One Step Sparring

I have written before about predetermined/ formal/ step sparring and its Place in Taekwondo.
Lately With the Schools closed because of summer holliday and my various injuries finally letting go I have been able to have a few training sessions outside a couple of times a week where we have gone through Our organisations syllabus (something that often "drowns" in the focus of basics, forms and free/ competition sparring).

In these sessions that are just an unformal gathering of friends at black belt Level we have had a great deal of discussions around the different Things in the organisations syllabus, the one step sparring being one of them.

The obsession of wrist grabs

In Taekwondo we normally divide up Our training into the 5 pillars of Taekwondo; Basics, Forms, Sparring, Self defense and Breaking (or Gibon Dongjak, Poomsae, Kyorugi, Ho Sin Sul and Kyopka respectivly).

In the self defense part of Taekwondo the focus is normally on freeing yourself from various grips. At least that is how I often see it practised and taught. Personally I think that Ho Sin Sul is Applied Taekwondo as a Whole, and freeing Your self from various grabs is just one part of it all, but it is a very important skill nonetheless and especially so for Taekwondoin who focus on striking. Having an arm grabbed, or someone does a bear hug over Your arms for instance means that the opponent has tied up one (or more) of Your striking Tools. If you base Your self defense on striking the opponent to remain safe from harm, having Your striking Tools removed is not good... Therefore I do see why this becomes the main focus for many Peoples Ho Sin Sul training.

A thing that is a little facinating though is the seemingly Obsession With wrist grabs that You will find not only in Taekwondo and its sister art Karate but in almost every Martial Art of the East... It has gotten to the point that for some the releasing and countering to wristgrabs account for the majority of their Ho Sin Sul training and that cant be good, can it?

Soak Am Ryu forms

My teacher has studdied Taekwondo since just after Taekwondo`s inception in Korea. He has also studied other KMA and other related subjects like philosophy, training methods, Ki-training and Yoga. The result of his studdies is the Soak Am Ryu forms which is his psedonym given to him by his Ki-gong teacher.

Micro Post: Basic wrist grab defenses

Here is a clip of me and a friend going quickly through our organisations set wrist grab defenses. These are the starting point for wrist grab defenses for the students at Traditonal Taekwondo Union. Me and a few friends gathered today to go through a lot of the syllabus material that are not covered enough in regular class time, and the eight wrist grab defenses were one of the things we went through (the Soak Am Ryu Poomsae 1-4, Taegeuk Poomsae 1-8, Koryo, original Koryo, Keumgang, Taebaek Poomsae and the 4 set defenses against punches was not filmed but practised a lot today).

The weather was very unstable but it was great to be practising again after a short break and it is always great to gather a few friends for some unformal practise:-)

Application to Taegeuk Oh (5) Jang 2

This time I would like to take a closer look on one of the most distinguishing features of Taegeuk Oh Jang. Except for the opening movements (low Block, hammer fist strike) which to me always symbolised the Taegeuk symbol of the form which is Wind (I always thought about a hurricane or a tornado when I first learned the form) is the infamous high Block, side kick/ hammer fist strike followed by an elbow strike into Your palm.

Application to Taegeuk Oh (5) Jang

The most searched for content on this blog seems to be the practical applications for our poomsae. That fact coupled with the fact that one Reader of the blog expressed great interest in the applications through comments  and mentioned that he studdied Taegeuk Oh Jang at this time made me inspired to write this post that focus exclusivly on Taegeuk Oh (5) Jang and the (hopefully) practical applications to that form:-)

Who am I... Taekwondo`s identity crisis part two

This is part two. To read part one click here

This post is dedicated to Steve Nesky, Samir and Richard:-)

Last time I gave a general overview of the current situation where we saw how Taekwondo meant a lot of different things to different people. I gave some history to show how the perception of Taekwondo shapes our training (the uniform in my example from a thicker more durable y-neck uniform (Dobok) to a newer lighter less durable v-neck for competition. This time I would like to give a brief overview on the history of Taekwondo to see if this can explain the current Identity crisis of Taekwondo.

"Modern Taekwondo" has its roots from the different Kwan (Schools) founded in Korea in the 1940s-50s but they themselves had deeper roots from foreign sources.