It’s comforting to see the Chin Na muddle carry over to my last days of taekwondo. Both my school and myself are done in August. So these are the last, sentimental, days…
Last night in TKD practice my punching, kicking, and forms were spot-on. Not so with our one-steps and self-defense. I really consider BOTH self-defense. The “one-steps” are basically pre-arranged responses to someone attacking you with a punch or kick. Our “self-defense” steps are defenses against grabs of all types (head locks, wrist, etc). Counting both there are 44 that we have to know for 1st dan.
Last night we were teaching new ones to a mid-belt and I was called in to demo and to be the practice dummy. Well I soon discovered that I’m starting to mix them up with the Chin Na that I’m learning!
In fact, at one point I had to laugh and apologize for being so confused!
Out of the 44 I’d say a third are very instinctive for me. Another third take a fair amount of maintenance to keep viable. The last third are unrealistic, over-choreographed, and take LOTS of maintenance to maintain (my personal opinion). Granted, I do think that the last third have value from a hand-eye coordination perspective but still there are times I wonder!
Most attackers will not stand around while you figure out how to get your mind out of vaporlock and execute a technique!
Regardless, something both sabums and my current Kung Fu instructor all say is worth repeating now: When all else fails punch and kick!
~BCP
