Is Keumgang a basic form?

Reading through an online discussion on an old forum the other day I came across question regarding

Palgwae Poomsae or rather who still teaches them. It was an old thread, but one of the first replies came from a 6th Dan school owner who said and I am slightly paraphrasing here:

"We teach Taegeuk and Koryo to black belt level, and then have everyone learn Palgwe 1-8 along with Keumgang for their 2nd Dan. Keumgang is such a basic form to study at that level so they need the additional material".

I am all for perserving history, and allthough I have never formally studdied the Palgwae set, I do see their appeal, and they also represent the first form set made by most of the all Kwan. I used to want to study them, but the more I studied the Taegeuk and all the Judanja (Black belt forms) I was given in Korea, plus now my teachers own creation (Soak Am Ryu Poomsae) and some of the old Kwan forms (most noteably Chulgi Chudan Hyung, Won (Original) Koryo Hyung and Ban Wol Hyung) I have more than enough for a lifetime study. I still might do it one day, but I do not yearn it like I used to do, back when I was a real and truly a forms collector. But how someone can say that Keumgang Poomsae is so basic that it is taught almost as an afterthought is beyond me.

Taekwondo "Blocks"

This will be a post that focuses on the application(s) of Taekwondo "Makki-techniques". Makki is a

Korean word that is usually translated into "block" in English. Makki being "block" is a valid translation so I will not say that it is a mistaken translation, but it is a simplified one. If you look closer on the Korean word you will get more translations, and you can look at an older blog post of mine where I did examine the word Makki and its root word Makda. In my view Makki should be translated into "defensive technique" instead of simply "block". Being defensive does not mean that you are simply lifting your arm into position to create an obstacle between you and the attacking limb (this is what you might picture in your head when reading the word "block"). Neither does "defensive technique" stop at merely swapping the attacking limb away as in a "parry". Defensive technique in this case relates to something you do to your opponent so that you receive, redirect or in any other way hinder an attack while gaining an advantageous position. This can be, but is not limited to: parries, blocks, checks, locks, pre-emptive strikes, various limb control techniques etc. This view is supported by the applications to "makki-techniques" in the Kukkiwon textbook where on at least two different occasions "blocks" are applied as joint locks!

Basic Taekwondo limb-control drill

I "borrowed" this drill after viewing another instructor performing it. It is short, relatively simple and drills the usage of the "non striking hand", angles and several traditional techniques all in one compact drill. The traditional techniques are "round strike" (in the specific example I share it is a bear hand strike), a knife hand strike, a low block in long front stance and a middle level punch. One of the perhaps most important aspects though is the clearing of limbs and basic limb control. Many Taekwondo students are never introduced to this combative range at all, and if you only study your defenses against strikes in the ritualistic formal sparring you will never really learn how to deal with the opponents defenses. In this drill the opponent reacts to your strikes by parrying and covering, which again is something most Taekwondo students never really learn how to deal with.

Let us make Gibon Dongjak great again!

Sorry for making that terrible pun at president Trump's expense, but come on, give me this one. At

the time of writing this I have been discussing the realism and usefullness of Gibon Dongjak training. Gibon means fundamental, and dongjak can be translated as movement. In English we often hear the term "basics" which I really do not like because that sounds like something you learn, and then move on to "advancics" instead. Fundamental movements gives at least me better mental connotation as we are talking about functional movements that need to be adapted slightly for applications. It is like Iain Abernethy talks a little about in his podcast "The Case for Kihon" where he likens Kihon (Gibon Dongjak) to the foundations to a building. The foundation is vital to the health and stability of the building but it is not the directly usable bit. Again to paraphrase that podcast, as I write this I am not using the foundations of my house, but I am in a room built on top of it. There are a few issues with typical gibon dongjak training though so let us look a little on that first.

Two basic dangkinun son drills (incorporating the pulling arm into training)

I have gradually introduced practical applications to our Poomsae during the last two years of training. There has been a lot of pitfalls by starting to teach them to people who do not "get it" and who have trained for years pulling their hands on their hips "because it is tradition" etc. One of my greatest pains was to get people to use both hands instead of one. You see we use both hands in our forms, and in our basic techniques, but once we start applying the moves in formal 1, 2, and three step sparring we usually use the one "active" hand and the other hand is just pulled back to the hip because it is tradition. So eventhough our forms and basics ingrain a functional movement, I struggled to get people to use it in a functional way. The simple punch is a great example. I realized only later what I was doing wrong. I was teaching the Poomsae applications just as they appear in Poomsae. This can surely be done, but if we are doing it that way we need to devote much training time so people understand it. Breaking the Poomsae down into single techniques and drilling the core concepts instead proved to be much faster and easier so I made two drills using the focus mitts to introduce impact too, and I did not mention Poomsae or basic techniques when I introduced them. I made it very simple.

Taegeuk Chil Jang revisited (Follow up from outward backfist strike)

After posting the article on facebook Martin asked me what happen after the outward backfist strike. He had a different application, so he was wondering what to do from the position you end up in in my application. Some say that the Taegeuk forms lack applications, others say that they are there but they are there by accident. Yet others believe that the originators knew nothing at all of note so searching for applications is a pointless endevour. Personally I think that the KTA forms might be more "basic" than in some of the Karate forms, yet I think it is quite possible that the originators of the KTA forms knew more than enough to make their forms functional. The reason I say this is that when I fist figured out the reason for the transition between the low X-Block and the first outward backfist strike I was wondering the very same thing. What happens next? The Poomsae itself gave me a perfect answer, and this is not the fist time I`ve been stuck and I have gotten the answer straight from the Poomsae itself. This is the reason why I think that there is far more material in the KTA forms than what people give them credit for. It is also the reason why I have not simply switched to the Pinan/Heian/Pyungahn forms a long time ago (allthough I have been giving it some serious thought sometimes).

Are you making this common mistake in Taegeuk 7 Jang????

Teaching yesterday (at the time of writing) was a blast! In the bulk of the session I focused on the

performance of Poomsae and drilled some applications from the Poomsae we were working on. This "jumping" from Poomsae to Poomsae let me introduce the possibilities within Poomsae and its relation to combat, combative principles, as well as some of my ideas on how to find applications for the students themselves. Among the things we drilled were the first 2 movements of Taegeuk 1 Jang against a wristhold, the end part of Taegeuk 2 Jang as a continuation on the same application, the parry-pass method from Taegeuk Sam Jang, the defensive entry into knife hand strike from Taegeuk Sa Jang as well as a variation striking drill from the first two moves, and variation demonstrating the "C-stepping" that some had learned many years ago, Taegeuk 5 Jang made us drill an armlock, hammerfist strike, sweep and hammerfist strike combo from the first two counts, 6 Jang had us drill how to recover if the drill from Taegeuk 5 Jang went wrong, and then we came to Taegeuk Chil Jang and one of the things I usually have to correct (unless the student in question learned it from me directly). This is what the post is about, and I think it will interest people who compete in Poomsae, and people who are interested in practical Applications alike.