Traditional Taekwondo Ramblings

Traditional Taekwondo??

2013-05-16T16:20:00.000+02:00

In this post I would like to delve a little into "tradition" and how we can call Taekwondo traditional.

I practise "Kukki Taekwondo", and the "Kukki" Taekwondo does as its name implies follow the "Kukkiwon syllabus" as outlined in the Kukkiwon Textbook (I am trying to see if anyone will react to my overly use of Kukki and Kukkiwon in one paragraph:p ). Actually I do not usually tell people that I practise "Kukki" Taekwondo when asked about what I do on my free time, I usually refer to it as "Traditional Taekwondo". This is to differntiate "my Taekwondo" from what they might have seen in the Olympics. I too practise the Olympic sparring as it is a great workout, maybe the best way to develop kicking skills against an opponent and it is plain fun to do, but it is just a very small part of my overall system as I define as "Traditional Taekwondo".

I did write a somewhat indepth post on what is traditional taekwondo and you can click the hyperlink if you want to read it, but the main points in how I define it is as follows:

It teaches philosophy/ ethics along its physical techniques
It Practises all 5 different Pillars of Taekwondo
Because it contains the 5 pillars it works within the framework defined as traditional Taekwondo. The end result may look different, and the emphasis on the pillars may vary, but the underlying principles are there.

The five Pillars of Taekwondo is also something I have written extensivly about:

Traditional Taekwondo has all of the above elements in their training, if not then what is being practised is not what I would call "Traditional". Taekwondo has evolved greatly over the years, and the only truly consistant thing about Taekwondo has been "change", but it has always had the same framework, ever since it was "born/ compiled/ etc" in Korea in the 1950s.

The predetermined forms (Hyung, Poomsae, Tul) have been changed and new have replaced the old, but they are still predetermined forms. The excecution of the basics have changed, but they are still basics. The sparring rules have changed and the emphasis has changed on the foot/ hand ratio but it is still sparring. Likewise the Ho Sin Sul has changed from simple to the more complex as more and more people seem to "slap on some Hapkido stuff into their Taekwondo", but it is still regarded as Self defense techniques. So the end result may be very different from Dojang to Dojang and organisation to organisation but the framework is something the Pioneers all agreed upon if we are to take the older publications into consideration.

Some would say that we should keep Taekwondo frozen in time and preserve the art as it was in its infancy in the 1950s, and that any change that is done to the art is a step away from tradition. I will argue that keeping the framework of the Martial Art is enough to call it traditional and I will provide the best example I can find; Christmas. Now everybody who celebrates Chistmas will agree that the Christmas celebration consists of a great deal of Traditions, yet if we turn the clock back say 50 years and compare the regular christmas celebration then and now you will see that the celebration of christmas has evolved a great deal. Some things (the framework) has been kept though and it is that framework that keeps christmas traditional.

Now there is more to Taekwondo than the framework of Training that makes it "traditional" and that is Taekwondo`s use of lining up, bowing, using Korean terminology, teaching philosophy along with the pysical techniques, and the usage of uniforms during formal training sessions. Now all of these things have evolved since Taekwondo`s "creation" in the 1950s but wether we use a v-neck uniform or a y-neck uniform, wether we use the word "hyung" or "poomsae" for our forms, etc they are still only variations within the traditional framework. The framework stays the same eventhough the art evolves. Therefore as long as your Dojang keeps the framework of Taekwondo it does not matter wether you practise "ITF", "GTF", "Chayon Ryu", "Kukki", or an old "Kwan" of Taekwondo, you can still call it "Traditional".

Japanese or Korean terminology in Taekwondo?

2013-05-14T15:41:00.000+02:00

It`s been a while, but recently I read the term "Taekwondoka" on an internet forum discussing Taekwondo. The person who wrote that used it instead of "Taekwondo student/ exponent/ practisioner" etc. The "ka" ending in Taekwondoka is a Japanese term that is used in Japanese Martial Arts. Examples: Judoka, Karateka, Kendoka etc. Having spendt a lot of time in Korea (one of my stays was for a whole year) seeing this "mishmashing" of different foreign languages is like being in the classroom where someone with long fingernails starts scratching them along a blackboard. I realize that for people who have not been to Korea or have much interest in foreign cultures and languages it might be nothing to worry about, but I still wonder why people choose to put a Japanese word ending onto a Korean name for its Martial Art.

I understand those who chooses to teach in the language they know so a Japanese instructor teaching Taekwondo might use it. An American or English person however should make a decision on either using the language he knows (e.g "Taekwondo student") or as a sign of respect to the native country of the Martial Art use a term from their country. The Korean term would be "Taekwondoin". "In" (인) means person or people. A Taekwondo person = Taekwondoin. In this age of information, not knowing is a choice. I for one think that many people mash the two languages together (Taekwondoka) to sound "bright/ smart/ cool/ educated" while those who know a little Korean will pick up on this right away.

I asked the fellow in the forum on a private message why he used the Japanese ending instead of the Korean, and provided the Korean term in case he did not know it and got the answer: Because so many schools use this term and it has a nice ring to it. So he did not do it to sound educated or anything, he simply liked the sound of the term and emulated his "seniors" (all the different schools using the term). Like the bastarized "bow" where you look the opponent in the eyes this too is something we should stop doing and keep the terminology consistent within one language. It is hard enough to learn the Korean terminology, and having the Korean language to learn through Taekwondo, if we are not to learn Japanese as well! I use Korean terminology and Norwegian Terminology in my teaching because I practise a Korean Martial Art in Norway. If I had been teaching in the USA I would be using Korean terminology and English Terminology. I might refer to other terminology briefly but I would clearly define their origin. Not knowing the Korean term for pattern interpretation I used to say pattern applications but the Japanese call it Bunkai. I did not smack one language on top of the other to make a new term.

Sorry for the ramble guys and girls, and I will not write more about this except this: If you are an instructor of Taekwondo and you are currently using "Taekwondoka" stop doing that and start using "Taekwondoin" or Taekwondo coupled with a term of your native tongue. Please for my sakeO:-)

What is the point of Basic Forms (Kihon Kata/ Gibon Poomsae/ Hyung/ Tul)

2013-05-11T10:51:00.000+02:00

I have seen the question in the headline so many times on different discussion forums over the years

Image source: Tae Kwon Do 1965
By Choi Hong Hi

that I think it warrants its own post on this blog. The question in a nutshell is two fold:

What is the point of the basic forms if the time spendt on those could be used in teaching the more advanced ones? (The viewpoint of purely form not function)
If the basic forms were developed only for movement education and not applications should we only teach/ practise the advanced forms so we learn both movement and application? (The viewpoint that the basic forms does not have applications)

First I only find it fair to distinguish what the "basic forms" are as opposed to "advanced forms". In Karate the basic forms are often viewed as simple forms of new creation that are taught to beginners so that they can more easily learn the "advanced" forms (often more difficult to perform and a much older creation) later in their training. Examples from Karate (Goju Ryu) would be the Gekaisi Kata series:

Click the youtube icon on the lower right if the video does not work

In Shotokan in the 1920s Gichin and Gigo Funakoshi created the Taikyoku Kata series, a series of forms consisting of few techniques and a simple performance line. The mainstream view for these Kata are "movement education" but today on a world wide scale you will find few Dojo that teach these for any lenght of time (if at all).

Click the youtube icon on the lower right if the video does not work

Some Korean Martial Arts practisioners might recognize the Funakoshi creation to be the same as "Kicho Il Hyung" and yes it really is. Some might be more diplomatic and say that Hwang Kee based "his" Kicho series on the Taikyuku series but it is essentually the same:

Click the youtube icon on the lower right if the video does not work

The Moo Duk Kwan (Hwang Kee`s school of Martial Arts) was a very big and influential one in Korea at the time of the merger of the different schools to form Taekwondo, so it is not suprising that many Masters still teach this series prior to starting with the "real" forms. Point to ponder: Funny thing is that even though it is a Funakoshi creation it is more common in Korean Martial Arts than in Funakoshi`s own school Shotokan. Sometimes the Korean Martial Arts are closer to the Shotokan roots than Shotokan itself..

Personally I did not really had to take a stand in this issue as in the Dojang I belong to we only learn the Taegeuk and Black belt series of Poomsae created by KTA in the 1960s-70s. The Taegeuk series (Taegeuk = Taikyuku in Japanese) is a series of 8 forms that has a very logical progress in the performance of the forms from very basic (Taegeuk il (1) Jang to very "difficult" (Taegeuk Pal (8) Jang. The first one concists only much of short easy stances, and very basic techniques and combinations whereas the last one contains a wide variety of stances, two different variations of jumping kicks, long combinations, Danjun breathing (Ki developing excersises) etc. That being said Taegeuk Il (1) Jang was not as "basic" as the basic forms demonstrated in the above video clips as the performance lines were a lot more difficult, there are a wider variety of techniques and there are kicks in it.

The last few years however my Master has developed his Soak Am Ryu forms (often called the "TTU Poomsae") based on his training and teaching experience, and his Kigong studies. The three first forms in Soak Am Ryu are Basic forms of his own creation yes, but basic forms nonetheless. They are called Gibon (basic) 1, 2, 3 Jang. (I apologize for the poor execution of techniques and well a lot of things, but these are the only videos showing these three first forms)

Click the youtube icon on the lower right if the video does not work

As you can see my Master has followed the same line of thinking when it comes to keeping the performance line simple, but at the same time he does have more variety than the Kicho series when it comes to technique contained within the forms.

Now faced with these new "Basic" forms and having all the official forms I had to make a stance if I wanted to devote training time for these or if I should not teach them (including them in my own training was a given though:p )

I used my students at the time as ginea pigs and started teaching the three forms to see if there was any benifit to gain from them. These students were yuths (12-17 years old) and varied from green belts to red belts.

What I found was that there is literally no place to "hide" in these forms. If your technique is lacking your performance will scream it out loud for everyone to see. There is no speed, no flashy moves nothing to distract from pure technique concentration. Therefore I always cringe when I see myself performing the forms in the clips above. I imidiatly see that my feet are telegraphing by turning before the step (had to eliminate that one) when moving forward and likewise I lift my heel before moving backward. I found that it was much easier to correct my students when using these forms as I could see their faults with ease in these basic forms before the longer combinations and speed hid some of their faults in the more "advanced" ones. As an instructor I soon saw that the training of these basic forms helped correcting faults in technique and this showed in the more "advanced" forms as a result:-)

I then taught a white belt Gibon Il (1) Jang for several weeks before suddenly turning my (our) attention to Taegeuk Il (1) Jang wich is what is required by the Kukkiwon for the Belt Promotion Test. The beginner sucked up Taegeuk Il (1) Jang like s spounge absorbs water and learned it in record breaking time. The experience of learning the simpler Gibon Il (1) Jang made the learning proccess of Taegeuk Il (1) Jang that much simpler. As a bonus the raw concentration of fewer techniques made his Taegeuk il (1) Jang a lot more "polished" than my experience with white belts testing for their yellow belts.

The conclusion based on my own experience both as an instructor and as an eternal student of Taekwondo is that the inclusion of basic forms based on "movement education" is sound and I would reccomend to other teachers to include them as well. Yes they are basic, but this "basicness" is its own strength! It makes the polishing of techniques easier, the process of learning new forms a lot more easier and it is a great form for self development (film yourself doing them as I did and you will surely find a lot more faults screaming at you than if you were performing some more "advanced" form).

"But what about the application within the forms? If the forms are stripped of application it is also stripped of their souls are they not? If the purpose of forms is to reccord and teach fighting principles based on examples of movement is it not better to concentrate on the more advanced forms as the basic forms are "only" for movement education?"

There are in my view 3 paths you can go when looking at "eungyoung" (applications) and gibon poomsae:

Teach no applications (leave that to the more "advanced" Poomsae)
Teach Basic/ Literal/ Surface applications (block kick punch stuff)
Teach advanced/ sophisticated/ deep applications (through Boonseok)

There are many who believe that basic forms are only for learning the movements and to prep the student in the learning process of forms. As an instructor I see value in this, but teaching three forms seems a little overkill to me. Especially if you spend 6 months on each of them. That amounts to 1,5 years of training "Taekwondo dance" with no applications what so ever...

Click the youtube icon on the lower right if the video does not work

The second path is one I adhere to. As the forms are simple they fit nicely in with the block kick punch applications. In my own teachers basic forms the part where you move forward 3 times followed with backward 3 times were first explained to me that you went forward to attack three times, and then you went backwards defending against identical attacks. First form = forward three punches, defends with 3 middle section blocks and counters on the last move. Second form = forward attack with front kick and punch, defend low block against kick, middle block against punch. Third form = forward three times front kick two punches. Defends against kick with low block, two middle block (outward and inward) against the two punches. Counters on last move.

This helps the students to learn the "hard style" applications, that can be tweaked with body evasion and shortening of the blocks to make them work in sparring and other situations. Suddenly we have something workable we can use. Certain "guiding principles" as basis of "Boonseok" (analisys of forms) can also be introduced like the turns are to show where you move in relation to your opponent who attacks from the front (source: Kenwa Mabuni).

We also have to remember one important but yet simple thing and that is to keep our applications simple. The Gibon Poomsae are made by the most frequent techniques from the "advanced" forms. The reason why they show up so many times? Becuse they are high probability techniques with a lot of different usages. Gathering these techniques into simplified forms follows the "KISS" Principle (nothing to do with the awsome band I`m afraid) wich stands for "keep it simple stupid". Suddenly the strength of the forms becomes their simpleness.

Path three was alluded to in the paragraph above but here we skip the "basic" applications and jump straight to the "advanced" applications. Also here is a good starting point where you can teach one "advanced" application for each technique, giving the student a valuable starting point for "boonseok". For instance in Gibon Il (1) Jang we start from Chumbi Seogi to Jochum Seogi Horison Chumbi Seogi (ready stance to horse riding stance both arms at the waist). I taught the form to some red belts who found it boring to do this basic move so they did it with no power. I asked one to do a bear hug on me from behind with his arms over mine. I then did the first movement wich freed me from his grip and gave him an elbow in the solarplexus in reward. The movement of the arms, the change in stance, everything works in a combative context, you just need to find the context. The form is followd by low block in the same stance wich can be interpreted as a throw (reach behind with the chamber and throw him over you. You do not bend in the form but the eastern notion of "ki" training in the forms will always keep you from bending in the form).

Suddenly the boring basic forms can be a doorway to open up the pandoras chest that is forms applications. The limited variation of techniques gives the beginning student more than enough time to practise these "practical" applications.

Click the youtube icon on the lower right if the video does not work

Spending 1,5 years on them now seems almost too little time if you ask me:-) Personally I like to follow path two because learning the simplified Taekwondo or "Hard Style Taekwondo" is a good place to start in any way. It gives you a good offense, control of body, distance, defensive techniques and like the basic forms "Hard Style" Taekwondo`s" strength lies within its simpleness. 1,5 years detailed instruction should suffice an avarage adult student though (of course this will vary both between individuals and how much training you do in that 1,5 years:p )

Actually there is a path 4 you can go: ditch the basic forms and concentrate on the "more advanced" ones instead.

