A while ago I wrote about stances and how stances can drive the applications. Time time I’d like continue the investigation into stances, and look into 2 heavily criticized stances.
Moa Sogi (close stance)
Her I will be looking at moa sogi that is seen in Jhoong Gun and Toi Gye, not the range of Moa junbi sogi that are seen at the beginning of patterns. This is one stance that people watching the patterns will often pick up on and use a proof that the patterns are ineffective. The close position of the feet certainly would make it seem like not a stance you would want to adopt in any violent encounter.
As with most things in the patterns we have to look a little deeper and past just the stance as an isolated technique. in both of the aforementioned patterns and even in Hwa Rang we move into the stance in the same way. We turn and adopt a position facing 90 degrees to the previous stance. in this we are using moa sogi to out from directly in front of (or behind) our opponent but remain very close.
If you take Jhoong Gun for example, the front foot of the low stance would be out near the opponent, we use that as a guide as to where the opponent would be. If we turn and adopt a walking stance our body would be further away that we want for the next technique, also the turn would be slower. Moa sogi allows us to turn quickly and remain very close to our opponent which is important if we want to keep control. Of course, it is not a stance to stay in for any length of time but merely to gain a better position and to then flow into the next stance.
Kyocha sogi (X-stance)
This is another stance that is often used to demonstrate how impractical the movements in patterns are. Again, the critics are quite correct that you don’t really want to stand with your legs crossed while fighting. However, what they miss is that kyocha sogi is for moving in while maintain control of an opponent.
In this article I am not going to look into the patterns where we jump in to X-stance as this requires further exploration. I will be using Po Eun as an example pattern
If we look at Po Eun for example, if we use what is often seen as a double punch to the side, to grasp an opponent, the next move we need to keep control of the opponent while moving in. If we take the weight off our front foot we rick losing strength and therefore control. We also can’t simply step forward as the control that we have on the opponent prevents that. So instead, we perform an x stance, keeping weight and control on the front leg and driving down with both hands as we close distance. This is sometimes seen as an entry into judo techniques
So again we see here that 2 stances when taken completely out of context are completely useless. However, when we apply then to the close in and grappling nature of violent confrontation their purpose becomes clear. Once we understand these applications we can be free to explore other application with the same principles.
This is a repost of an article that I wrote a few years ago. With many Dojang closed and people finding training difficult I thought it was worth making these points again.
Most schools practice the patterns in the same way. That is putting focus and power into each individual movement. This is an excellent practice in many ways, it builds control of the body, builds technical proficiency, and power. However, the way that we practice patterns also hides a lot of the applications, movements that should flow together or movements that are throws, locks or redirects/parries are obscured by the ‘tick- tock’ way that we move during our practice.
Of course all of the applications can be practiced with a partner once we have found the meaning for the movements, but then that causes a disconnect between pattern practice and application. i.e. the way we move in each are unrelated. I think it is this disconnect why a lot of people see patterns as just an exercise for creating power rather than a practice of fighting techniques, and even look to other styles for self-defence techniques.
Pattern practice doesn’t have to be like that. If you move away from the competition or grading requirements and practice them as at real training tool and more importantly personalise your pattern practice
Firstly, we should all have a good knowledge of the pattern, the usual way of practicing gives us great muscle memory, power and balance, once you have got to the point that you can practice those patterns almost automatically, by that I mean without thinking about the next movement, you can start making the practice more challenging by increasing the tempo. At this point it is important that you take all the knowledge gained from learning the patterns and apply it at a higher speed. This involves finishing each movement; keeping the same concentration of power, and keeping you balance as well as still being technical in stances and target areas. This shouldn’t be used as an excuse just to blast through the patterns without thinking.
Through this practice you will hopefully notice that some parts of the patterns flow together easier than others. Also moving fast will give you a better idea of how the movements look like when used. We then should try to move them forward one more step to expressive practice.
During this practice the only thing we are thinking about is the application of the forms. The practitioner can ‘play’ with the tempo of the movements. Practicing the pattern in short bursts of speed according to the application that, that individual prefers. For example in the pattern Won Hyo, the practitioner may do the first three movements as a quick blast, then the next three, the bending ready stance and side kick could be done individually followed by the knife hand guarding blocks all being one ‘group’
Through this practice the student is gaining an understanding of which movements flow in to each other and which are isolated or beginning of a new group. It doesn’t matter if your interpretation is the same as other students’ but for many forms there is a more logical way of dividing them up.
Following this it is up to the student to go and take that information and practice applying it for this a practice partner is needed, however, by the time we get to the partner stage we should be more used to moving faster and in a more natural way with in the form of the patterns so the application of the pattern should be getting clearer.
