jumping Side Kick

2010-09-13T10:45:00.001+08:00

One of the kicking Jumping Side Kick drills I wanted my green and blue belts to practise on Sunday's practise was what my old master would call a 'split' side kick. Essentially a small jump, folding both legs close to the body, and landing both support leg and kicking leg at the same time.

What I wanted to see was sharp crisp movements. I didn't need to see air time or huge jumps. I wanted the legs to be pulled in tighter to the body and the kick and landing to be at the same time.

Kicking for sparring is not like that. You stretch out much more. You are more relaxed. You try to get your kicking speed increased. Etc. etc. etc.

But kicking for self defence needs the legs to respond to you irrespective of what you wear, what foot wear you've got on, and the opponent is not waiting for you to make a mistake. The kick has got to short and sharp. Your legs have got to return you back to fighting position and you've got to be ready to cover and strike with your hands.

That's little place for a kick to return back to the ground at it's own time. It needs to be snapped back quickly and your COG has got to be returned to fighting position.

The last time I talked about the jumping side kick, I told my intermediate belts -- the jump is more for tactical advantage than to get your kick up to the horse-riders level. Forget Hollywood. If your opponent thinks you're jumping to kick his head, you should hold your kick back until you land and then break his ankle.

Enough said. :-)

See other posts on the Taekwondo Side Kick at Calibrating the Side Kick.

Cheers,

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Non-contact Sparring Exercise

2010-09-02T16:38:00.002+08:00

I took a page out of the Judo club's training book last weekend for our taekwondo sparring training. When I see my children at their Judo class, they're trying their hardest at 'randori' which is similar to freestyle sparring for Judo kas. But they're not intimidated nor scratching their head wondering what to do.

So last weekend I told everyone that sparring training was going to be light with no contact. This doesn't mean flippity flip techniques or speedy gonzales footwork - movements should be smooth and fluid. I also invited them to let their opponent slip some techniques through - their job was to observe the technique, work on movement, coverage and to continue steady deliberate breathing. They were also supposed to play with their techniques - fire off things they've never done before. Use your left side. Your right side. Mix it up.

The session was some of the best we've seen in recent times. It gave us a good cardio workout, but also allowed us to 'free our minds' ... to use techniques that we do in slower drills, but with good control. Techniques were tight and focused. Best - no one got hurt AND they weren't afraid of getting hurt.

Keep training, folks!

Click on Taekwondo Sparring Posts for more information on the topic.

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Always Innovate

2010-08-02T14:10:00.000+08:00

Taekwondo, all martial arts, is about overcoming obstacles. It's not necessarily about beating the opponent senseless. Check out this video of a bouncer dealing with a very aggressive customer.

Link to Self defence posts

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

My Review of Shotokan's Secret

2010-07-22T09:51:00.000+08:00

Please see my review of Shotokan's Secret Expanded Version at Amazon. As I said, the book is a "treasure trove" of information, and despite my practising Taekwondo, am enthusiastically recommending it to anyone who is a serious martial art practitioner.

Links

Chon-ji Step 1 & 2: No Opponent Wants to Get Hit

2010-07-19T11:17:00.002+08:00

Sooner or later in Taekwondo, you'll find yourself in front of an opponent in a sparring session. Many meginners have real difficulty starting this aspect of their martial arts training. You fumble trying to decide what technique to use and how to land it, you're scared of getting hit, and you're trying to figure out how to not get hit. When you think of moving you might move left and right, and if you're really jumpy - you might backpedal when your opponent surges in to you.

This is a real problem of standup fighting - an opponent not rooted in the ground can move around! And even if you can land a strike on your opponent, he might relax and absorb the strike and/or backpedal. Yesterday we practiced a basic skill - grabbing on to the opponent before striking. In Taekwondo pattern Chon-ji, the first move is a down block to the left. Before the lunge punch starts - the down block is extended forward in what should only be a reach out into a controlling grip on the opponent - and this is done in order to land a fully committed strike on an that can and may try to move backwards away from you.

So in our drill, we practiced stepping forward and 1) grabbing the opponent's extended arm with palm facing out, and 2) grabbing the opponent's arm held in a combative stance. For both we use a cross handed reach with the back hand (which of course becomes the front hand when you step forward). We then progressed to grabbing on to the opponent's uniform. This is done slightly differently - instead of just making a circular move to grab onto an extremity, we lunged deep, applied a trap or forward pressure either on opponent's lead hand or straight onto the lapel or shoulder region before getting a control on the opponent's uniform.

When you get a grip - you need to strike immediately using other hand.

Taekwondo Sparring List of Posts
Bulldog's Martial Arts and Me Sparring Post

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Following Sensei Gichin's 20 precepts by Mireille Clark

2010-07-13T22:35:00.006+08:00

Awhile ago, I wrote a posting concerning Sensei Gichin Funakoshi's 16th Precept:

Keeping Safe by Mireille Clark

Lately, I've been focusing my Martial Arts contemplation on these precepts. I have just returned from a 2 week Road Trip to Florida, and through this experience I gained insight on the 7th Precept " Accidents arise from negligence."

I had always assumed this to refer to negligence of attention, and focus. We have seen how distractions, and inattention can cause problems. In fact, I'd wager that most car accidents are caused by this fact.

I'd like to add a different slant on this concept. Deep within us is a quiet small voice that recognizes danger. It's like a sixth sense that whispers to us that something isn't right in the environment. We can't really place what is wrong, but that inner voice insists that we need to be on alert. I believe that we have to pay close attention to that part of us, and listen carefully.

I felt that sort of inner voice moment happening to me. My husband, and I were enjoying a walk around a tourist attraction in Florida, and all was smiles, and joy until deep within me I felt a sense of "danger". I couldn't tell you what was causing this alert. Nothing had seemed to change around me, but I could feel that same inner feeling as if I was being targeted by an opponent during sparring. I decided to listen to that quiet voice. I pulled on my husband's hand saying "I don't feel safe here.. let's go over there." The rest of the day went smoothly, and I set aside this strange moment. The next day, in the news, there was coverage of a tourist being stabbed 4 times in a parking lot by a drug addict. I had to ask myself if my sudden dangerous feeling, and quick change in direction had helped me avoid a similar fate? I can't prove that it had done so, but I can't prove that it didn't.

I found an article on the internet that speaks of Brain studies that have pointed to a "sixth sense" that helps us to avoid danger:

"Following the Asian tsunami, scientists struggled to explain reports that primitive aboriginal tribesmen had somehow sensed the impending danger in time to join wild animals in a life-saving flight to higher ground. A new theory suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex, described by some scientists as part of the brain’s “oops” center, may actually function as an early warning system — one that works at a subconscious level to help us recognize and avoid high-risk situations.

While some scientists discount the existence of a sixth sense for danger, new research from Washington University in St. Louis has identified a brain region that clearly acts as an early warning system — one that monitors environmental cues, weighs possible consequences and helps us adjust our behavior to avoid dangerous situations."

You can read more from this article here: http://scienceblog.com/cms/node/7036

According to this article, the more that you put your brain into moments where you activate this sixth sense, the better you can learn to recognize the signals that it gives. I would suggest that this would mean that experiencing sparring/kumite moments would be essential to developing a sensitivity to that part of your mind that recognizes dangerous cues. I believe that this sensitivity would help you avoid dangerous situations in the future.

Links

-- Mireille Clark

Just Got Criticism for blue-sky Thinking

2010-07-10T10:33:00.001+08:00

Check out the criticism I got from a respected author, experienced Taekwondo instructor, and a good friend of mine at Taekwondo Yop Marki with a Vengeance. His response was targeted at a favourite book of mine Shotokan's Secret and a forum that's linked to it. Check out my response at the link above.

