Martial Arts Planet - Tae Kwon Do

The Future of Demonstration Teams

Doralwolf — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:30:15 GMT

As we all know, Demo Teams can serve many different purposes in any TKD school or organization. They are a good tool to promote the TKD program, a way to motivate current students, and a way in which students can express creativity.

Truse me, I know that demo teams have a bad rep in some cases. Its an image that often pops into many martial artist's minds when they hear it. For them a demo team means a group of children coming out to **See List Below** and performing synchronized dancing, breaking a few boards, and adding in the occasional cheestastic self-defense skit.

My brother and I have been entrusted with running our school's demonstration team for the last 3 years. It hasnt been an easy journey to get them to the level they are now but it has definitely been well-worth the sacrafice.

I was wondering, what do you all think about the future of demonstration team competition within your respective organizations. Is there a future for this sort of competition?

List of Over-played demo team music
1) Eye of the Tiger
2) Mortal Kombat Theme
**please add your own suggestions**

Coming to America

WalkingThePath — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:38:12 GMT

Hey guys,
I was gonna post this in the 'Schools and Teachers' section of the forum, but it looks like that area has gone, so I'll throw the question open to everyone on here...
I am a very lucky man and have just convinced my girlfriend to marry me! :D
However, that means that I am now (or very soon) moving to the States, namely St. Louis, Missouri. So, I was wondering if anyone knew of any decent dojangs in the area as Google seems completely useless when it comes to finding ITF gyms in STL...
Also, any warnings of places to avoid like the plague would be good too!!
Thanks for any tips guys!

ITF in South Korea?

FabricLive01 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:45:55 GMT

Hi, I'm planning to go to South Korea early next year and I'm getting mixed messages about my chances of training ITF style tkd, does anyone know if there are any clubs where I could train?

Any help would be really appreciated!

Taeguk Il Jang

Mevans — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:28:13 GMT

Hello,

I have a question about Taekguk Il Jang.

I know that when performing poomse you should start and finish in the same place. But when I perform Taeguk Il Jang I always end significantly behind my starting point.

On this video you can see that the player ends behind his starting point.

Kukiwon instructural video

- (see the mark on the floor to the right or look at the video at 5 secs and 38 secs)

I know why I end up behind my starting point. If you see this image at these points,
start -> 1
2 -> 3
8 -> 9
14-2 -> 15
The change in direction forces a small movement backwards, the cumulative effect of this movement means that I end up about 1 long-stance behind my starting point.

What is the solution to this? Make stances 17 and 18 shorter than 5 and 11?

Or have I been thinking about this too much and the start and end point are not important.

Jade Jones Youth Olympic Gold TKD

Moi — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:50:15 GMT

Friend of my son's. They did ITF together a long time ago

The 17 year-old, Britain�s sole taekwondo representative, was confident of victory at the Games and she lived up to high expectations with an impressive 9-6 victory over Thanh Thao Nguyen of Vietnam in the final.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...ondo-gold.html

Attached Images

jade_jones_1698500c.jpg (23.1 KB)

Rhee's Taekwon-Do - what do you know about it?

Kazama — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:40:20 GMT

I read a thread titled Why is Taekwondo looked down on? on this Tae Kwon Do subforum and I've been thinking of quitting my WTF affiliated club to join a different club.

I'm currently weighing up between choosing an ITF affiliated club or going with the privately run Rhee Taekwon-Do chain of clubs.

I've read the website for FAQs on Rhee Taekwon-Do and I'm quite enticed by dot point number 6. Keyword: military.

What do you MAPpers know about Rhee Taekwon-Do?

P.S.
Relevant information about why I'm thinking of a change:

Sparring feels like foot tag.
Hand techniques not allowed in sparring.
Foot techniques must be targetted above the belt level.
I am not taught how to handle incoming hand techniques (only foot techniques).
I don't feel as though staying at this club will be of much benefit to me, especially if I want to improve my fighting skills.
Drills only consist of solely foot techniques.
I feel like a fool when it comes to using my hands.
I feel like the self-defence drills aren't realistic and aggressive enough - too passive.
I am not taught how to handle situations where I'm in a compromising and unpreferred range (e.g. too close to opponent and thus, out of kicking range).

Interesting questioning

hkdstl — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:31:43 GMT

I have been in tae kwon do for a while now. It amazes me. I have some hypotheticals and questions that I would like feed back on if you would please.

Since there is no true founder of tae kwon do then why is the founder credited as Gen. Choi? Don't bash, this is a fair question, afterall was he not a shotokan practitioner 1st? Also, with the advent of popularity and propaganda could it not be said that tae kwon do has/had a lot of "Growing Pains". I mean with all the political back stabbing going on and the money involved, c'mon. Now I understand there are different organizations that "Govern" tae kwon do. The main being KKW and ITF. However, in its meger beginnings the KKW needed support from the SK gov't for recognition. The A.T.A. followed the ITF tuls. However, who cares?

The thing is this, no one certain person should be credited with founding tkd. It has been a combination of many kwans, organizations and the like that have helped tkd chug along to the bohemeth it is today. Without Choi's influence it wouldve been tang soo do or kong soo do. without the kwans coming together to assemble the kkw if you will then there would be no tkd in the olympics. The organization that has suffered is certainly the A.T.A., however, they shot themselves in the proverbial foot with the songham forms. The ITF is chugging along, but in factions. The generally and most accepted form of tkd is kkw tkd.

It seems that kkw tkd won out in the "Cultural Revolution" of tkd. But, and this is important.....one should appreciate the tuls as well. I learned both, I had too. I just don't care for the tuls as much. I do not think a tkd knowledge base is complete without knowing both. But, it is stupid to make both kkw and itf forms testable on gup gradings. They are just different enough to make it too confusing for the students.

No bashing please, just good answers if you will.

Reason for staying with TKD

locust — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:27:24 GMT

Last weekend i went to a SD seminar held by the head of our organization who tore strips off us for focusing too much on kicking and sport TKD, as he said our style is Oh Do Kwan which he said is a military style and too many people are turning up to gradings with only basic/limited SD training meaning they only know some 1,2,3 step and some grab defence, Again as he said ODK TKD should involve everything as it is a military style ,so what he wants to see more of is take downs, throws and ground based grappling:happy:.

Luckily some of the other instructors there hold multiple BB in other styles some including jujitsu,akido,judo and bjj so we were put through 4-5 hrs of take downs, throws and ground based grappling, lucky for me my mma friends had already twisted me into weird positions in order to submit years ago so i knew what to expect but what i found really amazing were other 2nd,3rd and 4th dans who didn't even previously consider any form of cross training .

So anyway i'm now resolved to stay with my TKD club in light of its direction
i'll still train elswhere aswell but now i'll continue with tkd aswell

Taekwondo Philosophy

Mevans — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:07:26 GMT

What is taekwondo philosophy?
As it's taught to you, as you teach it or just as you see it.
Thank you.