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.