Kang Duk Won

Discussion in 'Tae Kwon Do' started by traz, Feb 21, 2005.

  1. traz

    traz New Member

    Does anyone train this particular style of Tae Kwon Do, or have any experience with it? I do Hapkido currently, however I will be moving soon, so I'll have to switch. I am going to take up a style of jiu jutsu once I move, but I would also like to do a striking art. Since I'll have experience with many kicks, I figure I might as well take up Tae Kwon Do as the striking art, and this is the TKD style offered at my University. I understand that it is traditional as opposed to sport, however I am wondering if anyone can attest to the training methods used, and the practicality of this particular style.

    In addition, if you have experience with it, can anyone tell me the amount of hand work studied, as opposed to just kicks? Again, I'm trying to find the most practical style of TKD that I can, so I'm not going for one that is all flashy kicks.

    Thanks!
     
  2. Yudanja

    Yudanja Euphoric

    I am not very familair with this "kwan" or school of TKD.

    I suggest you do some reasearch on the Internet.. or even with some of the students involved with it.

    It really depends on the dojang about how much time is spent on hand techniques. When i teach i spend a lot of time on them because I feel personally they are easier to learn, easier to perform, quicker than kicking techniques and a lot harder to block, evade, catch.. etc.

    Good luck!
     
  3. oni_sensei

    oni_sensei Valued Member

    Kang Duk Won is an American Karate/TKD association that was created to be a traditional martial art suitable for everybody, or at least that's what the site says.

    Weapons, self defense, all your traditional martial art areas are included, or so the site says:

    www.americankangdukwon.com/akdwhome.html
     
  4. Thomas

    Thomas Combat Hapkido/Taekwondo

    In the past, I have done a free lesson with Kang Duk Won, observed a few demos, and know some of the instructors. The quoted portion here is a review of a fairly recent demonstartion I attended.

    Kang Duk Won is a "Taekwondo" style whose founder had a lot of experience in Japanese arts and in TKD. They do some Japanese weapons and they do Korean forms (Palgye).

    They produce very good black belts and brown belts after a fairly long period of training. Levels before brown belt are spent focusing on the basic techniques and a fairly strict curriculum. Cross training is not encouraged (and may be actively discouraged).

    If you have any specific questions, I may be able to answer them.

     
  5. Alexander

    Alexander Possibly insane.

    I have a friend who is 2nd Dan Ju Jitsu. As far as I am aware Ju Jitsu incorporates strikes in it's system - not just joint locks and grappling. He also knows a lot of weapons (Katana, Wakizashi, Tanto [x2], Naginata, Bo etc...). So it seems to me it is a fairly complete art - you may not need TKD also!

    However if you are like me (obsessive) you'll choose to do it anyway! :D
     
  6. traz

    traz New Member

    yea thats true. But it does differ depending on the style of jiu jitsu. From what I"ve gathered, the style I"ll be studying isn't too big on strikes, which is why I"m thinking about doing a striking art. Of course, I'll check it out first, and if it turns out that I don't need TKD, I might not end up doing it. I'm just researchinging all the options :)
     
  7. Homersnoresmore

    Homersnoresmore New Member

    This Style

    I have been practicing Kang Duk Won for quite some time now. I work under two high leveled black belt instructors. There are definitely hand techniques that are suitable for real life situations, including disarming and disabling. The kicks are not all fancy spinning tornado kick (though that is a good one for show, we do not practice it for sparring or real life situation practice) The training can be heavy at times, and you should try to keep at least an hour or two a day open for practice. There are plenty of forms and techniques to keep you occupied. When I was a green belt I had twenty five basics, six forms, and eight forms of knocking that I had to do. Someone here mentioned that there black belts did palgwae two, and that is a pretty basic form. Kang Duk Won is a trusted and efficient martial arts branch. I would definitely give it a try.
     
  8. liero

    liero Valued Member

    The Demo that Thomas mentions sounds pretty cool.

    For me, any Kukkiwon affiliated school that purports to be traditional will likely teach you the equivalent of the karate 3 (kihon, kata, kumite = basics, patterns/forms, sparring) with a much more minimalistic focus on practical striking skills, and a greater focus on traditional line patterns and technical stances (e.g. one/three step sparring over live pressure testing). There's likely to be a focus on toughness (doing lots of pushups or low stance work) rather than a more evidence-based science approach to training. For example I find a lot of traditional classes don't let students get drink breaks, but I also live in Australia where the temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius...dehydration is a real barrier to elite, and recreational, performance.

    If you take up this style, I'll assume you'll learn some of the really fun stuff about Taekwondo: forms, stances, patterns, breaking, self-defence, cool spinning kicks, get flexible, throw some weapons around, stay long enough and you teach, and likely more than that.

    I personally think one of the strengths of the kukki-TKD schools is that they integrate modern physical training methodologies, and combat sport high pressure-testing (in the form of WTF full contact competition) and largely encourage gross motor movements (punch, round-house kick) which are applicable to broad self-defence situations into training.

    The weakness of training at a school like this is that you might neglect more appropriate self-defense training that you'd get by simply doing a more fundamental style like boxing, pure MMA, or muay thai. The benefit would be you fall in love with the Taekwondo that we all love, and end up breaking concrete tiles over your friends, kicking through baseball bats, and start wearing very angry pyjamas.
     
  9. liero

    liero Valued Member

    I just re-read this post and realised I basically slammed the club without looking at much of their info.

    Go try it out when you move and see if it suits you. Let me know how you go!
     

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