Noob needs information and advice

[BadgerFu57]

I found a TKD school near my house, it's about a 10 minute walk away.

As I entered, I was bombarded with trophies and medals. I also saw a kid who looked to be about 7 with a black belt. It is a WTF school, and both masters seem to be very competent and experienced in Tae Kwon Do. There are no long contracts. There were a few striking apparatus', but not as many as the karate/kickboxing academy. The instructors were very friendly. One has a degree in Tae Kwon Do from Kyung Hee University (I was skeptical that those even exist but I looked it up on the internet and Kyung Hee University does in fact have a Tae Kwon Do degree program). He is also a 3 time National Champion in Sparring in Korea. He has a 5th degree BB in TKD and a 5th deg. in Hwal-Bup. The other instructor has a 6th degree BB with 30 years experience. He teaches weapons and kung-fu as well.

As I understood it, in WTF sparring is full-contact.

I've heard mixed things about the WTF and Tae Kwon Do tournaments, but if anyone has experience, I would like to know about it.


While I think it sounds fun and great, I don't want to practice a martial art that is pointless in real-world application or that will teach bad habits. Since I am pretty ignorant concerning striking arts, I am open to advice.

(Note: I know you MMA buffs will say Muay Thai or Boxing, but FOR NOW, I want to do something fun that will improve fitness and teach some self-defense skills without having to worry about serious/frequent injuries. I just don't want to do something that is counter-productive to becoming a complete martial artist later on down the road.)

[ajs1976]

I only started MA a couple of months ago. I picked TKD as a way to get into better shape, but I was warned that TKD isn't always the best for self defense.

WTF TKD was a good place to start for me. The instructor at my dojang, tries to offer a good balance between sport, tradition and self defense. From what I have heard, you have to watch with the WTF places to make sure that they do not go overboard on the sport aspect. If the place offers a trial membership, I would recommended doing that before you sign up.

[BadgerFu57]

Sorry to re-iterate this but I have yet to get a clear answer from anyone. (on the Japanese boards too)

IS WTF TKD FULL CONTACT?

[ajs1976]

From your first post it looks like you are stating the sparring was full contact, not asking if it was. TKD is Korean, so i'm not sure what kind of input you would get on the Japanese boards.

Although we talk about it in class, I haven't done any sparring yet, so someone with more experience can give you a better answer.

competive sparring is full contact with restrictions. First off, you are wearing gear. Head, chest, groin, shin, instep, hands and forarms. No punching to the head, but kicks are allowed. No attacking below the belt. No attacking the spine. In class the higher belts and the instructor regularly discuss sparring techiniques for knocking the wind out of someone or knocking them out and how not to get knocked out. (if I have any of this wrong. go ahead and correct)

there are a lot of restrictions to the sparring, and that is why I said to make sure the school does not go overboard on the sport aspect to the point where that is all the teach. If you are also interested in realworld application, find out what they do for self defense training. My instructor includes Hapkido techiniques for the one step and grabbing techniques. This is where we get into the strikes to the face and groin and joint locks.

[ajs1976]

I read through you other post. there are a lot of different ways to spar. It is hard for someone that has never attended a particular school, to say what type of sparring the will do. If you do the trial memberships, make sure to ask a lot of questions and at least observe some sparring.

[koto_ryu]

First off, you are wearing gear. Head, chest, groin, shin, instep, hands and forarms. No punching to the head, but kicks are allowed.

The no punching the head thing is actually what turned me off from TKD the very same day I tried it for the first time. One of the best schools in the U.S. (according to them, however Young Brothers if anyones interested)is no more than 5 minutes from my house. The first day I tried it out, got a good little workout and whatever, had some fun doing the kicks, then they let me go spar. I felt silly in all the padded gear but said hey, whatever. I was working out with this black belt who said I could go as hard as I wanted to, so I said sure sounds good to me. We start sparring and he had his hands down near his side Ali-style. I practically shrugged then hit him with a left straight-left hook-right straight combo and he dropped like a sack of shit. That's when I got the whole "You can't punch the head!" spiel. I took off the gear and left right at that moment. That's a horrible way to train.

