I know of this school where all of the teachers have a LOT of stripes on their black belts… and lots of kids with third degree black belts… many 4th grade black belts… and 6 year olds with red belts is common.

Is this a complaint in the community with some schools really aggressively offering belt tests?

I mean when I was a kid I’d hear crap about how it’s stupid they gave me a black belt in 5th grade, but I started in like 1st.

Anyway just wondering if anyone has experience with extreme belt inflation.

It doesn’t really bother me, just interesting.

i started with taekwondo ITF, im a little on a chubbier side, I have noticed that my entire body is sore after each training which is good because of muscles. But I was wondering about how much your body changes *generally* when you do taekwondo in terms of muscles and weight. Btw just because im doing taekwondo doesnt mean I eat more so I am expecting some sort of weight loss in the near future haha

At some point this year I will be testing for 5th Dan. One of the requirements of that test in my school is that I perform a non-traditional poomsae outside of the KKW curricula (so no Taegeuks or Yudanja.) I am looking at doing Himchari, a form that was introduced by KKW in 2016 for elite level poomsae competition. Only problem with the form is there is a 540 kick midway through. To complicate matters, I can't get a running start and extra torque as I will have already completed a 360 spin one move prior.

I've never even attempted, let alone landed a 540, but I'm determined to do this. Any good resources or tips on how to do it?

Instructors who only teach and never take a class/participate in class: is that by choice? If you're a Master or GM and the only dojang like yours locally, how do you get your fix of being in class?

Hello all, I’ve recently began competing under ITF Scotland, and I was wondering if anyone knew if there were any restricted materials for cups and groin guards, I was looking at getting a steel one, due to them HEAVILY discouraging shots below the belt

According to the WT rules contestants enter with a coach accompanying , but it does not explicitly state that a coach must be present for the contestant in order to participate in competition. Does a coach absolutely have to be there to sit in the chair?

There is no WTF there is only WT - World Taekwondo . So stop saying WTF it makes you look like you don't know what you are talking about.

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!

If you had the chance to improve ITF Taekwondo, what changes would you make?

So before this I would wear a singlet or a jersey on top and some running shorts on the bottom under my uniform (I'm a guy). but my master told me you shouldn't wear anything underneath your uniform top for guys or a sports bra for girls. I was wondering what's allowed to be worn under the uniform. And any recommendations for what to wear underneath for the bottom?

I’ve had the hardest time getting down the double kick. I can do it at a low height , but when it comes to doing it on the bag at stomach level I can never do it properly. The problem I have is that my hips just don’t switch fast enough and it’s hard for me to jump from one leg to another that fast. Are there any hip exercises/leg exercises that can help me with the speed and strengthening of my legs and hips to be able to do the double kick? Thank you!

I'm asking because I've been thinking of starting taekwondo. I have 2 places one is relatively close and the other is just a normal distance away. The dojo closest to me have 2 instructors that are both 1st Dans. The other place near me have instructors with 4th and 5th dans. I don't know how the National Dan Grading works but I'm wondering does my instructor grade me and if yes can he grade me to the same Dan as himself. If my instructor doesn't grade me then I guess someone else there does and I can be graded to a 1st Dan.

Thanks.

I know we talk about the shift of TKD being more child-focused on this forum. I was at a US Kukkiwon event recently and the conversation with some older masters shifted to a discussion on how schools attract adults to train. For context, our school (in the US) is predominately kids and suffers from training up black belts that leave for college or fade out to other endeavors. It makes it difficult to build a bench or build new masters. We find it difficult to keep an adult only class functioning with one or two adults on the roster.

I’m curious to hear how schools/instructors recruit or market and sustain efforts to get successful adults in the door and keep them!!

Hello! I am wondering whether smelling salts are legal or not in WT, I have tried them and I found that they kinda help in recovering and giving you that “wake up” call you might need when fighting. I have not used them in tournaments or such so my question is generally speaking are they allowed or not?

A mother of a child with disabilities reached out to me, because her son would like to try taekwondo. His doctors think repetitive movements (Hyongs) would be good for him, and the physical activity and stretching as well.

I am willing to give it a try, problem is,he has motor deficits in the area of ​​fine motor skills and a general developmental delay (he is 11, mentally at about the level of a 7-year-old). I think he would fit well in my group of 6-8 year-olds, although he is of course physically much bigger. In my class with 9-14 year-olds, however, he will not fit in in terms of motor skills or knowledge.

