Let's remove the Shaolin Temple and Bodhidharma from Taekwondo history

Every so often I see the Shaolin temple and Bodhidharma

mentioned in Taekwondo history. I once held a lecture on taekwondo history where I was approached after it was finished and told that the lecture was good, but I had completly neglected to mention how martial arts were invented in China in the Shaolin temple by Bodhidharma and then spread to the rest of Asia. I could not take that critisism seriously but kept a straight face and told him politely that I did not subscribe to that myth, and quickly departed. I was recently reminded of this tie in with Taekwondo history when I was asked to consult on a taekwondo organisations history on their web page. The first draft contained the Bodhidharma myth in it, and I adviced it to be removed which it was. I therefore thought that a post tackling how the Shaolin/Bodhidharma myth has no place in Taekwondo (and should not even be considered "canon" in Chinese martial arts) could be useful for some. Before starting the actual post however I have to credit the book "Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals; A Historical Survey" written by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo which has shaped much of my thinking on this subject and especially page 69-72. The author credits Chinese Martial Arts Historian Tang Hao and Stanley E. Henning. I found and read a few articles by Henning in preperation to this post but in the end I found page 69-72 in the aforementioned book to be a great sumary and I did not find much written by Tang Hao. 

Why does "ITF" forms feel so much more "advanced"?

This last year I have done a deep dive and really focused on

learning all ITF forms up to and including Gae-Baek Hyung. I say "ITF forms" but I should probably call them either Oh Do Kwan (that is where my "project" took me) or Chang Hon forms. I do not do Sine Wave (and I do not think I will ever do that), and the forms I have been learning is far too outdated to be called ITF forms, as the ITF have done a lot of changes. The standard I am keeping as close as possible to is the 1965 book by Choi Hong Hi. After that book was published a lot of things were changed, and over time Sine Wave which was possibly the biggest change was implemented in the 1980s. After he died the ITF splintered into an insane number of different ITFs and they in turn made their own changes. I am going off a tangent here:-P What I wanted to write about was the feeling I had when learning these forms when I had a firm Taegeuk and Judanja/Black Belt Poomsae background. I talked with a fellow Taekwondoin (Taekwondo person) about the feeling I had when learning the forms that every single one after Chon-Ji Hyung felt like learning a black belt poomsae. 

Kyeongdang Yedo 24 Se part 2; Point Sword Posture

Way back in March 2024 we looked at the first posture, the Keonjeongse (Lifting the cauldron posture), we looked at two different translations, one by Jack Chen who translated the source material for the Yedo chapter in Muyedobotongji, and one from Sang H. Kim's translation of the Muyedobotongji. I shared the illustration from both sources, and a video of how it was performed and practised in modern Kyeongdang (in the group I work with). In addition to this I shared a few thoughts on application in text only. This is also pretty much what we will be doing with the second "posture" in the system, and that is the "Jumkumse" as it is transcribed in Sang H. Kim's work. The "Jum" part of the name means "period", or "dot" in Korean, the "Kum" part of the name is Geom, Keum, Kum meaning "sword" and the "Se" part can loosely be translated as "posture. Together we get the loose translation of "Point sword posture", but the translation I was first given was inspecting the sword posture, as the initial posture seems like your holding the sword in a manner that you might take to inspect a sword. 

Let's make 2025 the year you crush your fitness goals

It’s the beginning of a glorious new year and many have probably set themselves a few fitness goals and seeing as this post will be published at the very end of January I wouldn’t be surprised if many have started training and then took a deep dive off the fitness wagon. It happens to most people in January everyone flocks to the Doran’s and training studios and once February show up they are relegated to support members. In this post we will look at a good number of tips on how you can make 2025 count and how you can get really fit this year :) Click the read more to read on :-)