Taekwon-Do International

August 23, 2009

Dear Masters, Ma’ams and Sirs,

Below are my notes from the summer camp hosted by Grandmaster Kim. I heard many people state “I need to write this down” over the course of the weekend. Indeed, that’s been my feeling many times. What each of us takes away from the weekend is obviously different. I thought that sharing my notes might jog the memories for some of the people who participated in my classes. I hope I’m not doing something improper by sharing this information. It is restricted to blackbelts of Taekwondo International. I’m very grateful for having had the experience and look forward to training with you again soon.

Sincerely,

Ray Mannion

3^rd Dan

Session I – Friday evening

Opening comments by Grandmaster Kim

Grandmaster Kim had us sit on the bench before we began any training. Below is my memory of his talk which is hardly a direct quote…

What is Taekwondo? There are a lot of stories…. And then the people change the stories and afterward we are left with this thing called Taekwondo. It didn’t just appear out of nowhere. What I’ve come to know is that what we practice is something that had it’s original roots in a Japanese Karate-Do that my ancestors learned while they were in Japan. Then, they came back and started teaching it to people in Korea and they called it Taekwondo.

But, what it means is that if you come to me and you’re a bully, then I’m hoping to help you become a little more kind and learn some ethical self conduct. If you came to the school as person who is having trouble with your grades, then I hope I can help you to learn to do better at studying and getting good grades in school. If you come to me as a person who is afraid or timid, I hope that after some time you have self-confidence and self-respect. Or anything that you are, we have a singer come to me and says I want to take Taekwondo to be a better singer because I hear it helps with breathing. Well, I don’t know about singing, but if that’s what you want to do then I think it will help you be a better singer. And if you are a chemist or doctor, I hope it can help you be better able to come up with better scientific research or help people.

Grandmaster Kim went on to explain the structure of the weekend and the classes. We were to be in 4 groups: children, yellow/green belts, blue/red belts, and black belts. The 4^th dan and higher were supporting the master instructors in the classes. Grandmaster Kim focused on teaching basic fundamentals. Master Nathanson led sparring drills with assistance from Masters Choi and Meany. Grandmaster McCarthy was in charge of teaching patterns with assistance from Master Marr. Most training sessions worked in 30 minute segments with rotation of the 3 adult groups. The children were led by Masters Yang and Sardinas.

Kwang-Gae by Master McCarthy

• The first movement of Kwan-Gae does not need to be a full body, spread eagle movement. Rather, we just separate our arms and feet by about a 35 degree angle.
• When performing the upset punch, the movement is like when you were a child and flipped your bicycle or tricycle upside and moved the pedal. If you push your elbow out too far, it will hit the bicycle tire. Furthermore, before initiating (or at the beginning of) the movement, turn the fist palm side down in order to properly magnify the twisting motion of the wrist.
• Before stepping into the first hooking block, the foot pivots on the ball of the foot to a 45 degree angle prior to stepping forward.
• The high guarding block kifehand in the rear foot stance should be performed by dropping the body weight. Bending the knee of the rear leg is critical.
• When transitioning into the upward block, Grandmaster McCarthy cautioned us about looking too early or looking at the floor. Keeping the head level and smoothly turning the head in pace with the torsoe is desirable.
• Grandmaster McCarthy discussed the difference between a “Slow MOTION” and a “Slow MOVEMENT”. He explained that performing the pressing block as slow as you possibly can makes no sense. It makes the movement awkward and clumsy. As Taekwondo practitioners, our movements are either full speed or less than full speed. So, performing in a slow motion means performing “much more slowly but not to slowly to the point of the movement being awkward”.
• When performing the close ready stance and striking the palm with a knifehand, Grandmaster McCarthy stressed the importance of keeping the knees very slightly bent and loose. He explained that it is difficult to transition to the next movement if the knees are locked. The same comment applied to the downward strike in the close stance.
• When demonstrating the pressing kick, Grandmaster McCarthy explained that it is a kick at the knee level and it is performed without turning the standing foot.
• When performing the pressing blocks, the lower hand is considered a “low block” and should therefore extend below the belt level. As a fine point, Grandmaster McCarthy noted that the wrist of the lower block should not form a 90 degree but rather about a 135 degree angle.
• Similar to the upward block, the backfists in this pattern should be executed without deliberate turning of the head in advance of the technique.

