Taekwondo injury

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.