Forms are not martial arts

 

In this article, I will be using the general term ‘forms’ to refer to the solo practice of martial arts since I feel that these views apply to all martial arts not just Taekwondo.

 

For those of you who have read other articles on this blog, the title of this article may surprise you. After all, a good deal of the articles I have written are concerned with how to apply the movements from the Taekwondo patterns to self-defence situations. However, I feel that the true practice and meaning of forms in the martial arts has been lost somewhere along the way.

 

When I was younger, I asked the question “how many forms do I need to know to be considered good?” Well, of course, the answer is ‘none’. Many effective styles have little or no form practice within their system. In fact, even the systems with a form based syllabus have changed over the years. Traditionally, students were not required to know the number of forms that schools would have on their curriculum these days. Normally they would specialise in a small handful of forms and work on the techniques contained within them. Knowing a complete system was only for the teachers and masters of a particular style.

 

The practice of learning one form, pattern, or kata per belt level is relatively new. Possibly a product of when traditional martial arts became less about fighting and self-defence and more about tradition and culture.  It no longer mattered if a student really understood the movements within the forms of their style, students just had to be able to perform them in solo practice to a certain standard, usually competition based. Adhering everyone to the competition standard brings its own positives and negatives that is for another article.

 

With this focus on forms, came styles and teachers that specialised forms. The teacher would push the idea that forms make martial artists, that martial artists of old created a  countless number of forms, and of course the existence and importance of ‘secret forms’. In my training, I have come across styles with huge curricula that involve as many as 64 forms with some supplementary forms on top of that! I know of one famous teacher of Chinese styles from America who makes an annual trip to Beijing to learn more forms from his teacher so that he has more material for his students. Within taekwondo, I know of one group whose curriculum contains all of the KKW poomse, the ITF patterns, and some weapons forms. 

 

There are a lot more examples like this and of course, for the most part, after a certain point knowing yet another form becomes pointless for the students and it becomes clear that the teachers don’t have anything else to teach. Here I feel it is less about training students and more about entertaining them. Giving them something new and shiny to practice instead of working to improve what they already know, lest students become bored and leave.

 

The over emphasis on forms has also increased the popularity of sport forms. All tradition or martial effectiveness is forgotten in favour of flashy movements, intense facial expressions, and pointless screaming.

 

So should we abandon solo forms practice? Certainly not, but like all other arts of the martial arts we should approach it with a practical mindset. Not just from a self-defence point of view but from a martial art point of view as well. All traditional forms, no matter what style, should be studied deeply, including body movement, power generation, accurate stances, and of course application of the movements. They should not be used to pad a curriculum and keep students entertained.

Yul Gok

It is has been a while since I took a look at a pattern in full so this month I will be breaking down some of the movement in Yuk Gok. Quite a long post this month due to the number of things covered in the pattern.

 

Similar to Do San, Yul Gok seems to be largely overlooked by TKD practitioners. The main reason for this seems to be the number of ‘soft’ movements contained within the pattern. However, within Yul Gok there are a lot of very interesting movements that are worth deeper study. Studying this pattern in depth also makes us ask some very important questions about pattern practice and pattern application.

Sitting stance punch
The opening movement of the pattern brings up one of the issues of pattern practice. This would be pattern movements changing over time. When I learnt Yul Gok, many years ago I was taught that the foot moves out in a slight arc rather than straight out to the side into a sitting stance.
An example of this can be seen in this instructional video with GM Donato Nardizzi

In other recent videos and speaking to current practitioners It seems that this arc movement has been removed. Such a small detail may not make much of a difference in the competitive arena, especially if everyone is using the updated movement. However, it makes a large different to the application.

If you move the foot out in an arc, I see this movement being applied as a reap. Shifting your left foot (in the case of the first movement) behind the leg of the attacker while grabbing and twisting their shoulders with the slow motion punch movement of the hands. This movement may not be enough to take down the opponent but will hopefully be enough to take their balance. The following double punch is there to continue the counter attack.

Inner forearm block, front kick double punch.