Sparring Drills with Master Nathanson

• Master Nathanson had us partner up and perform alternating Reverse turning kicks with attacker faking.
• Next, we practiced jumping back kicks with attacker faking.
• Master Nathanson explained we are either doing a stationary back kick or a jumping back kick. The biggest mistake everyone makes is to perform the stationary back kick from a fighting stance. The only way to do this, is to turn the shoulders and head. This takes too much time and allows the opponent to either strike or evade. As such, a stationary back kick must be done from a sideways stance.
• Jumping backkick can be done from a fighting stance. However, the move must be initiated by the back (or kicking) leg. We practiced doing a jumping back kick as a counter to a skipping front turning kick after simply alternating turns and legs doing 10 jumping back kicks each.

Fundamentals with Grandmaster Kim

• We lined up facing Grandmaster Kim and he taught us the importance of using gravity in our movements for maximum power. He explained that if he held a heavy piece of steel just over someone’s foot and let go, it would greatly injure the persons foot. If he dropped it off of a 5 story building, it would probably kill the person. This simple point explains the reality of gravity in our movements.
• Next, he had us practice walking stances for blocks and punches and explained the difference between the “linear” movements of old and the down-up-down movements of Taekwondo.
• Finally, he had us punch in a sitting stance WITHOUT moving up and down. “Do it the Karate way OOOSS!” and made us punch without moving. Then, he asked us to do it again with moving up prior to the punch and then punching while the body was on the way down.
• Grandmaster Kim said when doing the fighting stance blocks to use the meat of the arm and not the bone to prevent it from breaking.
• Grandmaster Kim made the point that we need to all agree on the importance and significance of the down-up-down motion and the need to move vertically as well as horizontally in our taekwondo movements. Nobody disagreed with him J.

Session II

Eui Am with Grandmaster McCarthy

• Backfist begins with the palm facing away from the face and twists to a front strike with the opposite hand supporting. It is not to be performed with the wrist below the belt or coming up from below.
• Reverse turning kicks strike at approximately 45 degree angles. The kick should have a definitive moment of impact and then quickly bring the foot in using a hooking motion to chamber the extra 45 degrees, then follow with the knife-hand strike.
• Rear leg sidekick comes narrow, not by way of spinning. The knee of the kicking leg should come up tight to the body past the thigh before turning to permit the side kick. (Master Kim has demonstrated this point in the past by performing rear leg sidekick against the wall or fence)
• Circular block with the knifehand ends a little outside the body – not entirely 45 but not directly in front.
• Same with reverse turning kicks high – stop 45 degrees to demonstrate moment of impact and then hook it the remaining 45 degrees to chamber it properly.

Basics with Grandmaster Kim

• Grandmaster Kim began by correcting me that a low block does not protect against a kick to the groin (via demonstration!).
• Grandmaster Kim had us go from a fighting stance into a downward block with the rear hand and higher block with the front hand. Left forward, fighting stance. Attacker comes with a skipping front kick or skipping front turning kick.
• Defender pivots on the ball of the back foot and slides forward a bit. The right hand presses down with the palm facing away from the body as the left hand blocks to protect the face.
• After practicing this several times, we progressed to a second step which is to pivot on the ball of the left foot, bringing the right foot behind and turning the back. This enables a backfist to the eye/temple. This enhancement is practiced several times until it is put together as a quicker one-step movement whereas before, it was done as a two-step movement.
• The next evolution was to use this counter to divert a jumping back kick attack.
• This counter can further be extended to a “windmill” whereby you grab the leg of the attacker and push them down.

Sparring drills with Master Nathanson

We revisited the back kick, jumping back kick, and jumping front turning kick. A jumping reverse punch was practiced as well as a counter to a skipping front turning kick. Master Nathanson explained that punching downward is easier and more powerful than punching upward. He explained that it often has an effect of stunning an opponent visually thereby creating an opportunity.

Session III

We all met in the hockey court and blackbelts went first with

Ko-Dang with Grandmaster McCarthy

• He explained the nuance of the hands turning for the middle block/low block. Because the block is with the inner forearm, the blocking hand comes from the outside. He demonstrated that the palms face away
• He stated that we have to look backward at the time we center for the back kicks. ( I think this contradicts Grandmaster Kim’s teaching though)
• The downblocks he explained do not come straight down but rather from the outside.

• Prior to the front snap kick, Grandmaster McCarthy explained that the foot steps back to the rear side of the left foot (almost crossing the legs).
• The low punch does not involve leaning down (if he’s down that low, kick him!)
• The uppercut is not with the knuckle as in Gae-Baek but just a simple fist.

