2014 in retrospect and where do we go from here? :-)

Another year has passed, and 2015 is going to be a great year. In October the blog got its Facebook page which has an ever increasing content to show for. Both the posts of the blog that are published on this blog from now on and unique content for Facebook will be on there, so please click into the
facebook page once in a while to see if there is anything interesting for you there:-) The blog also got a neat front curtesy of Samir who I now call my PR-Master :-) The blogs number of daily hits has also grown steadily and as of the time of writing is around 200 hits every day (which I think is about 200 more than would be interested in Reading when I started the blog). Starting from December the long standing series: "Quote of the Month" got a make over and the New format is proving to be very popular. This New format is also the result of the advice and help I have gotten (and stil I keep getting) from Samir. Thank you:-)


So before I start writing long articles and posts for the blog I want to do two things to start the year. Number 1 is to thank all the readers and especially the commenters. I have written this before (more than once) that the comments on this blog is often just as packed with vital information as the original blog post. Sometimes there comes brilliant  questions too. One thing that is great With the facebook page is that it is now far easier to send questions to me there than to comment on a random blog post or search for a fitting blog post to ask the question. Here is the link to the facebook page by the way: https://www.facebook.com/traditionaltaekwondoramblings . Thank you everyone:-) The readers and commenters are a very big part of my motivation for the continuation of the blog and with so many hits and comments I see no reason to slow down yet.

The second thing I want to do before I start 2015 is to look a little on how the year has been on the blog. So below are a few stats:-)

Most read posts published in 2014:

• Making your own training equipment; "Tire Makiwara"
• Honoring the Pioneers of Taekwondo; Ro Byong Jik
• Myths: All blocks are blocks! (Not) and more.
• Honoring the Pioneers of Taekwondo; Chun Sang Sup
• Interview with author of The Taegeuk Cipher

Most commented posts in 2014:

• Myths: All blocks are blocks! (Not) and more.
• Open question to those who believe that Poomsae is only kick block punch
• Honoring the Pioneers of Taekwondo; Chun Sang Sup
• Practical Application from Poomsae Jitae
• (Part 1) Applying Eulgeul Makki

 

My favorite posts in 2014:

• Applying Eulgeul Makki (The whole series!)
• Did the originators of KTA forms know their stuff or were they ignorant?
• All quotes from "This months quote" from 2014
• Importing foreign forms into your training?  

 

New record of hits in one month:

There seems to have been a computer error or something that happened in August because suddenly there was 29 600 hits in that one month while the rest were varied but no where near as many hits. The second most visited month of the year which I do believe is correct is also a new record and that is September with 6180 visitors. The old record set in 2013 was: 3 742 visitors. I have no idea what happened in August but there must be some mistake there so I am counting Septembers 6180 as my new record:-)


Totally Taekwondo Magazine

Everything I write either starts here on the blog (and is later reworked into articles of better quality) or ends up here many months after it was published. So if you like what I write but want better quality at the editing, sources and writing in general, picking up a subsciption of this Magazine is a good idea. In fact if you would like to read a Magazine with top quality, great and varied articles by many different authores (many of whom have one or more books under their belt as well) this Magazine is for you. In most martial arts magazines you get 1 or 2 articles on Taekwondo and the rest seems divided between Karate, MMA and Comercials. If it is a Taekwondo Magazine you often get 1-2 indepth articles, a lot of competition stuff and the rest is comercials. In Totally Taekwondo Magazine however you get a ton of different articles covering a wide variety of issues and all is about Taekwondo. No political bias and articles from independent Dojang Authors (both WTF/ Kukki and Chang Hon Ryu) as well as GTF, ITF, WTF, Kukki, and as I said a little bit of everything. All is edited into a great magazine by Stuart Anslow. So If you whish a magazine about Taekwondo containing a lot of Taekwondo then totally Taekwondo magazine is for you. Here is the magazine`s link: http://www.totallytkd.com/ and its facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Totally-Tae-Kwon-Do-Magazine/46855022073?fref=ts . I try to get in at least one article (but I aim for two). If you have an aspirering author in you you can check out the submission guidelines that you will find on their homepage under "Write for magazine".

 

Moosin Magazine

Some posts I write also end up on Moosin`s page. Sometimes they slightly alter the headline, or the Pictures I use. So far I think they make me look very good when they do that as they have accsess to better pictures, experience and keener eye than I do. While Totally Taekwondo Magazine "wins" in indepth articles etc the advantage moosin has is that it is an online magazine with a lot of light stuff. And sometimes they do also have more indepth stuff as well. They are not only limited to Taekwondo so you can find a lot of different stuff on their pages as well. Their page is here: http://moosin.com/

Doo Woo (Norwegian Magazine for Traditional Taekwondo Union)

This will probably be very little interesting here on this blog as I get most my hits from the USA, but I mention it here anyway. Doo Woo is a small magazine published for the members of Traditional Taekwondo Union (You might see where I got the inspiration for the title of the blog). It has only come out twice so far and it only comes out twice a year but so far I have gotten one article in each issue. It is a very nice experience to write in my own language for once and it makes it far easier to go more indepth than this blog. In the first issue I wrote about performance of Poomsae where I try to describe how to use the whole body starting with the legs and working my way up to the eyes. In the second I rewrote an old post on the difference between Poomsae, Poomse, Hyung and Tul. I am looking forward to writing more for this magazine in the years to come:-)

So 2014 is over what is in store in 2015?

I have many ideas but some concrete plans will be:

• Continuing with "Quote of the month" in the new format.
• More articles to come in the "Honoring the Pioneers" series. Next is Yoon Byung In.
• More videos (I hope) of Applications from Poomsae.
• Articles on "Taegeuk"
• Completing the "Pal Jang" series I started
• "Completing Recommended Reading" series

And then (and between) I guess we will have to see where the inspiration will take me:-)