Cheats, tips, thoughts and hints I usen when it comes to training:

The following post is just a little list of 5 Points that might help you a little in your training. They are merely my own observations and fit for me so you should take it with a grain of salt. I do however hope that the tips I share in this post will be helpful to this blogs Readers. So with that introduction out of the way lets dive right in shall we? :

5 Points on training: (Edit: 6 Points)

Micro Post; This months quote

This month I have picked a quote by Colin Wee. A great blogger and a very knowledgeable Martial Artist. I am lucky enough to call him a friend, and we have had many great chats together about the martial arts (at least I think they are great). Each time we chat I find myself taking notes and some time ago we chatted a lot about power generation. We who practise Taekwondo practise essentually a striking system (there is grappling etc, but main strategy is striking) so power generation should be at the forefront of our training. Choi Hong Hi wrote a lot of good stuff about this, but Colin somehow got all of that into one short quote which is quite profound.... When the year is over I plan to gather all the quotes of the month into one long post and I am sure that eventhough other quotes have been said by "legendary" masters, this quote by Colin will still stand out as pure genious:-)

"We need to take [our] body mass, set it in motion, accelerate it,

and transmit this power through the end limb

and inject it into the opponent."

- Colin Wee

Author of "Traditional Taekwondo Techniques Blog "

http://www.joongdokwan.com/

Happy Birthday Taekwondo:-D

11th April 1955 is widely regarded as the birthday of Taekwondo. This date is significant because at this date in a meeting between officials from the government of Korea and several leading Taekwondo pioneers (at least Choi Hong Hi and Son Duk Sung was there) the name "Taekwondo" was proposed and adopted as the umbrella name of the hard style Korean Martial Arts that so far had used foreign names such as Tang Soo Do, Koong Soo Do and Kwon Bup to refer to their arts. Choi Hong Hi is the man credited for comming up with the name so all lineages of Taekwondo should be thankfull for his contributions that spreads across different lineages:-)

To read more about the pioneers of Taekwondo you could follow the links below. I have not completed the series yet, but it is fitting to take a few minutes of this day and remember those who has gone the path before us:-)

• Lee Won Kuk

• Hwang Kee

• Choi Hong Hi

• Chun Sang Sup

• Ro Byung Jik 

Poomsae: Drama or collection of fighting skills?

"You need to decide wether your Taekwondo is for health or for practical application" (Paraphrasing legendary Martial Arts Master Anko Itosu).

We practise Poomsae as a group activity in the Dojang, and I believe several martial artists out there will do them solo in their own training time outside the Dojang. At least I hope they do:p Forms in Martial Arts of South East Asian origins used to be the center of training. The thing that kept all aspects of the system together and conveyed tactics that together imparted the principles and strategy deemed positive to give to future generations. My personal opinion and belief is that the Taekwondo forms today were originally designed so that the students of Taekwondo could use the forms that way, but the traditional main stream way of using forms in Taekwondo has been as "movement education".

Micro Post; This months quote

Following from the last months quote on Taekwondo history this months quote is also grounded in Taekwondo history. Many readers of this blog will know the origin of modern Taekwondo lies not only within Korea but also within Okinawa, Japan and China. What many people do not know is that Choi Hong Hi founder of the Oh Do Kwan and the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) included Karate Kata in his teachings at least untill 1965. That year he published "Taekwon-do the art of self defense" and included 15 different Karate Kata in the book along with the first 20 forms he developed for his own school. The Karate Kata were treated and documented with the same depth as his own creations in this book which I also find interesting. I do not know how long after 1965 the Karate Kata were considered part of Taekwondo, but in his next 1970s book they were no longer there, and the Korean Taekwondo Association would present the Palgwe forms to replace the Karate Kata in 1967. To show how highly the Karate Kata were regarded in Taekwondo at this time you can see the quote below by Choi Hong Hi on the Heian Kata:

Hei-an means safety and peacefulness. 

This name is obtained from the fact that anyone 

who has mastered this type is able to protect himself

 or herself easily in any unforseen situation.

-Choi Hong Hi; Founder of Oh Do Kwan  

The Heian forms were most often called Pyungahn in the Korean schools. They are known as "Pinan" in Okinawan Karate and most Karate styles, but Gichin Funakoshi renamed them "Heian". One of the forms along with some combative interpretations can be seen in the clip below:

Santeul Makki or "Mountain Block"

Hanja for "Mountain"

Recently (time is subjective) I started a Taekwondo "study group" and one of the first posts I shared on it was my post Myths: All blocks are blocks! (Not) and more . The example in that post consists of Hecho Santeul Makki or Spreading Mountain Block. Two other members of that Group shared videos of how they approach their systems Mountain Blocks. While their examples ends up in the same
ending position they do not show the Hecho Santeul Makki from Pyungwon Poomsae but rather the "regular" Santeul Makki that can be seen in Keumgang Poomsae. I thought it would make a great post to gather all the information on that technique from this blog that have been published earlier coupled with the new material that was kindly shared by my study buddies:-) The video that features Colin from Traditional Taekwondo Techniques blog was put together especially for the study Group which explains the names being mentioned in the beginning of the Clip as well as the youtube label:-)

Interview with author of The Taegeuk Cipher

This interview was first published in Totally Taekwondo Magazine early January. As it came to dominate the first page of that issue I waited until the next issue was out before posting it here. I think that the Readers of this blog will really enjoy it as it touches on many Things that I have written about before (a little history, training Methods, drilling, and a Whole lot more). Simon manages to say stuff in a few sentences that I need a Whole or series of blog posts to get accross, so as I said before I really think you will enjoy it, I know I did, and that I learned a lot from doing the interview.
The bold text is mine and the questions I asked him while the regular text that is not bold is Simons replies.