Taekwondo Martial Arts Testing: What to Know

Taekwondo is a modern martial art, featured by its fast, high and spinning kicks. Modern-day Taekwondo is influenced by many other Martial Arts. The most important of these arts is Japanese Karate.

Today, Taekwondo is the national sport of Korea and is the fastest growing Martial Art in the world. People from all walks of life come to train, each having their own personal reasons for wanting to learn Tae Kwon Do.

Taekwondo is a martial art that was developed as a defensive art. All of its activities are based on the defensive attitude that was originally developed for protection against enemy attacks.
Tae Kwon Do is a lot of fun and also a lot of work. Tae Kwon Do is a very demanding sport. You must be in very good shape physically to master it. A properly designed workout plan has a general warm-up, a specific warm-up, the main part of the workout, and a cool down.

As with all things in life you must work hard to learn a new skill. Taekwondo is no exception. You must always concentrate and focus on the center of the board or target. A positive mental attitude is a critical component of Taekwondo. A positive mental attitude keeps a person well focused and gives direction in whatever is being attempted; sparring, self-defense, breaking, or forms.

It trains both body and mind. It is a sport for everyone - men, women, and children. It is a wonderful way to gain self confidence and strength.

How to Do a Front Snap Kick in Tae Kwon Do

The very first kick a white belt will learn in Tae Kwon Do is the Front Snap Kick. It's a fairly simple move: shift your weight to the non-kicking leg, lift the other, and snap your foot out. Unfortunately, sometimes what seems simple in theory is actually quite difficult in practice.

What Not to Do

It's important for someone new to Tae Kwon Do to understand how not to perform this kick before ever learning the subtle nuances of how. Why? Because Tae Kwon Do is dangerous if you don't practice it correctly.

The first rule when learning the Front Snap Kick (known as Apcha Busigi, for those whose instructors stress the Korean) is to check your balance before ever trying to throw a kick. It's incredible how quickly you can go from "fairly balanced" with both feet on the floor to being sprawled on your back with your ears ringing. Two of the more common kicks that will put you down if you aren't careful are the Front Snap and Turning Snap, so your first priority with these kicks should always be balance. Usually making sure your stance is right is the first key, if you are in a proper forward walking stand your feet will be set shoulder width apart and you will not be wind-milling your arms in an attempt to keep your footing.

Once you feel confident enough in your footing to attempt the kick, you will want to remember something that you'll only forget once: keep your toes curled back. You never want to strike your target with the tips of your toes, not only is it damaging, it's downright painful. Additionally, if you kick someone by shoving your toes into their stomach, you're probably going to be doing more damage to yourself than you are to them, and that is counter-intuitive to the idea of protecting yourself with Tae Kwon Do.

What to Do

Once you've mastered the two basic rules: get your balance, and keep your toes back, you're ready to attempt perfection of the technique. It's important to remember that "what to do" can be just as important as "what not to do." Why? Again, Tae Kwon Do can be very dangerous to you if you're practicing it incorrectly and you never want to hurt yourself.

First, your back should be kept straight while you're doing your kick. Never allow any wrenching, twisting, or otherwise straining movements to be perpetrated by your upper body. This can do a lot of damage to the spine, especially the lumbar vertebrae, due to pressure exerted the wrong way. Many people who aren't doing the snap correctly tend to twist their whole body to exert enough force to bring their leg up.

This leads to the most important part of the technique. A Front Snap Kick is named as such because of the "snapping" motion you should be doing with your leg. Many people doing the kick incorrectly will jerk their back hard to the side to force their leg up, barely bending their knee, and sort of tapping their foot ineffectively against a target. Just a note: no, that doesn't work. In a real situation you'd quickly find yourself overcome with technique like that. A proper snap kick involves raising the knee to about waist height, and then snapping the foot out. The kicking actually comes from the snap. This means your back, waist, arms, and any other extraneous limbs that sometimes get added in don't belong. You should basically be performing this kick from the knee down.

It is very important to do some basic skills when training Taekwondo. There are tips which will help make your training easier. Taekwondo students should take class 2-3 times per week and also practice at home.

One step sparring tips First of all, when practicing your one step sparring make sure you are doing it correctly. While doing your one step be sure to concentrate on the purpose of every move. In addition practice is required. Practice makes perfect as they say.

Stretching tips Stretching is the most disliked, but most necessary part of the Martial Arts. First you should start out restful then in the completion the stretching should be active and try to stretch more than one part of the body at a time to get a more efficient work-out. Be relaxed and loose when you do a stretch.

Free sparring tips Footwork is one of the most important factors of sparring, because it is the base from which you make your attack. You should firstly work on your basics and then begin throwing in some fakes and moving side to side. When you start feeling comfortable with this you should begin working in some kicks.

