The ABC's Of Practical Poomsae Applications, Part 8: Oe Santeul Makki (High outward block and low block at same time)

Hi there :-) In my last post I wrote for a great length of time so I am going to contrast that with a short and (hopefully) sweet post today. In this post I am going to look at the most iconic technique of Taegeuk Pal (8) Jang; Oe Santeul Makki. The technique, template, gibon dongjak itself consists of two arm movements that are both doing the primary movement in arae makki (low block) and eulgul an palmok bakkat makki (high section outward block with the thumb side of the arm). This is one of those classical techniques that are put forward to ridicule traditional martial arts because of its seemingly unrealistic use. You see from the 1930s until recently (well even today) if you look up an application for this move in any textbook you are most likely going to see something along the lines of two persons attacking one person, one in front and the other from the back. Before we begin this post proper though I will link to the other posts so that if you are jumping in on this series you might want to read them in the order they came out.

Part 1 which you can find here, which focuses on Arae Makki, Part 2 which you can find here which focuses on Momtong An Makki, Part 3 which you can find here focusing on Eulgeul Makki, and Part 4 which you can find here that focuses on the spear hand strike, Part 5, which focuses on the knife hand guarding block and Part 6 focusing on the inward knife hand strike, Part 7 that lookesd at the outward block can be found here.

Video talk on Taekwondo History (18 min)

A Brief Taekwondo History

I’ve been very quiet on YouTube in 2019, but now I just published a talk on Taekwondo History. I kept it as brief as I could but I ended up with 18 minutes all the same. I talk about the fact that Taekwondo is fairly modern, the founding of the different Kwan and where they came from, the founding of the organisations in Korea, and end with the founding of ITF and WT(F). 

I hope you enjoy, and any Like, share or subscribe is greatly appreciated 👍🏻

ABC’s of practical poomsae applications clip (Mini-Bonus post)

It’s been very quiet on YouTube from me in 2019. That is hopefully about to change. I’ve been writing an outline for a series on Taekwondo history and I’m also thinking of making a series that mirrors the blogs ABC’s of Poomsae applications, focusing on the same material but in a video format. In the meantime here is a whopping 22 seconds of applications that demonstrates quite a few of our latest blogposts.

The ABC's Of Practical Poomsae Applications, Part 7: Bakkat Makki (Outward Block)

We are back again with Part 7 of the ABC's of Practical Poomsae Applications, this time we are going to take a long good look at the Bakkat Makki or Outward defensive technique. We are looking at the knife hand version and the closed fist version under one as the movement is the same throughout the technique. The difference is superficial as the template is the same. Before you jump in you might want to check out my thoughts on the translation on the word "makki" as I think "block" is a very limited translation of the Korean term, and especially if you look at the root word "Makda". You can click here to read an indepth article on that here, or you can get the extremly brief version that I think Makki is anything you do to stop or prevent an attack, including but not limiting to block, parry, push, lock, limb control etc.

Another thing you might want to do is to read through this series in the order it came out.  Part 1 which you can find here, which focuses on Arae Makki, Part 2 which you can find here which focuses on Momtong An Makki, Part 3 which you can find here focusing on Eulgeul Makki, and Part 4 which you can find here that focuses on the spear hand strike, Part 5, which focuses on the knife hand guarding block and Part 6 focusing on the inward knife hand strike. With that out of the way let us jump into the outward defensive technique :-)

The ABC's Of Practical Poomsae Applications, Part 6: Han Sonnal An Mok Chigi (Inward knife hand strike)

Hi there :-) I am continuing with the ABC's of Practical Poomsae Applications, this time focusing on the Han Sonnal An (Mok) Chigi or Inward Knife hand strike (to the neck). We first encounter this technique in Taegeuk Sam (3) Jang and it is the second technique that we encounter in Poomsae that is illegal in modern Olympic sparring (the first technique being the face punch in Taegeuk i (2) Jang). Some make the case that the "new" Poomsae were made strictly to drill techniques that were used in sparring, and the inward knife hand strike might indeed have been used in "dojang sparring" which did not necesarily follow the competition rules, but knife hand strikes to the neck has been "illegal" in sport competitions as far back as I can find documentation on sparring rules (the early 60s and quite possibly even earlier than that too but I lack documentation). If you are joining us "mid-series", I would advice you to read the whole thing in order if you want to learn more than this single applicaiton, the goal of this series being to provide students with a starting point in finding their own poomsae applications, by looking at individual techniques.

Here are links to the different posts: Part 1 which you can find here, which focuses on Arae Makki, Part 2 which you can find here which focuses on Momtong An Makki, Part 3 which you can find here focusing on Eulgeul Makki, and Part 4 which you can find here that focuses on the spear hand strike, Part 5, which focuses on the knife hand guarding block.

The ABC's Of Practical Poomsae Applications, Part 5: Knife hand guarding block

This has proven to be a fairly popular series judging on the traffic it garners and I am very happy about that. If you are reading through this series and you are enjoying it or finding it interesting please remember that sharing is caring ;-) If you are new to this series it would perhaps be helpful to read through the series in order if for nothing else you will get through a logical series that build upon each other in turn.  Part 1 which you can find here, which focuses on Arae Makki, Part 2 which you can find here which focuses on Momtong An Makki, Part 3 which you can find here focusing on Eulgeul Makki, and Part 4 which you can find here that focuses on the spear hand strike. With that out of the way let us turn to this weeks focus which is on the Sonnal Geudeuro Makki or knife hand guarding block.