I ran over to one of my favorite blogs today to see what the author had brought to table this week. Low and behold it was about how he didn’t care for what he saw in Tae-kwon-do. Click here to check out his post:

My Response:

Please don’t take this as an incidiary rant. First Tae-kwon-do translates loosely to “way of fist and foot,” but a more literal translation is the “way of breaking with hand and foot.” It should be pronounced Tay as opposed to Thai, however, the names of Taiwan as well as Muay Thai (being completely unrelated) have lead English speakers to incorrectly pronounce the name (sort of how Americans say Ae-LOO-min-num [Aluminum] as opposed to the way it is pronounced in Great Britain Alloo-MI-num.Secondly, you are looking at taekwondo in its more “evolved state,” as a true sport. To understand why it evolved into this you must look at the origins of the martial arts.

The styles that form the basis of tae-kwon-do were formed so that peasants could fight off invading foreigners with horses. Combining the knowledge that the legs generate the most power in the body and allow you to jump high if trained correctly, a basis for the art was born.

True Tae-kwon-do centers in on correct techniques for upper and lower body striking. However, in sparring (staying close to the roots of Tae-kwon-do) points are mostly scored by kicks to the chest, stomach, and head. Points can be allowed for punching to the body, however,they must have showed to take the person being struck “off-balance.”

As for what is better in a fight, against anyone, seasoned or not, whoever is smarter will most likely win. As there are those that suggest the smarted thing would be not to fight, whatever to them. You can ravage youTube and find videos of Tae-Kwon-do Vs. Karate | Muay Thai | MMA | Kung-Fu (They are all pretty much interchangable) and you will see both styles winning.

I like to think for practical defense, that a Tae-kwon-do practitioner would look less threatening. (Assuming they are using a more sport related sparring stance without bouncing) They would be less menacing, not instigating by placing their hands in an aggressive stance (how it is seen in court), and might even have a jump on their opponent being ready from this stance. Coupled with the fact that ALL practitioners are taught to counter attack effectively might be enough to help one walk away from a fight unscathed. (Hopefully)

I will be the first to tell you I have heard more stories of TKD practitioners doing stupid stuff, like trying to kick knives/guns out of peoples hands and paying the price for it. When it comes down to weapons, we are taught to handle them as if they are in a sense “fire.” Focus on slapping/pushing away with the arms at all times and subdue the attacker at the same time.

I hope I haven’t rambled too much, but I just want to end saying, there is no supreme martial art. Whoever is faster, smarter, better and/or stronger, should win in a fight, but that isn’t always so. Thanks for taking a look at out sport and I hope some day you decide to try it out.

December 3, 2007 9:39 AM

T-Minus a week and a half until I do my Red Sun and I haven’t ran in a week.  Been working with a calf issue and running hasn’t been my friend. I’m thinking I should be set otherwise, however. Kicks are going to be a pain in the butt however I’ll be able to 500 of them.  The jumping rope I’d like to leave till the very end…essentially a cool down.

My current strategy is to do as many 2 minutes 8 to 8.5 mph sprints as possible followed by 2 minutes of walking.  After that I will throw it down to 1 minute 8 mph sprints for as long as I can hold that pace.  I’m hoping that it only takes me 30 minutes to run it that way. After the run I am going to divy up the 500 front kicks with the upper body stuff. (100 kicks, push-ups,100 kicks, crunches, 100 kicks, punches, 100 kicks, high blocks, last 100 kicks). This leaves the 3 minutes of sparring, 5 minutes of jumping rope, and 50 round kicks.

Anyway, that is the current plan.  Wish me luck!!!

This is just a list of things I recommend that you investigate in while you train and grown in a specific style from white belt and beyond.

1) Learn to teach others and yourself - It is truly rewarding when you teach someone else efficiently and effectively a technique, form or thoughts about a style. You’ll find that by teaching others, you can better critique what you do and how you do it.

2) Learn to meditate - One of the most rewarding things you can do for youself is to clear your mind and concentrate on whatever you wish.  This will help you focus, an extremely important characteristic to have in all parts of life.

3) Look into other martial arts styles and plan to learn another - I’m currently learning Taekwondo, but why stop there. Yes, I could go and learn Karate, but truthfully both it and TKD have similar roots.  I am however contemplating learning kendo, haedong kumdo (korean kenpo), or aikido. They would all be good complements to what i’ve learned so far.

4) Compete - There are hundreds of tournaments that happen every year.  There are open tornaments and there are inter-style tournaments. Which ever you choose is fine, but do compete. Whether it is fighting, forms with weapons or open hands, one of the best things you can do is to compete.

5) Make a list of things you’ve already learned - This is a great way to review where you are in your training and what you have learned.  If you step back and take a look at what you’ve accomplished, you’ll be very pleased.

6) Keep a journal/blog - Why not?

I’ve heard so many reasons why people have started martial arts:
1) Exercise - Its how I got started.  Got bored of going to the gym and wanted to supplement my workouts. I took my first class and could barely move the next day without pain.I knew that was what I wanted to become my workout from there on.

2) Media - There is a little girl at my school who started training because she saw a cartoon whose main character (a female main character) did Karate. She comes in last week and goes and someone askes her about the cartoon.  She replies with something to the effect of “She won’t be as good as me.”

3) Discipline - Lots of parents start their children in Martial Arts classes so they can learn discipline. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The main focus in these cases, it is for the child to learn to listen, take criticism, and learn to communicate better.

4) Deficiencies - In recent times, with the successes of medical and scientific findings, we can test people and see what they may be deficient in.  It might be mental or physical coordination, but these can all be improved by practicing activities that strengthen these characteristics.

5) It’s Cool - I mean it really is.  Being able to throw kicks, break boards/bricks/concrete. Se’ve seen it for years, people doing quasi-extreme things that baffle and impress us.

I’m sure there are lots more, but that is all I can think of for now.

This will be a short post…sorry kids.  Essentially, I found out something interesting about my 2nd degree black belt in the school system I train in, once you have acquired your belt, they do something that I think is brilliant. They buy your next degree belt (would be 2nd in my case) and they place it on a wall in the front of the school.  The idea, as I guess, is to motivate you past Blackbelt.  Sort of like a carrot on a string.  I think it will work.