The next movement, although labelled as a block, I like to apply as a collar or clothing grab. Again we see the raised crossed hands preparation, similar to Do San we can see this as a natural defence to an attack. We then work to secure the opponents attacking hand but instead of going for a hair grab, as in Do San, we try to grab the shirt of the attacker. When we have hold of these points we are in a better position to control our opponent and counter. This goes in to the 3 C’s of tactical taekwondo. Our counter in this point is a kick to the groin and a double punch.

Palm hooking Block

Again, this movement brings up a couple of questions. It is seen in mainstream application as grabbing someone’s wrist from a punch. There is a very good reason why it is seen like this. However, if we look at other applications, when we are always grabbing the arms and wrist of the opponent, then why do we need a movement specially for this? Grabbing, holding and hitting is a basic skill of the self defence side of TKD one that is present in many possible applications and never done in the large movements that are presented here.

In my take on this pattern, this is actually an anti-grappling technique. If some one grabs you by the arm or wrist the twisting movement here will help release your opponent’s grip and reverse the situation and grip them. The crossed hands position here is to assist the release and grab with your other hand. This in turn clears the way a punch as seen in the pattern sequence

Bending ready stance

This is by far one of my favourite applications in the pattern and maybe in all patterns. I think the issue here is the name, ‘ready stance’. It gives the impression that is it a stance you adopt in preparation for something. I even heard one 3rd degree putting forward the idea that it is a stance used for intimidation. Clearly it is not an intimidating stance at all, in fact it is a stance that would invite attack from any possible opponent.

In my opinion bending ready stance comes under taekwondo grappling. The hands in in the forearm guarding block position, which I had written about before as being a stand up grappling position. With this we add the leg position and to me it looks like your front leg is attacking the knee of your opponent’s front leg (left on left as in the pattern). The following side kick can be applied low and attack the rear leg of the opponent. These are down in order to unbalance the opponent. You then locate their heads with your forward hand and execute an elbow strike. This is easily on target as all you are doing is aiming for your own palm.

Twin knife hand block

This again falls into the grappling side of taekwondo. I apply this when the opponent has hold of you in the traditional grappling grip, back of the neck/collar and triceps/upper arm. The movement is to separate the arms of the opponent and create space. This allows you to perform the next movement as a unbalance/take down

The Jump
Jumping in the patterns remains one of those topics that people argue about. In the mainstream, it is seem as jumping over something to attack. In self defence, if there is an object in the path of a would-be attacker, you would generally want to keep it there. Not try to remove the obstacle yourself.

Others say that jumps are just for performance basis. In some cases I can see where they are coming from.
In the case of Yul Gok, right now I would say that the movement it there to make the movement (back fist or clothesline) more powerful. I realise that for some of you this will seem a woefully inadequate explanation, but it is where I am in my study for the time being.

Double forearm block

I have written about the double forearm block before, but mainly in the patterns that come after Yul Gok. In this pattern I actually think there is no real application here.
I have a couple of reasons for this.
If it is a defensive movement, whether the mainstream block or the application I promotion this blog, you need a movement after it. You cannot just block and expect that the attacker will give up. In the pattern that is exactly what happens, we block left and right and finish.

The other reason I think that there is no real application to this movement and it is more for performance or a philosophy, is that ending patterns with a left right movement is very common, and of these instances ending with a block left and right is also very common. If something is repeated so much through all pattern practice, then I would suggest there is maybe a reason other than self defence that is it there. The same goes for the crossed hand position, although there are some places where it can be applied, there are other instances where the crossed hands position can make an application more difficult.

So a rather long post this month, but I think the pattern Yul Gok is deserving of a lot more attention that many people give it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it thought proving at least.

Thoughts on joint locks

As I mentioned in ‘the skill trap” article in many martial arts classes wrist and other small joint locks are very common. I believe this is mainly because of the following reasons:

– They are sometimes difficult to do so give the idea of skill
– They cause pain but not injury, so it gives the feeling of effectiveness
– They look cool
– They are a lot of locks and variations of locks so they can pad out a curriculum

As a purely academic martial arts pursuit joints locks are an interesting area of research. When dealing with self-defence, it is maybe something we should be aware of but maybe not something that should make up a large part of your practice or strategy.

According to Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate where many of the movements in ITF Taekwondo patterns come from:

“One must always keep in mind that since the essence of karate is found in seeking to ed the confrontation in with every single thrust or kick, and one should never be grasped or grapple with an opponent. One must be careful not to be defeated through concern with throwing an opponent or applying a joint punishment hold”

This is a sentiment that is echoed by many of today’s self defence experts.

