All quotes from "This months quote" from 2014

The title is slightly misleading since I have included from I started with "This months quote" in November 2013.

From December 2014 I started sharing the quotes in a slightly new way, embedding it inside  a
picture instead of just using plain text. How do you like this new format?

I write about so many different things on this blog, and while all are closely related to my studdies of Taekwondo I have greatly enjoyed this series (quote of the month) as it has been so fun to find these quotes all over the internet, my own books, discussion forums, study group, email exchanges and so many more places.

I decided early on after a few "Quote posts" that republishing them together in one post at the end of the year would make a great "last post" of 2014. Read through them and gain from them what you can. Thank you for reading this blog:-) Happy New Year:-)

Micro Post; This Months Quote:

First movement of Kanku Dai
performed by Funakoshi in
1935

This months quote was featured here on this blog in early 2012. I chose to republish it here because eventhough it was published here 2 years ago I had a talk with a 2nd Dan ITF practisioner on forms and the reason for the chambering of movements, the "ready positions" and the hand that goes back to the hip. She had been practising for 10 years and "knew" all that was to know about "traditional

Taekwondo" not sport like I practised. She knew how to apply everything in combat and not the sports arena. I asked here a couple of questions that she answered pretty much as I thought she would straight from the Taekwondo Encyclopedia of Choi Hong Hi. I then showed here applications for the pulling hand, the Chambers of most of the basic Blocks and the usage of stances and she became very quiet until she said: "This is NOT Taekwon-do!". I answered that everything I had shown could be found withing traditional Taekwondo either as Ho Sin Sul or as applications of the art (think Sihak Henry Cho`s 1968 book for instance). She refused to talk more about Taekwondo after that and thats OK, but I could not help but think about the following quote from Gichin Funakoshi (again):

 

 

 

 

 

Compare this to the
picture above

Sorry for the "republish" but read the quote again anyway as it is pretty profound yet very simple when you grasp the meaning. As for the relevance Gichin Funakoshi has to Taekwondo? He taught

the founders of Oh Do Kwan, Yoon Moo Kwan, Song Moo Kwan Chung Do Kwan and influenced the rest indirectly. I think that speaks for his relevance when it comes to Taekwondo dont you?

My Taekwondo is not the same Taekwondo that your kid is practising!

When People learn that I practise Taekwondo I often get comments like: "Ah I practised Taekwondo as a kid. I think I even got a yellow belt", or "My (insert kid relative here) also practise Taekwondo. He/She has (insert colour here) belt". I appreciate that they are only doing small talk and trying to
relate what I do with their own experience(s) but what annoys me a little is the assumption that what this person trained as a child himself/herself or what his/hers young relative practise today is the same as what I practise. The short answer is that there is some foundational overlap between "my Taekwondo" and "their Taekwondo" but it is not very large.