TKD No Longer an Olympic Sport?

Do you think of boxing as a martial art? I don’t know that I do. Now don’t miss-understand me here, I have studied boxing, I love boxing. My question here though is just, do you think of boxing as a martial art?

I see it more as a vessel. And no matter where you learned your punching skills, if you were to follow the rules, you can try your skills in the ring. Kickboxing is the same way and MMA too. I really ask this question because of the idea that TKD is potentially going about it the wrong way. 

Here in the USA , in order to get into the Olympics you have to play along with the AAU. The AAU only plays along with WTF stylists so karate and ITF, ATA and any other fighters have no chance. Well unless they conform. I don’t like conforming. With the question of TKD in the Olympics, or if it even should be, I would almost like to see it go.

ATHLETE ELIGIBILITY
All athletes must comply with the provisions of the Olympic Charter currently in force and only those athletes who have complied with the Olympic Charter may participate in the Olympic Games.
1. An athlete must be a Kukkiwon Dan certificate holder, and must be at least 15 years of age during the year of the 2012 Olympic Games.
2. All athletes who have not qualified through any of qualification tournaments must meet at least any of following requirements in order to compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games:
a. Medal winners (1st or 2nd or 3rd places) at any of the competitions enlisted on the WTF event calendar on between May 2010 and April 2012.
b. The athletes ranked within 20th place at least once in the WTF World Ranking on between May 2010 and April 2012
c. The athletes who advanced to round of 16 or higher at either WTF World Taekwondo Championships ( 2011) or World Taekwondo Qualification Tournament
d. The athletes who advanced to quarter-finals or higher at either Continental Taekwondo Championships held on between May 2010 and April 2012 or Continental Taekwondo Qualification Tournament
e. Winner of national taekwondo championships held on between May 2010 and April 2012

Sure it’s trying to make a dramatic last stance but think about it like this; I turn on the on demand channel on my Comcast. They have a sports section and in that sports section they have an Olympics trial section, but guess what sport is not on that list? All I want to do, as an American, is watch the TKD Olympic trials, except…oh yeah the AAU is still controlling it. So it’s not on there and I really think this is stupid. 

The truth is Olympic Boxing and TKD should go, and Olympic Kickboxing, with K-1 style rules, should surface. Just as boxing is just a vessel for punching skills kickboxing is just a vessel for the way of the hands and the feet. I would embrace knees and elbows too, as the hands and feet are merely extensions of the elbow and the knees. 

This is only, of course, if the Olympics want these kinds of contests to remain relevant. This may just be my opinion but the vision I have is so much bigger. I imagine a world competition where the kicking art leagues and boxing leagues come together and fight for the true world champion, and this is not a new idea.

ISAK, when it was the PKA thought this same thing, I wish they would have vied for the Olympics spot. 

TKD has pleanty of room in Olympic Kickboxing, Machida was TKD and Semmy Schilt is totally Karate. I think TKD camps and seeing TKD fighters grow would help the popularity of TKD as a whole.

These guys get it; www.kickboxingwales.com/#

Read the history of ISKA, there are other options.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sport_Karate_Association

And quite frankly this was TKD’s hay-day.

Explore the videos on the side bar of YouTube here. They are great displays of what TKD really is, whereas the WTF style and the AAU are not. They are merely a vessel for one; I feel that is fear based.

Time to grow past the fear and embrace the indomitable sprit.

Peace.

Who is Tim Larkin?

Tim Larkin is pretty much one of the baddest men on the planet right now, in the martial arts world at least. If you have not been following this story I will give you a short back story. Tim was with SCARS an acronym for Special Combat Aggressive Reaction System. A system run by Jerry Peterson that was originally presented to military officials and law enforcement training programs. I can’t speak to how far they have gotten in with the government or other governments for that matter, but I can say that, like TKD is to Korea SCARS wanted to be for the USA.

Tim defected for whatever reason and went on the road teaching what he thought was a more direct way to defend yourself. There is some debated about Peterson and Larkin having a falling out but who knows. All I know as an internet bystander is now Tim has quite the story going on right now. 

It all started here;

What he wanted to do:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/how-this-man-taught-me-to-kill-in-four-moves-1790034.html

Then he got banned from entering the UK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2012/may/09/self-defence-tim-larkin-banned?newsfeed=true

Tim Larkin’s response to the UK:

http://www.targetfocustraining.com/

If you  don’t know the UK has been on a banning streak these last few years, as to who can inter their country, but with Tim on has to ask a question. What are you afraid of? Why is he a threat to your country? If he was going there to train your military, wouldn’t you want your military to know how to kill someone in 4 moves? And if it’s not being taught to the military, for whatever reason, and it was just seminars then why are you afraid of the public having this kind of knowledge. I’m sure the UK has civilians that already know and teach stuff like this, why make it sensational? With a statehood you always will be left wondering, what they were thinking, but I’m sure they had a reason. With that answer being unbenounced to the public we have no choice but to wonder.