I myself have hand many conversations with students and teachers of other styles about the effectiveness and use of joint locks. In my earlier years in the martial arts I was keen to learn as much I could about these methods, mainly for the reasons stated above. In my later years however, I have come to a different understanding as my training has developed.

There are a number of things to be taken into account when studying joint locks

They are not as easy as you think
Locks are great fun to practice with each other, when you are training with a compliant partner or with someone who believes in the system. You give each other a bit of pain, don’t go too far and generally have a good time. It is different when they person doesn’t want to be locked and s intent on punching you.

They are not finishers
I once had had a conversation with a person who was convinced that he could put someone in a lock and keep them there till the police arrived. There are a few things wrong with this.
You don’t know how long the police will take
Over time the attacker can sometimes fight out of a lock
The police may not arrive before the attacker’s friends or someone who thinks you are the attacker.
Locks (on their own) don’t facilitate escape
One thing about putting a joint lock on someone is that you have to be there to put it on. If your goal is to escape, then a joint lock actively stops you from being able to do that.

There is of course the option of going to the next stage of a joint lock, which is a break. However, it takes a certain mindset to follow through with a break.

Joint locks are a gift
Constantly searching to grasp your opponent limbs and wrap them up, you are going to miss a lot of opportunities to strike and escape. Of course, grasping and locking is part of martial arts as I stated before, but they are a support to the other skills in the martial arts.

Take the opportunity to grab and twist certain parts of your opponent’s body, but don’t just wait for those opportunities to arise. Work on other things till they become available to you

They are context driven
The above may sound like I am against joint locks, however I am actually still in favour of them in a big way. I am in favour of using them in the correct context and understanding their purpose, they are still in my pyramid of skills, but they take up a smaller amount are laid on the foundational striking and grappling skills.

They can be use to subdue an opponent in certain circumstances, especially one that you don’t want to, or can’t punch and kick. They can be used to open up striking areas or setting up other larger techniques. However, like most things, if you misunderstand their use they will not be as effective as you want them to be.

Overall, joint locks should be a part of what you do, there are after all some movements in the patterns which facilitate joint manipulations. They are fun and worthy of investigation. In my ext article I will be breaking down another one of the ITF patterns

My Journey – part two

This is a continuation of the previous article detailing my journey through the martial arts, if you would like to read part one you can find it here

 

Krav Maga

After leaving Aikido I floated for a few months until I was invited to try Krav Maga by one of the Aikido black belts I had trained with. I was a bit reluctant at first, I wasn’t at all sure about going for what could be seen as a modern art after spending so much time in the traditional styles.

After a bit of persuasion I went along to see what it was like. I loved it. Running about hitting pads, sweating, and breathing heavy was like returning home. The simplicity of Krav and the training methods makes for a very effective self-defense system.

The classes had just newly opened were quite small, in fact I was in the first group of 8 people to train Krav in Beijing. Of the 8, every single one of us had a black belt in one style or another, this made the training really hard and a lot of fun. We all knew how to train and whether it was pad work or contact drills we were all pushing each other as hard as we could.

One thing that happened while I was Krav was I realized how much extra power I had from learning to relax in the Chinese styles. I was no longer forcing the punches and feeling tight in my body but letting fly with loose strikes. Due to this, the standing and walking practices I learnt from Zhu Baozhen remain part of my practice to this day.

Krav Maga grew rapidly in Beijing, class numbers rose from 8, to around 20, to over 30 on some evenings. With the increase in students more instructors were needed, I happily put myself forward for the instructor’s course. Different from other martial arts, in Krav you don’t become an instructor after time served. You go through a very demanding course. In my case it was 2, two-week long courses. During the course you train every day from about 8 am – 6 pm, constantly running through the technical aspects of the art and the teaching methodology. Each course ends in a day long exam.

The standard expected from instructors is very high and the course is both mentally and physically demanding. It was a great experience, really pushing yourself to your limits each day.

I passed the course and returned to the gym to face the new challenge of being an instructor. I took my turn running regular classes, women’s self-defense classes, and special seminars. I was very happy to be working in the industry.

