The purpose of this section is to provide general advice on studying Taekwon-Do. It is fairly basic at the moment but we hope to expand as new ideas arise during training sessions.
Corrections...
A big part of learning anything is listening to your teacher/instructor. In a physical discipline like a martial art it is quickly obvious to your instructor whether you have taken on his/her advice. If you are corrected on a particular technique you should immediately attempt to make the required alteration and keep it in mind for the remainder of the class.
Don't make a mental note to work on it later; now is the time for working and now is the time to show that you have heard and understood the correction.
Classic iterations from the instructor are "your stance is too short / narrow!", "remember to breathe!" and "keep your guard up!". You'll hear these twenty times or more in a class, with a bit of work you will only need to hear them once.
Sparring...
Sparring is a game. A spar is not a fight; if it was a fight the first thing you would do is take your gloves off.
Developing an individual style in sparring is half the fun, it is also inevitable as you have the great honour of being a unique individual and are virtually incapable of doing exactly what you are told. However, particularly for the first few years, there are a few fundamentals that you should stick to:
- Guard up.Your rear hand should be covering the side of your jaw at all times. Your forward hand can move between a low guard, slightly advanced, at kicking distance from your opponent, to a more orthodox shoulder level position at a closer range. Elbows should be tight in to protect the torso.
- Stay side on. Present a minimal target to your opponent and learn to move without 'opening up'. When you do have to square up during the execution of a technique, e.g. when throwing a turning kick off the back leg or a reverse punch, recover your side-on stance and guard fast.
- Try to work only in combinations. That is, try to always throw two or three attacks before recovering, find combinations that suit you and make them natural through practice.
Patterns (Tul)...
This one could go on all day, as mastering the Taekwon-do patterns is a lifetimes work. The patterns contain all the traditional techniques and movement, the theory of power and the artistic expression of Taekwon-Do. We'll keep it simple so....
- Hand, foot and breath arrive together. For example, when stepping forward into a walking stance while executing an obverse punch; the punch reaches full extension as the advancing foot settles to the floor, accompanied by an short audible exhalation.
- A sine-wave motion begins (with very few exceptions) with a bending of the knees, dropping the centre of gravity and preparing to ' push' into the technique. If you get this right the rest of the wave should be more natural and easier to do correctly.
