Taekwondo Blog

Etiquette in Taekwondo (bowing)

2008-09-09T16:09:00.000+01:00

The first of the five tenets of Taekwondo is Etiquette, which means that as a student of Taekwondo you should show respect and good manners to others. Not just within the training hall (Dojang) but in your everyday life.

The most noticeable way this happens within the Dojang is the bow which should be performed whenever appropriate, and specifically:

When entering or leaving the Dojang. If an instructor is within the Dojang when you enter or leave, you should bow towrds them. If the Dojang doesn't have an instructor in it, the bow should face the centre of the Dojang.
Before and after performing a pattern.
Before and after any sparring activity (bow to your opponent).

Additionally, when an instructor calls you to come over to them, etiquette states you should stop one pace before reaching them and bow before taking the final step into their presence. This is particularly important at gradings - bow before taking the final step up to the examiners desk. If you've been doing it in lessons, it will come naturally.

The bow should be performed with closed fists at your sides, feet together, a slight bend at the hips, and another bend at the neck so you are looking down at the floor. It should be pointed out that maintaining eye contact when bowing is considered impolite, and possibly aggressive.

When I first started training, I mentioned Taekwondo at a family gathering (my wife's side of the family). At the time I didn't know why, but a stony silence reverberated around the dining table. After a minute or two, the conversation moved elsewhere and things seemed back to normal. When we left, my wife berated me for mentioning Taekwondo in front of her relatives. Obviously I expressed my surprise and asked why this had caused such obvious offense! My wife's family are keen church going Christians, and it turned out the practice of Eastern Martial Arts is, by some Christians, seen as a violation of the Bibles' teachings. In particular, the bow is sometimes seen as an act of respect towards a deity other than the Christian God, namely Buddha. I laughed when I heard this and assured her I hadn't become a Buddhist, although if I chose to do so, I didn't see why I should face intolerance for doing so. The bow is simply a show of respect towards your instructor, fellow students and Taekwondo. Nothing more, and more importantly, nothing less.

Congratulations Sarah

2008-08-31T23:22:00.000+01:00

A bit late (I've been on holiday) but I simply have to publish my congratulations to Sarah Stevenson for achieving Britains' first ever Olympic Medal in Taekwondo. Obviously a Gold Medal would have been fantastic, but a Bronze is no mean feat by any standards in a sport that is so well dominated by it's home nation, the Koreans.

A truly great achievement, and something to spark great optimism for the future of Taekwondo in Great Britain. Looking forward to seeing more of our fighters inspired by this success in 2012!

Taekwondo translations

2008-07-11T19:53:00.000+01:00

Translating Taekwondo moves from Korean to English (that is, to a phonetic form so you can understand them when spoken) is quite possibly one of the most controversial parts of Taekwondo. I've got a lot of translations on my Taekwondo glossary page, and yet more on the pattern pages. Browse the web, and you'll find other sets of translations that are different. Some will basically be simply different ways of producing the same sound, so while I call a front kick "ap chagi" you'll see others writing that as "Ahp Chaggi" or any number of other variations. This is simple enough to understand, but it gets complex when you start seeing variations that bare no resemblance to what you have been taught as the right way. A good example would be the reverse turning kick. When I first started training (that would probably be before you were born) we referred to it as "bandai dollyo chagi". Now it's referred to as simply "horyo". Bandai dolly chagi is (or rather was) an attempt to directly translate the three Korean words "reverse", "turning" and "kick". Some clubs still use it I believe.

So what is the cause of the discrepancies? I asked my Taekwondo instructor this week, and he gave some insightful answers.

First up, every high level instructor will certainly have his/her own set ideas. Don't argue with your Master!

Directly translating Korean into English doesn't really work, so almost all translations are the best they can be, but never truly accurate.

When General Choi split Taekwondo in half by setting up ITF Taekwondo, the remaining masters in WTF changed quite a few words in the Taekwondo vocabulary so it would be different to the "new" style of ITF.

The Japanese occupation of Korea also had an impact on the Korean language, and some of those changes have filtered into Taekwondo.

There are five major schools (Kwans) in Korea (Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Jidokwan, Song Moo Kwan and Chang Moo Kwan - my club is a member of the Chung Do Kwan). Depending on which Kwan the current head at the Kukkiwon is affiliated to, translations get changed.

The use of the prefix "An" (for instance "An Chagi" - inner crescent kick) usually refers to the direction of the move, but in some cases may refer to the body part used (for instance the inner side of the forearm).

Phill Payne dropped me an e-mail explaining that "Naeryo Chagi" (Axe Kick) used to be referred to as "Chikyo Chagi". It looks like Chikyo is the Korean for Axe, but has been dropped in favour of Naeryo meaning "downward" so the kick is described by it's direction, rather than it's name.

Conclusion? Unfortunately the only hard and fast answer as to what is "right" is that your instructor is right. I'm going to stop worrying about it!

Which Martial Art should I choose?

2008-06-20T23:05:00.000+01:00

Choosing a Martial Art to practice is most certainly the first, and perhaps the most important question we ask ourselves before beginning the journey. If we are to base the question purely on the merits of which one will suit our needs best, the answer is fairly straightforward. If self defense is your top priority you want a "soft" or "internal" Art. If that was what I was looking for, JuJitSu, Hapkido or Judo would most likely be the top three. You get to be Stephen Segal and learn lots of "no nonsense" techniques that work well on the street. If, on the other hand, you want to be Jean Claude Van Damme and have an arsenal of impressive "big" techniques you want a "hard" or "external" art. Taekwondo, Karate or Muay Thai will then fit the bill nicely.

There is, however, a more important consideration and that's the quality of the club or school you decide to enroll in. If you pick a bad one, you're in for a bumpy ride. First problem will be cost - bad schools/clubs will continually allow you to grade in order to collect grading fees from you. Don't be naive - there are bad clubs and bad instructors out there with a main focus on how much money they can get out of you before you (inevitably) quit. I attended a Karate class once that consisted of nothing more than the instructor showing us (we were all beginners) a long demonstration of advanced techniques. We didn't actually do any training, and I never went back.

I'm in luck here - the club I train at has a Master who's integrity, skill and passion for the art are self evident and his classes are run by instructors who share the same passion for the art. Taekwondo "does it" for me because so many things I want can be achieved. My top priority is to maintain fitness and flexibility as I move into old (or older!) age, but I know I'm getting a healthy dose of self defense (we get taught Hapkido moves as part of the syllabus) and the sport aspect of Taekwondo gives me the chance to try out what I learn in as real a situation as possible without actually (most of the time) hurting anyone.

The short answer to this question - Taekwondo is without doubt the most rounded Martial Art and if you can find a good club it will serve you well.

Competition sparring - avoiding getting hit

2008-06-10T16:22:00.000+01:00

Last week's squad training (coming as it did after the Dorset Championships) was a great lesson for me to try and get to grips with some of the weaknesses in my sparring technique. There seem to be two major issues.

I'm not getting out of the way of attacks - just standing there taking them and
I'm kicking with the front leg far, far too much.

Mr Gibbs decided to use a novel approach to teach me how to address point one. There are some pretty good fighters at Chung Yong, in particular Wayne and Val were there who both have impressive records at national competitions. Unbeknown to me, Mr Gibbs had a chat with them prior to my arrival and told them to put everything they had into their kicks when sparring with me. Wayne certainly didn't hold back - I caught a back kick to my upper right arm (because I didn't get out of the way!) and the bruise is quite something. It's the size of Waynes' heel and went from purple, through blue and is now a horrible yellow colour. The pain from this injury is quite something as well! Hopefully the lesson has been well and truly learned as I do not want to get hit like that ever again.

On point 2 Mr Gibbs had another novel approach. At the Dorset Championships he was cornering me and told me that under no circumstances was he going to accept kicks from the front leg. If he saw more than two of them, he was going to throw in the towel regardless of whether I was winning. Sounds harsh, but I knew he wasn't joking. It worked - I won the first bout and all the points and the final head shot that won the bout all came from the back leg. The same criteria were applied in the Squad Training session - no kicking from the front let or get penalised.

Hopefully these issues are addressed, or well on the road to it and I can concentrate on some more aspects of my performance in time for the next competition. I'm not giving up on it yet.

Dorset Championships results

2008-06-08T10:36:00.002+01:00

We made it to Dorset after a VERY late submission of our entry forms. It's quite a drive from where we live, and my wife decided to use that excuse to take the whole family down to stay in a hotel which meant we were better rested before arriving for weigh in on the Sunday. The competition was as big as I'd expected - there were something like 300 competitors there and the place was packed out. The competition was confined to a single large hall, but the sports centre had people wandering around in Doboks & sparring gear just about everywhere you turned.

James didn't fare very well at this one unfortunately - he seemed to be phased by the size of his opponent who was a fair bit bigger than him. He also seems to have a bad habit of looking at the scoreboard, or at me throughout the round. Had some harsh words with him about that! He lost by a single point, and I'm sure we can get a better performance next time from him.

I fared slightly better winning my first bout with a technical knock out (turning kick to the head) which at least broke my "duck" that's been plaguing my tournament fighting recently. That win got me into the final as the category I was in (veterans!) had only four competitors. I didn't manage gold, and got quite a kicking in the final. I did, however, score a couple of points and did manage to get almost to the end of round two before my opponent got the pre-requisite 7 point lead to win the match.

I also finally met Phill Payne as he was there doing photography. I've known him "online" for over a year now, but it's always great to meet someone face to face. Phill is a highly accomplished Martial Artist from Halifax in the north of England. He holds a 4th Dan in WTF Taekwondo, a 1ST Dan in JuJitSu and is involved in UK Muay Tai as well. How he gets any time at all to work on his TKD news site is a mystery to me. Phill got a great photo of my head shot in the first bout, which as soon as I get a copy of I will add to this post.

I came away feeling quite good from a personal point of view despite the failure to get gold.

***UPDATE***

Got the photo, hopefully it speaks for itself! This kick won the match (technical knock out).

Picture courtesy of FIMP Media Limited, the Martial Arts Photographers. There's also a full table of the competition results.

Kihap - shouting in Taekwondo

2008-05-30T20:18:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite topics - the Kihap (the loud shout made when you perform a striking technique or adopt fighting stance before sparring).

When I first started Taekwondo, I (probably like most people) felt very self conscious about shouting at the top of my voice in front of a collection of new people. There were other people in the class (some quite high grades) who were also fairly quiet. On the other hand, there were some people there making more than enough noise for the entire class. It only took a few classes and I decided I wasn't going to be the quietest in the class. Funnily enough, while I see myself as quite self conscious, once I started using a loud Kihap, I actually felt more comfortable in the class. The irrational fear that everyone else would start laughing turned out to be...irrational. From time to time I might get it slightly wrong, and a girlish scream might escape causing the odd snigger, but no matter.

At the Chung Yong club all the instructors encourage both juniors and seniors to Kihap loudly, and aggressively. It really works and is an important thing to get right because:

A loud Kihap right at the beginning of sparring helps you channel up some controlled aggression, and if done right will put fear into the heart of your opponent.
Kihap before performing a break to channel energy and confidence.
Kihap when striking (either with the fist or foot). The exhalation of air helps again in channeling energy, and stops you getting winded if you're counter struck by your opponent.
A Kihap forces you to breath - some students seem to forget to do this at times!

Louder is better ;)

Site progress for Tomcat's Taekwondo

2008-05-26T23:33:00.000+01:00

I've been working on the Taekwondo site on and off for 2 years now. I thought at this juncture it might be a good idea, for my own record, to show the stats to date. The counter was installed 28th September 2006, and StatCounter tells me that since then:

Pageloads: 94731
Unique Visitors: 33745
Returning Visitors (my favourite one!): 4684

So...I've reached out to over 30k people with the site, and hopefully most of them were either already involved in, or considering getting involved in, the worlds biggest and (as far as I'm concerned of course) best Martial Art - Taekwondo.

The site is generally done, with the obvious exception of the pattern pages which take an absolute age to complete, but I plan to get them done and dusted shortly. I might even have a stab at presenting some of the higher level patterns once those are complete.

The Blog was without doubt the best thing I did, and a close second the contact page. The site has got me in touch with Taekwondo practitioners worldwide. It's always a great pleasure to get comments on the blog, or comments through the contact form.

Just as a by note on the off chance anyone's wondered why I chose "tomcat" as an Internet Pseudonym, this hails back to the days when I played Quake a lot. I chose tomcat as a player name, because the F14 "tomcat" was capable of engaging and destroying 24 targets simultaneously. Seemed like a good name at the time and I'm too old to change it now. I don't play Quake any more, as Taekwondo is much more interesting! There's only a week to go till the Dorset Championships and I'm looking forward to that. Rest assured my performance (and that of my son James) will be posted shortly after the end of the day (June 1st).

So what's next for Tomcat's Taekwondo? I've got more ideas for presenting some important aspects of Taekwondo training & techniques, which I plan to get done in the near future. I toyed with the idea of including a Taekwondo Forum, but decided it wasn't something I was up to the task of making a success of. Forums need lots of participants and I'm not sure I can attract enough to make it worthwhile. I am seriously considering adding a club directory to complement the work I've done over at the ODP to help UK Taekwondo clubs gain exposure. I've been working on some tweaks to the layout, which should be published this week (they're based around general improvements in readability and overall design factors).

***update*** Have now republished the blog with the new layout. It was a LOT harder than I thought it would be, but the layout is much more how I'd like it to be, better colours, better CSS & XHTML and a new logo. I'll probably post some details on the coding on my personal blog when it's completely done.

Just to end this post - my heartfelt thanks to everyone who visited in the last two years and not only found what they were looking for, but chose to take the time to let me know by using the contact form or leave a comment on the blog.

Yours in Taekwondo

Andy Fletcher

Press ups on knuckles in Taekwondo

2008-05-22T09:01:00.000+01:00

Taekwondo students over 16 ought to do press ups on the knuckles. This has a few benefits, which I'll cover further down. If knuckles are injured, you shouldn't do this though. It's particularly important that children do NOT do press ups this way as it can interfere with bone development and cause problems later in life.

It's vital that the press up is done on the first two knuckles (index and middle) and not on the "softer" ring and little finger knuckles. One of the reasons for doing press ups on the knuckles is to toughen them up so they make effective weapons, and won't let you down when you are asked to break a board or a brick at your grading or a demonstration.

However, I see the most important reason for doing this being that it "teaches" you to align your wrist correctly for punching. If a bent wrist is used to throw a punch, the wrist is likely to suffer a sprain or even a break. When you do press ups on the first two knuckles, you are forced to correctly align the bones of the fist, wrist and forearm into a straight line which is incredibly strong. Once you are using this straight line when punching, you will avoid injusry and maximise the effectiveness of your punches.

What makes Taekwondo different to Karate?

2008-05-15T09:11:00.000+01:00

Seems there is a lot of confusion about the difference, and which is "better" between Taekwondo and Karate. There are some fundamental differences of course:

Taekwondo is has a focus on destruction and high spinning kicks. These are distinctly Korean aspects of martial arts. As a result, Taekwondo practitioners will have a tendancy to use kicks at least as much, if not more than hand techniques, particularly in competition. Karate (which means "empty hand" incidentally) typically focuses more on hand techniques.
Taekwondo comes from Korea. Karate originates in Okinawa. Both are really international martial arts today with high Dan grades of different nationalities to the art's founder country spread across the globe. Korean martial arts were influenced by Japanese styles during the Japanese occupation of Korea. But the flipside is that some distinctly Korean techniques (destruction & high spinning kicks) made their way into Japanese styles.
Taekwondo has just two major styles - WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) is the style I train in. It's the bigger of the two and is the one that is now an Olympic Sport. ITF (International Taekwondo Federation) is a breakaway style of Taekwondo started by General Choi (one of the original founders of Taekwondo). Karate on the other hand, is split into hundreds, possibly thousands of different styles. There is no unifying body. This makes it impossible to make an Olympic Competition sport.

Personally, I know practitioners of various Karate styles and some are quite similar in many ways to WTF Taekwondo, others are extremely different.

So which is better? Neither. Unless we want to bring in personal choice. I'm passionate about Taekwondo because I enjoy almost every aspect of the way it is taught and practiced. I've visited a few Karate classes but only found one I liked which was the Wimbledon Kyokushinkai club. Kyokushinkai seemed very similar in a lot of respects to Taekwondo, so while I enjoyed the lesson I attended, there seemed little point moving styles, particularly as Wimbledon is further away for me.

The choice between schools/clubs should come down to the quality of the school itself. And that comes down to who is running them. If the master of the club is both passionate about, and accomplished in the art he teaches, you're in the right place.

Taekwondo injury

2008-05-09T19:02:00.000+01:00

Taekwondo is a contact sport of course, but this week I got a shock with a nasty swelling on my left elbow as a result of a kick from Wayne during sparring at Wednesday's squad training. Boy, does he kick hard - I had my arm protectors on, and yet the swelling is quite something. Hope it goes down soon.

Val was cornering me, and wasn't shy about the fact I really need to evade kicks rather than block them. We did some footwork excercises and I'm hoping they'll help.

I also spotted a very bad habit that's no doubt high on the list of reasons my tournament fights haven't been going so well. I'm kicking with my front foot nearly all the time. I can't imagine why as the moment I thought about it, it was obvious this is hardly ever going to score a point with an attack to an opponents body armour - there simply isn't enough power there. Time to work on making the use of the back leg automatic.

BTCB Competition - Dorset Championships

2008-05-08T08:47:00.000+01:00

The Dorset Championships are set for the 1st of June (Sunday). Apparently there's a patterns competition on the 31st May (the day before). Can't wait for this one - missed it last year due to family commitments. From what I hear this is the biggest BTCB Taekwondo Competition held in the UK or at least one of the biggest. Looking forward to meeting lots of fighters and, of course, hoping to improve on my lackluster performance at this years Chungdokwan Nationals.

The Dorset Taekwondo Association run this event - their website is here.

Particularly hoping to bump into Phill Payne as he says he'll be attending this event. He's got more information about this event on his Taekwondo Site.

See you there!

Longer training

2008-04-24T09:47:00.000+01:00

The Wednesday adult class at Mitcham is now running for an hour and a half (it was an hour until recently) and I finally got along to it last night. Really good lesson - I can always tell by how much difficulty I have walking the following morning!

I was very pleased to get some heavy practice of Yuk Jang (the sixth Taegeuk pattern). It's a lot harder than I thought it would be though. The stances are quite a bit more complex than the previous patterns and my finishing position is way, way too far from my starting position. It's going to take a lot of practice to get this one right.

The origin of Teakwondo

2008-04-23T18:08:00.000+01:00

Steve Conway mentions on his site the large number of differing way Taekwondo is spelled, in particular "Teakwondo" comes up time and time again. I've always thought this must just be a simple miss spell on the part of the people using it, but have actually found an official source for this spelling.

Page 60 of the Taekwondo Textbook (the official guide to WTF Taekwondo published by the Kukkiwan) refers to Teakwondo. I found another version on page 78 - "Thekwondo" although I've never seen anyone using that particular one and hope I never will ;)

Are you a black belt?

2008-04-04T18:31:00.000+01:00

The first question you get asked when someone finds out you're practicing a martial art tends to be about the mythical Black Belt. Normally to try and avoid this one I just tell new people I meet that I do fitness training, rather than mentioning Taekwondo at all, but that's not always enough. People tend to find these things out and once the cat's out of the bag the question of belt colour isn't far off.

No is the reply and then comes a look of shock when I tell them how long I've been at it (it's getting close to a decade I think now). The important thing is that, to me at least IT DOESN'T MATTER all that much. If I was in it simply for a certain colour of belt I wouldn't go through all the effort, pain, sweat and tears. I'd just go out and buy the Black Belt (any sports shop will happily sell you one) and job done! Now, there may come a day, and what a day it will be, when I do reach First Dan or even beyond it. But it's not the reason I train. It shouldn't be anyones' reason to train (at least, not the ONLY reason).

I don't honestly think anyone can truly understand what it means to wear a Black Belt until they have really earned it.

Green Belt Grading

2008-04-03T09:20:00.000+01:00

Today I am the proudest dad in the world. James took his grading for 6th Kup (Green Belt) last Saturday, and at last night squad training session in Mitcham he was awarded his Green Belt.

James took his grading among the adults, and as such was allowed to attempt his first break. Master Rose asked him to break using back kick. Unfortunately, 4 attempts were not enough and James wasn't able to break the board, however, I tried my best to assure him that since at his age breaking wasn't a required part of his grading he shouldn't worry too much about it. He did say he felt happy with his pattern (Taegeuk Sam Jang - third Poomse), his Kibom, the 3 step sparring and free sparring.

