Our school trains many weapons, and we mainly use the lusacious system: Basic/color belt weapons - you'll always train these: long staff, double sticks, pinchucks

Intermediate/black belt weapons - you'll always train these but not until first dan: bokken, shinai, demo sword

Advanced weapons - we only have classes for these about once a month, mostly train on your own: kama, tonfa, sai

The weird ones - you can ask for help but mostly on your own: butterfly knife, tessen (war fan), oar, cane, three and four sectional chucks, throwing knives, blowgun, traditional nunchuck

Edit: with some weapons we do halo aura, wrapping them in tape that glows under black light

Edit edit: also occasionally kubotan

For various reasons, some students just have a harder time yelling or kihaping during practice. Doesn't matter whether it's during regular kick practice, poomsae, or sparring. Curious what some of you will do to help with getting people to open up and project more with their voice.

At the same time, at my current school we have a number of black belts (kids, 1st and even 2nd dan) who have a weak or non-existent kihap. Honestly, a kihap should be a no-brainer and part of any belt test. If you aren't making an effort to do it, unless you are a newer belt then it should be a fail. Period.

Thoughts?

I started taekwondo as a kid in 2014 and stopped in 2022 and haven't really practised since. I am already 2nd Dan Black belt and have gone to a lot of tournaments. But, after i came out, i was casted out from my friend group, we used to all practise together and so i just stopped completely. i wanna start again but idk how to. I am also physically weaker than before because i have a few health problems now. idk how to start again, but i wanna start slowly and join a new dojang next year after my boards are over. for now, i wanna just practise at home. if there's any tips, I'd appreciate.

I've been a practitioner for about 7 years now and since the beginning I've been taught to snap my round kicks and rechamber. The problem arises during kicking combos such as back-round into tornado where I'm making it harder because I'm not maintaining my momentum into the tornado due to me not physically being able follow through on the roundhouse. I've just dealt with it for years, but now I really wanna keep that flow going while I do more complicated combos. Are there any tips or drills I can do regarding this, or should I just try to figure it out?

Interesting video here of a boxer and an ITF practitioner engaging in some friendly sparring, with some fun and sometimes insightful commentary over the top.

What strikes me is the use of ITF style blitz punches, albeit very slowly because it's a friendly spar, outside of ITF sparring. I sometimes wonder if these are a bit of a bad habit caused by our sparring rule set, and you need to work on more boxing technique (of which there is plenty in ITF) for sparring/self defence outside of that rule set. I think this video shows you fight how you train, so most of us would default to sparring as if under our particular rule set even when we're not. Be interested to hear thoughts on that. Maybe blitzing is a totally valid thing to do!

Also what do you make of the commentary that the TKD guy is off balance a lot?

If you have anything you want to celebrate with the r/Taekwondo community - here's your chance.

Link to any pictures or videos of you doing cool things, or with cool people or whatever. Publicly shout about your shiny new belt or grade. Share competition clips without asking for feedback, just saying "look how well I did!".

We'd love to celebrate with you, but please keep them to these Kudos threads!

I'm planning on going to a competition in February 2025 with my new school I've been attending. The school has been to tons of tournaments at the local state and national level and they are really good at sparring. I'm sure I'll be no where near their level anytime soon but with all different types of schools and training styles I'm sure it's not uncommon to get paired up with someone who isn't on your level. In that case what do you think when you notice someone is not as experienced in sparring like you? Do you keep going at them aggressively trying to score as many points or do you take it easy and just beat them to a comfortable point objective?

Tl;dr: If the black belts at your dojang didn't seem confident, is that a red flag?

I'm restarting TKD after about 15 years. I got to the middle of my color belts before, so happily started over at white and working up.

I found a dojang that at first seemed perfect, but now feels off. It seems like no one is really confident there. There are a decent number of black belts, two masters, and of course, the grand master. The grand master generally pops in and might run a whole class, might not, with no apparent rhyme or reason (as in, the master or instructor doesn't know what he'll decide). The GM might lecture on the exact same material in the same way three nights in a row (it's common/expected to attend 3 classes a week, so essentially guaranteed repeated info without variation). Even the two masters never seem to quite know what is going on. There's always this feeling of, "Um, well, I guess we'll do this today." The other black belts (and nearly all higher belts) are nearly silent and seem uncomfortable, as if none of them have any idea what is going on and they are just showing up. One of the masters told me that she has begged the GM to create any sort of structured curriculum beyond "know this for your test" and he has refused. A new-ish black belt who came up through this dojang was asked to lead the beginning of class process, which is the same every class, and she struggled to know what to do.