I have followed this story on http://www.bullshido.net/ since they started to talk about it and thought it would be interesting to pass along.

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

TruthIn TKD is can now be read in 60 languages

I have added the Google Translator for international viewers. Please share the good news, my senseless ranting on TaeKownDo can now be read in 60 languages!!!

What is ATA and SongAhm Taekwondo?

SongAhm was started by the Eternal Grand Master H.U. Lee. SongAhm TaeKwon-Do is what the ATA formed out of, originally based out of the Chahng-hun style, but was modified to envelop other artistic opinions he held. The SongAhm style seemingly maintains respect for the ITF and General Choi, but has added some teaching ideas to his curriculum. I never know what ATA was, and thinking back, the ATA School in the town I grew up in was pretty weak, but now that I learn more about it the more I respect it.

Any school can be weak, and for multiple reasons, that does not have to be a reflection of the system they represent. They keep a lot of the forms found in ITF and they, arguably, put more emphasis on the traditional aspects of the art but I do have one rub.

They do the same thing ITF is known for doing. They try to establish themselves as the best way, in TKD, and they seclude their art from the rest of TKD. I know you can argue that point but if the ITF is broken into three organizations, then the ICTF spins off and forms their own thing, ATA has existed for decades and many other forms of Korean arts influence similar aspects of the arts, then why are they not unifying. Of course I might just not know of some organization that exists out there, but from what I can tell they have enough groups to hold open tournaments a scale of grandeur.

If these organizations could unify for a beach side national “open” every two or five years, then they could all compete in local tournaments that would get really competitive. If it all fed into the national open, then they would all be able to unify the whole other side of the art. I think that would be really effective and simple, you just take the head of each institution and put them as the board members. Then they all assume one task and appoint someone from their organization to delegate the function accordingly and then they split the pot evenly and appropriate the funds generated where they feel they are best suited. I could be an amazing joint venture that could replace American Kick Boxing and could help fighters and trainers feed into the MMA system as well.

I am not an expert on this but I do feel ATA could do more, their system seems good and they promote themselves well, I want to make it clear that I respect them. However with the strands of General Choi’s ropes all divided, it’s no wonder the AAU is all up in the TKD scene. We, of like minds, should look past the small discrepancies and move toward a format that is flexible and versatile, as that the traditional style might last..

I think I’m ranting now so I will stop but if we got the AAU out of it and got the state’s boxing commissions into it I believe TKD would grow by leaps and bounds. WTF and the AAU are getting along great, and WTF is spreading TKD in a rapid and tremendous fashion, time is coming where we should to, but in a more Chahng-hun style.

Just my peace.

If you know more,  minding the fact that I summarized what it is, please let me know. I would be interested in know anything about it really.

Links; These were the links that I found that explained what ATA is to me. Very good links to read, intresting history and Master J. Phillip Wargo kinda scares the crap out of me.

http://www.wargosmartialartsusa.com/page/29-4226.htm

http://www.ataonline.com/about/leadership/eternal.asp

http://www.ataonline.com/taekwondo/songahm.asp

Pacquiao; From the Horse's Mouth

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/manny-pacquiao-ill-have-another-boxing-horse-racing-become-relics-061212

Joe Rogan, perhaps, has been one of the most out spoken on topics like this but here it is. Straight from the horse's mouth, "were not morons, all of us". What more can be said, but decisions like this one are the end of boxing as we know it. Pacquiao won that fight and unless boxing wakes up they have a similar problem that TKD has; as they stand, they are dying.

Boxing could have a come back and take ticket and PPV sales away from MMA all over again, but they long ago stopped giving the fans what they want, in this case it's Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. That fight may never happen now, and boxing is again building it's own pine box.

TKD parallels this same situation, Albee it in a different manor, but a self made pine box non the less. If TKD does not wake up and give the people what they want then they too are going to be victims of Dana White and his brilliant business strategies. Giving the people what they want.

The main difference in TKD is that it's not really about what the "people" want. The people involved have what they want, in order to expand TKD we are going to have to give the bystanders what they want, and that's real fighting. Not what is out there today in the TKD sport as we see it.

