I never actually got around to post this, but once upon a time, in what might be considered one of my highlights in my Taekwondo career; little old me was contacted by a Dojang at the other side of Norway and I (a nobody who happened to have a blog) was hired for a weekend seminar :-) It was one of the most fun and rewarding taekwondo weekends I have had :-) Covid and the lock down happened soon thereafter so I never pursued doing more seminars. In fact I wrote this back in 2020 after the seminar, but never posted it. I just found it going through my "drafts" in blogger to see if there is something I started on that I could finish (sometimes I go a little too big on things and do not get around to actually finish and post it. Anyway, if you want to know how a seminar focusing on practical poomsae applications with me might look, you can read on :-) Just remember I am still a student of Taekwondo so I am sure there would be things done differently if someone where to hire me today.
Last weekend (at the time of writing) I had a blast teaching a two day seminar focusing on the practical applications of poomsae to a club located in the east of Norway; Moss. I thought the regular readers of this blog might enjoy a summary of my weekend, and perhaps by sharing the contents of the seminar someone else wanting to learn more might get in touch?
I think it was back in October 2019 I got a PM on facebook by a representative from Bojeon Taekwondo Club located in Moss asking if I did seminars. After a little back and forth we landed on the date (22nd and 23rd of February 2020) and the training time, the maximum number of participants and other details.
I have almost never travelled by train in my entire life, so it was a fun experience travelling to the seminar by train. The suspense was hightened by the fact that there were a lot of snow which sometimes blocked the lines in the days before the seminar, but I got through Ok and arrived Friday evening. I was picked up at the station by a smiling Birger (one of the key enthusiasts and assistant trainer in the club). I was dropped off at the hotel, feeling like some kind of celebrity, before being picked up a little later to go to dinner, where I also got to meet Marianne, the main instructor of the Dojang. We shared a pleasant meal, discussing everything taekwondo, and I was very taken by the founding values of Bojeon Taekwondo, offering Taekwondo in an inclusive way. Respecting the roots, looking outside of the box, while also keeping the traditions alive. I was already looking forward to start the seminar itself, but know I was looking even more forward to it.
The Dojang was in no way a stranger to Hosinsul (self defense techniques), but the practical applications of poomsae beyond block kick punch was a new area for them. Therefore I wanted the first day to give them a short historical context, which would also give them a context of what the poomsae are adressing (self defense and close quarter combat, not "outdated" olympic sparring). I also wanted to give them a good grounding for them to look at the poomsae themselves after I leave by giving them the keys to understand simple techniques or Gibon Dongjak (fundamentals) in a new way. I started with a short introduction and historical lecture before we started the training itself.
We practised 3 main scenarios, grabbing the lead guarding hand of the opponent pulling it away so we cleared a path for our strike, grabbing and removing a covering up attempt by the agressor after being punch in the face a few times, and from a crossed hands position which can be just about anything (a punch was blocked for instance).
Next we practised the same drills using focus mitts, so that we got to train impacting the techniques as well (we cant continually drill punching our training partners face now can we?). After that we looked more on power-generation, where in the transition from long front stance to long front stance do we connect the punch?
I think it was back in October 2019 I got a PM on facebook by a representative from Bojeon Taekwondo Club located in Moss asking if I did seminars. After a little back and forth we landed on the date (22nd and 23rd of February 2020) and the training time, the maximum number of participants and other details.
I have almost never travelled by train in my entire life, so it was a fun experience travelling to the seminar by train. The suspense was hightened by the fact that there were a lot of snow which sometimes blocked the lines in the days before the seminar, but I got through Ok and arrived Friday evening. I was picked up at the station by a smiling Birger (one of the key enthusiasts and assistant trainer in the club). I was dropped off at the hotel, feeling like some kind of celebrity, before being picked up a little later to go to dinner, where I also got to meet Marianne, the main instructor of the Dojang. We shared a pleasant meal, discussing everything taekwondo, and I was very taken by the founding values of Bojeon Taekwondo, offering Taekwondo in an inclusive way. Respecting the roots, looking outside of the box, while also keeping the traditions alive. I was already looking forward to start the seminar itself, but know I was looking even more forward to it.