[Jeremy Lobdell]

Important point.

I think it's very important to make the distinction of , If you're sparring for sport and following a set of rules, or sparring for self defense, where there are no rules but some form of protection has to be in place to keep it safe and avoid injury! There, I feel special now!

[ajs1976]

Young Brothers if anyones interested)is no more than 5 minutes from my house.

If you live in Pittsburgh, it is kind of hard not to be five minutes from a Young Brothers Dojang. I heard the are opening 3 more.

[koto_ryu]

If you live in Pittsburgh, it is kind of hard not to be five minutes from a Young Brothers Dojang. I heard the are opening 3 more.

I'm near the one right along Babcock, I think it was one of the original ones in this area. I see 7 year olds with BBs running in and out all day long

[Acitic]

The no punching the head thing is actually what turned me off from TKD the very same day I tried it for the first time. One of the best schools in the U.S. (according to them, however Young Brothers if anyones interested)is no more than 5 minutes from my house. The first day I tried it out, got a good little workout and whatever, had some fun doing the kicks, then they let me go spar. I felt silly in all the padded gear but said hey, whatever. I was working out with this black belt who said I could go as hard as I wanted to, so I said sure sounds good to me. We start sparring and he had his hands down near his side Ali-style. I practically shrugged then hit him with a left straight-left hook-right straight combo and he dropped like a sack of shit. That's when I got the whole "You can't punch the head!" spiel. I took off the gear and left right at that moment. That's a horrible way to train.

In the ITF we allow punching to the head, actually you are chastised if you don't work on your boxing skills as well as your leg skills. Our self-defence is derived from hapkido and is praticed regualer(but my school also mixed in jujitsu) however we don't tend to get the same work out cardio as the wtf provides

[ajs1976]

I'm near the one right along Babcock, I think it was one of the original ones in this area. I see 7 year olds with BBs running in and out all day long

that's the one live by. Are 7 year old BBs a TKD thing or do other arts do that too?

[ajs1976]

In the ITF we allow punching to the head, actually you are chastised if you don't work on your boxing skills as well as your leg skills. Our self-defence is derived from hapkido and is praticed regualer(but my school also mixed in jujitsu) however we don't tend to get the same work out cardio as the wtf provides

Is your sparring continous with timed rounds, or do you do point sparring were after so many points the fight is over?

[Acitic]

ya they call it mcdojo's, the term is used for school that hand out bb's to kids as self-confidence builders(please note i am not saying all tkd school do this)

[Acitic]

it is 3 minutes rounds, where by you bleed you plug it up and keep going, you fall down you get up and continue the fight... etc.....

[BadgerFu57]

This is the possible benefit I see of going full contact with restrictions.

You are practicing a technique that can knock out or knock the wind out of someone at full-force with resistance.

Learning joint locks and "one-step" techniques is useless, because you don't use them on a resisting person in a stressful situation. I am a grappler anyway, I know joint locks already. Go to a Judo school and try out your jointlocks there and let me know your results. Also, tell the Judo Black Belts not to go easy on you, lol.

Yes, not punching to the head can be stupid. But at the same time, you can still practice your kicks at full force without having to worry about punches. I can always work on eating punches at my Jiu-Jitsu club, lol. I want to get a NASTY push-kick though. I believe it may be called a side-kick. The kick you hear stories about famous martial artists doing and knocking people 10 feet away with. I also think TKD will make me a better athlete overall, which will be good if I do get into kickboxing or boxing.

There is a chance of me getting into MMA or Boxing later, but for now I just want to have fun. I don't want to learn bad habits though that will hurt me later on such as pulling punches or kicks. I want to kick HARD. If WTF TKD will not make me kick HARD and POWERFUL, I am wasting my time. I don't want to learn to tap people. I want to learn to kick people like a horse. Except I'm a human. So yeah. You get the point! *Harrrr!*