That entire forum post is an exercise in fantasy and denial. It badly shows up the authors complete lack of any sense of reality in his martial training.

Fine for him but not ok if he is teaching this rubbish, we all get tarred with the same brush when his students see through it.

We live in the age of pressure testing, via ufc style competition or the influence in our clubs of reality-based defence systems.

People dont just believe because we say so anymore, they can read and watch and research and test.

And when you treat that forum post as a legitimate argument you call your own judgement into question.

I realise you are a fan of this guys work but if you want to teach valid self-defence to anybody, then this entire mode of thinking has to be abandoned.

Martial arts are not magic. Not even a little bit.

Shotokan's Secret Expanded Version is Out!

2010-07-02T16:37:00.003+08:00

If ever you think that you're lacking inspiration, not knowing where your martial arts is taking you, don't understand why you do martial arts the way you do martial arts, and scratch your head trying to explain certain drills - you know it's time for you to get Shotokan's Secret. The first book I got my hands on contained profound revelations that forever changed the way I practice and teach hard style systems. The book literally confirmed many of the doubts I was having and literally helped me progress my own skills just through the insight it shed on many basic and fundamental issues.

Today, I was honoured to receive the expanded version. Dr Clayton Hanshi was more than generous to have mentioned my in his book - but more importantly, I noted that the additional sections contain amazing new material. From our email conversations, I know he has captured high level martial concepts some of which reflect my own insights from my 26+ years of training. I know no one else who has documented such profound knowledge and wisdom.

I strongly recommend this book to all enthusiasts. I intend on making this a mandatory purchase for my Traditional Taekwondo school.

Find and add Dr Bruce Clayton Hanshi on FaceBook.

Links

Women Self Defence

2010-06-21T11:32:00.001+08:00

The post No One Wants to be a Victim is a response to true life story of a mummy blogger's post on her horrific experiences being raped by a person she respected and admired. My post features a link back to the original post and also my discussion of the difficulty of self defence and the realities of fear that come from physical intimidation - with or without a weapon. I also list down ways in which to become a tougher target. I'd like to welcome all martial artists over to my parenting blog to give your two cents worth on women self defence and how you could become a tougher target. Please be considerate and sensitive when discussing the subject matter.

Links

Judo Grading - Passed!

2010-06-19T11:40:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to my son William who passed his Judo grading and is now a Green Belt in the UWA Judo Club! He's been practising for a little over a year, according to my post and the link below 'First Ever Judo Class'. Good job son!

Charity Event
Promotions by William Mioch
William's First Judo Class
Do-san Hip Throw
Won-hyo Over the Shoulder Throw
The Problem with Hard Style Systems like Taekwondo and Karate

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Knee Strikes and Take Downs

2010-06-06T22:15:00.001+08:00

Nicole is currently studying taekwondo patten do-san. So this drill is an extracurricular one that draws on other aspects of her training with us. Gap closing requires her to deflect and slap the oncoming strike away, control opponent, knee strike, shift his weight backwards and take his leg out from under him. The video is of her starting the drill - so you can see the process of learning has just started and the execution speed is still a little tentative (as is the case with the next video). This drill was inspired by Sabumnin Stuart Anslow.

Christian is doing Taekwondo pattern Yul-guk, which has elements of this drill through the form. Step 7 scoop block, the side kick as 'knee', elbow strikes, and the open palm tension presses as deflections are all utilised in this drill. Christian gap closes, strikes, controls, knees the opponent, wraps his arm around the opponent's neck and turns the person to executive yet another elbow on the back of the neck. This drill was inspired taken from Datu Kelly Worden.

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Look at Me, I'm Doing Taekwondo and That's Why I Look as Stiff as a Board

2010-06-02T12:40:00.000+08:00

I'm looking at some of the popular articles on my blog like Taekwondo One Step Sparring, Taekwondo Chon-ji Grading Oral Test, Taekwondo Pattern Chon-ji Down Block Drills, and Won-hyo: Kihon Kata Koma, and I'm reflecting on the class I had last weekend. I was doing line drills with two beginners, starting off with lunging backfists, and mixing it up with jabs and loose roundhouse punches on a half step/slide.

One of my students, in trying to emulate all the lessons over the last year (basically white belt to orange), had shoulders straight, back upright and a very mechanical gait. And you know what? It's all due to the system in which we teach. Basically what Bruce Lee termed the 'Classical Mess.' We drill students day in and day out in their first few belt ranks to ensure proper 'focus' - what karate would term 'kime'. That's when you get the body decelerating hard and you've got muscle lock down so that the entire momentum of your body is transmitted into the target.

But is this how you should be fighting all the time? Not on your life. Being able to deal with attacks and to counter requires you to be fluid, and to be responsive. You cannot hope to be responsive if you're stiff as a board, trying to replicate a fore balance whilst going for increased reach, or for body deflection. It's just impossible! Taekwondo and karate is really NOT like this. You only go for muscle lockdown at the point of impact. Before then you should be able to perform your taekwondo and karate as naturally and with a good amount of fluid grace.

Cheers,

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Do You Hate Taekwondo Pattern Yul-guk?

2010-05-24T13:48:00.001+08:00

If you are convinced Taekwondo pattern Yul-guk Step 15 and 16 are two horizontal open palm 'pressing' blocks don't read any further.

I suppose pressing blocks may be used as a way to slowly prise aside a clinch or grab or bearhug. My research into patterns or kata also indicates that slower techniques are done slow because of the risk of injury (indicating level of lethality) and thus have to be performed more deliberately with your training partners.

These two techniques are poor examples of pressing blocks. Aside from the main way of teaching them as arm locks (kaitenage and takiotoshi), yesterday we ran a drill that used the two 'pressing blocks' as a takedown involving the control of the opponent's legs.

The Yul-guk Drill

#1 The opponent throws a left lunge punch. Deflect and strike toward the face using your right hand. Reach down with your left hand and wrap your forearm under his leg. Think of a large steering wheel, turn to the right, and drop the opponent onto his back.

#2 The opponent throws a right lunge punch. Deflect and strike toward his face using your right hand. Wrap your right hand around his neck and tuck his neck under your armpit. Reach down with your left hand and wrap your forearm under his leg. Think of a large steering wheel, turn to the right, and drop the opponent toward his face. (see #4 Yaritame in Throws and Locks in Karate).

The great thing about this technique is that it works whether or not you get the technique right. So long as you deal with the strike and counter, you can throw the opponent forward or backward easily. Just bend over, grab the leg, and steering wheel the guy where you want him to go.

Yul-guk list of posts
Aikido and Taekwondo

External Links

Black Belt Skills to Save Your Life

2010-05-18T08:43:00.000+08:00

Visit my other blog to find out how I saved myself from a near-death traumatic cycling accident in Black Belt Learning Skills 101 using basic skills learned when I was a coloured belt some 25 years ago. The article takes lessons from the martial arts and seeks to help parents guide children in learning better.

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Side Kick Wins Hands Down

2010-05-17T22:40:00.000+08:00

I'm looking through my Google Analytics Stats, and it seems my post Taekwondo Side kick of Won-hyo is the most popular of my posts - enjoying 10% page views compared to all the other 300+ taekwondo posts on this blog! Incredible.