I hope you found this post informative, if not then at least I had a lot of fun writing it:p

Happy training:-)

Boonseok (분석) Analyse your forms for meaning

2013-04-26T07:00:00.000+02:00

I have written about this before but I really do want to get the word out there so people will start researching their forms for themselves (and share their findings with the world). The Korean Martial Arts were developed largely from Chinese and Japanese/ Okinawan sources; all of which placed a
heavy emphasis on solo forms for the preservation of the key concepts of the system.

Somewhere along the way however the Korean Martial Arts seems to have lost their link back to their forms, treating them solely as performance sport rather than the encyclopedia or basis upon wich their practical application of the Martial Arts rest. It is unfair to say that this is only a problem in the Korean Martial Arts as there are similar situations in both Chinese systems (Tai Chi for instance is often trained solely as performance art for health benifits) and Japanese systems (several styles of Karate train them for grading purposes and for maintaining "Tradition").

That Taekwondo should suffer from this lost link between Poomsae and Eungyoung (Practical application) is not strange when we look at the history of the rather "new" art. You see modern Taekwondo is very much MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in that it is based on a lot of different systems. Kukki Taekwondo (often mistakingly called WTF) was the result of a merger of several different schools/ styles to form one unified Martial Art.

The emphasis has therefore "always" been to standarise the techniques and making one common form set that could be implemented and trained by all the different schools so we all could have one big martial art instead of several small fragmented ones. We can actually "thank" the Korean government for this little known fact as it was they who demanded the merger. Naturally the emphasis being technique, forms and then sport to spread the art has made the application of the forms to take a back seat. This coupled with the fact that all the system were close range systems was fused with Taek Kyon (wich is a system containing a great deal of long range kicks) and the subsequent focus on the Taek Kyon root to the exclusion of the other roots has robbed the Korean Martial Arts practisioners of the link between forms and practical applications.

But enough about that, if you are still reading on you are most likely reading hoping that I write about the analisys of forms and I want to do just that. Here are a few "pointers" that I have picked up along the way that might serve some of the readers well:

Study the history of Taekwondo and embrace all the root arts not only the Korean roots but also the foreign ones (Chinese/ Japanese/ Okinawan)
Study the original works of Gichin Funakoshi, Toyama Kanken and Kenwa Mabuni as they provided the "Karate platform" that Taekwondo was partly built upon.
Aquire and study the Bubishi as it served as the Textbook of early Karate and containes a lot of information on strategy as well as vital points and practical applications.
Study the most likely attacks that you will encounter in a civilian defense context as these are most likely the attacks our forms were meant to counter (study the history and you will see).
You can look at the terminology we use, but be aware that prior to the 1920s most of our techniques did not have names, therefore the name of the technique might not have any real corrolation with the application of the technique.
Our forms are not exlusivly striking, but neither are they exclusivly grappling! In fact the forms favor integrated grappling and striking all the time.
Our forms are not exclusivly defensive, but neither are they exclusivly offensive! In fact the forms favor integrated offense and defense together.
Do not be fooled by the meongi lines (performance lines) of our forms. If you turn in 8 directions during the performance of the form it does not in any way mean that you are somehow fighting 8 different opponents.
Sometimes the turns in our forms are part of the applications (throws, trips, sweeps, joint locks), sometimes they tell you where you should move in relation to your opponent, and sometimes a turn is just a turn so the form does not use too much training space!
Look at all the movement in a technique if you want a sophisticated application. Ask yourself why you use this exact stance, why your hand is on your hip and why the other hand was chambered a certain way and not another way.
The "stealing method" of Boonseok: Look at what other people have found in their forms and "steal it" making it your own.
The "borrowing method" of Boonseok: Look at what other martial arts are doing. See something that fits your forms? "Borrow" it and use that as an application of your form.
The HAOV method of Boonseok: Take one movement from your form and insert a habitual act of violence. If it does not fit, then try another until you find a match.

I hope this will help some who are looking for answers and trying to figure out why we do certain things the way we do them:-)

And with that I wish you all happy training:-)

Essentual Reading For All Taekwondoin!!!!!!!!!

2013-04-19T07:26:00.003+02:00

I frequently write about "lost things" within Taekwondo. Stuff that we had in the beginning but lost under the expansion and development into at martial sport, or stuff we have currently in our system but not trained in the mainstream.

I came accross this post today and found it so important that I highly reccomend that all Taekwondoin study it and apply this "new" knowledge in their training and teaching.

http://ryukyuma.blogspot.no/2013/04/small-surface-strikes-structurally.html

Exploring the Traditional "Double Blocks"

2013-04-17T10:57:00.000+02:00

In my previous post I wrote a lot about blocks being blocks, at the same time I do acknowledge that in a dynamic context in forms there are a multitude of practical and sophisticated applications that can be derived from them ranging from defensive to offensive, but at the same time we do need to acknowledge that we need defensive techniques as well as offensive ones. In the bullet list in the previous post where I listed some of the most often heard critizism of traditional blocks I listed
unrealistic double blocks. I did make in my own opinion a good case for traditional simple blocks like arae makki (low block), han sonnal bakkat makki (single outward knife hand block), eolgul makki (face block), momtong an makki (inward middle block), but I did not mention the double blocks at all. You know the ones I mean: the infamous W shaped block is one of them:-)

First before we start to talk about "block" I want you to very fast look over at the post "Makki does it really mean block?" that I wrote for some time ago. I really do not like the term block at all. It conjures up a mental image of a static block that hit the attack away. Makki on the other hand gives a whole multitude of meanings that open up for a lot of interesting ways of applying the techniques labeled "makki".

Have you read the post? Great, now if you have not done so allready check out my last post on exploring traditional blocks:-) If you have read it and remember it vaguely you are Ok to read on:-)

When we talk about unrealistic double blocks I find it only fair to make clear wich ones I am referring to:

Hecho Santul Makki (also known as "W" block)
Hecho Makki in all its forms (low, middle, closed or open hands)
Keumgang Makki in all its forms (low, midle, closed or open hands)
Eutgoro Makki (x blocks) in all its forms (low, midle, high, open or closed hands)
"Oe" Santul makki (featured in Taegeuk Pal Jang)
etc (in case I missed anyone)

These are the are the kind of double blocks that I am talking about. Often they have a big movement, chamber, leave the face wide open etc. There are many problems when looking at the movements literally. Taekwondo Poomsae favour simple techniques which for many makes them "basic" when compared to other pattern sets. I like that they are "simple" because simple movements = simple applications (eungyoung) = realistic in combat. That being said the double blocks that are listed above are included in Poomsae, allthough they are rare they do occur so we need to acknowledge them as valid techniques.

As they appear in Poomsae they are presented within a dynamic context wich means that you can find the simple obvious application by looking at its name or to insert two attacks and treat them as two simple blocks done at the same time (I know many do this), or you can find a sophisticated application looking purely at the movement, or you can see if you can find the meaning looking at the "technique" that came before it or after it to find a eungyoung (application). All except the treat them as two simple blocks done at the same time is valid in my opinion.

I know that some will think that I contradict myself now, because in my last post I made a case for blocks simply being blocks, but blocking one attack is one thing, blocking two different opponents attacks at the same time (and often not looking at one of the opponent at all during the "block") is something else entirely. If we take one of the earliest "double blocks" that appear in Poomsae, the "oe" santul makki in Taegeuk Pal Jang for instance you will soon notice that inserting two opponents and two attacks is at best "unrealistic" and in my own opinion plain suicidal to rely on in an altercation with multiple opponents. The mainstream eungyoung (application) is to block one attacker situated in front of you who kicks a low front kick at you, while at the same time you block another opponent who is situated directly behind you throwing a straight punch at your head.

Taekwondo is not the only Martial Art that have this interpretation as I have seen the very same eungyoung (application) in several Japanese Karate styles. Iain Abernethy said it best I think when he said that applications like that rely on "spider sense" (if you know your spider man you will know what he means). There is a concept in Traditional Taekwondo called "Yuk Gam" wich is essentually the 6th sense in the west where we "just know" things, but designing several fighting techniques on such a big "might work" is not realistic. Also training techniques like that if the only eungyoung were so non probable would not be a good use of training time.

The main stream eungyoung for double blocks all have similar short commings when treated this way. The Hecho Santul Makki or "W" shaped block is to block two opponents situated at your left and right side both throwing a straight lunge punch at your head at the same exact time and you not really looking at either one of them (or just at one of them)? Or how about Keumgang Momtong Makki (first featured in Taebaek Poomsae for those who do not practise the Palgwe or other pattern sets) wich in one text blocks a high section punch from the front and a middle section
punch from the side at the same time (with you only looking at the one on the side)?

Others have seen these applications and found them just as unrealistic as I have and made a very simple solution to the problem. They just take away one of the opponents. I think this is a bad solution as know you have moved one of your hands for no reason what so ever (or as they would say to be ready for the next technique).

In my own Boonseok (analisys) quest looking at the forms to find eungyoung (applications) I have gone through several different stages when looking at the basic techniques. My last post outlined several of those stages (blocks as literal blocks, blocks as shortened blocks, blocks being useless, two blocks for the price of one, all blocks are strikes, all blocks are anything but blocks etc). It is always hard to change the way you look at something just because someone else points the finger in another direction.

A few years back I read everything Patric Mcarthy and Iain Abernethy wrote (I still do:p ). They pointed their metaphorical fingers in a completly different direction than the road I was originally going and I really thank them both for that. One thing their research revealed to me was that original Taekwondo forms (before they made Chang Hon Ryu (ITF forms), Kuk Mu, Palgwe, Taegeuk, Judanja Poomsae etc) were mnemonic devises that functioned as a sumery of a complete figthing system. Each "original" form or set of forms (Eg: the Pinan/Heien/Pyungahn, Naihanchi/Tekki/Chulgi etc) was a sumery of complete fighting systems in their own right. The originater of these Kata likely had information he needed to remember and strung these together in a way that he could both practise them alone, and remember them. I recently wrote yet another post that explained how recent research in mnemonic devises reveals that the more absurd and abstract the mnemonic device, the better they function to help you remember. Good examples are using your knuckles to remember how many days each month has. Your knuckles has obviously nothing to do with keeping track of time, calender or anything at all, yet it is a simple and powerfull mnemonic to remember how many days each month has. Another good example is using absurd sentences that has nothing to do with what you want to remember as a mnemonic devise. You can pack a great deal of information into one short absurd sentence easy and I think this method will be recognized by those who read my blog and who has studied for school tests.

Lately after creating yet another "poomsae" from scratch I can not help but wonder if there are certain moves that are "abstract" or not meant to be interpreted literally in our forms. Maybe the double blocks fall into this category? I have not explored this indepth yet but I got the feeling from creating my own Poomsae to function as a mnemonic device as I put several single handed applications together as double handed techniques to shorten the form and training time. If someone learned that Poomsae without applications with the double techniques that were originally inserted as single handed techniques and the student tried to find practical applications just looking at the movement, chances are that he will find sophisticated applications to the movements but I really do not think that he will come close to my (the originators) original intent. I am not saying that it is not worthwile to do so, but there is a difference between saying "I found this application and think it will work and it fits the movment from the form nicely" and "This is the original application for movement X".

Who knows really? The original intent might have been similar to my "double blocks" in my form where single handed applications were performed simultainiously with both arms to shorten and condense the form. Another way to shorten or condense the form would be if there were two different deflections which both had the same logical follow up you could perform both deflections at the same time and only one follow up. This way you did not need to "show" two sequences two times (so you could train both sides) and get away with just one instead.

I mean the reason you would want to keep your form as short as possible and as condensed as possible is obvious if you just want to use it as a mnemonic devise. I hated my first drafts because I felt that my training would be better spent with a partner or other drills that would be more important when training alone. Doing the movements in the air helps train the application but it in no way

comes anywhere near replacing the hands on partner practise. My solution was to do left and right hand together so I trained the movement on both sides at the same time. Maybe a few houndred years ago Tode Sakugawa, Bushi Matsumura and Itosu Anko faced the same "problem" and solved it in similar ways? No matter how you look at it, double blocks can not be taken seriously if you apply them literally (as double blocks).

Now the school of thought that I have used when dealing with "double blocks" is that you need to look purely at "movement" and forget the name of the technique. Then you need to find a practical and hopefully realistic application that fit the movement (the closer the better). This way if you find practical realistic ways of applying the techniques you have a valid reason for including them in your syllabus and in the usage og training time on training them.

I would like to say that I see a common pattern when interpreting the movements of double blocks, but I really dont. I see some as throws, others as clearing of limbs, yet others could be seen as joint locks, strikes etc.. We can never in one million years say with certainity what the "original" application to a certain technique was. We are indeed in a way "guessing", but we should make every endevour to make our guesses as educated as possible.

For instance my primary application for keumgang arae makki as seen in Keumgang Poomsae is to grab a leg and lift it up with one hand and drag/push the upper body/head (numerous variations on a single theme) down with the other arm. In Keumgang Poomsae the only leg the opponent has to stand on is swept away too (explaining the infamous crane stance or Hakdari Seogi in that form). Where did I get this application from? First through my own training where we have this very application as a defense against kicks (move in and throw/ sweep the opponent). It fitted Keumgang Poomsae very nicely all down to the chamber movement. It was perfect. Then I read through the Bubishi wich served as the textbook of both Mabuni, Funakoshi and Kanken our three Karate grandfathers so to speak (they taught the founders of the different Taekwondo Kwan) where this technique was clearly depicted without the sweep.

In the above photos you can see the eungyoung on the left and the poomsae movement on the right. As far as I know no one has ever said this is the application for this movement of Keumgang Poomsae in official texts but I really think that the fact that the application exists in many Dojang all over the world practising the traditional Ho Sin Sul (self defense techniques), coupled with the fact that a similar move is presented in Keumgang Poomsae, in addition to the application showing up in a revered text that our Karate grandfathers all had in possession and used in their study and writings makes for a compelling case. At least it is a better application than the mainstream one blocking two opponents attacks at the same time and lifting the leg for no apparant reason. The fact that you can vary the application and still have the essense of the basic technique also explains why the movement is repeated so many times in Keumgang Poomsae.

This is my most educated guess to what the original intention might have been, but I do not say it is the original meaning because how can I possibly know? The application is practical, it is fairly simple and rely on gross motor skills. It is very redundant (you can omit the sweep if you want to be more stable yourself and it will still work like a charm) etc. It justifies the training of the double block in training and in the syllabus.