Balintawak

From time to time I go online to find out what is happening within the martial arts in my local area. It was through a casual internet search that I found my final teacher Mr. Frank Olea. He had posted an ad on one of the local forums that simply said ‘weapons training’. Being a Krav trainer, which involves a number of different weapons, this sounded something that would suit me.

I contacted him and set up meeting. It turned out he was living very close to me and was a Master level teacher in the Filipino art of Balintawak.

Balintawak is a single stick system of Eskrima, traditionally taught one on one from instructor to student. The instructor teaching the student through giving them increasingly complex and rapid attacks for the student to deal with.

That was how the training was, first defending against simple attacks, then attacks where my weapon hand was held, then defending against disarm attempts and so on. All of this was done training outside, and because of our individual work schedules, in the dark.

Frank would continually push me to understand the weapon movements especially the knife which he specialized in. He was also always pushing himself and trying to develop his art, the benefit of having a younger master as a teacher. He would occasionally come up with a new attack combination or angle that I had to defend against, either with a stick or a training knife. One night he came down from his apartment and announced that for the next few weeks we would be training with live blades.

For me Balintawak brought a number of things together the methods of Balintawak complement the Chinese systems very well due to the close in nature of the style. It also blends quite well with some of the Krav techniques.

Frank granted me permission to teach his style shortly before I left Beijing.

Currently, I live in Jakarta where I teach both Krav Maga and Balintawak with some Tactical Taekwondo thrown in. I choose not to study any additional  styles right now. I use my time in this country to consolidate what I have learnt from all the teachers I have known.

As I said in the about section I try to bring everything I learn back to the original TKD patterns that I learnt. For example, my interpretation of the opening movement of Do San was inspired by the attention paid to natural movements in Krav Maga techniques, and my application of Sonkal Daebi Makgi was taken from the chicken form from Xingyiquan and some of the Bagua entering movements.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey through the martial arts. I don’t know where my path will lead me next, but I know I will be training and studying martial arts for as long as I am able.

San Makgi – The most misunderstood ‘block’ in Taekwondo

I mentioned in a previous article that Do San was the most hated pattern in TKD, but how it contains some very strong applications. The same can be said for san makgi. When teaching Toi Gye, it is difficult for new students and teachers to go through the section of the pattern with 6 san makgi in a row with a straight face. The movement looks so odd and unmartial, I have heard it called may things, cowboy walking, space invaders, this silly move, and many more things.

The mainstream application, to defend a kick or a punch, has a lot of common flaws in it, and generally leads instructors and practitioners to view it as an exercise to work the hips.

In an effort to give it some martial validity, some teachers present this as a forearm strike with a block and even a kick added. I have a few issues with this particular interpretation.

Firstly, you are changing the basis of the movement. When executing san makgi we are driving both arms,  and one leg with the hips at the same time, of you change it in to 3 movements, a kick, block and forearm strike then you are changing the way that the movement is being performed. You can read more about my views on movement variance here.

Also, why a forearm strike, it seems a fairly impractical attacking weapon, when a knife hand would be much more effective and in keeping with the attacking tools that are represented throughout the patterns.

Even the kick seems like a little bit of an afterthought when I have seen this being demonstrated it always seems cramped and uncomfortable for the person demonstrating the kick. Techniques, as a rule, should never looked forced or uncomfortable.

So, my take on san magki is a little different.

Going back to a recent article I wrote on stances and applications, I suggested that sitting stance is mainly used in tripping and throwing movements. This is exactly what I think san makgi is.

What is seen as a kick, is actually stepping over/round the opponents leg. We are aiming to have our ‘kicking leg’ land either in front or behind our opponent lead leg, depending on the orientation of the opponent, either facing towards (leg behind) or away from you (leg in front). This puts us in the position to throw our opponent over our leg.

Our arms are going to be used to pull the opponent over our lead leg. The back hand on the opponents arm and the front hand on the body. Again it depends whether the opponent is facing you or facing away from as t where your hands are.

The hip motion brings the movement of the hands and feet together at one time, planting the foot as we pull our opponent over

Of course to do this we have to gain position, this s the reason for the repeated movements in the Toi Gye pattern., as the opponent moves back to avoid the first attempt then  they open themselves for the second, front to back, or vice versa

 

To complete the sequence we have another misunderstood move, doo palmok miro makgi. If we use the application above, then the purpose of the ending block is easier to understand.