What I'm amazed at is how other basic and less-risky techniques, which I think can generate a huge amount of force and are more pragmatic as self defence weapons don't get the kind of exposure they deserve. The following are some posts which I think deserve increased time in the sun. :-)

Taekwondo Front Kick Equilibrium and Technique

2010-05-14T09:43:00.007+08:00

Last night, amongst other things, I was drilling my taekwondo yellow belt on the basic front kick from Taekwondo Pattern Do-san. We were working striking an opponents body behind the cover provided by the front arm. As a beginner was performing the kick, I noticed disequilibrium occurring in the front kick. Essentially, the body was jerking forward in an attempt to balance out the weight of the kick as it was being lifted up. The front kick was inefficient, and had to be modified.

My thinking was to first get the front kick practiced with a more relaxed manner than previously done by this student. A body that is too tensed means a student wasting too much power and who's probably going to be too tired to concentrate on minor changes. A taekwondo student trying too hard at any drill is not in the best mental state to accept changes to his form.

My next instruction was to get him to lift up his knee and balance himself out. I called this a 'balance point.' What I wanted was for him to remain relaxed, go for the balance point - with body just slightly held back, hip slightly rotated on the vertical, and with knee held out. I said to forget about the kick, get to the balance point whilst calibrating on the target. The focus on the target will eventually get him to send the hip out and land the front kick on the striking zone.

Focus too much on the 'end bit' of the entire weapon and you forget that karate or taekwondo is driven by the entire body. Most taekwondo beginners and intermediate students just forget all about how power is generated - through the mass shifted by legs and hips. The structure of the body then transmits this power into the striking tool. Many taekwondo beginners think just on the end bit of their weapon. And invariably only can perform up to the strength of their arm or leg. More advanced taekwondo students strike with their entire body and can generate lots more striking force with much less effort.

There were a few other fine tuning points that I discussed - pertaining to the support foot. The weight has to tend towards the ball of the foot rather than be left on the heel. The support foot should also provide support. Just because a more adept kicker looks pretty relaxed doesn't mean there's a deficit of optimal tension. Tension is always there, but when it's balanced out, the tension is there appropriately to support the forward striking force. No tension and the kicker will fly backwards. That's NOT traditional taekwondo. :-)

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Shotokan's Secret - With New Material

2010-05-07T10:39:00.001+08:00

Shotokan's Secret - by Kyoshi Bruce Clayton PhD

Some of you might think I'm in love with Dr Clayton with the number of times he and his book Shotokan's Secret is mentioned on my blog:

Taekwondo Yop Marki Middle Block With a Vengeance
Dan-gun Power Generation in Karate Styles
Australasian Taekwondo Magazine

Reading Shotokan's Secret was a life changing event for me as a martial artist. At a time when I was researching forms and understanding applications and drills from my own style, the book helped to clarify my thoughts on what it was like living my life as one of the old masters of karate. It made my martial arts more real for me, and raised my enthusiasm and passion for this hobby back to an all time high.

I thank Dr Clayton for giving me the opportunity to meet him when I was in the Napa Valley in 2006, and for being so kind as to mention my meager participation on his forum and communications through emails. I have enjoyed talking with this bona fide martial art historian, and am thankful for the large inspiration he has played within the development of my own practice and understanding of the martial arts.

People like Dr Clayton make me proud to be practicing what I do, and make me confident in the quality of people in the martial arts industry. Please do yourself a favor and check out his book. See follow up post Shotokan's Secret Expanded Version is Out.

Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Developing a Relationship with Your Taekwondo Patterns

2010-05-05T12:15:00.000+08:00

I've often been asked whether I get bored teaching the same s*** over and over again.

Last night I taught Tekki/Chulgi, Taekwondo Yul-guk, and Taekwondo Dan-gun.

I've practiced these Taekwondo patterns for around 20 years. Know what? I totally enjoyed the session. We mixed it up with some applications from the patterns, some drills, and of course the technique sequences. I also got to talk about what each pattern was urging us to accomplish. It's like a personality - the more you reflect on it, the more you understand it.

Teaching them is like introducing friends to each other. Each of your friends don't know the other, but you're the mediator and you think they'll get along fine. So you make the first introduction, then perhaps talk separately to each of them about the other, then let them develop their relationship themselves.

Good luck to developing your own martial relationship with your Taekwondo patterns.

Cheers,

Colin
--
Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Follow Colin on Twitter

2010-05-05T11:03:00.001+08:00

Tweet you there! Colin

-- Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

What role does body hardening exercises play in Taekwondo?

2010-05-04T08:53:00.004+08:00

During Taekwondo sessions, I often let my students land kicks or hand strikes on my body with increasing force. While it's not yet full power, the strikes are approaching it, and have been described by other blackbelts as 'old school' (ala Uechi Ryu Karate's Hojo Undo). What benefits arise from getting struck like this? Aside from increasing tolerance to pain or body hardening (which I don't really believe in or promote), why would we do this? In sparring, at full speed, does this help? Typically not. Full speed taekwondo or karate attacks to body most often land without the receiver able to totally prepare themselves for the strike. However, accepting strikes to the body during practice teaches a major lesson - and that is that the effective range and location of the impact for most kicks have a very limited ' range of effectiveness. For instance, if I can move my body one or two inches away or rotating around the strike, most kicks will be absorbed or deflected without me having to shift my whole body weight away or toward the kicking leg. You will not however be able to play with this nicely unless you get your partner to commit and land very hard strikes or kicks on your body. You need to feel the pressure, synchronize your timing, and modify/collapse your body structure in order to nullify the force of the kick or strike. Cheers, Colin

Taekwondo Sparring Posts
Cross Style Comparison: Body Hardening

External Links
Hojo Undo Quotes
Shaolin Monks v Maori Warrior
How Hard Should You Beat Your Body?
Fighting Gear
Sanchin Shime
Are You Tough Enough?
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Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Yul-guk: Side Kick, Grab, and Elbow ... What???

2010-05-03T12:04:00.000+08:00

My blue belt was practising his side kicks from taekwondo's won-hyo pattern. He was doing a nice 'plain vanilla' side kick against a target. To his credit, the kick was nicely done and generated a lot of power. I however approached him and was looking through his pattern requirements for blue belt. Taekwondo's Yul-guk requires you to perform a side kick, then a control and elbow to your opponent. There's no way you can perform any elbow strike if your side kick sent your opponent flying. So I advised him to change the side kick and strike the target with a short range, close quarter snapping side kick. It's the karate type side kick that's almost undistinguishable from a roundhouse kick if done in the air. Of course he was none impressed with the down shifting of power. You don't get to whallop the target as hard with this kick. This short range snap side kick is not to be applied similarly to the other normal side kick. Firstly it is more versatile and can be used as a takedown tactic. Secondly, it should be applied much lower on the body than a regular side kick. Think of it as a stomp to the knee or shin or foot or fallen opponent. Once you think of it outside the realms of competition or the kick shield, then you'd begin to understand the true worth of it as a self defence or combative weapon.

FTT3SK9DS428
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Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Promote Taekwondo and Martial Arts Blogs

2010-05-03T10:04:00.000+08:00

This Black Belt is getting wiser and more efficient in his old age! My list of taekwondo and martial arts blogs was getting a little too long to manage. What I've done is to move all of my manually entered links to Google Reader. I have also embedded a clip of all my taekwondo and martial arts blogs from Google Reader into my previous blog list. If you want to promote your blog and don't see it listed there, please let me know.

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Colin Wee Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Yul-guk: Neck Manipulation, Leg Defence, and Backfist

2010-05-01T22:12:00.001+08:00

Today at Taekwondo class my blue belt practiced

Yul-guk: If you control the Head, you control the Body (Steps 15-17)

... this blogging thing is great, I don't have to re-write my old posts on the subject!!!

We also practiced a leg defence using step 11 & 12 where we catch the oncoming striking kick using a variety of capturing techniques. Instead of sweeping the support leg, we lift the striking leg aggressively. To good effect I added in the front kick to the nuts, though my uke was already not impressed with the net results ... nearly falling, smashing his head on the decking, and tearing skin off on the exposed nails.