On the other hand we should not be too quick to throw the baby out with the bath water (did I use that expression correctly??:p ). Just because we do not have a realiststic application to a certain technique does not mean that it has not realistic application. It is most likely there, but not yet found if you know what I mean. Many years ago I contemplated not practising Poomsae because I simply did not understand them and they did not help me toward my goal (being an effective fighter). Today I can not imagine "my" Taekwondo without Poomsae. They are my framework and point of reference for my studies not just empty performance dances using "combative motion" but something I can really use. Had I completly dismissed them early in training I might never had understood them and just practise them a little bit each time I was going up a grade for grading purposes. The way it is today I am glad I did not just scrap them:-)

Exploring The Traditional "Blocks"

2013-04-14T07:00:00.000+02:00

I have written extensivly about forms application, and showed many applications to different blocks not being blocks at all. For instance if you have read through all the different blog post you will have

Image source: Secrets of Korean Karate
by Henry Cho in 1968

seen low block "arae makki" as a wrist release, straight arm bar, hammer fist strike to the groin, "rising elbow lock" and hammer fist strike in one movment etc etc.

I mean we all know the reasons why a block cant really be a block right?

Lets look over the critizism of the traditional "blocks":

They require "chambering"
To slow
To big movement
Not realistic to block two attacks at once (the double blocks)
Unrealistic blocking surface
You do not see them in MMA (seems anything that is not seen in MMA is not realistic)

Looking over the bullet list above I can see that the traditional blocks does not seem at all effective when looking at them, but why are they even labeled blocks and is all the time we spend on training them really usefull or should we discard them from our system and focus on stuff that have "proven" themselves to work?

I think that if we look at the whole movement of traditional "blocks" you can get a treasure chest full of practical applications, but at the same time we should also try to keep it simple and at least early in the training proccess I like to teach the basic applications to the simpler technqiues instead of throwing the students into the deep waters. For instance a low block (arae makki) can be a low block.

"But Ørjan, remember the big movements, the chamber, and the fact that action beats reaction?? Surely you are out of your mind when saying a block can be a block right??"

Well I think that each gibon dongjak (basic technique) are actually many components put together. Dangki Son (pulling hand) and Jireugi (punching) are put together for instance. You can easily punch without the pulling hand. You do not lose any power when not using the pulling hand in the "modern" sense (the modern sense is pulling the hand to the hip just because that is how it is done). In fact I would venture to say that the pulling hand (Dangki Son) is an important technique all in itself, and it is put together with other techniques like punching or other movements to either enhance them or to give simple movements a layer of sophistication. The punch is enhanced by the Dangki Son because here it is used for limb control, unbalancing, power generation (pulling the opponent into your punch), while a low block coupled with the Dangki Son makes way for all the "advanced" applications such as joint locks, attacks, etc. This is how a single movement in Taekwondo can contain a wealth of practical applications, but we should not forget the simple techniques (punching and blocking).

If we remove the Dangki Son from the Arae Makki (low block) you will still see the problem of chambering the blocking movement at your opposite ear before blocking. My teacher has alluded to this in years and years, the big movement or the chamber of the block is not done in practical application of the block. It is there to give the students a reference of the plane the block has to go along to be an effective block. Teaching the students the finer points of the plane a block has to move through to work effectivly using only a few inches is difficult, but enlarge the movement and it is understood after a fairly short time. The blocks in practical applications has to be "shortened" to work, the big movement is only done so the students understand how to use the block effectivly doing a small movement.

Momtong An Makki or inward block starts at the outside of the body before moving inwards and stops at the center line. In the Kukkiwon system this is one of the favorite "blocks" as it appears in so many of the Poomsae:

If the video does not work, try viewing them on Youtube (click the youtube icon on the lower right)

Note that the Kukkiwon uses a bigger movement as this video shows how Gibon Dongjak is shortened to accomodate the simplistic block interpretation. I think that sometimes training the short movement is good, but why do it in a basterised way and not go all the way keeping the basic technique as it is meant to be done on one side and training the applications version as you would with a partner on the other? Now in the video below by Bas Rutten you will note that the technique he uses for the majorety of to clip is actually a practical application of the Momtong An Makki or inward block. It is in effect a simple inward movement a couple of inches long and Bas Rutten really made it work in the ring.

If the video does not work, try viewing them on Youtube (click the youtube icon on the lower right)

Now Bas Rutten does make use of traditional blocks as "shortened" ones (I would say that this is a good example of how traditional blocks work as blocks) but there is one important element that I think is lacking and wich is grossly overlooked when looking at the blocks as blocks and that is evasion. Action beats reaction that is true and no one is denying it (not me anyway) so a good offense is important. But there is one way we can get that one fraction of a second extra to defend ourselves and that is body evasion. In the forms blocking movements are done in a dynamic context with all the parts put together as one unit (a low block is chambered at the ear, and the Dangki Son is used) but here the whole movement is done in a dynamic context. I will say that looking at our forms there are a multitude of applications, and the footwork in forms are often not optimal for using blocks as blocks. They are either done straight forward or straight back. Personally I like moving at 45 degrees angle either forward or backward, but if I can choose in a combat setting wether I move straight forward or straight back I will chose forward as then I can jam the attack before it reaches full speed. The forms favour moving straight forward.

Using a body evasion gives you a fraction of a second more time and the block ensures the attack does not connect. If the evasion is good enough the block is not needed at all, but if it is not good enough the block should save you. We are not talking about big movements now we are talking about the shortened blocks coupled with body evasion.

Once the "obvious" blocks have been mastered we can start to look at them once again, as you read above the basic techniques are made of different units that together makes the basic technique. If we look at many blocks as "blocks" and look closer at the camber you will see that often you get two blocks for the price of one. The obvious block is the one we just looked at, but often the "chamber" or non blocking hand will do a shortened "block" before the "obvious" block.

Bakkat Makki for instance:

If the video does not work, try viewing them on Youtube (click the youtube icon on the lower right)

Forget about the obvious block for the time being, just look at what the "non blocking" hand is doing. Do you see it? It does a shortened momtong an makki movement before the "obvious block" is performed. You do two "blocks" in one basic technique. One done as a shortened block and the other as a bigger movement. Here we have an interesing concept: factor in body evasion (this is not shown in the video), plus shortened block, pluss a backup block (the obvious block) and you should be in the clear of the attack. In the Kwan era (40s-60s) many did the "obvious" block the bigger movement on the inside of the Dangki Son (pulling hand) the opposite of how it is performed in the modern Kukki system of Taekwondo (in the video you will see the "obvious hand" moving on the outside of the Dangki Son). The Kwan era version where the obvious hand moves on the inside of the pulling hand lends itself well into striking applications where there is a body evasion, a shortened block, followed by a strike. The outside version lends itself very nicely into trapping applications so they are a little more defensive in nature in my own opinion. In bakkat makki as shown in the video above you can interpret defensivly as blocks by adding body evasion, the shortened an makki (the chamber) wich is trapped by the other hand (obvious block) moving the limb well out of the way for a follow up strike.

I have seen this done relativly often in Wing Chun movie clips in youtube. You can even use the larger movement by stepping into the opponent to unbalance him. If we look at eolgul makki (face block) it involves a similar chamber but the obvious block moves upward. Do a body evasion, the shortened an makki (inner block) and trap it and move forward and apply the obvious block in the armpit of the attacker and you will probably uproot him.

These are not the most sophisticated application because we do not factor in the whole movement (the Dangki Son or pulling hand is not used activly it ends up on the hip for no apparant reason etc), but I do not think it is right to overlook this aspect of the techniques. After all action beats reaction
, so many think offense is more important than defense, but this does not mean that defense has nothing to offer in the great scheme of things? Blocks can be used defensivly in varying degrees from purely defensivly to purely offensivly. The few students how stumble upon "applications study" first come to the conclusion that an alternative way for blocks to be applied is as strikes. High block, forearm strike to the neck, inward block as inward hammer fist strike to any number of targets and low block as a hammer fist strike toward the kidney, spleen, liver, or groin etc. But looking at all blocks purely as strikes leaves you with well a very well rounded offense but no defense at all except maybe a guarding "shield" and body evasion... Looking at the picture on the right you will see Sihak Henry Cho using a knife hand block as a strike. Note the Dangki Son being used to unbalance the opponent, increasing power by pulling him into the strike and clear the opponents defending limb so a strike can be delivered all in one move. The picture is from 1968 at a time when Taekwondo was still a martial art and before the focus on sport and the race to the olympics began.

But what about blocking kicks? The blocks can not work against them now can they???? This is also something I think many misunderstand. The blocks we have come from the source code of Taekwondo (Quan Fa, Shudokan, Shito Ryu and Shotokan) and they were made to defend against habitual acts of violence (HAOV). These are attacks that you would most likely face if confronted by a "regular attacker" (what ever that means) on the street. These attacks consist of haymaker, straight punches to the face and body, upper cut like punches, various grabs, headbutts or knees. Note the absence of all the kicks in that short list. Soccer style kicks to the groin maybe, but you are not likely to defend against side kicks, turning kicks, spinning and jumping kicks etc and our blocks were not made with these attacks in mind. The kicks or notion of kicks came from Koreas own martial art Taek Kyon. In Taek Kyon the defenses against kicks are usually body evasion and "leg checks". Blocking kicks with the arm is a last resort in that art, and if we do apply our blocks against kicks we need to keep in mind that the stronger and more densly boned leg will break the arm if we meet the kicks force on force. Body evasion and blocks against kicks however is workable. Even the allmighty Thai kick with follow through can be "blocked" by moving inside and block it where the thigh meets the knee joint before the kick reaches full speed.

My own teacher who has extensive training in Taek Kyon says that you can use the arms to defend against kicks but it is like the old samurai who would take a non lethal cut to kill the opponent. You loose an arm, but he looses his life he said during one practise. You will probably not loose an arm by way of kicks, but they will hurt and can damage your arms if you meet them force on force. The main thing to remember is that the blocks we have inherited form the Taekwondo source code were not meant to be applied against kicks, but they can be applied against them using body evasion coupled with the block and not use force on force.

I will stop here, but I will keep on exploring the blocks in future posts as there are several aspects that has not yet been covered (what about the double blocks for instance)

Creating your own Poomsae?

2013-04-08T10:50:00.000+02:00

Creating your own Poomsae? Many people would scuff at even the idea of creating your own

Defense against double wrist
grab followed by kick.

Poomsae. Our official Poomsae are sacred and holy. They are ancient forms developed over thousands of years through the history of the Korean people and they are perfect in themselves. Well that seems to be the general idea in Taekwondo, but the truth is that our Taegeuk Poomsae was introduced in the early 70s and our Black belt Poomsae was started in development in 1965 byt the KTA (Korean Taekwondo Association).

I love our Poomsae do not get me wrong, but I also think that creating your own Poomsae might help you and your understanding of the official Poomsae that we allready have. I have created several Poomsae over the years, but I have also discarded them after a while and I have never taught them to anyone else. My creative poomsae are mine and mine alone and I have only done them to help me understand what we allready have, not looking to outdo the KTA masters.

In one of my favorite Blogs Dan Djurdjevic has written extensivly about creating Kata (Hyung/Tul and Poomsae). He came up with three main reasons to create a Kata and in the quote below from his post Creating a kata part 2 you will see the reasons he sees for creating new Kata.

"As I said in Creating a kata: Part 1, you create a kata in order to:

1. package and preserve "fragments" of knowledge; or
2. fill a void; or
3. improve existing forms." -Dan Djurdjevic

My creations would go into reason one, I have tried several times to rearrange sequences and techniques from around the Kukkiwon forms to make one form that drills my favorite applications in a logical manner.

The earliest attempt at making my own Poomsae was started a year or two after I "discovered" the whole new world of Taekwondo when you start analysing your forms for applications. I took my favorite applications, and one step sparring techniques and strung them together in a rather nifty way:p This way I got to train my favorite applications in a logical manner doing one Poomsae instead of doing all the Poomsae where I practised a bunch of things I did not understand and only a little that I did understand. The problem was that the more I analisyd and found answers to, the longer my "Eungyoung Poomsae" (Eungyoung = practical application) became. I discarded it when I realised I had applications to all the single techniques in the forms so I practised my applications through official Poomsae eventhough the flow might be a little off. (The next goal was to find applications that flowed with the form or at least in sequence with other techniques from the form.).

My next "Creative Poomsae phase" was to create mnemonics for stuff I needed to remember. For instance after going to seminars or practising with martial artists from differend styles, if I found something I liked and thought missing from Poomsae I would string them together into a form so I remembered what I had learned. I guess this is how one of the most famous Kata of Karate was invented by Tode Sakugawa;

Tode Sakugawa was a martial artist in Okinawa a few houndred years ago. He was an accomplished martial artist in the local fighting style of Okinawa and very cocky too in his yuth at least if the oral stories are true. One day when Tode Sakugawa was young there was a Chinese (some even say he was Korean) emisary that visited Okinawa. For some reason Sakugawa out of the blue tried to throw this Chinese official into a nearby river. What Sakugawa did not expect however was that the Chinese official was a highly skilled martial artist himself, using Sakugawas own strength against him he threw Sakugawa into the river.Sakugawa begged him for lessons in his martial art and after studying with him and the official traveled home he made the Kushanku Kata named after the official that taught him the techniques within the form.

According to both Iain Abernethy and Patric Mcharty (both famous for their research in Karate) the forms that Taekwondo is built upon (the proto Taekwondo came from Chinese Quan Fa, Shotokan, Shito Ryu and Shudokan base) were mnemonic devises to remember and teach the system. The key movements of the system were grouped together into longer strings of movements to help remembering things. So the applications came first, then the forms were created to remember the applications. The thing with mnemonic devises though is that it is not always they show excactly how the application is done in real life. Sometimes Mnemonic devises can be pretty abstract. In fact some research do show that the more abstract and surreal the mnemonic the more effective it is at retaining knowledge.

For instance in the army we had to first know the 6 safety rules for handling weapons before being issued with one. I had a hard time remembering them all untill a friend gave me a sentence to remember them by: "ti sure lange tær har vi" (translated it is: "We have ten sour smelling toes"). The first letter in each word of the sentence corresponded with the first letter of the safety rule. So the first rule started with a "t", the second with a "s" etc. That seemingly abstract sentence has made it simple for me to remember the safety rules so I have no problem retelling them today 9 years after I was finished in the army!

I am not saying that in Taekwondo forms today there are movements that are "abstract" mnemonic devises that do not have a real application in its present form, but the root arts of Taekwondo did in my opinion most likely have them if the Kata or Hyung were indeed mnemonic devises.

My most recent creation (and the only one I still practise) is a form containing all the Ho Sin Sul (Self Defense) techniques against Palmok Jabki (holding of the wrist). I will try to videotape it once my shoulder is Ok, but for now here is what I learned creating the form as a mnemonic devise.