If the trip is done to the front, then there is a danger of it not having much effect, more just unbalancing the opponent. They can easily just get back up and continue their attack. Doo palmok miro makgi helps us to maintain the dominant position by wrapping the arm and helping us locate the head of the opponent.

With this application of the technique I believe that there is less changing of the movement from thr way it is presented in the patterns. Making it a stronger use for the movement rather than changing everything to make it fit the block punch system. As with everything else, the techniques cannot be taken on surface understanding, they have to be trained and adapted to the person and situation only then can it be included into a personal system

I realise that explanations of techniques are sometime difficult reading. I am hoping soon to make some video demonstrating the various application that I have discussed here.

Until then I hope that you enjoy my discussion on the various techniques.

 

Happy Training!!!

 

 

Grappling Revisited

In the previous post on grappling I looked some of of the concepts and training that I believe make up TKD grappling.

In this article would like to go through some specific examples of course it is always difficult to describe a technique in text, however, I hope that you will be able to understand

First the basics

Forearm guarding block

As stated in the previous article in the patterns forearm guarding block represents a basic stand up grappling position. We need to get used to getting into and moving in this position before we can start looking at the techniques

When we are ready we can start looking to see where it appears in our patterns, as always I am referring to ITF patterns here. I have linked to each pattern in the headings so if you are not so familiar with them you can check the movement i am referring to

 

Won Hyo and Yul Gok

So the first pattern that contains forearm guarding block is Won Hyo, but in my mind not where you think. Sure it is the final 2 movements of the pattern but I tend to disregard these as a stylistic. The forearm guarding block in Won Hyo are in the bending ready stances.

For me the top half of bending ready stance is a forearm guarding block, which put the stance in grappling rather than the preparation for a kick or a stance to intimidate your opponent as I heard one black belt claim.

Here as we are grabbing and holding the opponent, we are using our front leg to attack the opponent’s legs either catching behind the knee of their front leg or siding kicking the back knee, obviously for this we are kicking much lower.

We can see an similar expression of this in Yul Gok when we take advantage of the unbalanced opponent, locate his head with our front hand before delivering an elbow with our back hand.

From there we can look at Jhoong Gun.

Jhoong Gun

He we have another very misunderstood movement in the form of pressing block, it is sometimes seen as a double block or as a leg break. My personal interpretation come from using the guarding block as a lead in.

From the grapple position our opponent I burying their head, either to avoid punches and head butts or because the defender is pulling it down. Another possibility is that the opponent is attempting to grab the defenders legs. In either case we are pushing the opponents head down without back hand and lifting their shoulder without front hand sort of like an underhook. We slide into a low stance to give us better grounding for this.

The final move of the sequence shows us moving out form the line of attack while locking the arm and head. Form there we have a number of options.

Choong Moo

Finally we are going to look at Choong Moo, here we have one of the more skilled uses of forearm guarding block. From the block, we are going to turn on our front foot and perform a low knife hand block.

My take on this movement is a hip throw or cross buttocks throw. As we enter the grapple, our front hand slips from the collar to under the arm of our opponent, as we turn we load the opponent on to our hips and throw them over as represented by the hand position of the low knife hand block.

 

Ok so there we have a slightly more in depth look at the grappling application coming specifically from forearms guarding block. I would encourage anyone interested in these to look deeply into the skills and training needed to be comfortable with these techniques, from getting used to being close in and grabbing your training partners, to the necessary break falls.

Of course, if there are grappling application in the patterns, somewhere there is also anti grappling applications. However, I will keep that for another article

Thoughts on Knife Defense

Recently on my YouTube feed I saw this:

Silla Knife Pattern

I have to admit that I had no idea that this form existed but with a little research it seems to have been around for many years. I have my own ideas about the pattern and the techniques included within. However, in this article I am going to focus more on knife defense.

I am not sure if there is a more controversial topic in the martial arts beyond knife defense. Many different systems have different ideas on what should be done, from simple tactics to having large chunks of the syllabus devoted to knife and blade defense.

There is really so much to write on this subject that for now I am just going to write some of my thoughts on knife defense.

