Which Martial Art should I choose?

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.

Site progress for Tomcat's Taekwondo

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

What makes Taekwondo different to Karate?

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
   
3. 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.

Effectiveness of Taekwondo

Quite a lot of people I speak to that train in different arts seem keen to question the effectiveness of Taekwondo as a self defense system. Now, Taekwondo is an "offensive" martial art, as opposed to Jujutsu which would be classed as "defensive". The basic premise being that the Taekwondo practitioner blocks and then counter attacks with a strike capable of incapacitating the aggressor, whereas in a defensive system, the attack is worked against the aggressor typically using using twisting, painful grab techniques. Some Taekwondo schools perhaps leave it out, but at my club Ho Sin Sul (self defense) is an active part of the curriculum. Ho Sin Sul is in many respects very similar to Hapkido, the most well known Korean self defense system and really the Korean equivalent to Japanese Jujitsu.

Taekwondo itself is, by it's nature, geared towards fancy high spinning kicks. These are perhaps not the best techniques to use on the street as a foot at head height, if grabbed, puts you in a very dangerous position. But that isn't the point. If you can kick hard enough to break a board at head height, you can kick a lot harder, and faster at lower levels.

That being said, the best thing to do in any potentially threatening situation is to get out of the way and leave quickly if possible. Taekwondo students have an instant advantage because due to the very nature of the way Taekwondo is practiced, you get very fit doing it. Practitioners of defensive martial arts don't require, and so don't focus so much on, physical fitness as it's not required so much to perform the techniques.

I'm fortunate that I've only been in a violent situation once since taking up Taekwondo. That being my only experience (thankfully) it perhaps can't be taken as a definite indicator of the effectiveness of my training although I would argue it could. The guy "having a go" fired 4 or 5 punches at my head, each of which I managed to block easily. I resisted the temptation to counter attack. I was sorely tempted, but looking back the use of self control in the situation is not something I regret at all. Getting out of the situation without sustaining injury, and with my integrity intact was for me, the perfect way out.

Make no mistake, had the situation involved more than one person attacking me, I would've run. No question. I've seen people attacked by more than one person and without doubt, however good you may be, multiple opponents (regardless of the eventual outcome) is much more likely to result in you becoming injured.

Taekwondo on a Tuesday

Finally made it along to the Tuesday session in Croydon held by Master Mark Drury (4th Dan). Exhausting, but certainly a great lesson. I'm definately going to try and make the Tuesday session more often as it's very different to the lessons I normally go to in Mitcham. I'm not, however, drawing comparisons as to which sessions are better - too much respect for my instructors to want to start doing that! It does seem to me though that training with different instructors regularly can't be bad for your overall Taekwondo development as there is different emphasis on the various aspects to the training.
Not busy next Tuesday and live in or around the Croydon area? Grab a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt (plain) and just turn up - starts 8pm, runs for an hour and a half. Always good to see new people. The address is:

Energie Fitness Club
Stephenson House
2 Cherry Orchard Road
East Croydon
Surrey

Tip: 1 minutes' walk from East Crydon train station. The class is for 14 year olds and up.

Third pattern (Sam Jang) is complete!

Just put the finishing touches to Sam Jang. This one is the "final" word on how they are all going to look. The main image no longer than 4 lines, so it should all fit height wise on most screens (at least 1024x768 and up). Will probably start on Pal Jang next as my stats tell me this is the next most popular one people search for. On the off chance someone other than me is reading this, check it out - the link is right above you in the "Taegeuk" menu.

Flexibility in Taekwondo

Time to admit something. The thing I enjoy the most about Taekwondo is the flexibility exercises. I'm lucky in this, being naturally flexible. Most people don't have such luck, and flexibility can be a major sticking point. To execute a side kick (dwi chagi) effectively at waist height or above, you need to have reasonably flexible hips. Side kick is probably one of the most effective techniques Taekwondo teaches - do it right and your opponent/attacker will go down and not get back up (at least not in a hurry) and it's based on flexibility at the hip.
If you're not taking cod liver oil yet, start now. It's great for maintaining joint flexibility, and strength in your bones.
Stretching exercises shouldn't hurt, but you should feel a slight pull. If you don't push slightly beyond your current limits, you won't improve. To understand what is going on from a biological point of view when you stretch:
Voluntary muscles are elongated fleshy sacs. As a result of nervous stimulation, they contract and produce movement Their force is transmitted through inelastic strips of specialized connective tissue (tendons). The ligaments support the joints and are made up of a more flexible form of connective tissue. The tension condition of the muscles & tendons is monitered by proprioceptors, which are highly specialised structures found in both muscles and tendons. They are comprised of a great many nerve endings ( hence the feeling of pain when stretching beyond their current physical limits).
The important thing to be aware of is that your tendons, right now, have a natural limit on how far they can be stretched or extended. This is based on your current lifestyle, and genetic characteristics. You can't change your genetic makeup, but you CAN alter your lifestyle, and most importantly, the amount of effort you put into your stretching. If you really want to improve flexibility:
1) Stretch EVERY DAY. Initially, touching your toes every morning if that's all you have time for, but do more when you can and get into a regime where you perform 3-4 different streches every day.
2) Push a LITTLE each time you stretch. Pushing it to far can result in temporary, or even permanent damage. The nerves in your proprioceptors will let you know when you are going slightly beyond your current limit, and will scream at you when you go too far. Listen to what they are telling you!
3) Perform some stretches after any physical activity. I do quite a few stretches at the end of a Taekwondo lesson. It's a great time to do it as your muscles are very warm, and succeptable to that extra stretch.

