The Fight for Survival

I really believe that TaeKwon-Do will be rendered obsolete within the next ten years if we, as practitioners, don't make a stand to further understand the teachings. With that being said I should mention that I have tremendous respect for a lot of "sport" TKD fighters. Think of it like this; if someone could become the better than you at the sport, then all they would have to do is re-aim those kicks and punches, then they would be better than you at street fighting too. Now I also must stress that this is only true in theory, it does not always work this way.
The fix is simple. TKD has great punching technique, but how often is it taught. I know it's not taught in WTF style. I know this because they fight with their hands down. Now I am not going to get all ITF on you here I am just going to say that when I transitioned from TKD to boxing I got whooped. I had great punches but I was never drilled heavily on them. Typically when I tell someone this they say that, that was just my school and that they did. I don't believe you. Bottom line is no TKD class I have ever seen takes the whole class to have each student throw punching combos for one full hour. You want your class to get real fighting skills, have them punch a bag for thirty minutes after they are already tired from throwing one hundred kicks. Real fights are unpredictable and no amounts of drills are going to make them good. But what is, is learning the exact same punches TKD teaches and have them throw them past the point of exhaustion. Real fights are like that.
Kicks in TKD are the best around but what kicks are you teaching. I understand that if the money is made in TKD tournaments, then you have to run those drills, but how often do you step away from that to show someone how to kick for defense? Probably never. I don't believe you. If you do it at least once a class that's not enough. If you take one class a month and focus on it, that's not enough. You have to make it the cake not the icing. You have to switch the way of thinking from we are an AAU/ Olympic school, to we are a vicious form of martial arts that also participates in this sport.
Every kick in TKD is used in the octagon but how often do you break down how to do them appropriately in that situation? I'll bet never.
Back kicks must be taught from front facing, sidekicks should be taught with a downward motion, front kicks should be taught with toes pulled back and diagonal kick should be taught on the inner thigh or the standing front facing sweep. I will break these down for you in photos.
I am a firm believer that you can make one class a week focused on the sport and still produce the same amount of AAU talent. That's because the ones that want to take it that direction will come to you. Private lessons can at that point become really effective fundraisers.
Have you ever taught TKD on the ground? Didn't think so. But think about it. If most fights end on the ground then you might want to cover this. These things can be discussed during stretching. Since portions of stretching are done on the ground then it won’t interfere with class at all to explain TKD concepts from the back. Take for instance the concept of generating power from your back foot. When you are standing up that is easy, but when you're on your back it might not have to be created at the feet. Although the more advanced you get the more you will see it still is, you can show how to create power from your back to the point of contact. Give it a try yourself then if you can do it make your students throw punches from their back, who knows you might save someone's life.
I could probably rant on this topic for days, but since I have a blog about it I will let it flow slower than that. Just keep in mind that TKD is an amazingly well thought out form of martial art and if we as instructors just let it become our businesses we will one day wake up to find low enrollment due to how lame it is. We don't want to lose out to MMA and we don't want to lose the culture of the Masters. So be a good teacher of the martial art and think beyond what you were taught and help bring TKD home.