Striking Techniques Beyond Black Belt - Page 3

Ramsey Dewey · 01-30-2013, 09:57 AM

I did WTF taekwondo for about 10 years. I also had 5 different instructors, each with a different approach to teaching.

Honestly, you should learn all the techniques you'll ever use in a TKD competition pretty early on, way before black belt. There are only 7-8 basic kicks (depending on how you classify them) anyway, and everything else is a variation on the basics.

By the time I was a blue belt, I knew all the same techniques as all the black belts I knew. The difference between a colored belt and a black belt in TKD shouldn't be the number of secret ninja moves you know, it should be how well you can execute those techniques in competition.

One of my coaches was very focused on Olympic style competition. Everything she taught was centered around scoring strategies for tournaments.

I had another coach from Cambodia who had lived through a war and seen some serious things go down in his day. His approach to TKD was all about real life survival strategies. One of his favorite quotes, "This is not a game!" Another of my coaches was this American dude who focused a lot on breaking stuff and hitting really hard. My first and last coaches were both Korean, and they took their art very seriously. They both tended to focus a lot on exactness of form, and gross repetition of techniques to exhaustion.

Between blue and black, I didn't feel like I had made a whole lot of progress, honestly. It was a lot of repetition of the exact same thing, without much innovation. But after competing in other combat sports, I found that my taekwondo sparring is a whole lot better in terms of position, strategy, timing, accuracy, confidence, and such- even though I don't practice sport TKD much anymore.

In short, what you get out of your training largely depends on 3 things: who your instructor is, who you train with, and your personal work ethic.

I was lucky enough to have some pretty decent TKD coaches. But I've visited a number of schools with some crappy, crappy teachers that should not be allowed to run a class. I've met plenty of folks with black belts who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. It's all relative.

KarateStylist · 01-30-2013, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramsey Dewey

I did WTF taekwondo for about 10 years. I also had 5 different instructors, each with a different approach to teaching.

Honestly, you should learn all the techniques you'll ever use in a TKD competition pretty early on, way before black belt. There are only 7-8 basic kicks (depending on how you classify them) anyway, and everything else is a variation on the basics.

By the time I was a blue belt, I knew all the same techniques as all the black belts I knew. The difference between a colored belt and a black belt in TKD shouldn't be the number of secret ninja moves you know, it should be how well you can execute those techniques in competition.

One of my coaches was very focused on Olympic style competition. Everything she taught was centered around scoring strategies for tournaments.

I had another coach from Cambodia who had lived through a war and seen some serious things go down in his day. His approach to TKD was all about real life survival strategies. One of his favorite quotes, "This is not a game!" Another of my coaches was this American dude who focused a lot on breaking stuff and hitting really hard. My first and last coaches were both Korean, and they took their art very seriously. They both tended to focus a lot on exactness of form, and gross repetition of techniques to exhaustion.

Between blue and black, I didn't feel like I had made a whole lot of progress, honestly. It was a lot of repetition of the exact same thing, without much innovation. But after competing in other combat sports, I found that my taekwondo sparring is a whole lot better in terms of position, strategy, timing, accuracy, confidence, and such- even though I don't practice sport TKD much anymore.

In short, what you get out of your training largely depends on 3 things: who your instructor is, who you train with, and your personal work ethic.

I was lucky enough to have some pretty decent TKD coaches. But I've visited a number of schools with some crappy, crappy teachers that should not be allowed to run a class. I've met plenty of folks with black belts who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. It's all relative.

^^^ the highlights in "blue," above is where you failed to make the transition into mentally-disciplined traditional karate....

KarateStylist

Ramsey Dewey · 01-30-2013, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarateStylist

^^^ the highlights in "blue," above is where you failed to make the transition into mentally-disciplined traditional karate....

KarateStylist

Funny you should mention that, because was taking karate classes at the same time. It wasn't any better dude.

KarateStylist · 01-30-2013, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramsey Dewey

Funny you should mention that, because was taking karate classes at the same time. It wasn't any better dude.

^^^ Wasn't better for you, you mean.... & quite apparent....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramsey Dewey

I did WTF taekwondo for about 10 years. I also had 5 different instructors, each with a different approach to teaching.

*** quotechop ***

I was lucky enough to have some pretty decent TKD coaches. But I've visited a number of schools with some crappy, crappy teachers that should not be allowed to run a class. I've met plenty of folks with black belts who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. It's all relative.

^^^ I and everyone else I know in karate has had the same experience, relatively dode....

Then there's also that group, the one's who can beat a paper bag....

KarateStylist

SummerStriker · 01-31-2013, 12:06 AM

Hey KS, I found a video of your old class.

Phlog · 01-31-2013, 04:11 AM

Belts suck.

barnowl · 01-31-2013, 09:43 AM

In the older days of Ranks, before the money machine kicked in, white through black were basic training ranks in may possibly most TMA styles. Once you made black you were considered to now know enough to actually begin teaching you how to use it. The transition from Red/Brown to black was a change from learn basic technique and skill to refine said techniques to actually learning to apply them. My Kung-fu school still has that mind-set. You only really begin to get really good at fighting after the final rank test. At that point there is not really any new skill left, put lots of new applications to learn, find and refine so the class look just an MMA or kick boxing program for active fighters.