There are of course many other ways that patterns could be practiced. If we break away from the competition/ grading idea of trying to do them in a set way without considering what the movements are for. Also this helps us get away from dealing with the movements like each of them are meant to be applied in an isolated fashion. Patterns can also be done slow with maximum concentration and intensity or in a very loose way to practice developing power from your body rather than your arms.
These are just a few ideas. Have fun playing with you patterns
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.
As well as just about every other industry, the internet has changed the way many people look at martial arts. Before when it was something that really only happened behind the closed doors of the local village hall or specialist magazines. Now techniques and training examples are everywhere accessible to anyone at any time. With this accessibility comes the ability to critique techniques, often for no other reason than just to get some attention but sometimes pointing out some valid issues with what is being presented. In this article, I am going to look at some responses to personal protection techniques and where they lack validity.
You don’t need physical protection if you practice verbal de-escalation
This was a comment that was made on one of my articles n the application of Do San. I believe that the commenter had maybe just started looking into verbal de-escalation and had started to believe that it was a cure all to violent situations. Whereas verbal de-escalation is important, there are some instances where attempting to talk someone down is either impractical or inappropriate. For example, someone attacking you with the intention of relieving you of your possessions is one example where you may just have t react, you may not have the time nor the presence of mind to talk the attacker out of what he is doing in which case we need to be able to fall back on some kind of physical skill. Saying that you don’t need such skills is akin to saying that you don’t need to wear a seat belt in a car because you are a good driver.
That wouldn’t work because ……….
Comments that are pointing out small errors in the technique are often very valuable and in the past when receiving such comments it has pushed me to have a look at the issues and try to solve them. Often this would be because you are overlooking one aspect or thinking that their technique is stronger than it actually is. The problem comes from people who will point out mistakes in techniques, but not put their own techniques through the same level of testing.
Again, looking at what I see as the alternative application for the opening Do san. What I see is a hair grab and then a punch, someone mentioned to me that these days many people have short or shaved heads so the technique can be slightly modified to a head or clothing grab.
When I spoke to someone who was more traditionally minded, they commented that I had not considered the person could punch with their free hand or follow up with a kick. First of all the technique does account for all these things, but more importantly, the high outer forearm block also doesn’t account for any of these secondary attacks. This would make the critique a little disingenuous as the purpose is to rubbish the alternative technique rather than have a truly objective look at its effectiveness.
Let’s see if that technique works…
I see this a lot on YouTube usually from martial artists who may have a strong competitive background and thinks that that translates to self-defence. So, they will take a technique from a system and try to replicate it. usually, they will come back and say that the technique doesn’t work and ‘will get you killed’. Again, sometimes this is valid but very often the intent of the presenter is not to genuinely look at the techniques but rather to show them all as ineffective, then to present their own techniques as ‘superior’.
So, the demo will begin and what you have is 2 people, one who knows what the defence will be and knows how to resist and the other who is not practised in the technique. The attempt is usually half-hearted and is made to fail multiple times before both parties sigh and/or laugh at how silly the technique is and resign it to the rubbish pile.
Taking techniques in this way, completely ignoring context and putting them almost in a competitive situation means that the technique will only work if each person allows it to, especially since neither one is well versed in the technique in questions. In the end, these sort of demos are largely pointless and mainly a vehicle to sell other systems.
A quick word on that, if you need to criticize other systems in order for yours to seem valid, then likely it isn’t’.
In conclusion then, techniques should be tested and we should be open to criticism. No one is perfect and no technique covers everything. However, we should be very careful about where the critique comes from and what the ulterior motive of the person giving the critique is. Through this, you will be able to separate what is valid to what is just here to put down what others are doing.
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.
I haven’t posted anything in a while due to being busy. However I do have a few articles in the pipeline. This month I want to look at double punch, and its application
It would be easy to assume that double punch is very common technique in the Taekwondo syllabus. Certainly it is common in both line drills and sparring. However, when we look at the patterns, double punch is not very common at all. In fact up to black belt, I can only count 4 patterns that contain the technique.
My first question when starting to investigate the double punch was, why does it exist at all? Everywhere else through the patterns a single punch in deemed enough to hit an opponent. If it is enough, why have a double punch at all? If is not enough why doesn’t every technique end with a double punch? Also why stop at double punch, why not double knifehand?
There may be an argument that sometimes you need to hit an opponent more than once. This is true but we can’t really build patterns on ‘sometimes’. Trying to account for every possibility in a fight would make patterns unmanageably long and is something best practiced in well constructed sparring. Also the principle of ‘sometimes’ is not reflected in any of the other patterns.
As with other techniques, we have to look at the double punch in context.
Let’s start with Do San. In the pattern we have a wedging block, a front kick, and then the double punch. I have written before about my own interpretation of this movement. However no matter what interpretation you practice, it is likely that the front kick will disrupt the opponents’ balance thus moving his head about. It would be difficult therefore to catch the head with a single punch as it bobs about. Watch any boxing or mma match and you’ll see this to be true.