Sparring drills with Master Nathanson

• We moved on to sparring drills with Master Nathanson who had us performing jumping front turning kicks. He explained that it has to be a single movement and there can be no preceding indication of the kick. He suggested that we need to keep our knees bent. If you stand with your legs locked and try to jump, you’ll quickly realize that it can’t be done without first squatting a little.
• We began by simply doing 10 jumping front turning kicks toward our partner, while facing in an open stance. The target of the kick was to the stomach/belt level and definitely not the face. An attack to the face could easily encounter an elbow resulting major foot pain!
• From there, we timed our jumping turning kick as a counter to our partner doing a lead leg turning kick.
• He stated a few of the uses of the jumping kick which mainly surrounded the distance from the opponent. The jumping front turning kick is best used when jumping backwards. It can be used to move forwards, however, it is more dangerous because it can be met with oncoming force such as a jumping back kick or a reverse punch.
• Another good example of how to use the jumping turning kick is upon a tie-up or when breaking apart from too close contact. We practiced this drill by bumping forearms and pushing off a little and taking turns doing a jumping back front turning kick.

Basic fundamentals with Grandmaster Kim

We continued our fighting stance double-blocks by moving backward and repeating several of them as if stepping back from multiple kicking attacks.

We then practiced performing the block followed by a front strike with a back fist. So, if we had our left foot forward, the right foot would pivot on the ball of the foot while pressing down and out with our right hand. The left hand would push sideways from left to right. After the block was done, we immediately did a front strike with a backfist using the right hand.

After practicing both sides without a partner, we partnered up and countered a skipping front kick by blocking the kick and striking with the backfist.

Closing comments from Grandmaster Kim

This concluded the teaching portion of the camp. Tomorrow’s session was going to be a straightforward class of drills to allow the practitioners to practice more the things that had been taught. “I can teach you a lot of things. In the past, we tried to teach a whole lot of things all in one weekend until we realized it didn’t work. I can teach you, but you have to practice and master the techniques. This year, we tried to keep it down to just a few things and we’ll see if it worked.”

Ge Baek with Grandmaster McCarthy

Grandmaster McCarthy was kind enough to take us through Ge-Baek after class was dismissed.

• The X-Knifehand is upper chest level. (Not sure if it is a checking block? )
• When performing the pressing block with an open palm, the upper arm is parallel to the ground and the “hands must work in unison, work as one”.
• When performing the bending ready stance, the right foot should begin at a 45 degree angle so we must pivot on the ball of the right foot as we bring the left foot in to chamber and perform the bending ready stance. This enables us to have the proper half-facing.
• The front strike with the back fist has a target of an opponent’s nose. Therefore, the backfist should end up approximately nose height facing straight forward and not in a downward motion.
• When stepping to the right to set up for the right l stance guarding block knife-hand, Grandmaster McCarthy explained that the right foot comes back exactly on the line from the back of the room to the front prior to transferring the weight and stepping into a guarding block.
• Prior to executing the guarding blocks, we must extend the arms in order to generate full power. This is manifested as we are doing our rotations leading into the blocks.
• The upset punch requires the elbow to be tight to the ribs because it is a punch designed to be used in close proximity to an opponent.

Session IV

• Master Nathanson reiterated his wish that if we only learned one thing over the weekend it would be that “Left foot forward does not mean right foot back. It means pick up your left foot and move it forward.”
• Master Nathanson directed us to choose partners and we practiced our stationary back kicks by alternating turns and legs. Master Nathanson emphasized the significance of beginning the kick with the shoulder already slightly turned in order to execute the back kick without giving the opponent and opportunity to see it coming. Master Nathanson likened a turning shoulder to waving to the opponent saying “Hi! I’m going to kick you now!”
• OMG!
• “You should be able to do a back kick in a phone booth”, said Master Nathanson.
• We practiced the jumping back kick by standing toe-to-toe in an open stance to emulate a sparring clinch. Master Nathanson explained that a jumping front turning kick generates the backward movement by way of a push-off by the front leg.

Aug 24 2009 in Eui-Am, Gae-Baek, Ko-Dang, Kwang-Gae, Student essays, Teaching by Instructor Raymond MannionTags: 2009, Grandmaster Kim, Grandmaster McCarthy, Master Nathanson, Summer Camp
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