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Comprehensive information about martial arts in general and taekwondo in specific
Street freeze
Question from a visitor
I am currently 1st dan in taekwondo and train 3 times a week (mainly sparring) and I used to fight at national level but now I just fight in the occasional kickboxing fight (because it's easier). But in the past few years (regrettably) I have been involved in a couple of fights in the street and I seem to freeze in the initial confrontation and took a couple of blows before reacting. I fought back but with not much enthusiasm. I don’t know why this happens because when I am in the ring I am confident and very aggressive. Yet in the street, I freeze, and after the fight, I beat myself up for not defending myself properly. Any idea why this happens and any tips on how to deal with it?
Answer from TKDTutor
There is a reason the military actively recruits 17, 18, 19, and 20 year olds. Young people have nothing, so they have nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, you tend to take more chances. Young people heal quickly, so they think they are invincible; they don’t think about their mortality. Young people are impulsive; they tend to do things without thinking about the consequences. When they do think about the possibility of making a mistake, it doesn’t bother them since they think they have a lifetime to correct the mistake.
For these reasons, they make good warriors. They tend to follow orders without hesitation to consider the consequences of the orders. When the leader says, “Charge that hill,” they charge without considering they may die.
However, as people get older and acquire money, property, and families and have something to lose, they tend to hesitate before entering into a risky action. As people age, injuries heal more slowly and become chronic, so people are hesitant to incur more injuries.
As people get older they tend to hesitate and think about the consequences of their actions before entering into risky behavior. So as you get older, you may still enjoy the thrill and the challenge of a controlled fight where your chances of serious injury are limited and where a referee is there to help prevent serious injury in the case you are incapacitated. But in a street fight situation, which may usually be avoided, you tend to think about the consequences. A true street fighter does not care about missing teeth, a broken nose, or other injuries. And, since they have little money, they just go to emergency rooms and never pay the bills. Once you have a family and a job, you think about the dental bills, the busted face that will discourage customers, and the possible loss of income. This means you tend to hesitate before doing something stupid.
However, this doesn’t mean that people with something to lose will not fight. If there is an actual threat to family, property, or livelihood, people will fight to protect them. They will fight a level higher than that of the street fighter. The street fighter fights for fun because he or she has nothing to lose. When people fight to preserve what they have, they will fight to the death and nothing will stop them short of death.
So, in answer to your question, you are probably older and probably think you have something to lose, so you hesitate before entering into a useless street fight. However, if you were in a fight to protect your family, property, or livelihood, you would probably act instantly and with a passion.
Rank certificate numbers
Question from a visitor
Where do instructors get those numbers they put on the rank certificates? I have been to three schools; two only assigned numbers to those testing and passing their black belt test. The other one gave everyone a registration number.Answer from TKDTutor
I presume you mean the serial/registration numbers most organizations put on their black belt certificates. Organizations use different numbering systems but all the systems serve the same purpose.
Since each number is unique and is issued and stored by the organization, it helps identify the person and their official rank and it helps prevent forgeries.
Since the numbers are consecutive, they indicate the person's seniority in the organization, and they indicate the number of certificates that rank that have been issued by the organization. Sometimes letters are used in the number to indicate the rank of the certificate.
Registration numbers are not required, but they are used by all major organization to help prevent a phony black belt from making a copy of a real certificate and putting his or her name on it. When in doubt about a black belt's certification, if you check with the issuing organization it can use the registration number to verify if the person is a legitimate black belt.
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2020 is the 20th Anniversary of TKDTutor
Many martial art styles, schools, and organizations have come and gone over the last twenty years but TKDTutor.com is still online helping you learn about the martial arts and how to differentiate reality from fantasy, legitimate from illegitimate, and truth from lies in the martial arts community.
New website is online!
As of January 1, 2019, the new TKDTutor website on Blogger is now the only website for TKDTutor. The TKDTutor.com domain name now points to the new website. The old website on Lunarpages that used Joomla has been deleted.
WT and ITF agree to unite
General Choi's lifelong dream of the unification of taekwondo is becoming a reality.
Taekwondo America school in Winston-Salem, NC
For those who are interested, there is now a Taekwondo America affiliated school located in Winston-Salem, N.C. The school is operated by Mr. Drew Catha (5th-degree black belt) and his wife Lauren (3rd-degree black belt). For information about the school, visit their website at Catha's Taekwondo America.
Touching gloves
One of my pet peeves is—touching gloves. The sport of boxing uses touching gloves as a traditional sign of respect for the opponent, and it was probably where the gesture originated. The sport of Mixed Martial Arts also uses glove touching, but then, since the only thing in MMA that is related to the martial arts is its name, it’s an appropriate gesture. However, in traditional martial arts, especially the ones that originated in counties that use the bow as a part of their culture, we bow toward our opponents as a traditional sign of respect.
Nowadays, see martial artists bow toward each other before a sparring match, walk forward and touch gloves, and then assume their fighting positions. Glove touching is nontraditional, not needed, and repetitious. Bowing to an opponent and then touching gloves is like saying “I am bowing to you to show my respect for you as a fighter,” and then walking up and saying “In case you were too ignorant to understand the purpose of the bow, I am touching gloves with you to show my respect for you as a fighter.”
The use of glove touching has increased in the martial arts since the rise in popularity of the sport of MMA fighting. It appears that novice martial arts students, and even experienced ones, think that touching gloves is now the way things are supposed to be done. As traditional martial artists, it is our responsibility to correct this behavior.