Kicking techniques Having good kicking techniques is a big part of tae kwon do. First you need to practice the basic techniques before moving to the more advanced ones. Next you can start with the more complicated kicks.

A positive mental attitude is essential in Taekwondo. A positive mental attitude keeps a person well focused and gives direction in whatever is being attempted.

Proponents of Tae Kwon Do (also Taekwondo, Taekwon-Do, or Tae Kwon-Do) date its origin to the Silla dynasty in Korea. In these times a martial art form was used for combat conditioning by its warriors so they were better able to fight with enemies at home and abroad but the form we recognize around the world today really came into being after the Korean War. It finally came to the United States in the same way as Karate did, through American servicemen who served in the region. It remains a popular combat martial art around the globe, and is also an Olympic sport and the national sport of South Korea.

The sport never replaced the combatives the United States military was using, but the powerful kicks were included with training. Unlike Hapkido which is a soft art based on Japanese Jujutsu that allows the attacker to make the first move, Tae Kwon Do practitioners are taught to attack even in the combat sport version. While Tae Kwon Do looks impressive in the ring and demonstration, it is completely unsuited for hand-to-hand combat in the streets. Typical Tae Kwon Do lacks the basic primal self defense tactics necessary to survive.

While the Koreans had their own martial arts it wasn't unit they were occupied by the Japanese prior to the official outbreak of World War II did Tae Kwon Do begin to develop. The Japanese were brutal racist conquers who forced their culture on the Korean people and even drafted Koreans into their military. One of the few positives that came out of this period was that the Japanese taught their martial arts to the Koreans and at that time in Japan, Shotokan Karate was popular.

In the 1950'sGeneral Choi Hong Hi Tae Kwon Do's founder would combine Shotokan with other martial arts, and the result would be a new standardized martial art for Korea. To set itself apart, Tae Kwon Do chose to focus on fast, spectacular kicking techniques rather than the powerful straight line kicking and punching of its Japanese father.

Because safety is important in any combat sport there is a variety of Tae Kwon Do equipment designed to keep a student safe. For the hands there are hand raps and cloth fist and forearm guards as well as elbow protection. Since kicks are such a big part of TKD, there are shin and ankle guards for leg protection. Furthermore, to prevent injury; there is head gear and chest protectors. To protect vulnerable areas there is also groin protection and mouth guards like in other sports. All of this equipment is worn in competition and often in training as well.

Like all sports, because protection is worn all the time it removes some of the combat effectiveness. While this prevents injury, it also prevents students from learning how to defend themselves in a real life combat situation by moving and striking in a way that would normally shatter and unconditioned fist or unprotected groin. While it is a fun and demanding sport, it is just the beginning of your self defense training.

In competitions rules prohibit grappling, throws, and holding techniques that are seen in combat sports like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo. Taekwondo focuses on many different types of kicks including 45 degree, front, axe, side and a variety of jumping and spinning kicks. Though there isn't much attention paid to grappling, the system has a number of blocks, open and closed hand strikes and depending on what style of Tae Kwon Do you're practicing. Take-downs, throws, and joint locks may also be included with part of the training at the instructor's discretion and experience.

While the competition might be intense, it only happens with full protective gear on the competitors from head to toe. Like Karate. Tae Kwon Do does have a self defense aspect, but the vast majority of people only practice the competition sports version.

If you try to use your Tae Kwon Do, kick boxing or karate in a street fight you will lose and get hurt. Why? Because those techniques while are great for a regulated match are useless in a fight where anything goes. Now I'm sure some of you know some pretty tough martial artists, but remember a life or death fight is a different animal. If you're interested in learning Tae Kwon Doe learn from someone who teaches practical self defense moves along with the combat sport. While there might be a right and a wrong way when it comes to techniques there is no right and wrong in self defense as long as whatever you do works.

You just tested for a new belt... what's next? A new form, most likely... also known as patterns, poomse, or hyungs. Now, you'll go through the process again of perfecting your forms before the next belt testing. You may ask yourself, what is the purpose of all these forms?
As a Taekwondo practitioner for over 30 years, I've come full circles with the purpose of the items we practice in class. In fact, I've done a couple full circles with regards to forms. During my younger days as a competitive point style fighter, I wasn't too fond of forms. I practiced them, and I did well. As a matter of fact, I did really well in every tournament I competed in. What I was really interested in was the sparring. That's what I lived for.


I found every way to justify that forms had nothing to do with sparring. For instance, a boxer does not do forms. Kickboxers don't do forms. Wrestlers don't do forms. Other sports don't do forms. Why should I pay much attention to forms. I'm as logical of a thinker as you can get. I will justify and calculate just about everything. It's probably why graduated with an engineering degree. By the way, I retired after a year.


