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).



Anyway here is the outward backfist strike, inward kick and elbow strike combination, which is what you have all been waiting for:








You end up with a same side wrist hold. This can come from a "clinch" jockeying for
position or any other number of ways. The arm is pulled down to clear a path for the strike.



Here the arm of the opponent is secured and pulled away to clear a path for the strike. It adds
power into the strike as well as it unbalances the opponent.

From the previous position grab his ear or neck area while delivering an inward kick to the
outside of the opponents knee. This will turn his free arm away from you, unbalance him,
take away his structure and set him up for the final strike. Alternatively you can use the
stepping into horse stance to buckle his knee joint with your own knee. You can even use Your
foot to trap his leg as you step down behind his leg and force the kneejoint of the opponent to
hyperextend. What I am getting at is that the movement and sequence is very densely packed With
valuable material to work with.

Bearing in mind this is only a demonstration and I used almost no power at all in the kick, a full contact
kick with follow through would press his knee almost if not entirely to the ground, turning the opponent
almost 180 degrees, and lowering his head into mid section height explaining why the elbow strike is
deliverered to this height in Poomsae.

In this sequence you use powerfull, simple strikes integrated with very simple basic grappling (the pulling hand). You kick low instead of high which is advocated by all self defense experts I care to listen too. The stance (horse stance) can and should play a vital part of the application (not shown, but it is in the text). The elbow strike targets the base of the skull or the back of the head which are both excellent "fight stopping" targets. Hitting the head is quite difficult in the chaos of close quarter combat. Here we are using our other hand to secure it, and to get a tactical feel of his whereabouts and movements to maximize our chances for a successfull blow.


The "keys to understanding" this sequence are few and solid ones:

• The whole movement is doing something.
• Take the pulling hand (Dangkinun son) into account.
• Kicks are delivered low in application.
• Eventhough many strikes finish at mid section height in Poomsae, they often target the head. The head has simply been brought down to a lower height by previous techniques in the form.

I hope to provide much more video content to this blog in the future. I have therefore set up a GoFundMe page on www.gofundme.com/traditionaltaekwondoramblings which I hope I can crowdfund a video editing software so I can make good quality videos for the blogs readers. If you want to contribute please visit the link to my GoFundMe page. Every donation helps :-)