If we consider this then we can say that the first movement isn’t a punch at all but a movement to relocate secure the head before punching. This is similar to principles that we can see all the way through the patterns. That of grabbing and hitting. Another application would be to grab the head and use the double punch motion to twist the neck.
As an aside this movement is taken almost directly from the karate kata ‘jion’ but instead on a double punch it is a punch, double punch. To me this strengthens the case that they are not all meant to be punches
If we look at Yul Gok, we can see a similar idea. In the opening movement of Yul Gok the foot slides out to form a sitting stance, when I learnt this pattern I was taught that the foot moves in a semi-circle, rather than moving directly sideways. To me this represents a reaping or unbalancing technique, the hands at this point aiding the unbalancing. Again this technique takes the opponent’s head far off the centerline and we need to relocate it in order to deliver the punch, equally we can also look at this as wrenching or twisting the neck.
Similar ideas can be taken from the opening of Hwa Rang, of unbalancing and the relocating the head.
When looking at alternative application, I think we have to be careful not to be over critical with the mainstream applications. Maybe you feel that the way the applications are presented are not all correct, but I don’t think we should assume they are all wrong either. In saying that, I do feel that double punch is one technique that appears simple but has some extra meaning behind it.
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.
A little while ago I received a notification from WordPress that I have been blogging for 5 years, this coincidences with my 50th post. To mark this milestone I am going to write about my own personal journey in the martial arts.
To make it a little easier to read I have divided it into two parts
As I said in the ‘about’ section, I started TKD when I was 16 as a very unfit teenager who could run the length of the hall without turning purple and collapsing. over the years i got better physically but I was never much of a competitor despite winning a few medals over the years. I was always more interested in the application of the movements found in the patterns. I think it is that interest that has led me to study different martial arts.
I am also lucky that I travel with my work quite a lot which has exposed me to a lot of different cultures and teachers.
So here it is… my journey part one
Chinese styles
After achieving black belt in TKD and training in Scotland, Italy and Russia I moved to China. Originally for a year but ended up staying for 15 years. While in China I had the opportunity to train in a number of arts. At first I studied the Chinese internal martial arts, initially under Professor Liu Yuzeng who taught Taiji, Xingyi, and Bagua. It was under him that I discovered how different training in the Chinese martial arts were. Training was done early in the morning and consisted of practicing the movements and forms over and over, we would start with the short explosive movements of Xingyi, then move on to the circular walking of Bagua and then finish with the softer movements of Taiji before closing with qigong. Although I enjoyed the training I think I was too young and inexperienced to really make the most out of it. I had gone from the pad work and sparring of Taekwondo to just movement practice, I often felt frustrated with not fully understanding what the aim of the training was.
Training under Professor Liu gave me a keen interest in Baguazhang, which eventually caused me to move to what could be regarded as the birth place of Bagua, Beijing. It was in Beijing that I met Zhu Baozhen, who I regard as my main teacher of the Chinese styles. Similar to professor Liu, Zhu Laoshi (teacher Zhu) taught all three of the internal arts, however he mainly concentrated on Baguazhang from the Yin Fu lineage. Similar to Professor Liu his practice also consisted of single movements repeated many times and the circle walking forms, but he also included a lot of standing qi gong. In fact for my first class under Zhu Laoshi, all he taught me was the standing practice and walking method specific to his line of Bagua.
Although both Professor Liu and Zhu Laoshi were both highly skilled in their arts and very capable teachers, I feel I was in a better place to learn from Zhu Laoshi. This was both in my understanding of the Chinese arts and also my Chinese language ability.
I spent about 4 years with Zhu Laoshi, then due to circumstance I stopped training under him regularly. Sadly Zhu Laoshi passed away in 2014
Aikido
While training in Bagua I also took up Aikido, this was mainly to get some more partner practice. I had read that Bagua and Aikido were somewhat linked so it seemed logical to try Aikido to supplement my training.
In the beginning I got a lot out of training in Aikido. Our teacher, the only female teacher I have had, was highly technical and appeared to really love the art. Through the Beijing dojo I also had the pleasure of training with Horii Shihan from Japan on a number of occasions
Everyone in the dojo started out really enjoying the training, however over the years our teacher seemed to get progressively more frustrated with her situation. I don’t know if she wasn’t getting the recognition she wanted, wasn’t developing herself as much as she wanted, or if the issue was purely financial. Whatever the reason it started to show in the classes. There was a distinct lack of patience with new students coming in to the dojo and even some of the classes were trained with an atmosphere of displeasure.
In time the dojo was to close, it reopened months later and all the students went back for a while but as the frustration continued the students, including myself, started to fall away. Aikido still leaves me with a sense of unfinished business. One day I still plan to return to the art.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
Tactical Taekwondo 