Day 1; Basics (The basics are the advanced techniques)
The Dojang was in no way a stranger to Hosinsul (self defense techniques), but the practical applications of poomsae beyond block kick punch was a new area for them. Therefore I wanted the first day to give them a short historical context, which would also give them a context of what the poomsae are adressing (self defense and close quarter combat, not "outdated" olympic sparring). I also wanted to give them a good grounding for them to look at the poomsae themselves after I leave by giving them the keys to understand simple techniques or Gibon Dongjak (fundamentals) in a new way. I started with a short introduction and historical lecture before we started the training itself.
1st hour: Jireugi/Punching with emphasis on the pulling hand (hand on hip)
The first hands on training we did was focusing on traditional punching techniques like we see in Poomsae. I demonstrated 3 types of punches (an idea I borrowed from Iain Abernethy). Here I demonstrated the "traditional" punch (hand on hip for no reason), boxing style punch from/with a guard and a practical application punch where the hand on the hip had a function by pulling the hand of the opponent toward my hip while the other hand punched. I discussed the benifits of the pulling hand indepth before we partnered up and started drilling the use of the punch with an emphasis on actually using the pulling hand.
We practised 3 main scenarios, grabbing the lead guarding hand of the opponent pulling it away so we cleared a path for our strike, grabbing and removing a covering up attempt by the agressor after being punch in the face a few times, and from a crossed hands position which can be just about anything (a punch was blocked for instance).
Next we practised the same drills using focus mitts, so that we got to train impacting the techniques as well (we cant continually drill punching our training partners face now can we?). After that we looked more on power-generation, where in the transition from long front stance to long front stance do we connect the punch?
2nd hour: Makki-techniques, theory and applications for arae makki
I started by explaining what "Makki" means. "Block" is a valid translation but there is a lot more neuance that gets lost in translation. I have a whole article on this which you can read here so I wont go into more detail on this in this post. We then looked at Arae Makki (Low "Block") where we covered it as:
- Release against same side wrist hold
- Release against a cross grabbed wrist hold/ downward armbar
- Upward armbar into hammerfist strike to the groin
- Linked same side wrist grab defense to armbar punch combo
- trained that on the focus mitts
Lunch 30 minutes
3rd hour: Momtong An Makki/ Bakkat Makki (Inward/outward block)
We looked and drilled at the use of inward and outward block, looking at the traditional technique itself and its solo performance, really looking at what we are doing, and then applying the movement against various situations. The inward block was among other things trained as a hammerfist strike, a defensive entry against a haymaker and as an unbalancing technique. The outward block was demonstrated both the old version (chambering on the inside) and the modern version. We then trained and explored the "parry-pass-concept" for quite some time, using different scenarios and drills, including the 3 point flow drill which I find very fun :-) We did some more power-generation work on the focus mitts too.
4th hour: Sonnal Geodeuro Makki (Knife hand guarding block)
We looked at the solo form of the technique, both what people today consider to be the Karate-chamber (which was part of Taekwondo into the 1970s depending on the Kwan), and the normal taekwondo version. We drilled the applications for this drill with partners using different scenarios (haymaker, limb control etc), and we also looked at a striking application or a slightly modified application from the opening of taegeuk 4 jang.
5th hour: Eulgeul Makki (High section block)
Here we looked at the high section block as a lapel grab defense (two variations), a parry-pass variant building upon what was learned earlier, and a few examples from Poomsae.
