Boonseok (분석) Analyse your forms for meaning

I have written about this before but I really do want to get the word out there so people will start researching their forms for themselves (and share their findings with the world). The Korean Martial Arts were developed largely from Chinese and Japanese/ Okinawan sources; all of which placed a
heavy emphasis on solo forms for the preservation of the key concepts of the system.

Somewhere along the way however the Korean Martial Arts seems to have lost their link back to their forms, treating them solely as performance sport rather than the encyclopedia or basis upon wich their practical application of the Martial Arts rest. It is unfair to say that this is only a problem in the Korean Martial Arts as there are similar situations in both Chinese systems (Tai Chi for instance is often trained solely as performance art for health benifits) and Japanese systems (several styles of Karate train them for grading purposes and for maintaining "Tradition").

Essentual Reading For All Taekwondoin!!!!!!!!!

I frequently write about "lost things" within Taekwondo. Stuff that we had in the beginning but lost under the expansion and development into at martial sport, or stuff we have currently in our system but not trained in the mainstream.

I came accross this post today and found it so important that I highly reccomend that all Taekwondoin study it and apply this "new" knowledge in their training and teaching.

http://ryukyuma.blogspot.no/2013/04/small-surface-strikes-structurally.html

Exploring the Traditional "Double Blocks"

In my previous post I wrote a lot about blocks being blocks, at the same time I do acknowledge that in a dynamic context in forms there are a multitude of practical and sophisticated applications that can be derived from them ranging from defensive to offensive, but at the same time we do need to acknowledge that we need defensive techniques as well as offensive ones. In the bullet list in the previous post where I listed some of the most often heard critizism of traditional blocks I listed
unrealistic double blocks. I did make in my own opinion a good case for traditional simple blocks like arae makki (low block), han sonnal bakkat makki (single outward knife hand block), eolgul makki (face block), momtong an makki (inward middle block), but I did not mention the double blocks at all. You know the ones I mean: the infamous W shaped block is one of them:-)

Exploring The Traditional "Blocks"

I have written extensivly about forms application, and showed many applications to different blocks not being blocks at all. For instance if you have read through all the different blog post you will have

Image source: Secrets of Korean Karate
by Henry Cho in 1968

seen low block "arae makki" as a wrist release, straight arm bar, hammer fist strike to the groin, "rising elbow lock" and hammer fist strike in one movment etc etc.

I mean we all know the reasons why a block cant really be a block right?

Creating your own Poomsae?

Creating your own Poomsae? Many people would scuff at even the idea of creating your own

Defense against double wrist
grab followed by kick.

Poomsae. Our official Poomsae are sacred and holy. They are ancient forms developed over thousands of years through the history of the Korean people and they are perfect in themselves. Well that seems to be the general idea in Taekwondo, but the truth is that our Taegeuk Poomsae was introduced in the early 70s and our Black belt Poomsae was started in development in 1965 byt the KTA (Korean Taekwondo Association).

I love our Poomsae do not get me wrong, but I also think that creating your own Poomsae might help you and your understanding of the official Poomsae that we allready have. I have created several Poomsae over the years, but I have also discarded them after a while and I have never taught them to anyone else. My creative poomsae are mine and mine alone and I have only done them to help me understand what we allready have, not looking to outdo the KTA masters.

Traditional Taekwondo Training Equipment

Today one of Taekwondo`s strong points as a leisure activity is that there is no training equipment that is really needed and training space is also not that big of a consern. Likewise you really do not need any special training uniform to do Taekwondo, all you need is a somewhat flat training space (a couple of square meters is enough) and the will to train.

You can train attributes for Taekwondo like strenght in just about all of the body, or maybe basic techniques, or forms or shadow boxing not even needing a partner to train with. Today numerous Dojang that operates
out of school gyms (very common in my country) or other such places does not have or make use of any training equipment what so ever. Not even matts (wich makes the training of Nak Bup/breask falling difficult). That being said traditional Taekwondo did make use of a lot of training equipment most practisioners has probably never even heard of today.

Kihap in Poomsae

I have written a little about Kihap before on this blog, but something that happened last training session really made me want to write a little about Kihap in Poomsae. You see what happened was that we were doing Poomsae training (the excecution of Poomsae) and everything was going great. People really got what I was trying to say about true power comes from relaxation and not through muscling through each technique (wow that should definitly be a seperate blog post in the future!!). The students were doing the Poomsae on my count with me watching them, again after I gave some instruction on things to look out for with me doing the Poomsae with them, and then once again without counting at all.