The form starts with gibon chumbi seogi. This is simply done so I get the Kigong benifits of doing the movement and the bonus of the hands being in the end position they are the most natural thing for an opponent to grab if they want to stop me from running away etc (the hands are low and forward).
Move left foot forward to long front walking stance and I do a pull out with my left arm and continue with an outward knife hand strike to the throat. The pull out is simply the "chamber" for the strike so it is one movement.
I move the right foot forward in long front walking stance and do the same with the right arm.
I move the back leg forward into horse riding stance, and both arms first shoot upwards, then down toward the hip and then up again in agyson/khaljebi mok chigi (throat strike with the web of the hand)
Same place without moving I do sonnal arae hecho makki (open hand spreading lower block) wich flows into inward knife hand strike with both arms.
Same place I do an outward middle spreading block palms facing me, flowing into reverse knife hand strike to the throat with both arms.
I move my right foot a little forward and then swing my left leg back using my right foot as a pivot pint as I do a low block and end up in horse riding stance. I am now facing my starting point)
I do the same with the opposite arm/ foot, facing once again to the front.
I turn 180 degrees into cat stance and do a low spreading block with open arms, front kick with
I do an open handed midle spreading block, grab the opponents head and do a headbut (yes we practise headbutting in our school), and knee him in the head (not in the self defense techniques but logical follow up) I land in horse riding stance and deliver a downward elbow strike to the back of the opponent.

(I did leave out a sequence wich was very difficult to describe so it is not complete)

All this is done against wrist holding. Most are at the "same side" (i.e the opponent holds your left arm with his right arm) but there are also against "crossed grabs".

This is why I did it: I had a hard time remembering them (I know a lot of defenses, but recently there were 8 that everyone had to know. I think this was done to ensure everyone at least practise some self defense regularly and not "grading panic". As an instructor I have to teach these 8 defenses so I needed to remember them).

First I just did them one at a time, first on the right side and then on the left side and the footwork was as in application. This took a lot of space and it felt very long as a mnemonic devise (I did not like how long I did it as it took away from my training time and even though I did the movements there were no opponent so it was of limited benifit. I only needed to remember the techniques..)

Then I did them all without footwork in horse riding stance still first on the left side and then on the right side. Still it was too long and not effective as some of the techniques require some footwork to get the application right. I then did all the techniques at the same time with the right and left arm but still in horse riding stance. This was a step in the right direction as I practised both sides at the same time, but I got no footwork on those who were difficult.

I experimented some more and I am know starting to get found of the end result. I stop and I start at the same place, I dropped uneccesary footwork to get the form compressed so I did not have to have a lot of training space, I have included footwork in the beginning that I dropped in later techniques that uses the same kind of footwork. As it is allready shown I do not want to show it again, pluss I can do it in smaller spaces. The "advanced" footwork is included and the "advanced techniques are done as is. I now have no problem remembering the applications at all, and I can teach the 8 wrist defenses just thinking about the form I created. So when I do the form I do get some applicationt training in the sense that I do the body movement, when teaching the form is a powerfull mnemonic as I just think about the form and what comes next.

Move 1 the opening stance is explained above. The first two moves after that wich simply looks as two outward knife hand strikes are really defenses against same side wrist holding. You pull out against the thumb (toward your opposite ear) and then move your body weight forward as you deliver the strike with the arm you just freed. The defense flows into offense in one movement.

The horse riding stance section uses the same footwork in application, and is done with one arm at a time in application, but to save time I do the single arm movements together at the same time. What struck me was that some applications done with both arms really looked like technices from the forms (the wedge or spreading blocks both low and middle for instance). I took away the footwork as it was shown in move 2 and 3 (the outward knife hand strikes).

The next section I call "The Hapkido Dance Section" as the footwork we use is identical to the Hapkido dance I learned while in Korea. It is of course not really called the hapkido dance, but we jokingly called it that as that was what it looked like we were doing while practising it:-) Essentually you put one foot forward a small step, and then swing the other one around 180 degrees while pivoting on the foot you first moved forward. You can also do this 90 degrees. The footwork can be used in a large number of locks, throws and kicks so my Hapkido teacher said it was the essence of Hapkido.

Anyway the first one is a reversing of grip and straight arm lock (the low block in horse stance), the other using a similar foot work is a wristlock. The second one is difficult to explain so I omitted it from the form description above. Since these are unique way of doing footwork in the form, and the footwork is essentual for the applications I have kept them in the form also. This way I practise all the essentual movements to help the applications.

I then move into a cat stance while doing open handed low wedge block.This is a defense against a double wristgrab (the opponent grips both your wrists). You roll your hand outside of his, over than down releasing the grip, kick him and follow up with two punches. The cat stance is to show how to transport your body weight into the technique and it sets up the kick nicely.

Next I move forward and do a midle section wedge block openhanded palms facing me, here again against a double wrist grab I release by moving up and out against the thumbs. This is followed by a headbut and knee to the opponents face and a personal addition landing in horse stance and delivering a downward elbow strike. The stance is for getting the weight down with the strike, the strike is logical follow up and it is rare in our forms so I wanted to include it here.

What did I learn?

Sometimes footwork is shown, other times it is implyed or not shown at all.
The stances are for body weight transition into the applications, not static stances.
Sometimes the techniques can be done in "abstract ways" to condense the form as a mnemonic devise (single handed techniques done in unison in my form is an example of this).
The techniques in the form can be larger than in application to practise the direction of power in the applications (some large wedge block in my form are very small in the application).
Starting and ending at the same spot is not important other as a practical usage of training space (at least in my form).
Each Taekwondoin will have different ways of doing their applications. The way I do the movement in my form could be expressed in other ways allowing for the same form to have a multitude of variations. This is why I think in Karate styles the same forms can be recognized but there are noticable differences. For instance the low block in horse stance is a straight arm lock. It could be done with an open hand without changing the application, the stance could be changed to front stance and still have the weight transferred effectivly etc etc. That was one technique in the form with varius differences. This could be applied to each and every move.
The form helps me practise body movement that help me when I practise applications with a partner. It does not in any way replace partner training it only complements it, plus it helps me remember. I guess this might have been the way it was traditionally in the beginning of the Martial Arts as well?

All forms begin with a movement that is defensivly in nature. I guess most would say I strayed from this as the first move is an outward knife hand strike to the neck, BUT the defensive movement is the pull out or the chamber part of the technique. It is not obvious but it is there nonetheless. It would have been easy to change the order of the form and open with something looking like a block, but then the order would not correspond with the order the applications appear in the curriculum and the whole point of making the form was to create a mnemonic devise to remember the "new" curriculum material.

Have you who read this ever done something simular and would like to share the form and what they learned doing it? Please drop a comment below if you want:-)

Traditional Taekwondo Training Equipment

2013-03-27T16:23:00.000+01:00

Today one of Taekwondo`s strong points as a leisure activity is that there is no training equipment that is really needed and training space is also not that big of a consern. Likewise you really do not need any special training uniform to do Taekwondo, all you need is a somewhat flat training space (a couple of square meters is enough) and the will to train.

You can train attributes for Taekwondo like strenght in just about all of the body, or maybe basic techniques, or forms or shadow boxing not even needing a partner to train with. Today numerous Dojang that operates
out of school gyms (very common in my country) or other such places does not have or make use of any training equipment what so ever. Not even matts (wich makes the training of Nak Bup/breask falling difficult). That being said traditional Taekwondo did make use of a lot of training equipment most practisioners has probably never even heard of today.

In Okinawan Karate there is a whole other culture to training. In the west we were told not to mess with weights because they could make us bulky but slow and that it was a lot more important to have good technique than muscle. While many martial artists in the west were taught in rented spaces where equipment were scarse or non existant, coupled with the "weight myth" it is no wonder that many stressed the traning of Gibon Dongjak (basics), Poomsae (Forms), Kyorugi (Sparring) and Ho Sin Sul (Self defense) with a few push ups and sit ups thrown into the mix while in Okinawa and China (as well as Japan in the 20s-40s when the Kwan founders of Taekwondo studdied their base Martial Arts) "Hojo Undo" was stressed a lot more. "Hojo Undo" is a Karate term that means suplemental training and consists of the use of various equipment as well as excersises that only makes use of the body. Hojo Undo is 보조 운동 Buchu Undong in Korean

In older incarnations of Taekwondo in Korea (the different Kwan that was founded in the 40s-60s) this culture of training was precerved a long time. As recently as 1965 General Choi Hong Hi of the Oh Do Kwan (and honorary member of the Chung Do Kwan) published a book he called Taekwondo the Korean art of Self Defense where he describes several training equipment that has since then fallen into disuse. The training equipment he describes were in common use in Korea at the time but I personally think that their usage was lost due to the expansion of Taekwondo westwards. Many of the early pioners did not have a lot of money and they rented spaces and taught at schools, YMCA`s, church halls etc. It would be some time before the "proffesional" Dojang came into the mainstream. Faced with the limitation rented space provides it is no wonder that the focus on technique and excersises making use of the body were stressed as the teachers at the time did not have a lot of other choices. But as we will see eventhough a lot of the training equipment has fallen into disuse they were considered an important part of Taekwondo training both in Korea and the Pioners did try to bring their use to the west when they started exporting Taekwondo.

Pick up just about any of the old writings from the 1960s-70s and you will be introduced to one of the most important piece of training equipment in Taekwondo; enter the Kwon Go, or Dallyon Joo (striking post). In Karate circles it is known as "Makkiwara" and it was considered a key piece of training equipment in Karate

Image source: Tae Kwon Do
(1965)

too before Taekwondo was "born". Son Duk Sung the second headmaster of the Chung Do Kwan writes extensive about its use as late as 1968 if I am not mistaken in his book "Tae Kwon Do Korean Karate". Likewise General Choi Hong Hi also writes extensivly about it in his 1965 book, showing numerous excersises with it as well as how to build your own!

How important were this Kwon Go or Dallyon Joo as it also was known as in training? Well it is reported that Ro Byung Jik the founder of Song Moo Kwan (actually the Korean pronounciation of Shoto as in Shotokan) would strike it several houndred strikes each day, and he did not allow his students to start the main training exercise for the day unless they first strook the post at least 100 times!

Another thing that was often in use before the Korean war was trees. Being taught Taekwondo by a Korean 9th Dan old school teacher I have been exposed to this kind of training. It is always funny if new people are at our Dojang and my teacher say to everyone during training "Everybody out now!". I know what is going to happen but the looks on the faces of the newer ones who are told to go outside (we do not stop put on shoes) and told to find a tree (there are multiple trees just outside the Dojang) and strike it with knifehand strike 200 times, and then with the fist 100 times and maybe do a little blocking (low block, inward middle block, outward middle block etc) before going inside to continue our training. With the blocks and knife hand strikes we strike very hard, but when we use the fist we strike moderatly hard. We have to strike 100 strikes so you want to be able to keep on striking untill the end, but the purpose is more to correct wrist alignment, body posture, etc than to actually toughen up the knuckles as many seem to believe. The look on the passersby (there is a street a little further down from the trees) is also a great spectacle as they see a lot of white pyjamas clothed people screaming and striking trees with their bare hands... We also kick the trees, and this method of training was encouraged by Son Duk Sung in his aforementioned 1968 book:-) He also makes the point of selecting a small point on the tree in the size of a coin to use as target. This way you alos practise accuracy in kicking/striking. I guess if you want a Korean name to the tree in training it would be dallyon namo (dallyon = forging, Nahmo = tree).

Image source: Korean Karate;
The art of Tae Kwon Do
(1968)

But the training equipment might have Kwon Go / Dallyon Joo in the center as a forging tool in Taekwondo, it was far from the only one. You also had Dallyon Gune wich functioned much like the heavy bag would do today. It was/ is a striking pendulum suspended from a beam or roof. It could be a steel pipe or a log
wrapped in anything that would cushion the blows a little depending on the training intensity and level of proficiancy of the practisioner. Where the Dallyon Joo trained the fists, elbow and low kicks, the Dallyon Gune was more suited for combinations, forearms, shins, etc.

Dallyon Tong is another vital piece of equipment that was in use in the old Kwan. It usually started as a box filled with sand or something "soft" but in the course of training the content of the box would be changed to harder materials as you progressed. The Dallyon Tong (forging box) was used to strengthen your fingers for vital point (keupsoh) attacks. In Taekwondo we have spear hand, one and two finger thrust to mention just a few manners of attacks that would benifit from training with the Dallyon Tong.

The training equipment did not stop at tools to enhance striking technique and forging your attacking tools however. There was also gripping jars or Danji to strenghten their grip and different weight training equipment to increse their overal strength. You might notice that gripping strentgth and finger strength is something we no longer stress in mainstream Taekwondo, but both of these were and still are vital in old
school practical application of our forms and basic technique. The pulling hand (dangki son) for instance benifits imensly by this and is a nasty technique unto itself when properly understood. To go back to the accounts of Song Moo Kwan training in the Kwan era it was expected that the students first did weight training excersises followed by pounding the Dallyon Joo before starting the actual training.

Image source: Korean Karate;
The art of Tae Kwon Do
(1968)

General Choi Hong Hi`s book from 1965 documents all the above training equipment (except for weight training) in great detail showing the influence old school Karate had on Oh Do Kwan and the stories from my instructors in Korea as well as my current instructor here in Norway verify this as well as the stories from Song Moo Kwan wich was in "A modern history of Taekwondo" by Kang and Lee (also on Wikipedia).

I think that we should try to if not reintroduce these tools, then make great use of the modern equipment we have access to that promote the same training possibilities (heavy bag, kick shield, pads etc). I honostly think that we should incorporate Dallyon Joo into our training once again as eventhough the heavy bag is a close substitute there are still certain areas Dallyon Joo still has the advantage in training.

Image source: Tae Kwon Do (1965)
This is called "Blocking aparatus"
and I have only seen this in Okinawan Karate styles
and in Choi Hong Hi`s book from 1965.

Happy training everyone:-)

Kihap in Poomsae

2013-03-25T10:38:00.000+01:00

I have written a little about Kihap before on this blog, but something that happened last training session really made me want to write a little about Kihap in Poomsae. You see what happened was that we were doing Poomsae training (the excecution of Poomsae) and everything was going great. People really got what I was trying to say about true power comes from relaxation and not through muscling through each technique (wow that should definitly be a seperate blog post in the future!!). The students were doing the Poomsae on my count with me watching them, again after I gave some instruction on things to look out for with me doing the Poomsae with them, and then once again without counting at all.

What happened was that one of the students suddenly started doing Kihap at the wrong places when doing Poomsae without counting. Naturally since Poomsae in a group setting gets the whole group mentality going (trying to do the same Poomsae, same speed, Kihap together at the same designated Kihap points etc) the other students giggled a little and the student who did "wrong" started to blush.

There was not anything wrong with her Kihap, it was short, loud and powerfull. It was not a scream on its own, but a direct result of Kihap in the older sense (today it is viewed as a spirited shout, but in the old days it was viewed as a concentration of spirit and power).

In the older days of Tode (Tang Soo) or old style Karate there was according to some historians (as all else in Karate history this is debated) none designated Kihap points in the Kata. The students performed their Kata (Hyung or forms) and mentally dissapeared within the Kata to the point that it was difficult to say wether they were doing Kata or living the Kata. Within this state of focus sometimes there would be a concentration of spirit to push through, to muster all the strength into one perfect technique. This was Kiai (Kihap) in its truest sense. The students themselves did the Kiai (Kihap) when they "felt" it not because they had come to count number 18 in their first form (Taegeuk Il (1) Jang).

The designated Kiai points in Karate is a new invention that came with the introduction of Karate into the school system, the exportation to Japan and the sportification of Karate. The Taekwondo pioneers studied Karate in the middle of this proccess so naturally when they designed their own forms they designated Kihap points in them as well. Richard who often comments on this blog says that Kihap often marks a throwing application within the form and that might be correct. A throw makes use of big movement and the whole body, so if there is going to be a Kihap those points will lend themselves well as designated Kihap points even if the throwing application is unknown.

I first really felt "Kihap" in 2006 (6 years after started training) when me and two other students were practising to compete in The World Taekwondo Hanmadang in Muju Korea. We were from different parts of Norway so we only got two weekends to practise together (we were competing in team Poomsae). We started early and practised relentlessly all day. I had to learn Taebaek from scratch and that did not make it any better. At the end of day three I was exhausted and we were doing like the 20 000 run through of Taebaek. More and more I started to Kihap at the wrongest places within the Poomsae. This annoyed the other two I think, but they never told me:-) The teacher seeing we were all exhausted and me "Kihaping" all over the place finnally let us go home to get some rest.

It was on the bus on the way home I understood the true meaning of Kihap in the sense that the scream or shout was a consequense of me putting everything in my being into the techniques instead of a shout for shoutings sake. I also understood that true Kihap is a feeling and something you do and not something you just do because it says so in a book.

So why do we have designated points at all? Uniformity is one answer, but it also is a starting point. If you do not feel it at all you should practise Kihap according to movement and technique untill you understand it and can use it freely. That being said, the designated Kihap points is just a training to do Kihap, and once that is mastered maybe it is time to let go and do it as it was meant to be done? It is not easy to master it (it took me 6 years of training and a weekend of non stop training that people today rarely ever get to experience) so having designated Kihap points in all of our Poomsae is one great way to ensure that all students practise Kihap untill they get it.

The whole point of this post? Well the student in the history of the beginning did not do anything wrong in my eyes. She did everything correct, and grasped the meaning of Kihap intuitivly through training. The designated Kihap points in her training of Poomsae likely played a big role in this.

Korean terms for "lost concepts" Part Three

2013-03-20T11:44:00.000+01:00

Image source:
Taekwondo; Secrets
of Korean Karate

This post will look further down the list for lost concepts as listed in the excellent article series "The Okinawan Elephant in the room" (part 4a) by Ciarân McDonald. If you have not done so allready, I will advise that you start at part one and work your way through the series in the order they were published. This is the last part and I will look at the last two concepts that the author of The Okinawan Elephant in the room" gave in his article series part 4a.

Warning/Disclaimer: I know some Korean, but I am not affluent in it and I am certainly not a Korean myself. So if you are reading this as a person affluent in the Korean language and you for some reason disagree with my please do not hessitate to drop a comment below.

No eungyoung 응용 (application) is complete without a proper target. To make the most of each application you need to study the body and its weaknesses. In Taekwondo today this is something that is often overlooked as speed and power is often the only thing that is trained, and the target areas are vague and big as the scoring areas on the body (front of the body, and the sides of the body) and maybe the face/head. To be frank this approach is great for beginners as speed and power is what makes the technique work in the first place, and the target areas are the "poison at the tip of the arrow" not the arrow itself. If you miss you should still create enough damage or at least stun your opponent enough to get away or create a new opening. The study of target areas in Traditional Taekwondo, and its root arts (chinese Quan Fa, Shudokan, Shotokan and Shito Ryu Karate as well as Taek Kyon) is based on Oriental Medicine, often targeting Acupuncture points (and other "obvious weak points such as the eyes).

The Japanese Martial Arts call this study Kyusho Juitsu and this term is often translated into English as "Vital Point Manipulation". Vital points in KMA usually described under the term "Keupsoh" (급소) wich indeed is translated as "Vital Point" or "Spot". If you look up a Taekwondo Text containing a list of vital points the Korean term for vital points in this list is usually "Keupsoh". But the term Vital Point Manipulation has another Korean term that I have only rarely seen in Taekwondo (sometimes I have heard it in Hapkido wich in my opinion has preserved more of this concept in their mainstream than Taekwondo has), a term my own teacher used when he wrote his first two books on Taekwondo in the early 90s: "Heol Bob" 혈 법 (also seen as Hyul Bob, and Hyul Do Bob 혈 도 법). Both a few Hapkido books that I have as well as Wikipedia use Hyul Do Bob as the Korean term for Kyusho Juitsu. Heol/ Hyul 혈 is usually translated with "blood" but blood in oriental medicine and thought is very closely related to "Ki" 기, the energy or essense that oriental medicine is based on. Bob or bup 법 means "law", or "method".

In my teachers book from the early 90s he divided the vital point manipulation into two categories. The first was to use pressure to manipulate the points to force a response like pain or other reflexive responses but he notes that eventhough it is pressure the response could sometimes come from strikes as well. The term for (mainly using) pressure was "Ap Heol Bop" or 압 혈 법. He notes that you need to be very strong in your grip and fingers as well as being accurate to properly exploit the vital points using this method. Ap/ Ab 압 means pressure not to be confused with "Ap" 앞 or "Front" as in Front Kick (Ap Chagi). The other category is the striking of Vital Points wich he used the term "Tae Heol Bob" 태 혈 법(I am not sure about the Hangul for Tae 태 in this term so use the hangul at your own perril. The book only contained the terms in our latin alphabet, I have checked the hangul with dictionarys when I have been in doubt but I did not find that Tae 태 refered to striking anywhere. We do know that it is a term for kicking or using your foot as in Tae Kwon Do but as I said, the dictionaries failed me at this point).

So Vital points in Korean is Keupsoh 급소, vital point manipulation in general is Heol Bob" 혈 법 sometimes refered to as Hyul Do Bob 혈 도 법. Sub categories of vital point manipulation are vital point manipulation using pressure: Ap Heol Bop" or 압 혈 법. Vital point manipulation using strikes: Tae Heol Bob" 태 혈 법.

The last concept that was listed was Qinna (Chin Na) wich is a Chinese term covering a wide variety of grappling and joint manipulation. Quote from the article:

".... it involves, attacking the joints, seperating muscle from bone, bone from bone, tendons from bones and pain compliance. This is such a fundamental part of White Crane kung fu strategy that it would make up a large part of any Chinese influenced Kata. The Japanese term for this is Kansetsu-waza" - Ciarân McDonald

It is a great explanation of how the term is used in the Chinese and possibly the Japanese arts except for choking and strangulation is also a part of the Quinna/ Chin Na term in the Chinese Arts. The Hanja for this term that the Chinese use is 擒拿. The first character means catch, arrest, seize and capture and the second character means take, hold, grasp. The Korean reading of this Hanja character is Geum na 금나. Now when I translated the Chinese Character into Korean through a computer program I got the Korean word for grab, seize, grappling or catch: Japki 잡기. I guess it is up to the practisioner if this is a term we want to use in our training and as long as you have the Chinese Character you can use Geum Na as a term to mean the same thing as in the Chinese Arts, but I do not think that a Korean non Martial Artist would understand only the korean writing on its own 금나. Japki 잡기 on the other hand is a normal word where "grappling" is a valid translation allthough not the most common use of the word (it most commonly is translated as "catch, grab or seize).

My personal suggestion for the mainstream is to use the current catch all phrase of grappling, choking, throwing well everything: Ho Sin Sul 호신술 translated it means the art of self defense. In my own opinion this term should be used for applied Taekwondo (not just the applications from the forms but the application of Taekwondo as a form of self defense). The current mainstream however (as far as I have seen heard and read) use this term to cover essentually the same things (and more) as the Chinese use their Quinna (Chin Na) term for. As the term is widely used today it might be the best and easiest to incorporate into mainstream teaching of Taekwondo.

And that concludes our short jurney into the "lost concepts" of Taekwondo. Please leave a comment if and tell me if you liked the series, or if you did not like it:-) Feedback is always great.

Korean terms for "lost concepts" Part Two

2013-03-16T09:54:00.000+01:00

Image source:
Taekwondo; Secrets
of Korean Karate

This post will look further down the list for lost concepts as listed in the excellent article series "The Okinawan Elephant in the room" (part 4a) by Ciarân McDonald. If you have not done so allready, I will advise you to read the first part of this series:-) As researching of forms has not been emphasised in the Korean Martial Arts (I think that was an understatement) we have no terminology to help us in that department. The Japanese Martial Arts comunity on the other hand has been researching their forms more or less since the start (allthough the applications has historically since the 1920s onwards been of the simple kick, block punch kind) and has therefore developed a terminology for use in that field. This series is my attempt to introduce these concepts and to give them Korean terms so that Taekwondoin can if they feel like it reintroduce them into their training/ teaching.

Warning/Disclaimer: I know some Korean, but I am not affluent in it and I am certainly not a Korean myself. So if you are reading this as a person affluent in the Korean language and you for some reason disagree with my please do not hessitate to drop a comment below.

Henka is a Japanese term that is used in JMA about applications that have been altered. A "what if this goes wrong" application. It is still based on the application you got from doing your forms analasys earlier but it might not look much like the techniques in the form. I really liked the authors own explanation on this term:

"Henka: Variation on an application. After doing bunkai to find an oyo, we may then ponder what adaptations could and would be necessary depending on changes in responses or circumstances and how could these variations be achieved". - Ciarân McDonald

The "Kanji" or "Hanja" character for "Henka" is 変化. I translated into english to see what it "really" meant and I found "change", "variation" so it does seem to be allright. "Henka" or 変化 in Korean Hangul writing is "byonhwa" or "변화". As this is a term that is far away from the mainstream Taekwondo I think it is up to us to either make ourselves a new one, or simply use the original term "Henka" in Korean pronounciation. Personally I like consistency when I teach, so I would rather use all my terms in Korean as far as possible than mish and mash a lot of different languages together to sound "smart". No for a Korean person just saying "Byonhwa" might sound a little strange, but the same applies for the Japanese non martial artists when they only hear "henka". The terminology is for us who researches and teaches Korean forms based Martial Arts. The terms might not make much sense outside that environment. I checked the "Hangul" 변화 to see if I got the same translation as I originally got from the Kanji/ Hanja "変化" and it was the same "change", and "variation" meanings in both.

Muchimi is a term often found in Okinawan Karate styles and refers to the controlling of limbs withouth holding and grabbing them. It is very similar to the Chinese concept of "sticky hands". The Chinese Character to write "Muchimi" 餅身 actually refers to "rice cake hands/arms/body" wich sounds very strange. I got it translated to Korean and actually got the Korean word for rice cake "Ddock" "떡" (delicious) and body "Mohm" "몸". It is a very poetic name for the concept but I do not really like it and I would suggest we go with "sticky arms" instead. I will see if I can contact any Korean practising Wing Chun to see if they have a Korean name for the concept but in the meantime I propose the usage of "끈적팔" "Kkheunchack pal" wich is a direct translation for sticky arms. Some who will check the Hangul through google translate or other such places might find 팔 or "Pal" to be eight and sure enough google translate does not even translate pal into arm chosing only eight when the whole term is written in, but check only pal and you get "arm" too. The Korean language is filled with homonyms (two words that sound just alike but with multiple meanings. I.e in english "Dear" and "Deer" is two different words but they sound alike. Unlike many western written languages where we differentitate the spelling in hangul they write it the same.)

Below is a video where you can see the "Muchimi" or "Kkeunchack Pal" demonstrated. Insted of hard blocking the attacking limbs away, he keeps contact with the attacking limb and redirects it, making new openings or oppertunities for himself.

And here is one for Wing Chungs "Sticky hands". The speed is faster, but the principle remains of not knocking the attacking limb away but to keep contact with it and redirecting it to create openings.

Click here to go directly to part 3 (last post of the series) Please leave a comment if this stuff was interesting and let me know what you think:-)

Korean terms for "lost concepts" Part One

2013-03-12T10:53:00.002+01:00

Gichin Funaksohi

In the latest issue of Totally Taekwondo Magazine (one of the best Taekwondo Magazines in the whole universe in my own humble opinion) there has been one "series" of articles that I have enjoyed a lot. It is called "The Okinawan Elephant in the room" and as the title suggests it is a series examining the relevance of Karate Kata to our Taekwondo Patterns (well the Chang Hon ones anyway). At the end of Part 4 in the latest issue in that magazine everyone should read:p there was an interesting part:

"Lost concepts - Knowledge of the concepts that were essential study in ancient Kung-Fu and Toudi is vital when attempting to understand the Kata/ Tul (Poomsae). Though many of these concepts have all but disappeared from modern Karate and Taekwon-Do there are at least Japanese names for these concepts; even if their translations never made it into Taekwon-Do." - Ciarân McDonald

There was a list of concepts after this quote that are in use in Japanese Martial Arts (JMA) but wich are as the author rightfully say not used in mainstream Taekwondo today. One of the goals of this blog however is to "re-introduce" these concepts into the mainstream. If I can enlighten or give just a few readers anything of value that they can take into their own teachings and studies then all the writing has been worth it. When I read the article and saw the list with the Japanese terminology I thought it to be a shame that Korean Martial Arts practicioners did not have their own terminology of these important concepts. Therefore I have opted to recount his list of concepts but with my own interpretations/explonations of them and providing both the authors original terminology (as many readers of this blog undoubtfully know allready) and the Korean terminology (wich is not used in the mainstream).

Warning/Disclaimer: I know some Korean, but I am not affluent in it and I am certainly not a Korean myself. So if you are reading this as a person affluent in the Korean language and you for some reason disagree with my please do not hessitate to drop a comment below.

Lost concepts mentioned in "The Okinawan Elephant in the room":

Hikite
Bunkai
Oyo
Henka
Muchimi
Kyusho Juitsu
Quinna (Chin Na)

Hikite is a Japanese term that is translated into "The Pulling Hand". It refers to the hand that is pulled toward the hip in typical Karate and Taekwondo Techniques. Gichin Funakoshi himself wrote in his 1925 book (but the same essense can be found all the way to his last 1950s book):

"The true meaning of the hikite, or pulling hand, is to grab the opponent's attacking hand and pull it in whilst twisting it as much as possible so that his body is forced to lean against the defender." - Gichin Funakoshi

The early Karate pioners who taught those who would later found the Kwan (schools) that later formed Taekwondo left us a pretty good idea what the function of the pulling hand was through their writings. After we as Taekwondo practisioners embrace our Karate roots instead of trying to hide them we can dvelwe deep into these Karate resources and make sense of our own system. The interesting thing is that eventhough our modern mainstream practises does not make logical use of "Hikite" as Funakoshi describes in the above quote, the founders of the different Kwan did study with the Karate Pioners and I can not help but think that if they put the function of Hikite in their writings all the way through the 1950s then it would be strange if the pioners of Taekwondo did not learn this meaning for "Hikite" too. The Korean term for "Hikite" is "Dangki Son" (당기손) wich means "Pulling hand"

Bunkai is the JMA concept for researching Kata or Forms. It means to dissect or to break appart like a mechanic taking apart an engine to see how it works or to find and fix the problem. I have written about this concept before so I will just briefly mention the Korean terms again:

Boonhae (분해) is the Korean pronounciation of Bunkai. It means to take apart but I do not find this to be a good term on its own, coupled with "Hae Sul" (look below) would make a lot more sense..
Bonseok (분석) means analisys and is a better term in my opinion than boonhae in itself.
Hae Sul (해설) means "indepth study" or "explanation" and can be used together with Boonhae to describe the study of forms by taking them appart, or it can be used on its own (i.e Poomsae Il Jang Hae Sul)

Oyo is a JMA term for the actual application of (a) technique(s) from the forms that are a result of researching them with "bunkai" (for Korean terms look above). The Kukkiwon Textbook uses a very good term (in my own opinion) for practical applications and that is "Eungjoong Dongjak" (응용동작). Eungjoong (응용) means practical or application or applied and Dongjak (동작) means technique or movement. Eungjoong (응용) could probably be used alone without Dongjak (동작) though. The way Kukkiwon Textbook uses it is general application of Taegeuk Il Jang is "Taegeuk Il Jang Eungjoong. If you want to be more specific within a Poomsae for instance Taegeuk Il Jang you refer to the moves number (i.e 1-2 eungjoong dongjak when we allready know wich poomsae we are discussing it is low block in short front stance and midle section punch in short front stance).

I will have part two of this ready as soon as I can. Please leave a comment if this stuff was interesting and let me know what you think:-)

Taekwondo in the Olympics, What good did it bring?

2013-02-27T13:18:00.000+01:00

I rutinely see, hear and read about Taekwondo in the Olympics and all the bad things it brought forth and how it has wrecked Taekwondos reputation etc. I have my self written a little about how I see that the focus on sport has watered Taekwondo down (let us not make believe anything else) from a once respected Martial ART to a ridiculed Martial Sport, but I would also be in the wrong not to tell you about some of the good things it has brought that you might not normally hear about or even realise:-) Now this is just me rambling on, you will not see any concrete evidence to support this, as it is my own impression through my training, travels and experiences.

Taekwondo has grown execptionally since its inclusion in the Olympics. In my own country Taekwondo was really obscure and few people knew anything about it. The few who did used to say it was Korean Karate. Even when I started practising Taekwondo 13 years ago it was just starting to overcome that mental image and this was not that long ago:-) Today however the sport Taekwondo is a household name even in Norway:-) And you will be hard pressed to find people who has not heard about it and many can even say that it is in the Olympics, it is originally from Korea and it is mainly kicking techniques. So from being an obscure form of Karate it is now a recognized sport and a household name, in large thanks to the Olympics.

With the increased media coverage (from non existant to a fair share when compared to other sports) there was a great increase in the number of students. The increased media coverage came largely from it being an Olympic sport but the increase in the number of students did not only come to the sports clubs but also to the traditional dojang (both Kukkiwon affiliated and the ITF afilliated) ones. So these days more people know about Taekwondo, it is more in the media than before and there are more people practising it (in all its kinds).

The increased focus on sport really did something to the instructors mindsets in how they conducted their training. Suddenly new ideas were tested out, modern sports science was applied and the pedagogic method in wich the system was conveyed from instructor to students was improved upon with new educational methods. All this is something I think we owe to the Taekwondo in the Olympics. If you compare similar martial arts that does not compete you will see that they more often employ dangerous and outdated training methods that you will be hard pressed to find in Taekwondo Dojang today.

Practical mindset when looking at our art; the focus on "sport Taekwondo" has made Taekwondoin more practical than the older Taekwondo (as seen in older writings). We spar a lot more than older incarnations of Taekwondo (not counting Ji Do Kwan), we spar earlier in our training than before (traditionally only the last ranks before black belt was allowed to spar), we spar continually rounds with brakes only between rounds and not after each "point" and we sometimes spar full contact (depending on your school and organisation). Again this has lead to a search for better training methods etc as well as a good testing of our techniques against a resisting opponent. Yes we did loose a lot too but thats for others to say, this is a post on the good things;)

So quick recap:

Recognition of Taekwondo
More media coverage
More students practising
Better training methods
Scientific approach to training and teaching
Practical mindset towards training

I will not say that this did not come with a hefty price because it surely did, but lets look at what we did get in the proccess. It is up to us now to take all the good things we did get and match this together with the best "lost aspects" so we can make Taekwondo the best Martial Art we can make it. Tradition for Taekwondo is change and evolution, but Tradition in Taekwondo is also to seek what the pioneers sought; An holistic, Martial Art that was good to train the body and mind as well as being good and practical for self defense!.

"Makki"; Does It Actually Mean "Block"?

2013-02-12T11:38:00.001+01:00

Makki (막기) is often translated as "Block" in most Taekwondo Textbooks but if you care so much about Taekwondo that you actually look it up in a dictionary you will find that it can be "prevent" or

"avoid" not a single "block" in sight... The word Makki is a conjugated word from the word "Makda". If you look up the unconjugated verb "Makda" (막다) you get all sorts of meanings:

Obstruct
Block
Occlude
Jam
Prevent
Keep off
Ward off
etc

We do get a somewhat defensive theme going on, but the english word "block" allthough a simple enough word and a valid translation it seems does not really convey the meaning of Makda/Makki but rather just one aspect of it. Yes these are "defensive movements" but it seems that the "static blocks" you automaticly think when you here the word "block" there is all sorts of neuances in the original language of Taekwondo. Look at the top word in the bullet list above: "Obstruct" here the techniques are used to obstruct the attack but how? Thats up to your imagination. The second word block is where an attack i made and the defender tries to slam it away with a static "block". As for the third word "Occlude" I can safely say I have no idea what it means:-) Hey English is not my native language and they surely did not teach us "occlude" in school:p

"Jam" is another concept of defense that I find intriguing. A telegraphed haymaker winding up before comming forward? Jam it at the bicep area and the harder he hits the more pain he gets. That was just one single example but hey its only your imagination that sets the limits. "Prevent" conjures up a whole new view. Instead of waiting for the attack to acutally happen and then staticly block it here is a technique that actually prevents the attack alltogether!

Keep off and ward of? Also far away from the mental images that "block" conjures up in my mind. The first might be a concept of closing his attacking limbs maybe by crossing his arms or something or maybe release techniques from holds? Ward off is not really the concept of parrying that I first thought.. Parrying is where you kinda "slap" the attacks away from you with short movements. Ward of is much more moving the attacking limb out of the way and "sticking to it" rather than a parry in my mind. I might be mistaken about this but hey thats my own limited understanding.

The point of this post? Look at all the various "Makki" techniques you have at your disposal being a Taekwondo student and try not to tranlsate the word "Makki" with block. See if the movements does fit in with the other translations instead. That might be one "key" to open up a lot more "practical" approaches to "Makki" techniques than what is usually portraied:-)

"Basic Applications" to Taekwondo Forms

2013-02-06T09:26:00.000+01:00

I rutinely search google and youtube for "Taekwondo Poomsae Application", "Taekwondo Forms Application" etc to see if I can get some new ideas. Well more often than not the only thing I get from Google is my own stuff on this blog (so please if you are into researching your Taekwondo forms dont be shy, share with the world:-) ) and there is little activity on youtube as well. The little Taekwondo applications you will find there is most often of ITF/Chang Hon Ryu Taekwondo and not the Kukkiwon Taekwondo that I am researching. I was therefore pleasently suprised when I came over a new clip (one day old at the time of writing) that promised practical applications to Taekwondo forms (Kukkiwon forms).

Now after seing through the clip I quickly realised that these are the basic applications that the label of the techniques give away (e.g "low block = block a low attack, face block = blocking a punch at your face etc). The thing is that these applications while not very "practical" in their own sense does provide a starting point that sadly many Taekwondoin misses in their training. I used to be suprised that many did not even learn applications at the most basic level in their training asking questions like the second move in Taegeuk Sa (4) Jang where we put our left hand under the right elbow while doing a vertical spear hand thrust to get some really ridiqulous nonsense answers (because it looks cooler than pulling it to our hip was one answer I overheard a practisioner answer her junior belts and she was the rank right below black belt). I mean there are really 4 ways to tackle this:

Give a practical application (some refer to alternative or advanced)
Give a basic application and tell them that there are other more practical ways of doing it
Give a basic application and do not do anything more
Admit you do not have all answers but say you will try to find one

Now I might not be a fan of "basic applications" but I do see them as valuable starting points. The clip itself is very well made with first the solo performance of the form and then the applications shown two times at different angles. Now a word of caution though: the way the solo performance is done is radically different than the way the Kukkiwon teaches the same forms so do not try to learn the forms from this video. The differences are sometimes "minor" in that the chambering of certain techniques are altered, to "huge" as in the form actually lacking whole techniques! Poomsae Koryo in this clip have a lot of front kicks in the beginning removed wich makes this version of Koryo something completly else than the Kukkiwon version. That being said it was refreshing to find an altered Taekwondo form where kicks were removed instead of blindly inserted at random. All in all I think this is a great contribution to Taekwondo and I thank the ones involved for making it, giving their time and most of all sharing it with everyone.

Does Taekwondo Teach Elbow Strikes and Knee Strikes?

2013-02-05T13:59:00.000+01:00

Image source:
Taekwondo; Secrets of Korean Karate
Published in 1968

This is one question I often hear or read. Many a prospective student of the Martial Arts ask these questions since arts like Muy Thai and MMA often display these techniques in a devestating way. The other day at work I overheard a few customers in their late teens discussing wich Martial Art they should start to practise. Taekwondo was one of the first arts that was proposed but it was quickly turned down by the fact that it is only leg fencing and it does not contain any close range weapons like knees and elbow strikes.

The guy who came out with this fact? 2nd Dan hoder of ITF Taekwondo! I did not step in or say anything since it would be out of my place to do so, but I could not help but wonder what kind of Dojang he belonged to.. I have no expertise in the subject of ITF Taekwondo as I have never formally trained in it, but I did believe the organisation was somewhat better to keep the "Martial Ways" of old than the Kukkiwon wich has been so dominated by the WTF (a pure sporting organisation).

First of all to make myself pretty clear: WTF Taekwondo does not contain anything else than a few blocks, footwork, a ton of kicks, and a few rudimentary "punches". It is purely a sporting organisation and as such only train and allow techniques that are allowed in "olympic style sparring". Kukkiwon Taekwondo on the other hand is something entirely else and is (at the current time of writing) the only Taekwondo grades that are recognised by the WTF (wich is the reason why many call Kukkiwon Taekwondo for WTF Taekwondo).

Kukkiwon Taekwondo has a lot of close range weapons at their disposal. The training time devoted to their usage will vary from instructor to instructor and Dojang to Dojang but the techniques are right there in the system! There is no denying it allthough many do for some reason....

In my Dojang we frequently train knee strikes, both frontal strikes (Mooreup Chigi) and a "roundhouse knee strike" (Mooreup Dollyeo Chigi). I teach these and use them during warm up in my classes as most of our kicks uses the knee lift as the first part of the kicks.. In Taegeuk Chil Jang (7th colored belt pattern) the knee strike is presented in a grappling context where the center line is controlled with a wedge block movement, the head of the opponent is seized with both hands and then smashed into the raising knee strike! It is right there in our Poomsae and not high up there in those Poomsae that you learn after years and decades of training, it is right there for the colored belts to see. The Poomsae only shows one specific example but the example should be toyed around with and experimented with so the trainee can master its application. To say that Kukkiwon or Kukki Taekwondo does not contain knee strikes is as absurd as saying that we do not have Poomsae! Of course we have... If the application of the knee strike is something that is overlooked in most Dojang over the world it is not the fault of the system it is rather the fault of the instructors!

But what about the elbow strikes??? We do not have those now have we??? Well we totally most certainly absolutely do! Even without sophisticated pattarn analisys or applications we do have elbow strike in a circular fashion in Taegeuk Oh Jang (allthough I would say that the basic application of a circular elbow strike is a misinterpreted wrist lock but thats another story), and again this circular elbow strike is not taught in a form that is learned after decades of practise it is from the blue belt form! We also have elbowing an opponent we are holding from the same form, and in Taegeuk Chil (7) Jang. The circular elbow strike is revisited in the eight colored belt form, and the sideways elbow strike is learned in in the first degree black belt form (Poomsae Koryo).

The downward elbow strike is written about in the Kukkiwon Textbook so it is very much part of the system but it is only implyed in the Poomsae, there is no clear downward elbow strike in the kukkiwon Poomsae. Again I will repeat it is clearly depicted in the Kukkiwon Textbook (not just the older version but the latest version as well!). Same thing witht the backward elbow strike allthough you could say that each time we pull our non striking/blocking hand to our hip we are doing a backward elbow strike.

The upward elbow strike is also clearly depicted in Kukkiwon Textbook but it does make an apperance in Poomsae Pyongwon. This is for 4th Degree Blackbelt so I can understand it if some people think that it does not appear in our Poomsae but it certainly does (just fashionably late).

I am no expert in Thai Boxing (I just know what I have seen in Thai boxing mathces, Tony Jaas movies and from a book, but I have never seen any more kinds of elbow strikes or knee strikes than the ones covered in this post.

This does not mean that you will learn the application of these techniques in mainstream Taekwondo Dojang today, or that it will ever be looked closer at than the performance of Poomsae, BUT they are in our system and the Kukkiwon Textbook clearly urges us to master the applications of the techniques in our Poomsae! If you are learning Taekwondo but you are not taught these techniques it is not the fault of the system but rather the fault of your instructor(s)! I do not teach these techniques to children or in classes where children are present, but for the adults and late teens I wish to teach the complete system not only those suited for sport but rather the complete Martial Art of Taekwondo. For the record if you practise "WTF Taekwondo" you can dismiss this whole post as the WTF is ONLY A SPORTING ORGANIZATION and it has nothing to do with Martial Art and everything to do with Martial Sport.

Kihap and Chumbi Seogi in Matchoe Kyorugi

2013-01-23T10:43:00.002+01:00

In my last two posts I wrote a little more indepth about"Chumbi Seogi" and "Kihap" as well as their role in Taekwondo. This time I wanted to shed some light over the role of Chumbi Seogi and Kihap in Matchoe Kyorugi (in our Dojang at least).

When you do one, two, three step sparring you do a lot of Kihap, as well as Chumbi Seogi. Even though it is considered an external hard excercise it does contain a lot of inner soft training as well. The Kihap and Chumbi Seogi as Ki excersises have been dealt with (albeit shortly) in my last two previous posts so I will not repeat myself to much in this one as both Kihap and Chumbi Seogi does have a few extra roles in Matchoe Kyorugi.