Does anyone have experience with something like this? I would really like to give him a chance. He is a lovely child.

Has anyone had experience with competing, specifically sparring, at a lower belt level than your current rank?

We have a Blue Belt student that is interested in sparring in a local competition, but he has never sparred in a tournament. Our sparring coach is suggesting that he register as a Green Belt after assessing his skill level. He claims to be more interested in safety than the actual outcome of the competition.

I know this is not uncommon for studios to do, but it seems dishonest to me.

What are your thoughts?

My husband and I are considering putting our 6-year-old twin daughters in taekwondo. They trialed it recently and we all loved it. My impression is that, with long term investment, the impact on confidence, discipline, and physical fitness could be phenomenal (they are pretty uncoordinated, physically cautious kids at the moment, and on the shy side), and it seems like it could be a good source of community as well. My only hesitation is the price. Our budget is tight, and the classes for two kids would be nearly $400 per month. We will have to cut in some other areas to make it work. So for us, we have to make the call: is it worthwhile to invest in this, knowing it'll mean no other extracurriculars? I was curious to hear opinions from you all, knowing it may be a biased crowd :) Especially at this age, what are your thoughts on the benefits of taekwondo considering the price point? Is it worth some skimping and the loss of other extracurriculars for little girls who could stand to gain these skills and some confidence and discipline? TIA!

I would like to start Taekwondo, but I can’t see anything without my glasses. Unfortunately, contact lenses are not an option for me. Are there any other alternatives?

V1.0
My name is James S. and my sabom is Japadas Bismark under the PTA.

My proposal is a shorthand system of notating Poomsae (and, by extension, kata of other systems) using these abbreviations. The utility exists, I know of no similar system. This is a work in progress and I encourage the community to continue to develop and evolve this notation system.

Abbreviations:
CW : clockwise or face/pivot right
CCW : counterclockwise or face/pivot left
90, 180 or 270 degrees are common pivot distances
N,S,W,E are cardinal directions
A : advance e.g. move forward
S : stance (or step); SLW is a leading left walking stance
P : punch; PRM is a right side middle punch
B : block; BLD would be a left side downward block, OI is out-to-in
K : kick

Here are two examples of this system in use using WTF Taegeuk 1 and 2:

Taegeuk 1
CCW90W SLW BLD, A SRW PRM
CW180E SRW BRD, A SLW PL M
CCW90N SLF BLD, PRM
CW90E SRW BLI, SLW PRM
CCW180W SLW BRI, SRW PRM
CW90N SRF BRD, PLM
CW90W SLW BLU, KR high front SRW PRM
CCW180E SRW BRU, KL high front SLW PLM
CW90S SLF BLD, A SRF PRM kihap
CCW180N on right heel, ready

Taegeuk 2
CCW90W SLW BLD, A SRF PRM
CW180E SRW BRD, A SLF PLM
CCW90NN SLW BROI, A SRW BLOI
CCW90W SLW BLD, A KR high front SRF PRM
CW180E SRW BRD, A KL high front SLF PLM
CCW90N SLW BLU, A SRW BRU
CCW270E SLW BROI, CW180E SRW BOI
CCW90S SLW BLD, A KR high front SW PRM,
A KL high front SLW PRL, A KR high front SRW PRM
CCW180N ready

This is version 1.0.
Current version issues are:
-non-punch strikes like knifehands have no notation yet
-double blocks have no notation yet
-everything is currently restriced to all caps
-kicks are not yet notated properly
-v1 uses English move names
-this is all a sloppy mess and is more of a concept than anything else.

UPDATES

EDIT: This should actually be called "version 0".
NOTE: This system is not intended as an aid for students learning kata. It's for systematic analysis.
For example, with some sort of shorthand notation, the difference between three different schools is visible at a glance:

WTF Taegeuk 1:
CCW90W SLW BLD, A SRW PRM
(Stance Left Walking)

PTA Taegeuk 1:
CCW90W SLF BLD, A SRF PRM
(Stance Left Forward)

Most Philippine Karate schools, Basic Form 1:
CCW90W SLF BLD, A SRF PRM
(Stance Left Forward)

UPDATE 2
I haven't formally trained in over 20 years, and PTA Taegeuk 1 appears to have reverted from SLF to SLW stance since the 1980s... I could have sworn...

UPDATE 3
I think I'll leave this post here for a month or so before taking it down. It's too half-baked to be of much use to anyone. I may post it on GitHub for version-tracking's-sake so anyone interested on joining it's development can just have at it.

