Palgwe forms (+ original Koryo as a bonus)

I often see questions about the Palgwe forms on internet forums. The most common ones are how were they done/ how did they look like? Are they still practised in Kukki- Taekwondo? Why did we replace them with the Taegeuk set? etc

I will try to keep this post short but to see how they looked like etc I have tried to gather what is in my own opinion the best resource for these forms video-wise. So for the first question just look at the clips I have embedded below:-)

Importing foreign forms into your training?

I got an interesting question the other day in a facebook group I belong to, asking about what peoples points were regarding importing foreign forms into your own training/studdies and wether you would alter the form to suit the way you move or keep it as it is in the style you imported it from).

In a normal group he would probably be bombarded with "blasphemi" and other allegations but in
this group it was discussed civilized. I am not going to repeat what others stated in the group but I would like to share my point of view on the subject. It should be mentioned that the foreign forms in the question were "karate forms" or "Kata" ("Hyung" is actually the same word for form but pronounced in Korean).

Micro Post; This months Quote

After I shared the video on North Korean demonstration team`s Secret for breaking we had quite a few comments on breaking and its role in Taekwondo plus cheating. I have written an extensive post on my view on Breaking and its Place within Taekwondo but frequent commentator "Starfish" managed to say just about all I said in a few Words instead of a long blogpost. Again this showcases the brilliant comments that are comming in on the blog so I recommend that People Reading the blog take their time and read the comments too. Often they are just as good as the blog post (if not better).

So from "Starfish" on breaking (Kyupka):

 

"For most I believe,

overcoming the mental anguish

and fear is the victory,

not the breaking itself."

Common uncorrected mistakes in Poomsae

Its been a long while since I last wrote about Poomsae performance or a strictly Poomsae only post. To remedate this I have collected a few musings I had a long while back on a forum regarding common uncorrected mistakes in Poomsae. The post will only focus on the KTA/Kukki/WTF Taekwondo forms. People Reading this will probably Wonder about my rank and training

experiences so I will make this short before starting: I have trained Traditional Kukki Taekwondo With two masters since January 2000. My Teachers are 9th and 6th Dan and I spendt the first 13 years With the same amount of training With both Tea
chers (unlike all of those who spend a week a year at best With a 9th dan and then proclaim him as their teacher instead of the guy doing the day to day training). I myself have 2nd Dan (I have not bothered With testing and I am in no hurry either). I have travelled to Korea about 10 times to Train intesivly and stayed there 3 weeks each trip. I also did one Whole year of study at Choson University in Gwangju Korea in 2007-2008 where I learned all Poomsae in Kukkiwon from GM Yoon 9th Dan. Prior to 2007 I had learned Taegeuk Il (1) Jang to Poomsae Taebaek by my two primary Teachers. So With that out of the way let us start:

Please... Stop with the WTF VS ITF Nonsense!

Ok this is a "rant" and not a serious blog post/ article. You have been warned!

I have been Reading up on Taekwondo/ Tae Kwon Do/ Taekwon-Do (insert Your prefered spelling here) and one thing that I have come to hate these last few weeks is the eternal: "WTF is sport, ITF is Martial Art!"/ "WTF = Sport"/ "WTF = Only sport and leg fencing" (insert similar statement here). More often than not these statements comes from People who Train either under one of the ITF organisations or someone training in an independent Dojang. This is only my personal opinion and as this is a rant everything I say will not be pure facts just my own observations these last few weeks.

What bugs me With the statements above is not the fact that WTF = Sport because it really is:-) It is the fact that all Kukki Taekwondo students are told over and over and over again that they practise only sport and that ITF is what really is a Martial Art. I hope as many ITFèrs as possible will read this and be a little more enlightened on this subject because they are all doing the same mistake.

Honoring the Pioneers of Taekwondo; Yun Kwae Byung

Yun Kwae Byung
(Image Source)

Those who follow my blog closely might remember that I started writing a series of posts about the Kwan founders/pioneers of Taekwondo. The reason I started doing that was plentiful. The most important reason for me personally is to do what I say in the headline; honor them. We have a lot to thank them for when practising Kukki Taekwondo (often mistakingly referred to as "WTF" Taekwondo) but unfortunatly many Taekwondoin do not even know about them and if they do know their names they only know that they at one point founded a Kwan (School) and usually nothing more. The man in this post is perhaps one of the most unknown pioneers and my sources are therefore limited but I will present what I do have gathered of information because I feel it is a shame that Yun Kwae Byung should go unnoticed in the annals of Taekwondo history.

The reasons behind the series are indeed plentiful and other motivations are:

• To put the myths of the nearly "untrained" founders of Taekwondo to rest!
• To put the myth that Taekwondo = Shotokan with added kicks to rest!
• To spread the "true" and the least propoganda history of Taekwondo as possible (hey I can only be as good as my sources and critical thinking allows.

So if you want to read more about Yun Kwae Byung read on: