It may actually be that he was affiliated with the USTF, not the ITF. Because at testing I heard another instructor tell his student "don't teach." This guy was a real looney toon, though. He yelled a lot. He didn't listen to ANYTHING anyone had to say . . . he knew EVERYTHING. I tried to engage him in some friendly martial arts discussion outside of class and even then he would interrupt at every opportunity, clearly in love with the sound of his own voice. Oh, and he wouldn't allow anyone to kihap how they wanted to . . . he specified how it needed to be done, the specific syllables and everything.
I'm actually looking at a sport karate school (that actually teaches both karate and TKD) which I'm going to go check out in person over the holidays. Just based on the website I would never have given it a second look: http://pinnacle.hurdman.org/home I mean, you have a lot of things that scream McDojo to me. A bunch of kids on the homepage, 45 minute classes, a lot of different stuff taught in a single program . . . but the schools comes highly recommended from an acquaintance and is apparently well thought of on the competition circuit, so I'm keeping an open mind. Personally, I'm REALLY interested in getting into competing and I want to do so under a variety of formats. I'm getting old (30 in a week) so it's kind of getting to the do or die point.
Sorry, SPX, I was asking the OP. I should have clarified that. That website looks Mcdojoish to me. The schedule looks odd. A 45 minute class at lunch time?
Ah, my bad. No one had posted in this thread for several days and your post came a few minutes after mine so I just assumed. Personally, I don't like the idea of a 45 minute class at all. Seems too short. I think an hour and 15 minutes would be more appropriate. But I've talked to a few people who said that they take 50 minute classes and a solid amount of material is covered because the warm up is quite brief. And yeah, it strikes me as a McDojoish as well. But I explained what I was looking for to an acquaintance on another forum (semi-contact, ITF-style competition) and he said that this place would be an "excellent choice." According to the website, it was "ranked as the #1 Sport Karate School in the World by the National Blackbelt League and the SKIL (Sport Karate International League) Amateur Circuit" in 2009/2010, though I'm not overly familiar with those organizations.
It may or not be a McDojo, but a 45 minute lunchtime class as an addition to normal, longer training sessions isn't a problem. For most workers who get an hour for lunch, a 45 minute class might be the difference between training that day or not training at all. You can even imagine someone who has other commitments in the evening and can only train at lunchtime. It may not be ideal but at least they'd get to train. If my club was in a major city I'd certainly consider it. Mitch
Thai Boxing has a different manner of kicking and punching. I have always though Muay Thai kicks were easy to see coming, but they packed power...very good in a combo.
In a purely kicking scenario, I honestly believe I could. However, not if I had to worry and focus on your hands as well, which is why Muay Thai is such a great art. You have to worry about EVERYTHING a Muay Thai practitioner might throw.
yup but if you don't mind me saying, it sounds like you've never sparred with someone who's actually had any level of decent coaching in muay thai. Trust me, they're every bit as fast as you think a TKD style roundhouse or whatever is, only they don't sacrifice power for the speed. There's a reason they're the most common kicks in mma, k1 etc. Don't really wanna derail the thread tbh, but if you have any doubts, check out the youtbe video "50 kicks in 22 seconds".
Holy heck, that was fast! But those looked like TKD competition kicks (we don't always chamber, you know) when at close range....I always thought Muay Thai kicks completely turned over the body, those are the only ones I've seen (asides from the teep). I WISH most kicks in MMA were that technically sound.
We do turn across the body, you just dont leave it there for your opponent to grab though which is why you recover the shot immediately. They are far different from tkd competition kicks though, trust nger on that.
They aren't as powerful, but I see your 50 kicks in 22 seconds and raise you a 50 kicks in 18 seconds (from a yellow belt and they aren't particularly quick): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i66_w4qDxvo"]fast kicks taekwondo - YouTube[/ame] Who's a quick kicker on here that can do the Muay Thai style (front leg up and down) kicks on here quicker than 50 in 22 seconds? It didn't seem that fast to me (I know guys that are quicker than that, but I'm not one of them).
But those were not kicks so much as leg flails...every one of the 50 kicks MB posted about would hurt (a lot) whereas those (admittedly from a low grade) would not even register
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc7sM0oQKa0"]50 Kicks In 22 Seconds / Insanely fast Thai Kickboxer - YouTube[/ame] WOW... damn.... i do not want to be on the receiving end of that!
They were obviously leg flails, it was an 8 or 10 year old kid with limited experience. You rarely see those kinds of kicks in TKD sparring (butterfly kicking back and forth), unless your opponent is absolutely slow and can't do anything back. I was speaking of the kicks the Muay Thai practitioner was doing. THOSE are the kinds of kicks I use for TKD sparring at a close range. It isn't rare to see them, Steven Lopez (champion TKD fighter) knocks people down all the time using this kick. At my school they were called 45 degree roundkicks and had no chamber.
I agree, I was just saying that managing 50 kicks in 22 seconds isn't that hard, particularly when an 8/10 year old kid can do it quicker. Sure the MT kicks were harder, but I'm sure most young/fit Taekwondoin can do them faster than that (he didn't seem particularly quick in comparison to elite Taekwondoin, even from yesteryear). So funny, on a Taekwondo forum explaining who Steven Lopez is Thanks for that I'd heard the name somewhere ;-) ;-) ;-)
ok, you go and try to do it - using the one leg mind. post up your video on the thread on the muay thai forum. Liero had a go a few months back and found it was far harder than he expected it to be.
As I previously wrote : "I know guys that are quicker than that, but I'm not one of them" When I catch up with one of my lighter weight mates I'll get one of them to have a go.