Hi everyone, I a little short person and really struggle with sparring taller opponents, especially a particular person at my dojo who frequently throws a hook kick to the head. The only way I’ve been able to deal with this is side stepping towards their backside, but that doesn’t work every time, nor can I counter since I’m facing their backside now. What options do I have or what strategies would you suggest? TIA!

In my school we sometimes do a sparring drill in which one student fights two other students and the first student can use kicks and punches while the other two students can only use punches, it’s supposed to simulate a multiple attacker situation.

Im joining a new dojo , i learnt poomsae 1 by myself , but I was in another dojo that didn't get to teach poomsae 1 only basics like low block and punch before I left the dojo , I decided to watch a video on poomsae 1 and I learnt it all in 1 hour , should I tell the new dojo I know poomsae 1 ?

Hi,

I'm trying to find out more info about the Encyclopedia of TewKwon-Do, specifically the different editions that exist. Does anyone know which year the last edition of the 15 volume set was published?

I understand that there's a condensed version from 1999, but I'm trying to find info on the last version of the full 15 volume set.

I'd also appreciate any info on corrections that were made between different editions.

Thanks!

I stopped going to training in like September October time and I offiaclly quit in November. My instructor had a talk w me and I’m going back soon but I’m not that fit anymore. I’ve lost a lot of my muscles and I’ve been smoking quite a bit where do I go from here?

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!

It will be my first tournament ever so I really don't know what to expect. I've been to in house tournaments but not AAU and just never participated. I will be doing traditional forms and Olympic sparring. Any pointers on how AAU tournaments are, the day of, how and when we figure out what arena we'll be in and just any basic info I should know. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone I’m looking for any possible archive of the former YouTube channel ocdperfection/ cookie

Around the 2010s she was an amazing youtuber that talked about mental health and martial arts but sometime around 2016 her channel got hacked and everything got deleted.

The chances are slim but if there’s any way to archive those videos or if anyone already did so I’d be super appreciative of it!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXfCbJHGFtG-pYPlTHWrAIA

To my knowledge that link is her channel even if YouTube doesn’t wanna admit it lol

Hello. My instructor is off for the week and I'm running
classes for the week. He is recovering from an operation. I'm a black belt in ITF taekwondo. I help out in class but I haven't run classes before as he normally runs the classes. I offered to help as I didn't want the students to loose out on classes for a while. I'm doing the little dragons, junior and adults class. I know what I can do for the adults and juniors. But the little ones do you have any ideas for games and other things I could do? I was going to do patterns, padwork and linework for the adults as they have a colour belt grading coming up soon. Any other suggestions would be great for any of the classes. Many thanks.

I know loads of brain damage can occur for boxers, and BJJ dudes they're always rocking an ice pack due to torn ligament, id like to learn taekwondo I'm always quite athletic but is there any Sirius damage that can occur

sorry if this post fells more like me ranting about random things it's just I've been thinking about these topics a lot lately and felt like I needed to talk about them (also sorry for poor grammar in advance English may be my first language but that doesn't make me good at it)

I personally think that WT style sport TKD is overhated and ITF style sport TKD is overrated. Now with that being said I DO NOT HATE ITF STYLE i still think it's entertaining to watch, overrated doesn't mean bad it's just i find that people will consistently say that it's basically kickboxing tend to be overexaggerating personally I find it to be closer to karate point sparring than anything else, and to explain my comment about WT style TKD (and this may just be because it's been quite awhile since I was actively practicing TKD) but when i watch videos of full old school TKD events and new school TKD i don't see THAT much of difference in quality or strategy (which from what I've seen tends to be the consensus of certain comments sections of people outside of the TKD community) and I also think that several of the criticisms leveled at modern TKD don't hold that much water, for instance, I've seen quite a few people complain about the amount of clinching and the ref pulling them apart when that happens but when I was watching videos of the 1988 olympics that exact same scenario happened several times and no complained about it in the comments. In terms of "foot fencing" complaints I've noticed it tends to happen a lot less then people state that it does and it mostly just a defensive move as competitors still use flashy moves and powerful kicks to score points and you still quite frequently get those big highlight reel moments. maybe i'm dead wrong and just a guy ranting about something he doesn't know anything about but what you guys think obviously what is or isn't entertaining or investing is subjective but i'd love to hear other peoples opinions on this.