We also chatted about

Yul-guk: Step 35-36 Jumping Backfist in X-stance - It Could be Taught as the Most Useless Technique Ever!!!

I'm really loving my blog.

Anything to add?

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia. Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Sparring Bingo

2010-04-20T17:35:00.003+08:00

I'm bringing to training a cool game in which I created some time ago but have not used in the last few years. It's a taekwondo sparring bingo sheet ... 9 taekwondo techniques listed on a single sheet of paper (several sheets are produced to increase variety). You cross out each taekwondo technique you successfully perform during the sparring session. Once you've finished with the entire sheet, you get to sit down. Taekwondo sparring shouldn't be the best techniques against weaker opponents all the time - this is the worst use of this practice! This isn't good practice, and many traditional masters like Gichin Funakoshi totally disagreed with free sparring. Sparring should teach proper breathing, coverage, movement, speed, and reactions. Allowing yourself to use different techniques helps build a broader range of skills, and helps you test the tactics as studied from taekwondo patterns. Keep challenging yourself and you will definitely BINGO!

Five Freestyle Karate Concepts that Win Every Battle
Breathing During Sparring
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

SuperParents

2010-04-12T21:40:00.000+08:00

I am starting a new site to support parents and care-givers in Perth. Please help me support my new Online Community of Parents and Family in Perth called SuperParents. Cheers, Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Back Kick

2010-04-09T12:01:00.002+08:00

As a progression from the various side kicks taught to my blue belt, we added in the back kick to his bag of tricks. The drill starts off in a horse stance side on to the target. The turn is a 90 degree backward turn. The heel is picked up leaving the kicking knee close to the support knee. The head is turned enough to see the target in the peripheral vision. The kick is performed so that the heel hits the target and the toes are pointing downwards.

Mistakes that kickers do is to turn hard, spinning more than necessary. This is a back kick and not one that generates power with the turn. Make sure the turn is small and conservative. Another mistake is that kickers turn and raise the the kicking hip higher and counter balanced with a tilted body. This allows kickers to perform nice head high side kicks. This is not a spinning side kick. The back kick should be able to come under an attacking leg - like a roundhouse or a side kick.

The start point needs to have the kicker's backside pointing at the target, and during the drill it might be useful for the kicker to turn, stop, wait, then kick at the target. Keeping the knee tight to the support leg allows the kick to come up from 'under' ... making it very difficult to defend against.

Power generation if for the front kick involves pushing the hips forward with the support leg. With the back leg, the support leg pushes the backside toward the target.

If the kick is done well you should be able to drop the kicking foot right next to the support foot. If equilibrium or balance is out, your head will wobble either left or right and your feet will land separately.

Make sure to keep one hand covering the face - I like to use my back hand crossed over. The front hand can be kept down to cover the ribs and the groin.

Links

Taekwondo Back Kick is Risky but Lucrative

Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Beginning Sparring

2010-04-04T15:15:00.003+08:00

A dialog is starting up between Instructor Ray Manion and myself regarding taekwondo sparring at

http://traditionaltaekwondo.blogspot.com/2008/07/beginning-sparring-in-traditional.html

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Your Kid's TKD Class is Not My Karate on 24FightingChickens

2010-03-31T10:39:00.002+08:00

I was asked to include more posts for senior students. Here is something from 24FightingChickens for my intermediate and senior students. Your Kid's TKD Class is Not My Karate.

I was having a similar conversation with a parent friend of mine yesterday about motivation. I was talking about how I motivate myself, and how I ... at 40yo, am still punishing myself on a regular basis doing my pushups, training, visualisation, etc. All of it is an objective oriented exercise not for some personal self glory. While maybe it once was, the black belt however is not there to pull chicks.

The video below is of my nephew at a coloured belt grading doing a sparring session. Don't get me wrong, they're doing really well for their age. But by and large, sparring is all like this. This is an example of what I do not do.

I train for an unthinkable situation - home intrusion. There would be multiple opponents, mostly armed, at night, in a high target environment (where my kids are the targets), they're jacked up on whatever they've just dosed themselves up on, and we're facing off in a tight space. I myself would probably be bedraggled, may or may not be armed, and am the last and only line of defense.

I will not fail.

Keep safe, my friends.

Check out Kids Sport, and Martial Arts as a High Level Sport
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

How to Practise Martial Arts

2010-03-31T09:27:00.001+08:00

Prompted by my 5th kyu, I have invited all my students to train at my house tomorrow. In essence, I wanted to discuss how each they should practise with the equipment on hand.

Typically students show up at class, get spoon fed some training, and are left on their own devices at home. Practice is extremely variable - it may either be cardiovascular, or in my case when I was a teenager, just focused on technique and getting hand eye coordination happening.

I want to cover:

The objectives of self practice: how to vary it and mix it up between practising objective oriented tactics to just getting a nice workout.

The parameters described by basic techniques like the front and roundhouse kicks, and how to apply that on a punching bag (either hanging or as in 'Bob' one with a water base)

How to vary individual technique whilst in front of the striking target in order to train gap closing, accuracy, timing, and angle of entry skills.

How you can use the base of the striking target to practice some really valuable self defence skills.

How we generate power with hand techniques and how to hit harder - basically to finish off the fight.

How to integrate a training journal into your training and take control of your progress through the arts: documenting what you are doing, how often, and what you are wanting to focus on next.

And if I install my striking post on the wall ... how to generate a lot of power in a short distance with a reverse snap punch.

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Ministry of Discipline

2010-03-27T11:42:00.000+08:00

Help Traditional Taekwondo Promote Ministry of Discipline

Instructors and Black Belts, help me promote the concept of 'Nurturing Discipline' amongst your parents members. Support a good cause!

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Dan-gun: Stepping Aside for an Oncoming Attack

2010-03-25T23:08:00.001+08:00

Today we practiced Taekwondo Pattern Dan-gun: Shuto Knifehand into a Roundhouse Punch. Essentially it's stepping aside and doing a shuto block to the outside of an oncoming punch. The step is doing with the back leg stepping diagonally back and the front leg dragged into place and facing the opponent.

There was difficulty establishing distancing for the retaliation. There was difficulty getting the jab over the striking arm. What we want to do is to learn stepping aside, but also trying to get it so that the distancing is correct so as to allow the punching hand to land without overly reaching out. Don't sweat it. An oncoming opponent like that is likely to just bowl you over -- step aside, cover with the knife hand, track the opponent and jab loosely.

Stand there and 'take it like a man' and you'll end up on your behind ... with the opponent trampling all over your face. The block has got to allow the opponent to race past you - his power is surging linearly after all. There is a time and a place to deflect the strike minimally so you can use the opponent's force against him. But remember, this is an 8th kyu requirement. So the student needs to be able to deal with big movement, and corresponding defences.

Keep training!

Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Charity Event

2010-03-21T15:51:00.000+08:00

HRGB was happy to be involved (albeit in a small unobstrusive way) with 'Suburban Smackdown' a charity event raising money for the Toybox Association that provides orphans with foods, clothes & shelter. Suburban Smackdown featured boxing and muay thai matchups, and a judo demonstration I choreographed for my 8yo son and 10yo nephew. Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

My Martial Arts Brothers ... I need your help.