Nowadays, see martial artists bow toward each other before a sparring match, walk forward and touch gloves, and then assume their fighting positions. Glove touching is nontraditional, not needed, and repetitious. Bowing to an opponent and then touching gloves is like saying “I am bowing to you to show my respect for you as a fighter,” and then walking up and saying “In case you were too ignorant to understand the purpose of the bow, I am touching gloves with you to show my respect for you as a fighter.”
The use of glove touching has increased in the martial arts since the rise in popularity of the sport of MMA fighting. It appears that novice martial arts students, and even experienced ones, think that touching gloves is now the way things are supposed to be done. As traditional martial artists, it is our responsibility to correct this behavior.
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
In the United States, the term “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” is a legal doctrine used to describe evidence that, while obtained legally, the information used as the basis for obtaining the evidence was itself obtained illegally and thus can’t be used as evidence. The reasoning being, if the source of the information (the "tree") is tainted, then anything gained from it (the "fruit") is also tainted—you can’t use evidence legally that was obtained illegally.
We can apply this doctrine to bogus martial arts masters. If a grandmaster of a martial art is a fraud, then all ranks the master awarded to students are bogus, and all ranks awarded by the instructors that were certified by the master are also bogus, etc.
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, and regardless of whether it is fair or not, any rank that stems from a bogus lineage is tainted and thus is also bogus. You may not have been aware of the fraud being perpetrated against you and you may have had the most honorable of intentions when obtaining the rank, but the rank is still bogus.
When you buy a bogus Rolex watch, it does not matter that you thought it was a real Rolex, how much you paid for it, or that you were the victim of fraud—the watch is still not a Rolex. The watch may operate like a Rolex, it may look like a Rolex, and other people may think it’s a real Rolex, but it’s still not a Rolex. Once you know the watch is not a real Rolex, if you tell others it’s a Rolex or sell the watch as a Rolex, you are yourself a perpetrator of fraud. If you bought a bogus Rolex and you still want a Rolex, you should toss the bogus Rolex in the trash and start the process of obtaining a real Rolex.
We can apply this doctrine to bogus martial arts masters. If a grandmaster of a martial art is a fraud, then all ranks the master awarded to students are bogus, and all ranks awarded by the instructors that were certified by the master are also bogus, etc.
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, and regardless of whether it is fair or not, any rank that stems from a bogus lineage is tainted and thus is also bogus. You may not have been aware of the fraud being perpetrated against you and you may have had the most honorable of intentions when obtaining the rank, but the rank is still bogus.
When you buy a bogus Rolex watch, it does not matter that you thought it was a real Rolex, how much you paid for it, or that you were the victim of fraud—the watch is still not a Rolex. The watch may operate like a Rolex, it may look like a Rolex, and other people may think it’s a real Rolex, but it’s still not a Rolex. Once you know the watch is not a real Rolex, if you tell others it’s a Rolex or sell the watch as a Rolex, you are yourself a perpetrator of fraud. If you bought a bogus Rolex and you still want a Rolex, you should toss the bogus Rolex in the trash and start the process of obtaining a real Rolex.
Taekwondo Birthday
April 11, 1955: Taekwondo was offically founded and given it's name. Taekwondo has changed alot over the last 63 years; some changes were good, some not so good.
Open stance fighting
To be a good fighter, should you train to fight from both a right and left side leading position, or should you concentrate on being the best you can be from your natural lead side? Most people have limited time in which to train, so isn’t more advantageous to only train using your natural side in the lead? You can train to fight against both right and left side lead fighters from just this one side without having to switch your lead side. Isn’t it better to be very good at a lot of techniques on one side than it is to be just good at only a few techniques on both sides?
Rank certification
In the Certificate Mills topic, I stated:
A legitimate rank issuing organization issues rank to students who have been:
A legitimate rank issuing organization issues rank to students who have been:
- Trained by a certified instructor of the organization.
- Tested in person by a certified instructor, or a group of certified instructors, of the organization.
- Recommended for rank by a certified instructor, or a group of instructors, of the organization as having met or exceeded the organization's requirements for the rank.
He said that I must be ignorant of the current way rank is awarded in the martial arts industry. He said that lower ranks are, and should be, tested in person but that high ranks (4th degree and above) are usually awarded rank by means of correspondence (previous rank certificates, a resume, letters of recommendation, thesis, a video of skills performance, tournament records, etc.).
He said he had competed extensively around the country and that most of the high ranks he knew had received their rank this way. and that this was the way most organizations issue high rank. He said most ranks above 3rd degree were honorary anyway and were mostly awarded for time in rank and for work in the art and in the organization, not for physical performance.
He said most of the high ranking taekwondo martial artists he knew had received their rank through correspondence and that my statement that rank should be awarded in person was disrespectful toward them. He thought that people who expect high ranks to test in person were ignorant of the way high rank is issued nowadays, must be envious of the rank, and are probably criticizing the rank in an effort to increase the status of their own rank.
This is why certificate mills still exist.
WTF is now World Taekwondo
In June 2017, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) announced it has officially changed its name to World Taekwondo. Primarily, this was done as a marketing strategy to establish itself as the global leader of taekwondo. Secondarily, it was done to avoid the negative connotations of the acronym WTF as in "What The F***!" So now they will be known as just "What The!"
World Taekwondo is now truly global since it takes elements from various arts from around the world.
World Taekwondo is now truly global since it takes elements from various arts from around the world.
- From Korean taekkyeon it takes its history (it no longer recognizes its Japanese shotokan influence),
- from Irish Riverdance it takes the bouncing up and down on the feet while holding the arms down at the sides,
- from French savate it takes the extensive use of kicking, and
- from French foil fencing it takes the use of blunted weapons, limited targets, body protection, and electronic scoring.
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