 

Can you defend yourself against a knife?

This question is often posed by students and instructors alike. In my mind, it is a totally worthless question. Whether we think it is possible or not, it is something we may have to deal with. We shouldn’t make the issue academic but have a realistic look at what options we have in that situation.

 

You will be at a huge disadvatnage

Following on from the initial question, we have to be very realistic about our chances, you will likely get injured, possibly badly if you opponent has a knife. I was trying to explain this to one of my students the other day and he was surprised that I wasn’t telling him that the techniques we were discussing were full proof.

If you are taking what you do seriously you need to realistic about you chances in different situations, lest you teach you students that they are able to handle any situation with a low block and spinning back kick.

We can’t rely on attackers or criminals being clumsy and stupid, just to make ourselves feel better and add validity to any techniques or strategies we may want to teach. If you know that someone has a knife, and if you have another option, don’t engage in physical self-defense with that person.

As an additional, resorting to physical self-defense should always be our last option

 

You won’t know there is a knife

To follow on from the previous point of ‘if you know the person has a knife’ we need to realize that most time we won’t be aware the other person has a weapon.

Generally, unless you are being threatened, people don’t wave their weapons about. They don’t want other people to know what they are carrying, they are not interested in giving you a warning so that you can test your martial techniques.

 

Also in many countries carrying a knife for no reason is illegal, even if it isn’t likely displaying blades about your body would attract unwanted attention from the police.

The first you know about a knife is usually when you are being cut or maybe, if you are lucky enough, when the person is reaching for it.  It won’t be presented from 8 feet away.

 

The attacks won’t be telegraphed

Again, following on from the previous point, knife attacks are going to be close ranged, they are not going to be presented from a distance that gives you lots of time to adjust yourself to a knife attack.

Things like, check if the knife is double edged, look at the grip that is being used, check the style of knife and so on are all impossible.

The only time that you will see the knife at any sort of distance will be if there is a knife threat, in which case you should be active. Not waiting for any sort of attack

Don’t try to disarm

Disarms are cool, they look great and are a real mark of ‘skill’. However, there are extremely dangerous and difficult to pull off. Especially the way a lot of systems present them as a neat step to the side, crank the wrist and wayhey you have the knife.

The frantic aggressive movement of the knife and the cost involved if you fail make this a high risk technique.

The best disarm is to knock out or otherwise incapacitate your attacker, not go chasing his knife.

Don’t try to have a knife sub-system

As well as having held a black belt in TKD, I am also an instructor in Krav maga and Balintawak Eskrima. One of the things that these 2 systems have in common is the empty hand and knife defences are very closely linked. There is no need to completely change your movement and tactics when dealing with a knife. If we take the previous points in to account then this can only be a good thing.

Spar/drill with weapons often

As with everything, the best way to find out what works is o train live. This involves:

Gentle sparring with a dummy knife

Introducing the knife unexpectedly in to a sparring situation

Situation and pressure drill involving knives.

 

When these things are introduced into your training you will find that you and your students’ attitude to knife defense may change a lot.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Like I said knife defense is a very big topic and one that I hope to revisit in later articles. But for now these are my main thoughts on the subject

Stances and applications

When a new student starts in a martial arts class they tend to focus on what their hands are doing. This is maybe linked to how me move in everyday life, we do more with our hands that we do with the rest of our body.

I was no different, but as I have continued to study the martial arts my focus has been taken away from what my hands are doing and more in to the hips and feet. This has also affected my teaching so that I now tend to teach a lot more stances and footwork than I used to. This has also shown that a large number of new students are disconnected with their bodies. This may have always been true in the martial arts or maybe it has become more of an issue with the amount of sitting that people do these days.

In a lot of TKD training that I have had been a part of, the stances were not really broken down. There was a lot of focus on footwork in a sparring sense but not in the traditional application of the patterns. Students are generally taught the dimensions and weight distribution of the stances but not the purpose so much.

Here I am going to break down 3 of the most common stance in the TKD curriculum, their uses and how they can sometimes hold the key to applications

 

‘L’ stance

This is largely a defensive stance, our weight on the back leg shows that we haven’t really committed to anything yet. We are finding a way in often using knifehand guarding block to clear and secure limbs. Our weight is lesser on our front foot to allow weight shifting forward when the time comes.