I've heard others argue that boxers, kickboxers, and wrestlers do have forms. They are just done in a different manner. Oh, such a sad attempt to create a similarity. Here is my response- Those other sports have combinations and drills, just like we do in Taekwondo, but they still do not do memorized sequences of techniques, consisting of 15 to 30 steps in length.


Okay, here is where I finally made my first full circle. Taekwondo is not a sport. Therefore, it should not be compared to other sports. I first began in the ITF, and now I am in the WTF, and still... I think of our practice as an art form over sport, regardless of the amount of competing I've done and that our academy still does. Taekwondo has a sport component to it, in fact, most martial arts have a sport component. Tai Chi even has competition.


At this point, I understood that it's not fair to compare what we do as Taekwondo practioners to boxers. Taekwondo, and most martial arts, are centered around building yourself from the inside out. Becoming a person of great character. A person that lives by certain tenents- courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control, and indomitable spirit. Martial arts were created thousands of years ago to defend lands, and emperors, as well as for personal protection when traveling great distances.


Ancient history depicts warriors training with memorized sequences of techniques- forms. These forms were most likely used to keep the warriors mentally sharp and in shape when training solo. Doing forms allow you to visualize attacks from multiple opponents. Imagine, you're a monk, 3000 years ago, travelling for several weeks... alone. You need a means to develop yourself physically and mentally. Forms will allow you to visualize attackers, while you defend yourself with explosive techniques. Each time you execute a technique in your form, you execute with power, focus, and precision. The training develops your technique from shear repetition as well as your mental focus and discipline.


Now it's easy to fall off the ancient warrior wagon when you're competing. I have training partners, and equipment to practice on. I don't need to train solo with forms to develop my skills for sparring. Again, I've justified why my Taekwondo forms can be put on the back burner of my training.


Ah, hah!!! It has finally hit me. It was staring at me along during my first full circle with the importance of forms. First, let me explain that forms has many benefits-


1. Taekwondo forms help you build strength in specific techniques by executing them regularly in a powerful fashion.


2. Taekwondo forms disciplines your body to control your breathing by exhaling on the execution of techniques and inhaling in between.


3. Taekwondo forms teach your body good balance by executing kicks, blocks, and punches with power, but then maintaining proper posture, and foot and hand position without comprising your stance. Good technique is of the ought most importance in forms because it challenges us the most with coordination and balance.


4. Taekwondo forms offer us a means to "empty your cup." Emptying your cup is symbollic to life. There is only so much stress and so many tasks you can allow your mind and body to handle. Forms is an activity that allows you to release some of those stresses that are consuming you mentally. Practice forms for 30 minutes after a long stressfull day, and you'll understand the true meaning of "emptying your cup."


Now that's not the big benefit that forms has. The big benefit goes all the way back to the ancient warriors. It's funny how the biggest benefits are the time tested ones from long ago. The benefit is- visualization. 90% of all Olympic athletes are visualizers. 90% of the successful business people in this country envisioned their success.


So how do you tap into this priceless quality? You practice! Visualization is an art that can be mastered. If you perform your Taekwondo forms in a mundane fashion focusing only on technique, balance, and breathing, you're missing one huge component. To develop your skills as a powerful visualizer, you must picture every attack you're blocking and every target you're striking. This mental exercise is so powerful, it ought to carry over in the rest of your life.


There are plenty of books on the law of attraction, so I won't write on that, but the premise of this law is visualization. If entrepreneurs do it, business people do it, Olympic athletes do it, ancient warriors did it, and it made them successful, I would say it's worth doing to.


"Wait a minute... I'm in martial arts for self defense, not for some business success course." So be it. Every step in your form is a defense or counter attack to an assailant. The more you visualize those attacks and your defense and counters against them, the more proficient and natural it will be, should you encounter a similar attack. This is the reason you learn several forms in Taekwondo. Each form offers you a knew perspective on a particular attack. The more forms you know, the more tools you have mentally and physically to use.


2nd full circle, now complete. I'm sure I'll probably do another full circle soon. In fact, I search for a reason to do these circles, because it allows me to keep growing as a Taekwondoist. Like many great people before me have said, "When you're not growing, you're rotting." It's the natural law of nature.

Speed is not always a means of how quickly you can accelerate your Taekwondo technique into your opponent. In fact, speed is based on many things, other than just raw acceleration of techniques. Today, in our sparring class, I noticed a few students with extra movements in their steps just before they executed their back kick.

Students were doing bag drills and I was analyzing the speed at which they began their kick up to contact on the target. I noticed that some of our fast Taekwondo students were executing their back kicks slower simply because they pivoted or stepped just before they kicked. I call this a "prep." A "prep" basically means that you are positioning yourself better to execute a good fast kick.