My old dojang was so different - by like 4th or 5th gup, you would absolutely be able to lead the routine stuff at the beginning of class with confidence, and any black belt could give quality instruction (obviously under the supervision of the masters). We generally built on a set of skills at least within the week in a way that felt planned and thoughtful while still having plenty of variation.

Is this a red flag? It seems like the entire dojang is just kind of hanging on to whatever scraps they can get, with no one having a true progression other than figuring out enough to pass the next test. I can't find another dojang in my area that has what I'm looking for, but I also don't want to invest time and money at a place that feels like it isn't producing confident, knowledgeable black belts.

I’ve been doing taekwondo for around a year now, and nothing compares to how much I love it honestly, It matches all my strengths: power, speed, mobility etc but I’m confused about my future with this sport. Right now I only get to actively train with others once a week, for an hour - which is very little time so yes I do train at home usually 4-5x a week and found that I am extremely strong for where I am (green stripe).

I have a lot on my plate with academics and other responsibilities so I haven’t been able to attend any competitions but I am hoping to definitely enter one in March 2025, which I am actively still preparing for, my problem is that I have around 3 years-ish before I have to possibly go to college or move away (for academics or career) and I really want to keep this going for me, I REALLY love it - more than anything. The problem is I don’t have much opportunities, my training company is small and we get gradings and stuff every 5-7 months, and competitions annually however my parents are in a tough spot. I don’t have the facilities to be getting to these competitions as much as I would like to, and the people around me don’t see me getting far with the sport the way I would like to. It feels weird to tell people that I’m an athlete because of the fact I don’t get to show this off and really prove myself, even though I have the passion and the love to do so. I’ve been a fitness fanatic for ages, tried various sports - track, karate, gymnastics, basketball, but nothing resonated until taekwondo.

I understand this is a bit of a confusing post, but any advice, suggestions or even clarifications can help me feel like I’m not going crazy. Thanks for reading.

I’m gonna go to a tournament soon what should i know about the enviorment? I’m not scared to spar and stuff it’s just the idea of the tournament enviorment makes me want to throw up. I feel like i should have started going to tournaments and stuff earlier for context i’m a red stripe 😭😭🙏🙏 idk if im lowkey cooked but out of that im kind of scared to go to tournaments can anyone tell me their experience or just in general how it feels like so i can atleast mentally prepare for it 😭😭🙏🙏

I'm posting this for everyones opinions on headshots. My parent school does not teach headshots. How to do them or how to defend against them. The reason why is "to not get hurt". Thats the only reason my master has been able to give his students. When we go to tournaments we either get blown out by headshots or the gap is never to big because of the other schools doing headshots.

I was talking about this to a friend and came up with the analogy of if you're training TKD and not doing headshots, that's like training karate and not punching, or playing basketball and not dunking. Now sure you could get by in sparring with no headshots but as a martial art and a master you should understand that this is a contact sport and people get hurt. Training headshots and doing them is better than not training headshots and getting kicked in the head because you don't know how to defend against them.

So what is your opinion on training for headshots and does your school train them?

Dude kicked me on the back side of the elbow in sparring today (I had a pad on), and it almost bent the wrong way. Hurt for a while afterwards.

What is the poomsae selection pool for the first class practical exam?

Is it T4-8 and Sipjin-Hansu?

youtube advertised me this weirdo that talk about Rashitov.
For what i have watched, in the fight, Rashitov lands a punch, but let's be honest it wasn't a decent technique, you can't harm a kid with that punch...
Both fighters were throwing their legs instead than kicks. Is this even a real fight? how can you call taekwondo a fight sport. I miss old school...
Hook Kick looks fancy, but it's all about exploiting the opponent's momentary lapse in defense. Can we even call it a strategy? How can you win a fight with just 1 kick...

I see practitioners blindly follow his style without questioning its true effectiveness. Isn't it time we critically analyze these so-called 'master techniques' instead of idolizing every move a famous fighter makes? Can we still call taekwondo martial art when we barely touch our opponent?

What do you think?

This is the incriminating video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNZoel3QlpY&t=98s

Does anyone know of any upcoming training camps in the US?