2010-03-19T22:24:00.000+08:00

I'm trying to launch a new website for a startup business opportunity. This is entirely separate from my martial arts practice - which has been non-commercial for the last couple of years, and which will remain that way. This new business concept is at the conception stage, and I'm trying to build up some traffic to a blog that will be used as a resource platform for parents and care-givers. I'd really appreciate some link love. So ... if you can, would you put my new blog on your blog roll? It's at www.superparents.com.au. I'd really appreciate it. Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Handlocks for Hard Stylists

2010-03-16T22:54:00.001+08:00

Checkout a previous post on the subject at: Taekwondo v Aikido

Unlike Aikido practitioners, hard stylists like taekwondo practitioners don't really get handlocks. Sure many may go through the motions, but at the end of the day the technique is usually sent packing and the joint in question is muscled into submission.

We don't practice Aikido. So while there is room to improve, we'll just have to take it like a man ... and put up with our skill in joint manipulation. In my curriculum, locks and throws serve primarily to complement multi-person sparring. You take the person down and place them between yourself and the opponent. So whatever arm is offered or available, the lock you place has to be used to hold the opponent between yourself and his girlfriend.

Of course joint locks can be used to immobilise a single opponent, but that's something else.

Last two weekends, we've taken advantage of the break after grading to practice joint locks and throws. To complement the signficantly aikido session, I also taught a few gap closing skills. This allowed us to surge into the opponent, trap one or two of his hands whilst striking to the face, and then putting on the handlock. Trapping the hand is as simple as placing an open palm on top of his forearm, pressing it into his chest.

Lots of this surge allowed a forward pressure on the lead hand of the opponent. This results in the opponent *immediately* pushing back ... which is the basis for you to use one of your hands to grab and separate his arm from the rest of the body. Another related method is to trap one hand, smack his head, and then go for the opposite hand.

Or else you trap the hand, smack the head, and then go for the neck ... ala Yul-kok.

Or if you're inspired by Basai ... you trap the hand, then go for the legs.

But practice surging in and using both hands to occupy the opponent before applying the lock or the throw. As I've said before, simple stuff works best... so vary it and practice!

Cheers.

Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

"When you can take the pebble from my hand... " special martial art training

2010-03-15T13:11:00.000+08:00

This looks like some of the 'special' training we have in our school!

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Effectiveness of Traditional Systems Discussion on Facebook

2010-03-13T14:26:00.000+08:00

There's a discussion of the effectiveness of Traditional systems on the Traditional Taekwondo Facebook Group between myself and Forrest Littlejohn. Mr Littlejohn is a long-time Kempo Karate instructor from American Karate and Taekwondo Organization. I've had the pleasure of fighting Mr Littlejohn a couple of times when I trained in the US; he's built strong and tough, but you'd be impressed with his fluidity of movement and control.

And hey ... there's lots of mention of 'maturity' in our discussion ... given it's been some 15 years since we last trained together I wonder whether he's talking about my age???!!!! :-)

It's good talking with honest-to-goodness martial artists whom you've not trained with in some time. Looking back over the years, I've got to say I've enjoyed spending that amount of time with these guys. They're good value.

Cheers.

Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Sensei Paul Hinkley's Birthday Today

2010-03-10T12:03:00.001+08:00

Mr Hinkley was one of my American Karate and Taekwondo instructors when I was with the SMU Martial Arts Club. A soft-spoken polite and intelligent man, he is at once one of the most effective fighters and instructors I have met. He generates what seems to be an unbelievable amount of power from a lean wiry frame.

I've heard a few things about Mr Hinkley, all of which are mentioned in awe. Here is a snapshot of what has been whispered to me:
1. He wakes up in the morning and practices forms for 1 hour every day.
2. He shaves and brushes teeth with his non-dominant left hand in order to improve fine motor skills
3. He took a full bo strike to the head (done accidentally) and didn't flinch. It was mentioned that he was grinning whilst blood poured down his face.
4. He was doing 100 situps a month after open abdominal surgery.
5. A black belt friend of mine received a roundhouse kick to the forehead from My Hinkley, apparently the most powerful strike he ever received in his life, and thought that that was the end of his world.

Mr Hinkey approaches the martial arts with an engineer's eye. He was talking about bunkai, applications, effectiveness of strikes, and angles of entry before they were 'in fashion.' Through him, I realised the value of technique, kata, and basics. From his influence, I realised that martial arts required us to engage an opponent mentally.

Once upon a time, Mr Hinkley was belabouring a point about step 27 and 28 in Toi Gye - an open palm strike into a manji-uke (one down block and one up block). He was discussing the need for the lower block to provide a sheering force to the right hand groin strike. While I didn't understand why he singled out that particular point for those of us who were there, nowadays I find myself belabouring the same issue over and over again to my own students!

Above all, I remember Mr Hinkley as a martial artist who was constantly seeking to improve himself. There was no other person he was more tough on than he was on himself. He is the model traditional martial artist.

All of us would be served well to look at Mr Hinkley's journey through the arts as inspiration for our own progress.

Please join me in wishing him a happy birthday.

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Intermediate Belts to Traditional Taekwondo

2010-03-09T12:37:00.001+08:00

Intermediate belts to Traditional Taekwondo take a significant departure from beginners. Beginners need to learn some very specific ways of generating power, and this is often taught in a very contrived manner .... namely, one punch left dangling out and the other pulled all the way to the hip. This allows you to step forward and practice the same technique again. But is possible the best and worst thing hard style martial art systems did when creating a teaching methodology.

So intermediate belts will learn ways to use both of their hands whilst dealing with strikes from opponents. Expect to hold both hands out, and expect to use both hands to deal with all strikes coming your way. This covers both trapping, coverage, blocking, striking, and some manipulation.

Lots of joint manipulation however, still require the pull back or hikite hand to work. But this pull back hand or hikite doesn't always make it all the way to the hip or ribs ... and is dependant on the technique, body position, and what you want to do with the attacker (use him as shield between you and other opponents, or drop him to the ground or throw him towards his other girlfriends).

The biggest obstacle for many intermediate belts in Traditional Taekwondo is to learn to maintain an 'optimal' relaxedness for the techniques to work. Speed will decrease with tension, so a relaxed body helps increase speed. But become too flaccid and 'couch potato' like, and you lose the tension needed to support the speed, acceleration and striking force. So the intermediate belt needs to learn how to keep some optimal relaxedness that will help with movement and control of his extremities.

Cheers.

Colin

Links

The Ranking System and Delusions of Grandeur

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Welcome Adeniyi Osunde from Nigeria

2010-03-08T20:47:00.000+08:00

Adeniyi Osunde 5th Kyu from Nigeria has expressed an interest in understanding more of what Hikaru Dojo does and to learn more about Traditional Taekwondo. I am getting him to start a dialog with our students and to establish a video feed to us in time. Welcome to Perth!

Cheers,

Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Oral Test for Grading

2010-03-06T15:41:00.003+08:00

We're conducting a beginner to intermediate grading session tomorrow.

The oral component of the test for beginners may ask to state your knowledge of something factual about Traditional Taekwondo. For instance, I might ask:
1. What does Taekwondo mean?
2. What is the meaning of Chon-ji, Dan-gun, Do-san (dependant on the requisite form)?
3. What is a down block called in Taekwondo?
4. What was the name of the founder of Taekwondo?

For yellow - orange belts, the oral component may ask more historically challenging questions. It may also start to include some knowledge on critical analysis of the form.
1. Where does Taekwondo originate?
2. What year was Taekwondo officially formed?
3. What was the name of the Grandmaster who brought Taekwondo to the United States in the mid 1950s?
4. What are the differences between Taekwondo and Karate?
5. What are the similarities between Taekwondo and Karate?
6. In the 10th technique of Do-san why do you punch downwards before the upward block?

