There are about a half-dozen techniques from my old school that are not covered in my current taekwondo dojang. Bear in mind I’m 15 years separated from the old school. However, I’ve found that 1) Many of the fundamentals came back quickly and 2) Some of the techniques that my old school emphasized suddenly reappeared in my current school, mostly during sparring, etc.
Two techniques that my current school do not cover are the “wheel kick” (sometimes called a whip kick) and the “circular motion block” or circle block. In fact, I’m sure our accrediting body does not emphasize these for second dan and below. For higher ranks I’m not so sure…
Regardless, I find myself gravitating towards both of these techniques and I blame my experiences from 15 years ago. In fact, it’s surprising what one can remember…
First the wheel kick: This one differs from the hook kick in that you do not chamber. Instead you keep your leg straight (or almost straight) and kick in a circular fashion. When executed this way it looks like a wheel that’s turning. I can usually hit with decent power on this one. In addition it occasionally scores because most people expect the standard taekwondo hook kick. However, it is slower so you have to be careful when you use it.
The circle block (see above) is illustrated on p. 74 of Cho’s Tae Kwon Do: Secrets of Korean Karate. The book is a “classic” and springs from tae kwon do’s (or taekwondo’s) classical roots (interesting side-note but this is the first taekwondo book I ever purchased and I still own the copy from 15 years ago). I can’t count the times I’ve been chastised for using this block during sparring. I’m always cautioned that this block will look like a grab to the judges. This may be true but it really works well on most kicks and at the very least it disrupts energy and leaves the attacker slightly off-balance. So, I continue to use it.
The book shows only one way to execute the block. However, you can really use it two different ways: Outside to in or inside to out.
The other nice thing about this block is it’s very easy to turn into a grab.
Given the various styles of taekwondo and what can and cannot be emphasized (or is often not emphasized), I guess this should not surprise me much. Still, sometimes I do wish that taekwondo proper was a bit more standardized…
~BCP
Categories: Opinion · Taekwondo
Tagged: kicks, tae kwon do, Taekwondo
This past Saturday I sat in on an aikido class. Rather than participate in the whole class I was allowed to participate in parts which included warm-ups and learning one technique. Overall the class appears to be very traditional with lots of etiquette being emphasized. After a bunch of kneeling and bowing and various commands in Japanese, the class started with a brief lecture about pacifism and how it relates to the art that Ushieba created. (something tells me that this was for my benefit)
After this the class went into warm-ups and the practice of what I assume are fundamentals. These included:
- Loosening up the the body and back
- Hand flexing
- Falling and rolling
- Simple movement drills
In fact, this video mostly parallels the structure of what I saw.
After that some techniques were demonstrated and practiced. As near as I can tell these ranged from basic to advanced. I was able to find a video of the basic technique (or what I assume is basic):
Video 1
Unfortunately I have no idea what the advanced technique was or how to find it.
I was afforded the opportunity to ask questions so I just had to ask how well aikido works against a punch. To answer this the instructor demonstrated “one of many” techniques:
Punch video 1
Go to 2:21 for the re-direction lesson. While the rest of the video shows a lot of cool techniques these were not taught or explained to me.
Punch video 2
This video shows what I call the punch deflection/strike that was shown to me. This guy show a counter punch to the ribs which was not shown to me. What was shown was the knife edge strike to the nose.
My only beef with my “hands-on” demo is they used a very slow knife-edgey punch/grab. When I was afforded the opportunity to “give it a try” the instructor was able to re-direct/parry my jab but I was able to evade the knife chop to my nose just by using footwork and slipping.
In fairness I saw the defense technique demonstrated several times before throwing a jab. This helped me to formulate a counter to the counter and he did parry my jab. Still, I’m not fully convinced here because; while I think I have a good jab, it’s probably average if compared to others. So I still have wonder how aikido would fair against a solid puncher/kicker.
I had half a mind to see how he’d have faired against a kick but I did not want to push things or offend the instructor so I let that one pass.
Overall impressions:
- A lot of movements mimic an attack by a sword. No surprise here because much of their techniques came from unarmed defense against a sword.
- LOTS of rolling and it was a good workout in itself.
- Felt even more lost than when I visited the chin na class. This mostly because of the etiquette and Japanese commands. However, the techniques are also very different from what I’m accustomed to.
- Much farther removed from boxing, taekwondo, etc., than chin na in my opinion. So, I can see the learning curve here would be much higher.
- I can see I’d have a lot of trouble relaxing and going with the flow here. For example, on the above basic technique I REALLY wanted to plant the guy! However, from what they are doing (i.e. philosophy, technique, etc.) this would be incorrect.
If I had the luxury of money and time I’d probably try a few months of aikido alongside chin na and see if I could adapt. However, I do not. So my plan is to roll with the chin na for a few months and see how it goes.
~BCP
Categories: Martial Arts
Tagged: aikido, Martial Arts
Beers jostle and slosh to the floor. Cigarette smoke clouds the air.
Nine-year-old kids watch with their parents as blood spurts from the opponent’s nose and mouth.
“I teach the same karate that has been taught in Japan for centuries,” Juarez said. “It’s very traditional.”
Dana White, president of the rival Ultimate Fighting Championship, said a number of his fighters could defeat Slice, and Slice’s arrival is hardly “putting MMA’s best foot forward.”
We should be careful about turning to Hollywood for lessons in pedagogy.
The stoppage was a f**king joke, CBS is a joke, Elite XC is joke.
It is my opinion that Bruce Lee, if he lived, would have taken his students back to his beginnings and taught how he knew and not what he knew. And this is what I think about the classical martial arts, whether they be Karate, Taiji, Kung-fu, T.K.D. etc,
That’s a wrap for this week!
~BCP
Categories: Martial Arts · News
Tagged: Martial Arts, News