James is now just one belt behind me - better get moving and work on staying ahead or he'll be the one showing me what to do.

Well done James!

Here's a pic of his official BTCB certificate.

Black Belt Class

2008-03-28T18:21:00.000Z

I was very honored last week to get invited to attend Master Rose's Black Belt class. Before going (bare in mind I am still at 4th Kup - Blue Belt) I felt a certain amount of trepidation as to what to expect. Was I going to be the instructors punch bag for the evening? Would I struggle to keep up?

I enjoyed the class enormously - Master Rose gave me a lot of help with the finer points of my technique which I will most certainly be doing my best to remember. I felt I was able to keep up reasonably well, although my instructor told me afterwoods he felt Master Rose had definately "toned down" the pace of things for my benefit and usually they are pushed a lot harder. I'm going to have to move my fitness level up quite a lot when I (hopefully) reach that elusive 1st Dan and start attending Master Rose's classes regularly.

The club website has some fantastic pictures of Master Rose performing the flying side kick and split kick which if you have an interest in Taekwondo you'll appreciate.

Chungdokwan Nationals

2008-03-09T22:43:00.000Z

I attended the Chungdokwan Nationals this weekend. Despite a great desire to come away with a gold medal I'm afraid this year, yet again, I came home wearing silver. I'd have to say, I was appalled at how badly I fought (losing by 7-0 in the first round) but am humble in enough to admit that even at my best I wouldn't have beaten the young man from Portsmouth University Taekwondo that I was lined up with - he was definately quicker, stronger and all round better in the ring. I'll be back next year of course and am hoping to get to some other tournaments this year, in particular the BTCB competition in Bournmouth.

Unfortunately, my son James did not get the chance to defend his Gold Medal from last year as a pressing social engagement meant he missed the tournament. A lucky escape for whoever he'd have been facing! Hopefully James will be accompanying me to the next one.

Hopefully the entire Chung Yong Squads results will be visible on the club website this week so be sure to take a look at the tournament results for Chung Yong.

James is allowed to train again (at last)

2008-02-22T08:59:00.000Z

James came back to training this week. Great to see him training again, and we both have high hopes of progressing this year. He'll be working on Taegeuk Sam Jang as he hopes to rise to Green Belt. Many thanks to all those who left comments, or sent messages through the contact page expressing their dismay/surprise at his not being allowed to train - I sincerely hope this will never happen again and that his mother and school come to appreciate that his Taekwondo training is only beneficial, not detrimental to his physical and psychological development. With James training again, I get to go more often, so from a personal point of view this is also great news - more Taekwondo for me!

We're both hoping to compete in the upcoming ChungDoKwan National Championships next month. Hope to meet lots of other Taekwondo addicts there!

New year's resolutions

2008-01-08T18:22:00.000Z

Perhaps a bit late, and perhaps more for my own benefit than anyone else, this is what I want to achieve this year and I'm going to push hard for it!

1. A gold medal for me (and my club of course!) in competition. Shameful, but Silver has always been the best I've managed. Watch out if you're in my weight category and keep your guard up!

2. Up my training to 3 times a week as many weeks as I can so that I have a chance of...

3. Moving up to Red Belt. This is going to be tough, but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be worth doing. Red tag needs attaining first of course, so time to get Taegeuk Yuk Jang "right".

Happy new year

Andy

Bad news

2007-12-23T09:33:00.000Z

My son (James) managed to get himself into trouble at school in the last week of term, tripping another child during a PE lesson resulting in a broken arm for the poor boy he tripped. James is heartbroken to have caused this injury to one of his friends, but his punishment seems inappropriate.
After speaking to the school, my wife and his teacher have decided he should stop training in Taekwondo. I'm absolutely devastated - James really enjoys Taekwondo, and I love doing a sport with my son, but I'm not the kind of father who won't support decisions made by his mother and his school. I would understand this if he'd used a technique learned in a Teakwondo class but this just wasn't the case - he was just involved in a game another child had started. James, through no fault of his own, is quite a bit bigger and stronger than his peers at school.
Hopefully this will blow over soon - I'm going to try and speak to the teacher myself in the new term and let her know just how important I feel James' Taekwondo is to him, and to his personal development, both physical and mental.

Grading results!