Green belts and above are required to answer challenges pertaining to their knowledge of techniques:
1. What is the difference between the first and second side kick in Won-hyo?
2. Explain an application for the scoop block in Won-hyo.
3. Why are we performing the side kick at mid-level?
4. HOw do we generate power over the short range used in the knife hand strike?
5. How do we generate power over the short range use in traditional roundhouse kicks.
6. Explain the difference between a short range versus long range roundhouse kick.

More senior belts may be asked questions pertinent to their growing understanding of the strategy we employ in our school:
1. Explain the benefits of learning handlocks in our school in regard to multiple opponent fighting.
2. Explain the opposing philosophy of Yuk-guk and Toi-gye?
3. Self defence articles typically ask the defender to 'run away'. Where would you run away to? Discuss.
4. Of what use is Chon-ji for a beginner that has no experience dealing with attackers?
5. How do you land a punch at long range?

Black Belt Candidates and above may be asked on all the above questions, including knowledge necessary to prepare them to communicate technical knowledge:
1. What are plyometric exercises.
2. Name 5 drills appropriate for a beginner in learning a low block.
3. How do you troubleshoot a side kick?
4. Describe a traditional exercise to increase striking power.
5. Descrive a modern exercise to increase striking power.
6. Discuss the options for an inflexible adult when starting the martial arts.
7. How do you overcome the fight/flight syndrome?

Good luck!

Colin

Taekwondo Chon-ji White Belt Grading Oral Test
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Welcome

2010-03-05T14:44:00.000+08:00

Welcome to John Rouse, Tang Soo Do Shodan, who visited our school yesterday. Keep training, John. Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Keeping safe by Mireille Clark

2010-03-04T01:39:00.009+08:00

Too often we relax our guard in a public place with the assumption that we are safe because we've been this way before, or done this so many times without any problems happening that it has become comfortable to us.

I believe that one of the most dangerous additions to our modern lifestyle is the various MP4 players/Ipods/Cell phones that are being used in public places. You can see people walking down the street, sitting on a bus, or jogging through a park with these ear buds showing on their heads. By doing this they are taking away the most important aspect of Self Defense available to them, ie: their sense of awareness of their environment.

We rely on two main senses when we are paying attention to our environment, namely Sight, and sound. It is rare that we would use taste, touch, or smell to alert us to danger, but it can happen.

To be honest, I found that sound has always helped bring my attention to potentially dangerous situations. A sudden sharp crackling noise, the sound of footsteps near me, or the sound of a car approaching has alerted me to potential danger, and I have been able to avoid that problem. I would actually feel my ears "perk" up, and my mind would assess the various reasons that these sounds exist then I would turn my head to investigate. I have been able to avoid being crushed by a falling tree limb, or being struck by a quickly approaching vehicle thanks to the sounds that I caught just in time.

One is under the illusion that they are safe when they are listening to the distracting sounds coming from their system. Their minds are occupied with their favorite song, or listening to the news, and is not fully alert.

Predators will attack when the prey is not aware, or when the prey is in a disadvantaged position. If you were to attack someone, would you not choose the person who is daydreaming, or acting distracted, or even unaware of their environment?

Although convenient, and portable, I would suggest that MP4/Ipods/etc. players be used only in a place where you are assured your safety. Jog with them in a Gym, or running track in a wellness facility. Walk with them on a treadmill, or sit with them when you are safe at home.

As Sensei Gichin Funakoshi has explained "When you leave home, think that you have numerous opponents waiting for you. It is your behavior that invites trouble from them." ( From the 20 Precepts)

Child Safety on Escalators
Child Safety in the Face of an Aggressor
10 Tips to Improve Your Child's Safety
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Mireille Clark
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Taekwondo Pattern Chon-ji: Down Block Drills Part Two

2010-02-26T13:19:00.002+08:00

Taekwondo Pattern Chon-ji: Down Block Drills Part One

Last night, I prescribed a drill for my white belts for their Taekwondo hardan marki or down block. The first move was used as a 'wipe' or deflect against a lunge or jabbing punch to the face. When I stopped them halfway to focus in on the lateral 'face wiping' move, I was questioned by one of my students about the practicality of the drill.

In truth, I do not believe this is the best way to apply that particular motion. You have the one opposite hand folder under, and the blocking hand left to deflect a fast oncoming punch to the head. While it is not impossible to do, the likelihood is high that the beginner will miss and will get tagged by the oncoming strike.

The aim of the practice was to separate each motion of the block and create value to the student by showing that it is possible to apply the block in a few different ways. The speed of the strike also helps with timing and distancing. But it is true, I am not prescribing that the block be used against an oncoming punch in the manner in which I displayed.

I prefer to think that beginner strategy should be to avoid dealing with strikes altogether. So either launch an attack before the escalation or to time gap closing between strikes or to use deception in order to lower opponent's attack/defenses. This allows the student to grab clothing or extremity or to allow opponent to grab a part of his/her body. This then allows student to apply the various components of the taekwondo hardan marki down block - folding can be a strike to the head and the down block can be a wrist break or groin strike.

Successful application of a part of the opponent's body that is controlled then allows the student to take the opponent down and stomp on the closest parts of the opponent's body.

Chon-ji Drills and Variations
75 Down Blocks
Look at Me, I'm doing Taekwondo and That's Why I Look as Stiff as a Board
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Another pensioner bashing!!!

2010-02-19T15:12:00.000+08:00

I'm posting an email from Paul Marston of the WAMAIA.

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Marston
Date: 19 February 2010 14:40
Subject: [WAMAIA] Another pensioner bashing!!!
To:

By now you have probably read that another pensioner, this time an 83 year old grandparent in Queens Park, Himet Etik, has been bashed, not by one man or one child, but by a group of more than ten, some of them reportedly armed with wooden stakes, his crime, BEING HOME WHEN HIS SON CONFRONTED TWO MEN TRYING TO STEAL HIS CAR FROM THE DRIVEWAY!

As is our custom with Local Victims of Crime, we will be raising funds toward his medical expenses and possibly assiting with an upgrade of his home security.

Any donations will be gratefully received at this office.

Thank you for your contribution.

Paul Marston Sensei
State President International Budo Federation
Convener West Australian Martial Arts Industry Association
Director KAPAP Academy WA
Director Australian Defensive Tactics Institute

38 years and still a student!!

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Multiple Opponent Sparring Drill

2010-02-17T10:57:00.003+08:00

Once upon a time in a land far far away, when I was a wee purple belt, I was taught fancy jump kicks to attack more than one target at the same time!!! Gone are those days. Multiple opponent training is a tough, gritty, and tiring affair. This video demonstrates a very practical way of introducing multiple opponent sparring training at the beginner level. A lot of the philosophy of my style deals with the use of an attacker as a shield against other attackers. It would be wise to incorporate such training into any martial arts curriculum.

Our multiple person sparring drill has some 'gaming' rules. Lately, we have not been using this as a sparring session due to the number of beginners. The drill has been however incorporated into our warmup sessions - and really maxes everyone out.

The game rules are simple. The person who is 'IT', needs to align the two or three others that are rushing him - 'IT' is allowed to grab. The people doing the rushing are trying to come at him from either side - and are not allowed to grab.

Multiple Person Sparring

Below is an example of a multiple opponent sparring session without tactical movement. Defender stands there and takes it like a man. There is an instance where he shows a surge toward the outside, and he does eventually take down his opponents. But by and large, he's right there in the middle slugging away.

Lastly, check out the excellent page on Facing Multiple Attackers by DefendU.

This post was mentioned on Striking Thoughts' Martial Art News 2.19.10.

Cheers,

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Traditional Taekwondo on Jumping Kicks

2010-02-16T11:18:00.001+08:00

Please look at my response to Potatoe Fist's post to get an understanding of the place of jumping kicks in our system.

