Yop Joomak, the forgotten fist of Taekwondo

Maybe it is because of the sporting application of Taekwondo but it seems that over the years the applied techniques of Taekwondo have become less and less. The full complement of techniques is more than 3,000 yet today in most dojangs we would likely see no more than 7 being practiced

Of course this is an example of people training what they need to train. The 7 techniques that are practiced is enough to see you through your competitive career. When you change the focus of your training however, you shouldn’t work from the same point thinking that the handful to techniques that saw you safe in the ring are equally applicable in self defence.

Yop joomak or hammer fist is one technique that has been left behind. Rarely trained in most dojangs and largely absent in the patterns it is maybe seen as a very low skill technique and one not worth practicing. I have discussed the importance of training low skill techniques before, but I feel hammer fist deserves a little more attention that it currently gets.

For a start it is a very safe strike. Whereas with a straight punch you run the risk of damaging your knuckles. With a hammer fist you can strike full force with little or no damage to you hand.

It is also a very versatile strike. The number of directions and angle that you can strike with a hammer fist far outnumber most other strikes, and in most of these direction you can actually create more power with the hammer fist than other attacking tools.

As well as being a ‘low skill’ technique another possible reason why yop joomak is over looked is it is a softer attacking tool, whereas this is the reason it could be regarded as a safe strike, it may also create doubt in the practitioners mind that it will do much damage. This is true, but we have to also look at how many other techniques we practice that are not knock out shots. We cannot give ourselves over too much to the idea of ‘one hit, one kill’ this leads to a flaw in our training and our thinking. We should always aim to hit hard but we should never think that one strike will do the job. We should be attacking our opponent with a flurry of hard strikes then looking for an exit. Not relying on one big strike and then waiting to see what happens.

My preferred application of the hammer fist is to use it in combination with other strikes. For example, if someone is in front of me and acting in a threatening manner, my hands naturally come up to either try to calm the person down or control the space between myself and the other person. From the ‘hands up’ position a good option is to strike to the nose of the opponent with the hammer fist. After this initial strike, we can then following up with whatever is appropriate. A similar strategy also applies if the person is off to the side or even behind you.

In short then, hammer fist is a safe, versatile, and powerful strike. It can be easily applied as an opening strike in many different situations and defiantly not over looked by someone wanting to develop the practical side of their art.

Working from the patterns

Very often, when people are teaching pattern applications they teach them as isolated techniques. No matter what the application is good or bad, things like, timing, distancing, positioning are very often left out. We would never do this when practicing for a sparring competition, for every sparring technique we have we are aware of where it fits into the sparring dynamic. Similarly then we have to have this for all our pattern applications.

To talk about how to draw this out of the patterns I would like to use the technique ‘gorburyo sogi’ or bending ready stance. For me this is not the preparation for a side kick, but an attack to the legs while grappling. If we look at the pattern Yul Gok, for example during a grapple we attack the legs of our opponent by sharply bringing our front foot first to the back of our opponents front knee, and then to the knee of his back leg. To do this we efficiently we need to be in L-stance. As our opponents balance is disrupted we shift our hand from the grapple to control the head and then finish with and elbow strike to the face. To put body weight in to the technique we shift to walking stance.

Again, if we were just to practice that application, we may gain an understanding of the pattern but not the skill to actually apply anything. So first of all we have to bring thing back and look at the situation we are finding ourselves in. in this case it is grappling, so with a training partner we take up the classic grappling position and just practice moving them around the floor. As we improve in this skill the movement can be more aggressive till we are actually trying to unbalance one another, switch grips, throw in basic attacks, etc.

When we are comfortable with that we can start adding thing in from the patterns. In this case bending ready stance. There are a lot of things we have to work out, does it work when I am being pushed, or pulled? What foot position do I need to have? Where should my centre of gravity be? And so on. Through practice we can answer these questions and then make adjustments to our movements. Later we can also make adjustments to the techniques themselves to better fit your own personal style.

This process should be done with all the applications, starting with the range or the situation it is being applied in, working to get comfortable at that range with basic movements, applying the techniques from the patterns, finally making adjustments

I think when we get to the last stage we can finally say that we have unlocked an application. As we continue to unlock application we will no longer have a set of isolated techniques but a more complete and integrated system.