TKD has to be profitable for the fighters, and not just the top three in each country that competes in the Olympics, but in an integration format. Any good TKD kicker, or master instructor could probably join up with a MMA camp and start, for money, coaching kicking drills for the fighters. They may have to take on more than one fighter to make ends meet, because the fights in MMA are not quite paying like boxing, but they teach multiple students anyways. TKD needs to step up and higher boxing coaches at their schools, then transition TKD into kick boxing, again some money there for sure.

Boxing is like horse racing, dying, but TKD has something it can learn from all of this. Boxing would not be dying if MMA and the UFC were not doing things right. So let the lesson be learned and stop living in a box, a pine box waiting to be buried, and resurrect the truth in TKD. The amazing kicking, the fantastic hand strikes, the shear power and understanding of timing and angles. The forms and patterns, the Tuls, which teach a system of total elimination of opponent, we need to embrace what TKD is about and not fall victim to the struggles that boxing is facing, which is an ever growing interest and understanding of true martial arts.

Peace.

Origination of Power Broken Down as Extension of Fist

I have a firm belief that in TKD you should teach the elbow strike before you teach the punch and the knee strike before you teach the kicks. However, because I always taught for other people, I adhered to their systems. I never started in class with those moves, at least not at white belt, but in my private lessons I did. 

When I left my school, to which I still remain loyal, I started teaching private students out of my garage or at a public park. The first upper body strike I would teach was the elbow and before we moved onto kicks I taught the knee strike. My reasoning was simple; it was all about the origination of power. 

A proper punch’s power is generated from the stability of one’s grounding to the present surface plus the rotation of the hip plus the acceleration of the arm, this will equal the amount of force on contact by the fist. Now when technique is applied to the punch you can break this down even further; explaining that the hips rotate, the arm is released from the chamber and the most applicable direction for the guided fist is followed, with conviction and commitment. Eventually at a higher level, you divulge to the student the concept of clockwork, with in the body movement, and that the body must move in unison. They can’t always break the movement down step by step, but eventually they would merge the pattern into one fluid motion and have a punch formed from it. 

However, I always found that instructors were coming up with kids that had pretty weak looking punching skills. So I broke it down like this; you are standing on the ground. In this moment you are nothing more than an inanimate protrusion from the ground in which you stand on. In order to create power a motion must occur, for this purpose the motion is you’re feet grasping the solid surface and turning the hips. The rotation of the body is what is going to propel the upper body; this motion is then coupled by the positioning of the arm. For this explanation, being from a chambered position, your upper body transfers that motion to the shoulder then to the elbow, the acceleration from releasing the chambered upper forearm is…STOP!!! 

That is exactly where I would stop. Just when they would think they were going to learn how to punch I would identify to them the extension of the hip as being the elbow. (I really believe it’s the shoulder and have had difficulty teaching the punch with particular students, so I started them even further back at how to shoulder shrug someone.) 

The elbow for all intents and purposes is the first extension of power. So why would you not teach the elbow first I asked myself, and from that day on I did. This proved to be a wise move because by the time we were punching the body movement of each student was so correctly ingrained into them that their punches rolled out naturally. Ground, to hip, to shoulder, to elbow, to fist. (Or any hand strike that requires that much force) but it was through this break down that I was able to ease off of the, later explaining of clockwork and the body’s movement in unison. I did not have to, they were doing it naturally because I stopped at the first extension of power. 

Kick equation works the same way; Ground, to hip to knee position to foot. Again, knee would come first so that was what I broke down first. (Obvious kicks will object to this notion, but that should be self-explanatory) 

Now to venture even further I feel I must explain some of my background. First was TKD, I fought in TKD style tournaments for years, ITF and WTF style. Then I moved into kickboxing fighting, where I quickly learned I did not know how to box. I learned boxing in a 4 month training program, just to understand the basic ideas, which really taught me that I already had great punching skills, just did not know how to use them. But then I progressed to fencing, sure there were other things in between there, but they don’t apply to this article so I will exclude them. It was at this point, fencing, that I learned that the sword was merely an extension of the hand. I was a natural to fencing for more than one reason, but the main reason was because I knew how to use my hands in combat. TKD taught me distance concepts and angles, and boxing taught me how to be tricky with my hand skills. 

I still fence a little, love it, but for the most part it just got me thinking even further. The sword was brought to Korea during the Paekchedynasty, and the first type of sword on record was the ring pommel sword. Swords were introduced to the Koreans through trade with Japan just as the gun was introduced to Japan by the US. Where exactly does that leave us?

This leaves us at the most recent extension of the hand being the gun, or at least for personal defense, in the extension of power timeline. Before there were swords, there were sticks, the sticks were sharpened and then for some modifications occurred that altered the stick into a new weapon. I.e., the Nunchaku, three dimensional staff, the bow staff… But now we are at the gun.