What I teach my Taekwondo students is that they must learn to incorporate the "prep" into their regular stance. For example, if you tend to bend your legs just before you kick, you are kicking slower than you potentially could. Instead, slightly bend your legs to begin with. Make your stance with bent legs so that you basically skip a step in this process.

Another common "prep", in Taekwondo, is for a student to pivot their foot, then kick. It becomes a 2 step process. In Olympic style competition, this 2 step process is a dead give away to your opponent. I advise our Taekwondo students and competitors to combine the 2 steps into 1 fluid motion. Basically, everything is done at once and the kick is executed faster.

In summary-

1. Pivot supporting foot at the same time you're kicking, making a 1 step process instead of 2. This goes for all kicks, not just back kicks.

2. Find the body or leg position that you make just before you begin your kick. Then, incorporate that position into your fighting stance so you eliminate a step.

The amount of time you save by eliminating these extra steps, or "preps" are fractions of a second. On the other hand, points are scored in Taekwondo by opportunities that last only a fraction of a second.

The two most common martial arts practiced in North America are karate and tae kwon do. Many wonder what the difference between these two styles is. This is especially the case for those who are just starting to look around for a studio. After all, most practitioners in both disciplines seem to wear the same type of white gi uniforms with various colored belts.

Modern traditional karate was developed in the islands of Okinawa in Japan after some influences from Chinese martial arts. There are actually different styles of karate but they are all commonly considered as Japanese styles today. The colored belt system was developed to show the various ranks of karate practitioners with white depicting novices and black belts (with various degrees) representing instructor levels and higher. There is a whole range of other different colors in between. Modern tae kwon do was developed in Korea after much influence from Japanese karate during the occupation by Japan. Indeed, tae kwon do is sometimes referred to as Korean karate. The Koreans adopted similar white uniforms along with a colored belt ranking system for tae kwon do. Today, there are two main styles of tae kwon do, one under the International Federation and the other under the World Federation. Many schools have added a black lining to their white uniforms for black belt levels. A V-neck top is often seen in schools affiliated with the World Federation. There are also older Korean styles including tang soo do and moo duk kwan. Some of the more Americanized schools also use uniforms with other colors such as red, black and blue in addition to the traditional white.

It can be generalized that in karate, one would use their arms or hands for 60% of the time for strikes or blocks while the use of legs for kicking will be about 40%. This breakdown is seen in the many forms or katas of karate which are set routines which simulate fighting against imaginary opponents using martial arts techniques. The forms from tae kwon do would have the opposite percentage breakdown with 40% hands and 60% legs. There is also more emphasis on higher kicks to the head level than in karate. Practitioners also utilize more jumping or flying kicks where one is airborne while executing kicking techniques. The Korean forms or patterns are generally a bit shorter and less complex than the karate forms. Some tae kwon do schools have been known to use the odd karate form in its curriculum as well.

In North America as well as other parts of the world, there are separate traditional competitions for karate and tae kwon do. However, the open martial arts tournaments in North America often have competitors from both disciplines competing together. Some of the larger open martial arts competition events will have separate forms divisions for Japanese and Korean style competitors but the fighting or sparring divisions will usually be combined. Many black belts end up studying both styles. Tae kwon do has received more publicity in recent years since its introduction as an Olympic sport. The style and rules used for the Olympic version fighting comes from the World Federation (WTF). Both karate and tae kwon do are considered as hard style martial arts in North America today (as opposed to soft styles such as the many versions of Chinese kung fu).

Keeping in shape is vital for your body's health and one such way you can do this is by practicing Tae Kwon Do. This sport is no joke, you have to be in pristine condition to learn the various moves. Many of which include you throwing your leg high above people's heads.

A lot of Tae Kwon Do moves are about striking people with the use of your legs. It is only nowadays that people have began using their hands for self defense and to punch back. Most of the moves involved spin around kicks, flying kicks, open handed strikes, system of blocks and punches. Since flexibility is one of the key factors of Tae Kwon Do, you will have to be very flexible if you want to learn the different moves. Stretching is one way to increase flexibility and this is one important aspect in the training of Tae Kwon Do.

One of the most important moves is the side kick or back kick. The sport is popular with both male and female sexes and you will find that little children are also keen to learn this martial art. Tae Kwon Do believes that the leg is the most important weapon that a martial artist has and since it is the longest it has more chances of hitting the target compared to the arms.

One way in which the student learns to master the use of his physical and mental strengths is by breaking of the wooden boards. This kind of ability will require the student to master a technique that basically deals with concentration to focus one's strength enough to break through a board. This style is actually done using both the hands and legs of the student.