Fist in the Frost: Jumping

I think the hip stretch and opening for long range standing kicks is a relatively good innovation by taekwondo. I think the extension of this relaxedness to jumping kicks and their ilk is a sport-based detriment to real self defence.

Cheers.

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Chon-ji: Lower Punch to the Mid Section

2010-02-16T10:23:00.001+08:00

How effective is the lower punch in the beginner's form Chon-ji? How do you apply it? What is the pull back hand doing?

Stackup for the punch
Landing the punch

Hope you enjoy it.

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Note Taking in Martial Arts Classes

2010-02-15T14:40:00.000+08:00

Just a Thought's Tuesday Tip: Take Notes

How many times have I asked students about a particular taekwondo technique only to be met with blank stares, and a "no we've not done it" response. Yet, the techniques were introduced and were part of belt requirements that have not changed in years. Then some point midway practicing, I'll get a confirmation that they're starting to remember the technique.

This blog was created end of 2008 to record notes for certain segments of my class. It provides instructor-side insight into the technique by providing more information or providing a different perspective not mentioned in class.

As I am no longer coaching national or sports representatives, the training journals kept by my students need not include competition preparation type training information. Journals however, should be used to capture techniques and tips for improvement. I typically offer personalised advice for each student whilst they learn or perfect a technique - all this should go into the training journal.

In my class there is no shortage of information. It seems only shortage of mental processes to retrieve information.

The training journal should also feature a practice schedule so that the student can practice skills required for the next grade. Any problems or issues should be noted and brought forward as part of the student's interaction with his/her taekwondo instructor.

I highly recommend students take a mature approach to managing their own path through traditioanl taekwondo. One of my pet peeves is to have to 'spoon feed' student practitioners.

Cheers!

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

The HRGB Family Dinner

2010-02-13T22:44:00.005+08:00

Can't seem to change the dimensions. Go check it out on the FB page by clicking on the about image. Thanks. Colin

ps. How come no one is wearing Taekwondo gear?
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Connect with Colin on FaceBook and Traditional Taekwondo Group on FB.

Feb 28 2010 Seminar

2010-02-12T11:27:00.000+08:00

Morning class will be cancelled on Feb 28 2010. I'd like all HRGB members to instead attend the Chen Pan Ling Baguazhang seminar from 1-4pm. Please ensure you email/IM me and confirm receipt of this message. Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Taekwondo Yop Marki Middle Block with a Vengeance

2010-02-12T09:16:00.001+08:00

This post discusses power generation for Taekwondo's middle block or yop marki.

Kyoshi Dr Bruce Clayton, author of Shotokan's Secret, has a parable posted on his forum about a self defence situation where defender is confronted with attackers and sees a baseball bat. If the immediate reaction is to reach for that bat as a weapon, what does this state about your karate?

The simple takeaway from that post is that karate or taekwondo techniques need to be able to generate significant amount of force when required. Furthermore, this power generation has to occur for even the most basic of techniques.

We were working on Taekwondo's yop marki or middle block last night. Without much thought to it, it is a technique which has questionable value. It is not a natural motion used for protection - the palm faces in rather than out which is typically how a person instinctively protects their upper body. However, like all basic techniques, this move does have its uses.

The stackup or the folding for Taekwondo's middle block creates a very complete cover of the upper body. The two elbows together form a very strong barrier against opponent's strikes. If need be, you can also reach down to cover lower abdomen or deflect groin strikes.

The middle block then allows for one of two very tactical responses to an aggressive force.
1. A well executed middle block allows you to continue the motion and capture the opponent's hand.
2. The end point of the middle block places your hand in a position to counter with a high level roundhouse punch or jab to the face.

My main point is that the middle block can generate a good amount of force. Not from the simple rotation of the shoulder cuff joint. The middle block applies force through the dropping of body weight. The circular upward movement draws the forearm into position. The proceeding locking of muscles of the upper body and core trunk, plus the dropping of centre of gravity then drops the entire body weight on the striking surface.

This generates a good amount of force which can be applied extended striking/grabbing arm or leg, shoulder or clavicle region, or back of neck.

Get it right and you will find that you don't need to overly use a lot of arm muscle to generate power. The entire body weight drops on the target allowing you to keep the arm more or less relaxed!

Cheers!

Colin

Why Go Headfirst into Attack?
Dan-gun: middle block drill
Chon-gi: Middle Block Drill with Partner
What Technique a Beginner Needs to Master

Cheers,

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Charity amongst Martial Artists

2010-02-11T13:39:00.001+08:00

I have a college friend who now lives in Cedar Park in Austin, Tx. She would like her children to learn martial arts but does not have enough money to enrol them. Is there anyone who instructs in Austin that is interested in doing some good charity work and offer free or low priced martial arts training to my friend? Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Christmas Perth 2010

2009-12-21T09:26:00.001+08:00

My Christmas taekwondo challenge is impossible - to get my students ready for their next grading whilst our school has closed for the holidays. I might have to reevaluate the achievability of that goal.

I have however, managed to set up my own training equipment in the house I've moved into. I don't have a separate 'gym' anymore, and am now training in the garage. At least it's covered.

Aside from that ...

This year has gone by quickly. I had some good updates on the blog early in the year, but postings declined significantly at the end of the year with the amount of work my projects created for me. But I have had fun anyway. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the blog and who has networked me into their blogs. Have a Merry Christmas. Keep practising. Stay safe.

Regards,

Colin

Christmas Gift IDeas in Perth 2009
Christmas Music

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Teaching Traditional Taekwondo Techniques

2009-12-17T17:20:00.001+08:00

This is a response to 'Do Black Belts have to Teach?' at Just a Thought.

Not to Teach: A long time ago at an Olympic coaching seminar (this had nothing to do with Traditional Taekwondo), I remember the head coach say that participants and competitors should not coach or instruct. Essentially, if you are competing, you should focus on what you should be doing, and if you have to look at anyone else, look at those who are better than you. As a taekwondo practitioner, the onus is on the individual to practice - to hone skills and to be as prepared as possible. Teaching should not distract you from your own practice.

You should Teach: There is however, the constant saying - you learn as you teach. This is especially so for the martial arts; there are many instructors who just do not teach effectively. So putting yourself in a position to transmit knowledge requires you to understdand what you have been taught, draw from your experiences, and extrapolate from whatever knowledge you already have. This approach allows you to draw from the your peers and even your students - making sense of taekwondo 'on-the-job'.

Teaching is Fun: Lastly, teaching taekwondo techniques is part of the entire enjoyment of the study of taekwondo. Martial arts have a lot to offer many people at different stages of life. Not all people have to travel the same path, but if you are ready to inspire others and if you gain satisfaction from making a real difference to individuals ... teaching martial arts is the way to go.

Intermediate and Senior students at my school know that everyone is required to teach. Teaching can be as simple as sharing belt tying skills, or providing comment on a particular technique, or assisting a student in learning a taekwondo pattern. Certainly, when they understand my method of teaching (using the pattern framework to guide skills transmission), they'll eventually understand what to expect from the gradings. When they understand what to expect from gradings, they'll be better prepared for the challenges they face confronting a non-compliant opponent.

Teaching Traditional Taekwondo to Children
Earning a Traditional Taekwondo Black Belt

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Promoting Taekwondo in Perth Western Australia

2009-11-23T11:49:00.000+08:00

Anyone wanting me to promote their taekwondo club or dojang in Perth, just let me know. I am happy to put a plug in for you if you send me a message onto my Links page - make sure you include your suburb. Check out ATI Taekwondo Bull Creek and Burswood in Perth. Even if you're doing Taekwondo commercially (nothing wrong with that), you don't have to feel compelled to buy me a drink or give me free t-shirts or badges (wink). I am more than happy to put a post out for you. Regards, Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

MarksTraining.com: Muay Thai Elbow Strike

2009-11-23T11:27:00.000+08:00

Nat and Mark have a post highlighting the very effective and devastating Muay Thai elbow strike - a great technique any serious martial artist should learn early and learn soon. It generates great power simply, forces you to get close, and allows you to have both hands up covering your body and engaging the opponent.