My TKD system that I grew up in introduced a new ancient weapon at every stage of black belt but they never introduced the gun. This makes since, as most students are juvenile, but what about for the adults that are old enough for a hand gun license, or the 18 year olds that can own a rifle. (Based on Texas law) I’m sure at this point in the article I have taken a turn drastically for the worst. Most readers are going to argue my points here, I’m sure, but that argument just reminds me of the movie 3 ninjas. “Real Ninjas don’t use guns”, to heck they don’t, maybe back then, when they did not have guns, but now we have a further extension of power and I feel as though it should be taught. Modern day Ninjas, or assassins, use some pretty high tech guns actually, with silencers. They also use long range rifles and in some cases even missiles and things we can’t, and shouldn’t attempt to purchase. 

I will leave the thought at this; first teach the extension of power from its start to its finish, not the other way around. I promise you a better yielded crop of students, and secondly get it out of your mind that the only weapons we should embrace are the ancient ones. The art of TaeKwonDo is not really a weapons based art anyways it’s for hand to hand combat, or arguably hand to assailant’s weapon combat.

Just as you would not teach a student to misuse a sword or a bow staff, you would never imply that they learn the improper ways to use a hand gun. You don’t have to even teach them how to use these; you can just explain the concept and let them decide, as adults, if they want to learn they will. At this point they can get a CHL or take a shooting lesson. I still find bow shooting fun and not just because of Burt Reynolds.  And by no means would I ever condone sensuously using these things, but if someone comes breaking into your student’s home, or family’s home what’s more important, that they used what you taught them or that they survived?

Everything we do requires prudence and discernment, but what skill is more acceptable, telling the Judge that you shot the intruder or that you sliced their knees off with a sword and let them bleed to death or perhaps decapitated them? One sounds crazy the other sounds reasonable, you figure out which one that is.

Moreover I must conclude with this; I hope the situation never arises, or you never put yourself in the place where anything discussed in the above article is necessary.

Go in peace.

Lyoto's Next Fight

Cannot wait to see this fight. I want to see him get his game back. I'm sure he has gotten better from his recent losses, we always do.


http://mmajunkie.com article below;

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28483/ryan-bader-vs-lyoto-machida-added-to-ufc-on-fox-4-in-los-angeles.mma

South Korean Olympic TKD Team

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2012olympics/2012-05/25/content_15388988.htm

Very interesting article about the South Korean's Olympic team. Please read this, it's good stuff.

The Final Drill

The final drill: A continuation onto the Magic Drill

I recall once receiving a phone call the son of a rival school’s owner. It was a late night after all the students from the second class had gone home, and I was putting the checks I had collected in their respectful location. I had spoken to this guy, even befriended him, over the past months and he asked me what I had going on after I locked up.

I could have just gone home but out of shear curiosity I had to see what was brewing. He said that a bunch of TKD guys, young 18-30 year old, competitive, guys were going to meat up at a gym down the interstate. This was very peculiar to me as my school was not real popular amongst some of the people that were going to be there, strange that I would be invited. 

I went, it was about 10 pm and the large chain style Gym was closing and the keys were being handed to a guy I was familiar with. We will just call him Craig. Craig had actually owned a franchise of my Grand Master’s once but defected and went towards a more AAU approved style. He was legendary in my mind, this guy was a top level hybrid TKD fighter and I knew by the end of the night I was going to get to spar with him. 

Before I had my chance to spar with him I had to join the rotation, starting off was one of the back belts from the, at that time, current Olympic Champion’s school. I actually hurt him, his ribs, he wanted to spar without a check protector on and I jabbed him with a side kick, all heal. Then it was this head hunter from the rival school, he trained under my instructors before he left and became a WTF fighter, he was really fast but I would say we both had our strengths and weaknesses. Next in rotation was a guy, not sure what school he was a part of but, I knew his name. He was really well known in the TKD tournament scene, he was good and pretty much mopped the floor with me. I knew how to fight WTF guys but for some reason he knew that I knew that and he knew what to do. And so forth the night progressed until I spared my friend. I like to think I won but his kicks hurt, I might have gotten more points off but the tree trunk like legs he possessed took it out of me, and I guarantee I hurt more the next day than he did. 

Finally I was there, Craig, now I got to go up against someone I have heard about for years. I was tired but so was he; I thought for sure I would get something off on him. Nope. I could not even touch him. He was so incredibly calm, smooth and relaxed that every move I threw he had an answer for. He did not hurt me; he kicked me swiftly and gently and seemed to be coaching me. “You’re too stiff, loosen up”, he kept saying. The same thing everyone better than me always said. The buzzer rang and this time instead of rotating we were done. He only had the keys until 11:30pm now we had to leave. 