For those who do not know Matchoe Kyorugi is predetermined sparring where all actions are known beforehand. It follows a strict framework and in our school they are all completly "set", but in other schools and organisations they are made up on the spot, all that is known is where the attacker is targeting as well as how many attacks the attacker will do. Except from that fact the framework wich the Matchoe Kyorugi works is the same:

Both opponents face each other in attention stance and bow (depending on the school this is done between each and every matchoe kyorugi, others like my school does this before the first and after the last Matchoe Kyorugi). The distance between the opponents should be no longer than one arms length. He or she should be able to hit his or hers partner from this distance if he or she wanted to.
Both partners do Chumbi Seogi simultainiously. As both opens with the left foot some adjustment is needed so the face each other front to front.
The attacker steps back with his right foot into long front walking stance (Ap Koobi) low block (Arae Makki) and performs Kihap.
The defender still in Chumbi Seogi performs Kihap.
The attacker attacks with a predermined attack or at least to a predetermined area on the defenders body a predetermined number of times before freezing.
The defender defends against the attacks before counter attacking after the last attack from the attacker. After or rather at the completion of the counter attack the defender performs Kihap.
Both move into Chumbi Seogi before the roles are reversed.
After the last Matchoe Kyorugi the partners return to Chumbi Seogi, then attention stance and bow.

This is the framework that Matchoe Kyorugi works within.

The Chumbi seogi in point two is done so both are standing in perfect balance, but not in a "fighting position". The attacker moving his right leg back and do low block signifies that a Taekwondo student never strikes first (this should NOT be taken literally). The fact that the defender starts defending from Chumbi Seogi does NOT mean that Chumbi Seogi is a ready fighting stance. It should be understood that this is actually training to defend from a neutral "normal" body position. You are rarely if ever ready to fight when attacked in self defence so this is acknowledged in our training.

Then there are the "Kihap`s". My teacher explained it to me as a "conversation" between the partners. You see in the "old days" when he started training it was not allowed to speak during practise. The instructor would speak, but there would be no whispering, no questions and no small talk during class. Kihap on the other hand was encouraged so the first Kihap from the attacker is Taekwondoish for: "I am going to attack you with all my might. Are you ready?" The defenders first Kihap is Taekwondoish for: "I am ready, give me your best shot and do not hold back". The defenders last Kihap is Taekwondoish for: "I am finished now, lets go to chumbi seogi together and continue training".

Kihap, "Taekwondo`s spirited shout"

2013-01-14T15:24:00.001+01:00

Beginner students are the best! They ask great questions and sometimes I find myself learning more about Taekwondo teaching it than studying it. Last week I was asked about information on the "Kihap" that we frequently do during training. Apparently he had googled "Kihap" to learn more about the subject but google had turned out to be very silent about the matter for some reason. There were a few simple wiki answers and yahoo answers and an occasional thread on a discussion forum but there was very little indepth writing about Kihap, its place in Taekwondo etc. This topic fits in nicely here on the blog as last post I discussed Chumbi Seogi as a Kigong (excercise to practise Ki).

Contrary to popular belief "Kihap" does not mean shout or yell, at least not originally. In newer dictionarys you might find "spirited yell" or "spirited shout" as a translation but its original meaning is far from any shouting or vocabular sounds at all. The word "Kihap" is put together with two base words, the first "Ki" often translated as "energy" or "life force" and "Hap" meaning to coordinate, gather, concentrate. Kihap as a term therefore describe a concentration, coordination or gathering of energy, power or force. A related term is Hapki put together of the same base words in a different order. Yes it is the same words as Hapkido without the "do", and it is a term describing the key principle of Hapkido namely the coordination, or harmonising of power/energy. It is a "soft" concept of blending with the force of the opponent, while Kihap is a concept to concentrate all the power in an instant to create maximum power.

Specific to Martial Arts is the conotation of Ki and bio-mechanicly efficancy. Kihap with the shout is a training method to develop "Ki" so in the hard style of Taekwondo you have the "soft" training methods of both Chumbi Seogi and Kihap in our training.

The shout is not the Kihap rather it is a consequence of Kihap. You should abruptly focus your abdomen and core muscles forcing the breath out to generate maximum power (this is of course linked with the other factors of power, body weight, hips etc). The sound is a consequence of Kihap and it comes automaticly. The Kihap shout should be loud and short as it is a method to generate maximum power. Sometimes when I watch forms on youtube you will see looooooong screams without any involvment with the core muscles made to impress the spectators. For a traditionally trained martial artist this is a display of ignorance and it is only an empty copy of the original concept of Kihap.

There are some different usages associated with Kihap where the shout is a concequense and not the act itself:

Kihap as a method of maximum powergeneration
Kihap to scare the opponent
Kihap to psyche yourself up (confidense)
Kihap to heighten disipline in training
Kihap to ignore/work through pain
Kihap to protect your body
etc

Kihap as a method to generate maximum power in a short space of time is discussed earlier in the post. Kihap to scare the opponent on the other hand is something often overlooked in the Dojang. After a few months of training you and your fellow students will be more or less used to hearing shouths in training and sparring. It is "normal" or perhaps "New Normal". What people often forget is that a loud Kihap can catch just about any "untrained" off guard and make the freeze or stop in his tracks. I have often sparred with new beginners (love doing that because you never know what they might conjure up to use against you), and observed that those not accustomed to Kihap yet can be defeated through its use. Just a few weeks ago I sparred with a white belt (I was very nice and let him do his thing so he could learn). He telegraphed his attack and I did a loud Kihap. He froze for something that seemed as an eternity allthough it was perhaps only a second or two. For those seconds I was free to do as I liked... Another time my opponent started running the opposite way because my Kihap came so unexpeted.... A real life encounted by a friend that studies under the same master as I do was in a holliday in Rome. Two guys approached and tried to rob her of her belongings. She stepped into a fighting stance and did the loudest Kihap she could. The result: Two robbers (grown men) started running away from her as fast as possible. They might not have been frightend by the Kihap but it did draw a lot of attention.

That kind of floats over to the next point of the bullet list above; psyche yourself up. A loud Kihap does feel good and it psychological effects are well documented in other sports and warfare. In this setting the Kihap shout works as a kind of warcry. It can psyche up yourself, but done in unison it can also heighten the spirit of the group wich again makes us float into the next point of the bullet list; to heighten disipline in training. When I teach kids it is only a question of time before their curious minds start wondering off and the disiplin of training gets lower and lower. Everytime I sense this I make a point of doing simple techniques (maybe punches or something) with Kihap on every technique. This is a surefire way of getting them to pay attention again and they actually seem to like it.

Kihap as a way to work through pain: When you stomp your foot on a piece of furniture or something simular you often scream loud and clear. The Kihap usually take the form of "Sh*****************************t":-p It is a naturall response and according to one martial arts teacher of mine this is the body trying to get rid off an excessive "Ki" surge. He explained it with another example and that was when you receive a kick with your abdomen the kick creates a "shock force" into the body, trying to keep balance the one who received the kick makes a "Kihap" shout to rid himself of some of this excess energy or Ki. Timed right this can (again according to one of my teachers) protect your body from harm or at least confine it somewhat. I do not have any scientific evidence of this so do take it with a pinch of salt. In my own subjective experience I can attest to "feeling" it work, but I can not decide if it is psychological in my head or if it does actually work:-)

These are all the regular "Kihap" the ones where you produce a "spirited shout". At an advanced point in training the students should try to make a "silent Kihap", one where there are no sound. This does not work as well as a Kihap that also produces a sound but it does work better than no Kihap at all. Another way to put it is to use "controlled breathing" in your techniques where you breathe out timed with your techniques. Breathing is the most important thing in Taekwondo so it is not strange that we do have breathing excersises like Chumbi Seogi, Dan Jun Ho hop (abdominal breathing), Kihap etc. I do hope I have shed some light on the issue. There is still a lot more to be said about Kihap as a concept but I will leave that to another post:-)

Good and happy training everyone:-)

A Discussion on "Chumbi Seogi/Ready Stance"

2013-01-10T08:16:00.001+01:00

As an instructor I usually teach beginners first the "attention stance" or "Charyot Seogi", then the bow, followed by "Chumbi Seogi" (ready stance) followed by Juchum Seogi (horse stance) and low block (Arae Makki). Other teachers teach in a different order, but I feel this order shows of much of Traditional Taekwondo Philosophy. But I am digressing (allready!) and to get us back on track; the point is that Chumbi Seogi or ready stance is one of the first things beginners learn in Traditional Taekwondo Dojang no matter wich "style" of Taekwondo you belong to. The instruction varies from "Copy my movement and look serious" instruction, to a more detailed one where the instructors shows the student all the movement details (how wide the stance is, where the toes point, the weight ratio of each leg, etc etc) and if he is lucky (the student that is) he is also taught to breathe along the movements. Unfortunatly this is where it starts and stops for most Taekwondoin, they perfect the movement but it is somehow "shallow" and it is only done because of "Tradition". Note this article discusses "Gibon Chumbi Seogi" from now on refered to as Chumbi Seogi. Below you will see a clip from how Kukkiwon wanted it performed in 1995. Today the hands are opened completly and then made into fists as they come to the solar plexus. 97% the same as this clip demonstrates:-) Look at 0:11 seconds into the clip.

I honestly believe that there is so much more to the Chumbi Seogi than what meets the eye, so it is a shame that the instuction is only focusing on movement with little to no "content".

Many are wondering what Chumbi Seogi really means, as ready stance sounds so simple. The esoteric movements, the breathing and the importance Traditional Taekwondo put on the Chumbi Seogi makes a lot of students to believe that "Ready Stance" is an overly simplified translation from Korean. That is not the case as "Chumbi" literally means "Ready" and it is used in everyday language. Chumbi Undong is what we would term "Warm up" (for training) in Korean. It simply means ready training.

The esoteric movements, the breathing is not meant to be used as "ready" as in this position you are ready to face all opponents or it is the ultimate fighting position as some others have stated in the past. It is as much a mental excersice as it is physical movements. It is "Mind-Body Training" in that you are using physical movements and breathing to get your mind ready for the excersice. In our training we usually do Chumbi Seogi before each and every Poomsae, in between all the Matchoe Kyorigi, every time we change technqiues in Gibon Dongjak training (basic techniques) etc. To sum it up: We do Chumbi Seogi a lot during training and every training! I know that our Dojang is not very special in this regard but many do not really stop to think why Taekwondo stress this movement so much that you do it so many times during practise. In more modern Dojang the Chumbi Seogi might only be relegated to Poomsae practise but there is a reason why it both starts and ends with Chumbi Seogi:-)

Like I wrote in the introduction I first teach the attention stance (Charyeot Seogi) followed by bowing followed by Chumbi Seogi followed by a "defensive" technique. The reason behind this is that first you must learn to have attention so you can learn something (attention stance). You then need to learn humility as we are going to study something potentially dangerous (to others) techniques (the bow). Then you must practise to use your mind and body together for maximum benifit (Chumbi Seogi). At last we can start to learn techniques, but we begin with a defensive one (first taught as a "block") to learn that we never start a fight.

To fully understand Chumbi Seogi you need to learn something from the culture that spawned Taekwondo. It was imported through different sources but the melting pot were everything was put together into one system was in Korea. Researching traditional Korean thinking and culture is therefore a worthwile endevour in my book:-) Not really neccesary for those practising Taekwondo as a way to get fit or learn a fun sport or something like that, but for those who wants more researching Korean culture is one way to understand the system that we practise today.

The seemingly unrelated topic you should look closer at when studying the meaning of Chumbi Seogi is "Ki".

"Ki" is often translated as "energy" or "life force". Actually the concept of "ki" runs a lot deeper than the usual translations let us believe. Ki is something all encompassing that connects every living thing. Not only that but it also manifests itself in very different ways; concentration of hard Ki manifests itself in stone and hard material things, lighter Ki becomes water and etheral Ki can be called gasses. I like to think of Ki as natures building blocks and processes. In Asia you talk about weather Ki, and explonations about different persons as having good Ki (good guys that makes you feel safe) and bad Ki (bad guys you do not want to meet).

Specific to Martial Arts Ki is often used to explain things we can explain as bio mechanicly efficient methods. These things can be studied in a western scientific way as power generation etc.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine Ki is closely associated with bloodflow, breathing and body movement among other things and it is here that Chumbi Seogi comes in. I know that this is a very poor sumary of the subject of "Ki" but it is an enourmous subject that varrants its own seperate post or series of posts.

Some think of Chumbi Seogi as an empty ritual done before and after basics and patterns, but for me Chumbi Seogi is "Ki" training. Here we use "Danjun breathing" along with hand movements in a good body posture (back is erect, feet shoulder with apart, toes pointing forward, the three energy centers are aligned).

First lets look at the body posture: your feet are one foot length apart or shoulder with apart from each other. Kukkiwon today uses foot lengths as these are easier for practisioners to measure during training as they can not see their own shoulders. The feet are paralell and the toes are pointing forward. Here the feet are perfectly balanced to move in any direction, and it is a relaxing natural way to stand. The Danjun (energy point a few inches below the navel), the Mjeung Chi (solar plexus) and "Mi Gan" (the "third eye" energy point in the middle and one inch above the eyes) are in a perfect line, giving the Ki a good way to flow through the body or as in the western way to look at it a good "body posture". Standing like this along with the feet in the correct position gives the body a natural healthy posture that does not stress any ligaments or muscles uneccesary. Most back and neck pain is actually caused by bad body posture like slanting etc. Bad body postures in the west can easily be identified as body postures where the three energy centers do not align in one straight line.

The hands then open and form a V shape along the "Danjun point" and as you breathe in you gradually close the open hands and form fists instead, lifting them to Mjeung Chi or the solar plexus (here the hands should be fully formed into fists) and then start to lower the fists down again while breathing out. The end position is the hands at the height of Danjun one fists length away from the body and with the empty space between the fists also one fists lenght. Many overlook the breathing simplifying it to breathe in on the way up and breathe out on the way down. The correct method of breathing is called Danjun breathing where you try to breathe all the way down to Danjun. Your belly should be completly inflated at the maximum inbreath. Google "Danjun breathing" or Danjun Hohop (hohop means breathing in Korean) to see articles on this subject:-)

Body posture, body movement, Danjun breathing and linking everything together as in Chumbi Seogi is a kigong excersice if I ever saw one. Kigung is training for development of Ki power. Chumbi Seogi should also focus your mind automaticly into the "now" if done correctly as the brain and internal organs gets a healthy dose of oxygen (the use of the abdominal muscles in danjun breathing along with the actual breathing:p ). This focus on the "now" is the reason why it is called the Chumbi Seogi or Ready stance.

Martial Arts are often catagorized in "internal" and "external" categories. Another way is "soft" martial arts vs "hard" Martial arts. Taekwondo is often put in the external, hard category but the huge numbers of times we do Chumbi Seogi during each session does provide a thought provocing glimpse that maybe Taekwondo is not so external and hard as most people think.