Original links to their posts:
TDA Training: MarksTraining.com Muay Thai Elbow Strike
MarksTraining.com: Muay Thai Elbow Strike

But the elbow strike should not really be considered more lethal or vicious than any other technique, even if they're introduced at a basic level. To do so misrepresents martial arts. Many beginners think that the techniques they learn when they're white belts aren't worth s***. WHy? Because these techniques could also be associated with their learning proper distancing in a controlled ... and often times tentative sparring/one step environment.

Within our taekwondo training program, I make concessions for this type of thinking early on due to the fact that beginners have to learn a lot of gross motor coordination. But I do try to aggressively dispel this notion that basic techniques are useless once these students are maybe 4-5 months into their training.

What do senior and more experience fighters use? They use staple taekwondo techniques all the time ... and very effectively at that. What is the recent one punch can kill campaign all about? It's about punches ... not your 560 degree tornado kick.

While control and tentativeness are a must for an exercise like sparring, there should be no question about the lethality of your 'basic' beginner strikes. The martial art student should be shown that lots of power can be generated, such power can be used to strike vulnerable areas on the body ... and they should understand the self defence issues of pulling out a properly executed martial technique. You don't just knock-out your cousin who's just insulted you at the family christmas party. Or decide to 'juice up' your uncle for grabbing a piece of your butt. There are implications.

Keep thinking, folks.

Colin

ps. Good post Marks. :-)
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Taekwondo Combo Kicks for Real Fighting

2009-11-22T20:46:00.002+08:00

Taekwondo kicks for real ... I had a good training session last Thursday, I focused on intermediate taekwondo upper body strikes and kicks, and combinations of the two. Of note, there was an interesting discussion on taekwondo kicks and kick combinations that I would use only in sparring as opposed to in a real situation. Certainly a double kick where the first feints for the knee and the second kicks the head - whilst both legs are in the air, would represent a tactic which I'd only use in sparring. Why on earth would we train for something that we wouldn't use? It's not that I wouldn't use any one of the two taekwondo kicking techniques ... it's just that I wouldn't use them in that particular combination. I remember one sparring session when I stopped an oncoming 200 lbs 6' brown belt with that particular instep kick to the knee. I felt real bad, but hey ... that just goes to show you don't have to pull out the entire sequence. That first move was good enough to stop the guy in his tracks. Taking sparring-as-exercise, those fancy combinations are great to gauge what technique works, the distance, the timing, and the angle of entry. Kicks are versatile; expert kickers can kick you without you seeing the kick until it's just about to land. But you can't get that good until you're looking at all these combinations and permutations.

An interesting kicking video ...

Taekwondo Kicking Related Posts
High Kicks in Taekwondo
Training Aids that Wreck Technique
Won-hyo: Where are your eyes on the back of your arse?
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

ATI Taekwondo Bull Creek Perth Australia

2009-11-22T20:29:00.003+08:00

Edin from ATI Taekwondo Bull Creek and Burswood [ATI Martial Arts] in Perth sent me a message and asked to exchange links. I thought I could do better than that. If anyone is in Bull Creek or Burswood and interested in taking up taekwondo, go check out their website. Cheers.

***cut***

Edin said...
Hi Colin,

I'd like to exchange links.

I have linked to you from my homepage http://www.ati-taekwondo.com.au/

Can you please link to me with the following details.

Title: "ATI Martial Arts - Taekwondo in Perth"
url: www.ati-taekwondo.com.au
desc: Teaches self defense, discipline, strength, including a 3-6 year olds Little Dragons class!

Thanks :)

***end***

Other Perth Links:
SuperParents Family Blog
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

New Archery Website

2009-11-21T22:28:00.000+08:00

I'm getting a new website developed for my dad's archery business using WordPress. Check out BWarchery Archery Equipment Supplier in Singapore, if you like. Colin

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Quick Thinking by Our Resident 'Hot Mama' Apprehends Crims

2009-10-28T14:15:00.001+08:00

Hikaru Dojo, Perth, congratulates one of our female students 7th kyu who showed some quick thinking today and took the right course of action by calling the cops. Read the following note she sent to the Principal - name and school omitted for privacy. Good on you!

***begin***
9:40am, Wednesday the 28th of October 2009.

Dear Parents,

Hi, my name is and I am one of the parents here at School. I would like to relate an incident to you that happened to me this morning in the car park directly across from the school.

I was on my way back down to the car with my mother and toddler when a beat up looking vehicle parked 2 spaces down from us. Two men, one young and the other older, got out of the car and walked over to the little hut just across from where they had parked.

They took note of us and made some very unsavoury remarks such as “Hot Mama”, which made my mother and I very uncomfortable. I quickly strapped my baby into the car and urged my mother to get into the car as quickly as possible as they were taking (particularly the older man) more than a casual interest in us. I got into the car and reversed out of the parking lot, before driving off I made note of the drivers licence plate. At this point the older man advanced towards us in a menacing fashion and was obviously very keen to remove us as quickly as possible from the car park. He continued to look at us until we were well and truly away from the car park.

They were clearly dangerous and I was very concerned for the safety of my mother and child.

At this point I decided to report the incident to the Cottesloe Police station. By reporting this incident to the police within minutes of it occurring, the police officers were able to dispatch a squad car immediately and the two men were apprehended and arrested in the act of committing a crime. The police officers were very grateful for the information that led to them being able to make this arrest and would like to urge anyone seeing any suspicious behaviour to report it as quickly as possible. If you are not able to make it to a Police Station please ring 131 444.

***end***

Colin
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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.

Taekwondo Side Kick Retraction

2009-10-26T22:02:00.000+08:00

The prevailing wisdom with kicks is that for most kicks (especially the basic traditional kicks) once extended, the leg is recoiled back along the same path. This means that you don't send the foot out and then change angle in mid-air. This of course can be done, I have myself done this in sparring for kicks that were not always fully committed in order to chamber the kick mid air and send the striking leg out again. However, this is not the same for do-or-die basic kicks. With 100% power, the torque and the vibrational force if not dissipated correctly, recoils back along the skeletal structure. It typically comes back for the first major joint - your knee, but the vibration is equally happy going for your hip, neck or your support knee. Last Sunday I was practicing side kicks with my 6th kyu, and I was noticing that the kick did not seem to be coming back along the same path. It seemed more or less correct but right in the end, it looked flappy and 'wrong.' After some experimentation, we came to the conclusion that for that specific side thrust kick (the lower limb rises towards the point of impact), the kick is pushed out with the large muscles of the leg - gluts and hamstrings. It's hard to control the retraction or recoil, and some people would relax the hip and retract it using the smaller quads and hip extensor muscles. This kick requires leg muscle retraction to power the leg back to the chambered position next to the support leg. This is the best way to return your body to a 'ready' position, or to allow you to re-engage the use of your hands to counter.

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Colin Wee
Traditional Taekwondo Techniques, Patterns, and Applications at the Traditional Taekwondo Blog. [Subscribe using email or RSS feeds] [Tkd Sitemap]. Colin is a martial art instructor with 25 years of experience across three continents. Colin leads a small Traditional Taekwondo group for adults in Perth, Western Australia.

Join Colin on FaceBook.