6th hour: Basic techniques, line work with applications
This is a concept I have been working on for some time but I have not shared anything on my blog (or at least I don't think I have). We all do the line work: marching up and down the Dojang floor doing single techniques or combinations of single techniques. Often I think many instructors simply link whatever they feel like, or inherited combinations which does not work in real life. I think we can start raising the bar by either drilling techniques used in sport (footwork and competition style techniques), isolated basic techniques taken from Poomsae, sequences taken from Poomsae or as in this case our own string of basic techniques which learns different free flowing from one to the next, while working.
We did the following string of basic techniques:
From a fighting position we shift our weight forward throwing a cross (no pulling hand to the hip), we slide forward while chambering and doing the knife hand guarding block as we come forward. We then shift shift to long front stance and to a twisting outward knife hand block (as in taegeuk yuk jang) followed by a side kick. After moving up and down the Dojang a few times we partnered up and drilled the application for the sequence. This sequence does not appear in any Poomsae, it is simply my invention to teach stringing applications together, and it should only function as ONE EXAMPLE not the complete truth. It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Do not focus on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory (as Bruce Lee probably would have said :-P ).
From a fighting position we shift our weight forward throwing a cross (no pulling hand to the hip), we slide forward while chambering and doing the knife hand guarding block as we come forward. We then shift shift to long front stance and to a twisting outward knife hand block (as in taegeuk yuk jang) followed by a side kick. After moving up and down the Dojang a few times we partnered up and drilled the application for the sequence. This sequence does not appear in any Poomsae, it is simply my invention to teach stringing applications together, and it should only function as ONE EXAMPLE not the complete truth. It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Do not focus on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory (as Bruce Lee probably would have said :-P ).
We throw a punch, the punch is blocked by some kind of inward parry which connects on the outside of our punch. We slide forward, using the chamber to clear the limb and controlling, and flowing into a knife hand strike. This is blocked. We shift outward while clearing the limb with a twisting knife hand block, and finish by a low kick to the side of the opponents knee which takes the opponent down.
This kind of sequence demands a lot from teachers/instructors so I have no idea if this concept will ever catch on, but it was fun.
Day 2; The structure of Poomsae
Samir Bernardo from Brazil, and Giles Hopkins have both taught me a lot on the structure of Poomsae and Samir especially has forced me to rethink a lot of my ideas on Poomsae applications. People need to understand that there is a difference in saying a low block is just a movement with thousands of applications, so a low block in taegeuk il jang has a thousand applications, as well as a low block in taegeuk yuk jang has a thousand applications. The thing is that that is not the case. The poomsae are not the basic technique, the basic technique is one movement removed from the poomsae. The basic technique as a movement has a thousand applications by itself, but once you look at the poomsae you are forced to take a lot of stuff into account. The turn, the stance, what came before, what comes after. The application you chose should ideally fit in with everything in a logical manner and suddenly the applications for the low block in taegeuk il jang suddenly drop from thousands to just a single one or a handfull of them.
We started the day looking at how a Poomsae can be seen as a whole, or the structure. Dismantling it, and putting it back together. We then had an indepth look at Taegeuk il jang step by step and how it all fitted together. Next we had an indepth look at Taegeuk Sa Jang doing the flow drill which uses the structure of poomsae I explained to flow from one application to the next against one single opponent from start to finish. I have a lot of different applications to the single techniques that together makes this poomsae, but I have to chose one specific application/scenario for each of the techniques when looking at taegeuk sa jang for it to work as a coherent whole. That is what I mean by looking at the structure of Poomsae, moving from practical applications to the basic techniques to the practical applications of poomsae. And if you have not already I'd advise you to google Samir Bernardo as he does have a few clips on youtube now, and hopefully we will see more public stuff in the relative near future.
I will see if I can make a "contact me" page or something on this blog so it is easier to get in touch with me in the near future. In the mean time I am easily reached through my blogs facebook page where you can PM me. Usually I get in touch after a few hours if not right away :-)
Special thanks to Bojeon Taekwondo Klubb Kambo who hosted me, and gave me permission to use the pictures in this post :-) I had a great time and hope to see you all again :-)
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