I see that there are many variations on the Chumbi Seogi around the world, as it too has gone through an evolution as has most of Taekwondo since its infancy. 13 years ago when I first learned Chumbi Seogi we would stand up on our toes at the maximum in breath and we would "jerk" the last part of the movement when breathing out. At my first trip to Korea in 2006 however I learned to keep rooted throughout the movement(s) and to keep a smooth pace throughout. On youtube and during competitions I have seen many practisioners lift the hands all the way up to the chin or shoulders when lifting them up during the in breath. My teacher say this is bad "Ki training" because you mesh the different types of Ki together. You should start at Danjun height and at the top height you should be level with Mjeung Chi (solar plexus). Lifting and focusing your Ki higher involves using the third eye energy center and according to my teacher this is not good. I checked the Kukkiwon textbook and it verified that the hands should not be lifted any higher than the Solar Plexus.

Here you can see one videoclip

where the practisioner lifts his hands too much.

Another common variation is the millitary super hard, and super fast chumbi seogi. This is a bastarised way of doing a Ki excercise and is just a hollow ritual without any content. In this variation the performer simply lifts his hands and lovers them again in the correct position at a very fast pace. For some reason the performers I see doing this are often from USA so it might have started as a variation by one of the Taekwondo pioneers. It is easy to see that all the benifits with posture, breathing and body movement comming together as one unit to focus the mind is lost in this way of doing it.

An important point in the performance is not to move your elbows around. The lifting of the arms should come as a pure movement of bending the elbows. Lifting the elbows makes the shoulders involved and they should be no part of the movement. The shoulders should stay down throughout the movement. Another important point to notice is that from "Moa Seogi" or feet close together it is ALWAYS the left foot to move to Chumbi Seogi not the right foot. This was explained to me as part of Um (Yin) and Yang philosophy.

My own teacher has recently introduced his own variation on the Chumbi Seogi. It starts identical as the normal Kukkiwon one, but at the maximum height of lifting the arms the arms are drawn a little back to the sides and then it continues back into the same ending point as in the Kukkiwon Chumbi Seogi. The reason for this change in movement? My teacher has studdied Kigong in Korea for many years now and he feels moving the arms to the sides makes the Danjun breathing process more natural. The hands move to the side and back making the inflation of the stomach and Danjun more naturally.

Currently I am teaching both methods as frankly I like the new variation that my teacher has made but my students would be deducted point if they do that in a Poomsae Competition. The variation is a well thought of, well intended and well explained (through the view of Ki training) but that is not what the judges in a competition is looking for.

In my own training I have completly gone over to my teachers variation.

Some people have speculated that the different chumbi seogi does have martial intentions/applications. Personally I am not convinced that they have, maybe except for Tongmilgi Chombi as seen in Poomsae Koryo. Richard has a great article on that ready posture complete with applications in Totally Taekwondo Magazine as well as a video clip on youtube:-) I see them as a counterweight to the "hard" training we do. I think that the frequent Chumbi Seogi is a way for us "hard" stylists to keep a balance between "hard" and "soft". After all we do Chumbi Seogi before we practise something and after we have practised it. In our Dojang we start with Chumbi Seogi, we then do basics but each time we change a technique, or combination we first get back in Chumbi Seogi before doing the new thing. Before doing a form we do Chumbi Seogi, after doing the form we do Chumbi seogi.

If you want a martial application to the movement though you could make the case of it being a defence against a grab of your wrists. Lift up, rotate over his hands and push down again. This should releace the grip he has. Personally for me the Chumbi Seogi is not a martial technnique but more a Ki gong excersise.

2012 retrospect plus what would you like to read in 2013?

2013-01-02T09:59:00.000+01:00

Happy new year everyone. I trust you all had a nice celebration and that we are all happy that the world did not end just before Christmas??:-)

Before I start looking back at 2012 I think it is prudent to look forward and ask: What would you like to read about in 2013? Is there anything you think would make a great blog post theme? Would you like more "how to?" posts? more history? more Kyorugi? more applications from the forms? Or something completly else like philosophy? Ki? Taegeuk? Meditation? If you are following my blog and you have an opionion or ideas please submit a comment:-) (You do not have to give any names if you do not want to)

The new year is finally upon us and I thought it would be great to just write a little about how the blog did in 2012.

The writing style and topics have been almost constant since the inception of the blog. It actually started out in 2008 as a Norwegian blog but I did not post much and I really did not start writing much before 2011 and then only in English. In March 2012 I did change the whole template of the Blog. It used to be white text on a black background wich I in 2008 though was a great and unique way of blogging instead of the mainstream white background and black text. When I reached 3000 visitors I changed it into the current format wich I think is easier to read than the older one. I did make the headings of the front page in blue just to stay a little unique though:p

The month with the most hits on the blog was November 2012 with 3742 hits wich is a lot for this blog:-)

The most read posts in 2012 are:

The most discussed posts in 2012 are:

What were your favorite post(s) in 2012? Is the ones listed above or is it some of the more obscure ones?:-) And please tell me if there is anything you would like to read in 2013:-)

Happy new year

Collection of "Good" Poomsae Videos (Black Belt Poomsae)

2012-12-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

In my last post I provided Youtube links to all the colour belts Poomsae. I though I should do the same with the Black Belt Poomsae as a service to the readers:-) This way you have all the Poomsae in the Kukkiwon System together at one site. I started the Blog as a means for me to gather my thoughts, get rid of "frustrations" and to ramble away everything Taekwondo. The blog has not gathered a lot of attention, and there is little traffic on it (somewhere between 60-100 hits a day) but I know at least a few use this Blog as a resource, and providing good videos to all the Poomsae in the Kukkiwon system is one way of expanding on this:-) Anyway I wish all my present (future and past) readers out there a Merry Christmas, and if you are reading this then the world has not ended (set to publish at 22th December 00:01 so we can relax untill the next doomsday is on its way:-)

Koryo Poomsae:

Keumgang Poomsae:

Taebaek Poomsae:

Pyongwon Poomsae:

Sipjin Poomsae:

Jitae Poomsae:

Chonkwon Poomsae:

Hansu Poomsae:

Ilyeo Poomsae:

If you do not practise these Poomsae at least it is fun and or interesting to watch the whole system:-)

Bonus: In 1967 the KTA introduced the Palgwe forms and the black belt forms. In the early 70s however the Palgwe forms were faced out along with original Koryo and the Taegeuk forms set and a new Poomsae Koryo was introduced. Here is one version of the original Koryo (not in the current Kukkiwon system and not a grading/competition form):

Collection of "Good" Poomsae Videos (Cup Graders Poomsae)

2012-12-20T14:46:00.000+01:00

In my previous post I suggested that people should stay away from Youtube when trying to learn themselves forms. I got a few comments from my fellow students that maybe it would be more helpfull to "collect" what I would consider good videos for learning. I regret to say that I have not chosen "the best" as I consider the best videos on youtube "stolen". They are uploaded from a DVD collection that people have been working hard to produce and that they are making money from (at least trying to make money). The people who are uploading that should stop doing that and really look into what Taekwondo ethics and philosophy are all about. I have included one "stolen" video so you can see wich ones that you should stay clear of so you do not support this theft. The rest of the videos I have chosen to share are stolen too, but so long ago that they are not being sold anymore. They are in some rare sequences a little outdated, but all in all you do not go much wrong in following along these videos.

Taegeuk Il (1) Jang (Stolen video that people are still trying to sell)

If you see the same "black" background then you are watching the same series that people have been working hard to produce and that we should buy if we want to watch them.

Taegeuk I (2) Jang:

If you are watching this background you are watching another "stolen" video but as it is not sold anymore nobuddy are loosing money for people to be sharing it. Note that in some cases there are minor tweaks that has to be done to be up to date:-)

Taegeuk Sam (3) Jang:

Taegeuk Sa (4) Jang:

Taegeuk Oh (5) Jang:

Taegeuk Yuk (6) Jang:

Taegeuk Chil (7) Jang:

Taegeuk Pal Jang:

So they are not the best Youtube has to offer, but they are indeed far from the worst. The best thing about them is that they can be shared as no one has financial gain from them anymore. In my next post I will post links to the same series but this time the Judanja (Black Belt) Poomsae.

I wish you all a merry christmas:-)

A holliday tip to all "form-collectors" out there

2012-12-15T14:27:00.000+01:00

This time of year many people are going to grade up to a new rank in Taekwondo as many Dojang (at least the ones I know of) usually have two gradings each year, one before summer holliday and one before Christmas. In Kukki Taekwondo this means that now that you just ranked up a notch you now need to learn a new Poomsae (form). I strongly reccomend that you do not use your holliday trying to learn it yourself but to wait untill you once again are training under the watchfull eyes of your instructor.

Most importantly though: STAY CLEAR OF YOUTUBE! I once had a very clever student who learned his forms on his own in the hollidays. He would grade before summer and learn himself the new form in the hollidays, and he would grade before christmas and learn a new form in the christmas hollidays. As long as he used the time up to a grading to perfect the form and to listen to me I was completly OK with that. But then Youtube came...

After a holliday the student had "learned" Taegeuk Chil Jang. It was awfull.. Usually he would study the books of my teacher to learn his forms and my teachers books show the Poomsae the way Kukkiwon teaches its Poomsae. However this time he had used Youtube as it was easier to follow along with a high ranking Master. You would believe that a high ranking master knew Taegeuk Chil Jang? No not really. I had to watch my self as the student first did not want to take my "version" of Taegeuk Chil Jang as I was only a mere 1st Dan and the "Youtube" Master was a whopping 7th Dan.

Well this "Master" had done heavy modifications to all the Taegeuk forms. He had erased "Ap Seogi" (Short front walking stance) in the first three Taegeuk Poomsae (Depriving his students the lessons Ap Seogi can give) and he had likewise changed techniques here and there, added some, and removed others, added quite a few kicks too.

I directed him to some official videos from the Kukkiwon (9th Dan trumps 7th Dan every time:-p ) and then he understood how the form was supposed to be performed (according to our Dojang that follow Kukkiwon standard). Youtube is a great resource if people allready almost know the form they are looking for. Parents not knowing what they are looking for and searching youtube for Taekwondo 1st form can find any number of things... First of all some schools use different form sets alltoghether. Searching for Taekwondo 1st form you might get Taegeuk Il (1) Jang but you are just as likely to get something completly else.

The above video shows what another of my younger students proudly presented as Taegeuk Il Jang. Her parents had gone on youtube searched for Taekwondo first form and got this. In his school this is the first form, but we do not practise this form in our school. How are the parents to see the difference?? After all the instructor on this video wears the excact same outfit with the V-neck and everything.. I spendt weeks trying to "unlearn" this masters way of walking in long stance (The half moon steps as I call them are not the way Kukkiwon teaches it today, nor is the distance between the legs or many other things he teaches. Do not get me wrong I am not critizising this man, as I am sure he is quite good in his schools way of moving, it is just different to what we are teaching. For the reccord this is an old form that often goes by the name Gibon Hyung or Kicho Hyung. It is pretty much the form series Gichin Funakoshi invented in the 1920s-30s in Japan under a different name.

There are however great videos of the "correct" form that we do teach on youtube. It is just that I do not reccomend people using youtube because there are also a lot of people who uploads heavily modified forms, or what in our school would be considered "bad" forms. If you first teach your body to move the "wrong" way (for us) then it will be more difficult and hard work than just waiting a little longer and getting it right the first time.

Is Taekwondo really a "kicking art"?

2012-12-06T18:24:00.002+01:00

I was going through all the Kukkiwon Poomsae the other day and suddenly it hit me. I no longer compete activly in the WTF sanctioned events where kicks are just about the only way of getting points, so my training in Taekwondo (not including strength, stamina etc) is centered mainly around basics, poomsae, matchoe kyorugi and ho sin sul drills (this includes practical application of poomsae). What hit me is that we are always looked upon as a kicking art from both other martial arts and people outside the martial arts, but if we take away our competition format of fighting we are left with an art that is very much centered on the use of the arms.

Think about it a little, you do Taegeuk Il (1) Jang and kick 2 times, one kick per leg, but the whole Poomsae consists of 18 poom (counts)....

Look at this table:

Il (1) Jang: 16 arm techniques and 2 foot techniques
I (2) Jang: 18 arm techniques and 5 foot techniques
Sam (3) Jang: 25 arm techniques and 6 foot techniques
Sa (4) Jang: 20 arm and 6 foot
Oh (5) Jang: 25 arm and 7 foot
Yeok (6) Jang: 22 arm and 8 foot
Chil (7) Jang: 19 arm and 4-6 foot (counting knees)
Pal (8) Jang: 15 arm and 5 foot

Do these forms convey a kicking art? The arm-foot ratio is so great that you could easily say that the Taekwondo that our Poomsae convey is anything but a kicking art. The Poomsae convey an art that relies heavily on the use of ones arms and not the legs. The wast majority of the kicks that are performed in these Poomsae are the most basic kick of them all the front kick (ap chagi), wich also support the "Poomsae Taekwondo" being a Martial Art very unlike the popular perception of Taekwondo as a primary kicking art.

So where does the kicking come in? Many will say that most of our kicking techniques are trained not in Poomsae but in Basic Technique training instead (one more reason why one should not neglect the different aspects of training). Well the Kukkiwon does make it very clear that there are 14 basic "techniques" or templates that one need to master before getting the black belt so I looked it up in the Kukkiwon Textbook to see just how many of these 14 techniques that were kicks and how many of them where arm techniques. The answer is this: Arm templates: 11, foot templates :3 ! Do not get me wrong there are tons and tons of kicks listed as being "Taekwondo kicks" but in the section of the basic movements that needs to be mastered to black belt is only 3 kinds of kicks... They are:

Ap Chagi (Front kick)
Yeop Chagi (Side kick)
Dollyo Chagi (Round(house) kick)

All the other movements were arm techniques... So what does this mean? Well people going to a traditional school with little or no emphasis on competition seeking a flamboyant kicking art are going to be suprised and not in a good way (well for those seeking "flamboyant". at least). Others might be pleasently suprised.

The Matchoe Kyorugi are not so much better in terms of arms vs foot techniques. Even here the arms are used a lot more than the foot, eventhough we do have our one steps foot sparring.

The reason why the arms are used so much more than the feet in basics, forms and predetermined sparring? It is a catalog of "old school" Taekwondo, from when Taekwondo was a Martial Art and not a Martial Sport. The Taegeuk Poomsae Series where made in the early 70s long before Taekwondo would become an Olympic sport. Matchoe Kyorigi are likewise and old training format going back to the 1930s Japanese Karate. I often wonder what would happen with a Dojang if they really threw out the whole competition setting alltogether and focused on teaching the art like it is conveyed through our Poomsae and Matchoe Kyorigi? If Ho Sin Sul again comes around and takes it rightfull place in our training then it would make for a rather well rounded Martial Art and a long way indeed from a Martial Sport..

PS: I am NOT critizising the "Taekwondo players" out there focusing on competition sparring. I think that competition has its place in Taekwondo, BUT I often feel for many the competition aspect steals away a lot of training time as most people do not start Taekwondo for becoming a high ranking athlete in sports but to get good excersise, self defense skills and maybe they are seeking a body-mind training method (wich is what traditional Taekwondo is).

I wish you all good training
Hapjang