2007-10-15T17:52:00.000+01:00

Well, we didn't get to go for over a week after the grading what with one thing and another, but we did finally get to a lesson on Friday. James did exceptionally well - he was one of only three people Master Rose rated as A* for their grading. I'm the proudest dad alive! Here's a pic of James with our instructor Mrs Gibbs and his certificate.

Unfortunately Mrs Gibbs has her eyes closed in the photo, but you can see how happy James is.

Despite my poor performance with my pattern, I got through as well and have moved up to 4th Kup - Blue Belt at last! It's odd, I really saw it as just another step on the ladder prior to the grading, but once I put the belt on I had a very real feeling that something had changed. It's difficult to put into words but it feels like a really significant transition going from Green to Blue.

Blue belt grading - 4th KUP

2007-09-30T20:27:00.000+01:00

This weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to take my 4th Kup (Blue Belt) grading. My son James was also grading for his Green Tags (6th Kup). James, I felt, did me (and himself of course) proud. His pattern (while of course not perfect) was in my humble opinion well carried out, and he certainly has understood the sequence of moves, and how to get the stances right. I could clearly tell the difference between his long and walking stances, and that back leg of his has stopped bending in long stance. I didn't spot any errors in his three step sparring, and he was as exuberant as ever in free sparring - maybe a bit too keen as I did notice the odd bit of contact when he was sparring.
My grading was a little longer - there were three other 5th Kup grades and we got to do Taegeuk O Jang, Sam Jand and Ee Jang. O Jang (the fifth pattern) being the main criteria for the grading. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I did my worst on that particular one - the last move in particular I managed to foul up.
We also did two step sparring, which I felt fairly confident with.
For breaks, I had a Horyo (reverse turning kick), a suspended board to punch and a 360 degree turning kick. I broke them all with just one attempt and doubtless that was the best part of my grading. I don't think I broke any toes this time around!
The grading must have been tougher than it felt at the time. I spent the rest of Saturday aching and feeling utterly exhausted. My wife didn't appear to want to sympathize though - there was still a load of housework to be done when I got home...

Results are out on Wednesday - I'm hoping the pattern didn't let me down too much but if it did there is always next time. Perseverance!

How long does it take to achieve a black belt in Taekwondo?

2007-09-08T22:58:00.000+01:00

The length of time required to acheive the coveted 1st Dan Grade (Black Belt) is an oft talked about topic. Should it take a year, 5 years or 10 years. I really got thinking about this after reading and commenting on a post here and after talking to a couple of girls on holiday this year who'd achieved their first Dan grades within 3 years.

I've been training a long time, although I will be the first to admit my attendance is by no means the greatest. I always make at least one training session per week, try to get to two and on the odd week I make it to three. Realistically, a first Dan is AT LEAST another three years away from my grasp (and I am aware that I may not get it if I train for another 100 years!).

How long it should take should be irrelevant. It's a question of a number of factors which will be different for every student including fitness, talent, number of hours trained each week, commitment and probably many more aspects.

If a club tells you you WILL get a black belt in a given time, I would be cautious however short or long that time may be. This would indicate they simply "give away" belts in order to attract more grading fees. If you need a black belt and are prepared to pay for one, you can save time & money by just buying one - you can get them for about a fiver almost anywhere.

So what do I think?

Three years is too soon unless you are perhaps able to train 5 times a week.

There is no such thing as too long a time - not everyone will make it, but those who truly persevere will.

How much do you pay to take a Taekwondo grading?

2007-09-05T18:09:00.000+01:00

I recently met two Taekwondo students from the north of England. The subject of the cost of taking gradings in TKD cropped up and they told me at their club a KUP grade cost £45. On top of that, failing to pass the grading would result in having to pay the grading fee again.

By comparison, at my club a KUP grade test is £15. If you fail it, you can re-take it at no further cost. I don't know what our instructor charges for Hapkido gradings (another Korean Martial Art he teaches) but would be surprised if there was any difference.

The two Northerners told me they had achieved First KUP grade (red belt/black tag) in three years with their club - that'll be a topic for another post later...

So how much is the "right" amount to pay for a martial arts grading? Should it be dependant on what the club needs to charge in order to stay operational? A quick glance at the BTCB website didn't offer any kind of guide, but I'd say £45 sounds expensive.