This was one of the single handed best sparing experiences I had ever had. I, in one night, got to spar with 6 or 7 guys that all came from different schools, and were all good. Wow, this was a great underground group. The group continued and I met with them more in the future, but it was not long until chasing Olympic style left me. I move more to kick boxing, and learning boxing, but I think back today to what I learned from sparing Craig.

I learned that Craig was able to be loose and relaxed in every situation because he had been in every situation I put him in long before I threw those kicks that night. In fact he had been in those situations many times. Those were not new moves for him so he naturally had an answer for them.

So how do you take that formula and transpose it to a lesson? Well it’s quite simple. You take your students and pair them up. One side attacks and one side defend. Start by giving them a kick, front kick then begin. Side A will throw the front kick and try to hit the side B student in the stomach as many time as possible with in 1 Minuit. Then they switch, the defending side has to learn how to block it. Not by being taught, hopefully you have already instilled the blocks and counter attacks in them, but by being in the situation over and over again. 

You repeat this formula with every kick in the book, side kick, back kick, and hook kicks, revers turning kicks, round houses and punches. Once they are used to seeing these moves come at them hundreds of time, over and over, they will eventually become relaxed when the move is used on them in a tournament. This will help them to maintain the “in the zone” factor. The point where things start to move slower in action, more thought can be processed in the moment. 

Next you have them throw predisposed combinations using the same formula, again and again, until no one in their own school can get over on anyone else. 

This is the final drill. When a student wants to go into TKD tournament mode, this is the best formula for them to be loose and relaxed. The only pit fall is eventually you will have put yourself into a position that you will need outsiders to come in. they are going to have to learn what other kids are throwing out there. If you are not coordinating sparing sessions with other schools in your community then you are doing your students, and TKD, a disservice. The community must be strong if you want the final drill to pay off. 

To conclude, the magic drill is something that everyone at one time or another looks for. They are the simple tricks that make scoring a point easy, moves that trick people 90% of the time. I searched long and hard for these moves and found many, some that were great and some that were not, but once you learn the magic drills you have to move to the final drill. This is a strategy that will not only help your students become comfortable in every sparing situation but will also change the way you, as an instructor, view the Tuls. I will have to touch that on another post as I feel long winded here. 

And a note: don’t stop practicing sidekicks, diagonal kicks or round houses are like riding a bike, but sidekicks have a shelf life. 

Peace. 

Mr. Mustache 

Vietnam makes it in!

Looks like Vietnam has qualified two people, good for them, as the story goes they have come so close in the past.

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=503200&Itemid=1

Vietnam has qualified two athletes

Le Huynh Chau	Men's −58 kg (130 lbs)
Chu Hoang Dieu Linh	Women's -67 kg (150 lbs)

Le Huynh Chau:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWUaEmze0ik

chu Hoang Dieu Linh

could not find videos on her. 

Good job.

Peace.

Olympic TKD 2012 Starting Point

The Olympics are right around the corner, are you paying attention? The school I grew up in did not participate in Olympic style contests much. There were 14 or so schools in the organization, and some of them would Olympic style spar but for the most part all our sport guys were either ITF’ers or Hybrids. Some of them were quite amazing; I know I sparred with the current gold medalist’s guys a couple of times. We always had someone going to nationals but our focus was ITF I suppose.

(Terrence Jennings reacts after defeating Mark Lopez in their U.S. Olympic Team Trials taekwondo match on March 10.) Borrowed from the great article below.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/london-2012-olympics-terrence-jennings-of-alexandria-va-earns-spot-on-us-taekwondo-team/2012/04/02/gIQAQfb6qS_story.html

(Cont.)
I don’t really like the style of Olympic sparing but I very much understand and admire certain skill the participants have. The speed, agility, timing and the ferocity of the moves they utilize are quite impressive. All of those things are good and what they do can be really impressive but too much of it wears me out. It does not champion the true essence of Taekwondo.

However, with that being said, I am going to try to follow the TKD Olympics this year. I will try and put up links to make it easy to understand. Keep in mind, my lack of enthusiasm about the Lopez is in no way a reflection of my love for my country. But I also would like to understand more about the competitors worldwide. I only know so many countries so I will search out the teams I can think of and post their videos, if they have any, but I will also keep my eye out for a list of country participants.

Starting Point: The Schedule

http://www.london2012.com/games/sport-competition-schedules/olympic-sport-competition-schedule.php?sport=Taekwondo&venue=&date=&Search.x=41&Search.y=14