I apologise its a bit long but I'd appreciate if yall cld read and give me some comments thank you🙏🙏🙏

My coach told me that the only way to score points from referee decision after a punch is that our punches mus be pulled back to anywhere along the side of our body/torso b4 throwing the hands straight out followed by bodyweight for the power and impact, smth like the distance yr punch travels in poomsae. my coach oso said that the punches mus come from the rear hand. But at the same time I oso thought that these punches are not as efficient and effective as standard lead hand jabs or rear hand crosses, though jabs don't come from side of body but from the front straight out. But these punches are much faster and less predictable than the punch described by my coach, and their much faster too, making them more efficient and effective to land hits. But if what my coach said was true, meaning these punches wldnt score any points. So my question is, was what my coach said true?

However, I'm oso thinking of this. even if these punches don't score points, but their effectiveness and efficiency is better in kyorugi to open up more opportunities to land kicks and score more points. For example these quick punches are less expected and can disrupt opponent rhythm, and these punches can also work the same as the straight punches described by my coach to gain momentum to follow up with a body roundhouse kick, especially the cross.

Thanks for taking the time to read ik it was long but I tried to explain it as best as I cld based on what I thought. Pls let me know what u guys think thanks!

Hi so I‘m 14F and would qualify for the heavier end of women’s featherweight league. Im also in the leadership program so I teach younger kids and do demo but attend 3-5 hour class blocks 3 times a week. I've been training in taekwondo for 2 years and am currently a red belt. I know that's not a long time and most competitions are catered toward black belts but I wanna be ready. I was wondering what skill level it takes to be in a sparring tournament? And also like what kind of exercises people do to prepare for them? Thanks!

I started my own WT school (say it's called "GraspsAtStrawsDojang"), though I still also train at my Master's school (say it's called "My Master's School") where I earned my 4th Dan. Is it weird if I got myself a black belt that has "GraspsAtStrawsDojang" branding on it, to wear at my school? Or should I continue to wear the belt that I got from "My Master's School"?

Across the many schools I've trained at, I've seen both variants, where in some schools the instructors wear a belt with their school's branding, in others they wear whatever belt they got their rank at. (And in some schools, the belt has no branding, which avoids this question.) Hence, I'm curious if there's any etiquette on this. Not a big deal to me either way, I am just curious about etiquette. Thank you!

(BTW: As an example of why I'm asking this -- when I trained at one school, let's call it "McDojang", they gave me a belt with "McDojang" branded on it and forced me to wear that. I disagreed with that but just shrugged and went along with it, then later found out from my colleagues that that's considered pretty offensive, because "you wear the belt that you earned".)

I've seen a ton of different TKD belt systems that use pretty much every color (including camo and midnight blue), but gray is a color I barely ever see. I'm curious why it hasn't found its way into more schools. Why do y'all think that is?

hi so I’m competing in a poomsae competition soon and this is my first time participating in a poomsae competition and the competition is international so I’m really nervous. I’m doing taegeuk 1. What are the average poomsae scores in competition? I don’t know what I should expect for the scores and I wanna know what’s the average range that the judges give for poomsae scoring so I don’t expect too high or low. Also, how do I make my front kicks higher and stronger? I noticed that whenever I do front kicks, although the kicks are head level, I tend to bend my back knee or I can’t kick high. Lastly, how do I ensure that I’m doing my pattern at a constant speed and how many seconds should I pause after each move before I do the next move? It would be really helpful if you guys can give me some poomsae competition tips too, thank you!

So recently I’ve been looking into restarting taekwondo (I haven’t done it since I was a kid) and after doing research into the different types of TKD and looking at local places I’ve found that the only martial arts gyms in my area that state what style of TLD they are all happen to be ATA style TKD and when looking up information on ATA I’ve mainly seen people either sneering at it or outright criticizing it which makes me worry if it’s worth it or not to try out some of those places

We've had multiple discussions on here about what rank constitutes a master, whether it is 4th or 5th. I want to get a little more philosophical. Discarding rank, what makes a Master a Master? What skills and traits do you think are necessary to be a Master? Would you say there are Masters who haven't achieved the Dan rank? Are there 4th Dans who aren't Masters?

How would you react to this? Or am I just overthinking?

I just transferred to a new gym and got a belt upgrade since the school criteria is a bit different to my old gym. There’s this one guy who has started making these small comments about my skills that I’ve brushed off. He’s two belts lower than me which makes it even more confusing to me.