In forearms guarding block, we keep our weight back to help prevent being thrown and to better use the front foot to kick or trip our attacker at close range.

So we can maybe suggest that all movements in an ‘L’ stance are not completely aggressive in nature. For example are the punches in Hwa Rang really punches?

 

Walking stance

The most common stance we have and opposite of ‘L’ stance, walking stance is an aggressive committed stance. Any movement done in this stance even if is labeled a block should be seen as forceful. We are moving our body weight into our opponent. Most commonly in punching we can see this but it is equally true for double forearm block, even though it is called a block the nature of the stance that is it performed in changes the application quite dramatically. I discuss this more here

 

As you can see the difference in the application is more connected to the weight distribution than to anything else. So it should be studied in depth. The standard stances are not there to be copied exactly but to give access to this concept of weight back and weight forward.

 

Sitting stance

To my mind sitting stance is the most misunderstood of the basic stances. Often it is used as a strength exercise than a fighting stance. Often we see student being asked to assume this stance for a period of time to increase strength. However, when we see it isn’t the forms it is of a very different purpose. Certainly while in the idle of a fight is not the time to start strengthen your legs but dropping in to a sitting stance.

 

I think the demotion of the sitting stance to a strength exercise is mainly due to it’s static nature. With this particular stance we are pretty much rooted to the spot, which in a competitive TKD environment it is exactly what we don’t want.

In my mind sitting stance is a stance based on throwing, tripping and sweeping applications. These are times when we may want to have a stronger and maybe even a bit of a lower stance. If we look at the opening for Yul Gok, W-shaped block from Toi-Gye, and scooping block in Gae Baek, they can all be applied in tripping, throwing, or controlling the opponent. Not that these movements are exclusively for sitting stance, there are throwing application for many stances. However, sitting stance is particularly suited to the purpose.

 

So there you have the three basics stances as I see them. So what about the other stances? Well for a good deal of the time they are variations on the basic three, for example low stance, fixed stance, or rear foot stance can all be seen as variants of either walking stance or ‘L’ stance therefore the applications can be seen in the same broad terms i.e. defensive or aggressive.

 

For me, viewing the application from a stance perspective shed new light on some of the movements that I had been struggling with. I hope it does the same for you.

Doo Palmok Makgi – The power move

When I was coming up the ranks in Taekwondo, I got to blue belt and I was introduced to the ‘most powerful block in the Taekwondo syllabus – Doo palmok Makgi, or double forearm block. First appearing in the pattern Jhoon Gun it quite rightly deserves the title as most powerful block. All of our energy is being thrown in one direction, there is no reaction hand to balance the force. Unfortunately that is usually where the understanding of this block stops. The application is very similar to all other block except that the attack may be stronger, a kick for example, strong attack means a stronger block is needed sort of idea.

 

So, I am going to lay out my own interpretation of this ‘block’ as I see it in applied taekwondo. However, before we look at the application we need to first look at the principle of ‘structure’. To explain the whole concept here would take too long but basically, if you have a good structure you have all of your balance and all of your power, if you have a poor structure then your balance and power diminishes. Some things that contribute to a solid structure are:

 

• Vertical spine, curved a little forward
• Stance not too narrow or long
• Major joints stacked so they can work together

 

There are a lot more things that go to make up a structure but I am sure you get the idea by now. All of the points are covered in stance training but I find people have a habit to concentrate too much on the feet when we start discussing stance.

.If you want to see the importance of stance and structure, try to work the heavy bag with a stone in your shoe. You will quickly find that your  body shape will have an effect one everything you do. You movements will be awkward and you won’t be able to punch, kick or move as you want to. This is exactly like the application of Doo Palmok Makgi

As mentioned before doble forearm block is apwerful move, it is meant o distrupt the opponents balance and alignment to open them for throws and takedowns. I can bee seen as from the simlair point of view as sonkal daebi makgi, in the way that they are both techniques used to set an opponent up for attacks

If we take Kwang Gae as an example, your opponent may have their hands up either in a sort of guard or attack, you perform doo palmok makgi,  your (in this case) right forearm smashing across the neck and arms of the opponent, your right leg fits steps behind your opponents lead leg. This is the set up (or connect in the 3 C’s of Tactical Taekwondo), if done well your opponents structure has been compromised, their weight distribution is off and they are open for a follow up

 

As you slide back, you left arm clears and pull the opponents right arm and your lead leg catches and drags your opponent’s lead leg. This really takes your opponent off balance, extending their stance and putting them in a very vulnerable position.