Black Belt

The Black Belt (or first Dan) is for the outsider, always seen as the ultimate goal in a martial art. Black belts are invincible fighting machines and live lives similar in style to what we see Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Segal and Chuck Norris doing on the silver screen.
I've trained in Taekwondo for something like seven or eight years and don't own a Black Belt as of yet. To an outsider, and possibly to a lot of people inside the martial arts world, this could be read as a sign of failure. However, I don't personally hold any particular relevance in the colour of my belt, and I am going to try to explain why.
Many years ago, when I first started training, there was a guy at the club at first Kup grade (Red Belt with Black tags - one grading away from his Black Belt). He continually asked when he would be allowed to grade for first Dan. Make no mistake, this guy was an able fighter with competition wins by the dozen. He was precise and realistic in his patterns. He could break anything he was asked to, with any body weapon. Yet the instructor would not grant him the grading he so obviously craved. At one particular training session where he was asking over and over when will I get to take the grading for first Dan, the instructor gave a reply I have never, and will never forget.
He told him, "If you want a Black Belt so badly, go out and buy one. You can wear it in the lessons if you like. No-one will mind."
He didn't do that of course. What value is there in something that can be bought so easily?
Now, there is a lot of feeling around the world that martial arts schools are simply run for profit. That Belts are just something you get because you paid the money to take your grading. I'm proud to be at a club that has a Master with integrity and a respect for what the first Dan grade means, and when you are ready to grade for it.
If I ever to Dan grade, I'll certainly know it's something I have earned, as opposed to something I bought.
My children often ask if they can grade, and encourage me to ask the instructors that question. It's not easy to explain to them sometimes, but it's a part of any serious Taekwondo students lifestyle to excerise modesty. This means you NEVER ask your instructor whether you are ready to grade. You wait patiently for them to tell you the time is right.
Just as a footnote, and despite the fact they are listed on the front page of my site, I think this would be a good place to list the five tenets of Taekwondo:

1. Etiquette
2. Modesty
3. Perseverance
4. Self Control
5. Indomitable Spirit

Spam

OK, this isn't strictly speaking a Taekwondo topic. Ever do a Google search and end up looking at a page that doesn't help you at all and is just there to show you a bunch of ads? Since redesigning the site, traffic has dropped right off, and it seems to be falling lower and lower for the keyword "taekwondo" in the Google results pages. It did get as high as page two, but the redesign has obviously had an affect as I'm now hovering at about page 6. Nothing to worry about - I fully expected a drop in SERPS as a direct result of completely remaking the site; things WILL improve when I finish getting the site put together and then work on a few more important backlinks. I also made the mistake of getting too many backlinks too fast when first putting the site online (sounds mad, but that's how it is - Google punishes "obvious" attempts to get high positions in it's index for competitive keywords).

What's bugging me is two of the sites that Google returns on page one for a search of the keyword "taekwondo". The taekwondo.com isn't a website at all - it's just ads and no content whatsoever. A real shame that the domain is in the hands of a spammer when someone could make good use of it. The taekwondo.net site also lands on page one. At first glance, it looks to be a fairly relevant result. An online community for Taekwondo practitioners. Looking at it with a critical eye though, this looks like a commercial venture, rather than a legitimate attempt to provide a useful service to worldwide Taekwondo practitioners. There is nothing on the site to let you know who is actually running it, and what affiliation they have with Taekwondo. My guess is that there isn't any. The WHOIS info for the domain is hidden - I wonder why. The site itself encourages people to basically populate the site with Taekwondo relevant information, which in turn will presumably strengthen it's page one position on Google, keep the hits and (more importantly of course) the AD revenue Dollars rolling in. A close inspection of taekwondo.net revealed it doesn't allow you to backlink to you own website/blog either on their forums, or even in your profile page. An important consideration as basically they will only get links in, and never link out. From a Google perspective, this adds weight to the value and relevance of the site. Wikipedia basically works that way (although I am NOT saying Wikipedia is an irrelevant result for any search engine to show on a topic).

While I'm on the "internet" thing...this Blog page is a pain. I can get every other page of my site to validate on the w3 validator except the blog. Blogger be damned, sort out your code!

Ouch!

Training tonight turned out to be a little more strenuous than usual. Mr Hackan is back, and took the lesson for the evening (turns out he broke his leg in a tournament fight back in December, hence his absence till now - ouch!). There was also a new guy, Dave along for tonights lesson with his son, James. Always good to see some kids joining, but even better to see a fellow parent who has the get up & go to train as well. We're a bit light on adults on Fridays (I'm quite often the only non Dan grade there on Fridays) so I hope he'll keep coming. Sparring against the kids is OK from a fitness point of view but adults make better oponents - you don't have to be quite as worried about making contact with them!

The site makeover is going well - got what I think is a great idea for presenting the patterns & other techniques in a clear, unique and hopefully informative way. Should be publishing some more pages tomorrow.