Today we mostly did sparring and at the end of it I said that it was quite an intensive training session. He said that it might be if I haven’t done it before. I was confused and told him that I’ve done all of these moves before. He pointed out two moves that I did not do perfectly and had few mistakes. Based on those two moves he made a conclusion that I’m completely new to it.

I’m a bit confused since it felt like he criticised me just because he can but didn’t want to try to correct my mistakes if it bothered him?

Recently, WT posted some updates to official poomsae scoring. One of these updates was the addition of a deduction for "Supporting the pelvis with hand to get higher kicks (If the fist goes under belt: -0.1. Open hand: -0.3)".

I'm just wondering how that would even work. I've never seen someone do something like this and frankly don't see how supporting your pelvis with your hand would help you get a higher kick. Does anyone have any clips of this or an explanation as to why this does help?

Edit: I was able to find a clip. See the double yeop chagi on the second move of Koryo here: https://youtu.be/IT9f5LTpd5s?si=e6HybzsIeCttK8Ds

Still don't get how that helped her.

So I’ve been going to taekwondo classes for a few months now and I’m trying to find videos of techniques to practice at home such as hand technique 1 and poomsae 1. There’s one we do in class I can’t for the life of me spell. We pronounce it “gee cho kyun.”

Don’t ask me how to do the technique that’s why I’m trying to look it up 🫣

If you have anything you want to celebrate with the r/Taekwondo community - here's your chance.

Link to any pictures or videos of you doing cool things, or with cool people or whatever. Publicly shout about your shiny new belt or grade. Share competition clips without asking for feedback, just saying "look how well I did!".

We'd love to celebrate with you, but please keep them to these Kudos threads!

I am currently a brown belt and am competing as a purple belt in an upcoming yearly tournament my dojang competes in. I am competing in sparring, forms, and board breaking. My breaks are a 360 hook kick, Flying side kick, and jump back kick. My form is really sharp and I’m confident in it. And lastly sparring. I usually compete against my dojang a bo-blacks and black belts I can hold my ground and sometimes apply great pressure to my opponents. I have an arsenal of my primary and secondary strikes I’m planning on using throughout the matches.

Primary; Step in punch Front leg Roundhouse Cut leg Double-Roundhouse

Secondary; Tornado kick Rear leg Roundhouse Jump back kick Twist kick

I wanted to hear others opinions on my current arsenal. I have a week to practice. I will be practicing an hour on kicking combinations and list them out on paper and will make sure I get atleast 50 reps a day on each kick (25 each leg). Keep in mind my division doesn’t allow head-shots. I’m 145ish and around 5’7-9” so if anyone has any suggestions/recommendations for my arsenal please share here. Greatly appreciated. (I will also share on this Reddit how the tournament goes).

UPDATE;

I took second in poomsae (forms) and gold in sparring and breaking. I had to go against a black belt in sparring and I should’ve won a round but the judges counted a spin back kick that never hit me and costed me the round. Anyways everyone in my division got gold for sparring since it was 6 and everyone did well. (I ain’t complaining). In breaking I did my flying side kick over a chair and broke 3 boards. But I missed my step spin hook and jump back only giving me a 72/100 for all three judges (my kiaap was the loudest) I was also the only one in my division doing board breaking. In forms a black belt dropped down and I did well but still only got second but hey. Second tournament of my martial arts career and 2 gold and a silver ain’t half bad.

Any suggestions for kicking combinations for next years breaking that I should start practicing soon.

So, I was supposed to go to an official tournament today in the Netherlands. But I couldn't be present. Does anyone know what happened, and are there any consequences?

I got my first Dan black belt 12 years ago, at a club that didn’t use kukkikwon. Now I’ve recently joined a new club that does use kukkikwon. When I was signing up, my instructor said I didn’t need to worry about the kukkikwon certificate right away as it’s quite expensive. My club does 4 gradings per year, and I haven’t graded yet. I need to do 3 gradings, then on my 4th grading I can go to 2nd Dan. Kukkikwon certificates are included in the price of grading. Do I need to get a kukkikwon certificate for my 1st Dan before my 2nd Dan grading, or can I just wait till my grading to 2nd Dan?

My son who is 13 is competing in his first regional taekwondo tournament. He only has done an intraschool training tournament before. However headgear wasn’t required. For his first regional tournament headgear is required. I want to get him a really good one for the competition but there are so many on the market and I am not sure what is and isn’t legal at the tournament. Obviously no face protectors/shields.

What brand would you guys recommend for head gear?

Also any advice as a parent going to watch this lol and for my 13 yr old son.