 

The final move can be seen as a fingertip strike to the throat, or as using your forearm to the opponents neck to take them down.

 

I chose Kwang Gae, because I feel the application here is very nicely laid out, however if you look at double forearm block  in other patterns you can see a similar use for it being a set up for a throw or take down.

 

 

Again when I am looking through these application I am surprised and excited at how complete an art Taekwondo actually is, covering many aspects of stand-up fighting.

In the next article, I am going to be looking at TKD on the ground.

The 3 types of Taekwondo

Occasionally when I am teaching I will get in to discussion with people about tactics. A lot of students have a very misguided idea about what tactics they will be able to use in a self-defense situation. I catch students using in and out footwork and setting up big shots with their jab. All with the idea that they will have time and space to employ such methods. These methods are of course much better suited for competitive arena. There we are matched with someone of equal size and ability and try to win a competition under a set of rules.

 

To help clarify the differences we can talk about there being 3 types of TKD.The three types being, Sport, demonstration and Practical. By identifying these and their differences we can better prepare ourselves for the kind of situation we are likely to find ourselves in.

 

Sport TKD

This is the most common type of TKD. The sparring take place on a matted area with referees and judges.  We want to make our strikes as clear as possible to catch the referee’s attention and a higher number of points are awarded for more flamboyant techniques.

The situation is very controlled so the number of techniques that are used can be limited. TKD fighters tend to try to fight side on to each other so that they can easily use side and turning kicks, this side on or bladed stance also creates a smaller target for our opponent to score points on.

The tactics employed in a ring fight would include set ups, fake outs, drawing the opponent in, and general ring craft. Distance, timing, bobbing and weaving are all very important.

 

Demonstration TKD

In my experience I would put this as the second most common type of TKD. The purpose is to make TKD entertaining to onlookers who may or may not have martial arts experience. High kicks and double jumping kicks are the order of the day. We are may be not looking for a bobbing a weaving chess game but something that is visually exciting and makes people want to give TKD a try.

 

In Demonstration TKD, we want to display the particular characteristics of our art as best as we can. This can require a high degree of strength, flexibility and technical ability. We want to get everything right first time. Nothing is worse in a demonstration than missing a technique and having to do it again, especially if it is board or brick breaking.

 

Practical TKD

I struggled a little to find a name of this type of TKD, i could have gone with tactical TKD or applied TKD, I settled on practical as it has a direct application to one’s life, as opposed to an indirect application that all training can have orphysical fitness, lowering bloody pressure, dealing with stress etc. I really wanted to avoid any terms like street TKD.

 

The purpose of this type of TKD is to be used in live uncontrolled situations. We can’t depend on ourselves being prepared or having time to get in to a stance. All ranges will be viable and should be trained in attack and defense. We have to train the self-defense mind set. The movements in the patterns should be studied deeply as to the application. We need to train for short range power and explosive strikes.

If needed largely the purpose of the physical movements employed in practical TKD will be to damage a person as quickly as possible. With a view to that the real purpose of practical TKD would be not to use TKD at all

 

So there in very broad terms are the distinct types of TKD, all very different and all under the umbrella of Taekwondo. However, they all need a different training strategy, you can’t train for demonstration and expect to be successful in the sparring arena. Equally you can’t train for sport application and expect to be able to use you TKD for self defence.

 

At this point there may be people who want to point out the overlap between the types of TKD. Despite what you may think there is actually very little, in fact the only thing they have in common is that you are making contact with another person. You’d be as well trying to make connection between football and rugby, they are both team ball sports that take play on a pitch, but no one would train for rugby and expect to be successful in a football match.

You can of course train for more than one, you don’t need to specialize completely, and there are a lot of benefits to be reaped from each type of training. You do, however, need to be very clear on which type you are training and what your training goals are and train accordingly.

 

Through identifying the differences in the types of training and modifying our practice accordingly we will be far more successful in TKD as a whole