I'm going to college in Korea this coming year. I'm going to join the judo club at the university for sure, and try to train six days per week. However, any boxing related stuff is out of my price range (I think there's a gym nearby for $90 per month or something, in town, so I would also have to factor in subway costs each time). I want to train some striking as well, and there is a Tae Kwan Do club at my university that I could join for free. My background is Muay Thai, I've even spent months training in Thailand. Is there any benefit for me going to Tae Kwan Do? Or should I just use that free time to join the dancing club to meet girls... (or work on fitness and strength)
Korean Judo (Yudo) is great stuff. Those fellas throw hard. You are going to get a more agressive style of play than you typically do in the U.S. I highly recommend it. What University? Not Yong In by chance? If you go to a school that has a good competitive TKD program you will definitely benefit by training there. If it is a typical University program you will likely be standing in formation with 50 other students doing reverse punches and stuff...
Yea I would go watch one day first. I train MMA and had my beginnings in korean karate. So when they had some free karate thing at school I went to watch. Random chicks, a few douche bags, and a good amount of ninja wanna be nerds and asians (no offense to any asians ). It was pretty pathetic I didn't even stick around to ask if they ever sparred lol.
If it's free you should at least go check it out and watch a class to get a better understanding of what's up.
Yeah I would say check it out. When I was stationed in Korea they offered discounted TKD for the soldiers. I wish I had gone to it to at least get some basics of it and get a better understanding of TKD.
Okay, I'm definitely going to check it out once, but I've been reading some threads on TKD and I don't want to develop bad habits like keeping my arms at my sides. I do need to improve my flexibility and be able to kick higher though.
As MMA continues to evolve I have to think we will see more Lyoto Machidas and GSPs who incorporate traditional martial arts into a full MMA skillset. e.g. Fedor thinks TKD can improve kicking for MMA.
dude if nothing else it will allow you to throw those nasty thai kicks from different angles and allow you to develop that element of your game, if it has a good club Id do it even if i had to pay. if it had a decent one and it was free then sure
No place better to learn TKD than Korea. Give it a look. The whole thing about TKD means no guard etc is bs, its upto you if you want to keep your hands up when sparring... Ok TKD doesn't teach it, fair enough, but if you know to keep your hands up (from boxing/mt/street) then whats the problem? The things you WILL get from a good school: great flexibility, great balance, more kick variety/accuracy and much more.
learn the spinning back kick and hook kick. i've seen john wayne parr use those effectively in his MT game.
I'd say at least go check it out. American TKD and Korean TKD or completely different things. TKD would help a lot with your muay thai flexibility, balance, accuracy, lateral movement and give you a greater variety of kicks. I personally started with Tae kwon do as a child and progressed into kickboxing and then muay thai and when i started kickboxing and muay thai my kicks outdid everyone elses. I was faster, more flexible and had a greater variety of kicks to throw, but I was also kinda lucky in already being a hard kicker. Tae kwon do has a lot of things not needed for fighting but the thing is every martial art has something to benefit your mma or muay thai career. For Tae kwon do its speed, flexibility and kicking accuracy. It could really help if you like it
There is grappling in Korean martial Arts--Hapkido (not typically taught at a TKD school) and Ho Sin Shul (which is in some programs). I'd check out if they have this and you can get some benefit from it.
IMO, Yudo good, very good, Hapkido....not so good. Ho Sin Shul is basically Yudo (Judo) techniques added to TSD or other TMA. If they are being taught by a Yudo BB and you are doing randori it is probably good. If it is done kata style, probably not so great.
dude, that's like asking if you should do free muay thai classes in thailand or free judo classes in japan. you'll limber up, you'll speed up, and you'll be able to cork out some sick head-kickin. as for Hapkido being bullshido-ish...I pretty much agree. it's esoteric. there are parts of it that are really effective, but most of those parts come from judo. a lot of what you do in the first two years of HKD is learning how to flow and move, and therefore a lot of the moves you learn aren't so much for practical, combat purposes, and more suited to developing muscle memory. a lot of it is context-sensitive. it's a lot less ***gy than aikido though, that's for sure.
