Search results

I would suggest working out something with your instructor where you might get a private lesson once a week. Working one-on-one will reduce the background noise and give you a chance to really concentrate on your basics. Keep your positive attitude! My very first class, way back when, I was...

That's not a bad concept. We humans are far more prone to sitting on our butts instead of working our butts off. So when we start doing something that puts stress on ourselves and makes us work and sweat, we start off slow and then kick up into high gear. At the beginning of class, we moan...

I'm 74. I have spent literally more than half my life training in Taekwondo. I've had ACL and meniscus repairs, and now my left knee is giving me hell. I've had to seriously look at my capabilities lately Sparring is pretty much out. I still teach it because I know about strategy...

Cross-training is always a good thing.

Suggestion - learn about pressure points. It's amazing how quickly somebody will move when you start working their pressure points.

<FACEPALM> this is what happens when you post in the middle of the night with not enough sleep. <FACEPALM AGAIN>

I will politely point out that YOU are dead wrong. I am a Master Instructor in the ATA. I have visited quite a few other schools, as well as running my own for 26 years before I semi-retired. You really need to quit parroting BS from people who don't know anything about ATA. Just a suggestion.

Every three years.

In my experience, most of the people claiming that are either people who washed out of ATA or never trained in ATA but ran schools in competition with an ATA school. I trained in another style of TKD when I was younger. I've also worked out in other schools before I joined ATA. None of the...

You haven't looked very hard, sir. As far as your comment about deciding money is more important than quality instruction - I will politely point out that you are dead wrong.

The big difference is in the forms and the philosophy. ATA is most definitely NOT watered down and weak, nor is it soft and cuddly. I've had too many bruises and bled too much - I speak from experience. When you put on an ATA Black Belt, you will have earned it. And you will have learned how...

And a lot of people will be wrong. We have to recertify as instructors on a regular basis. ATA trains us to teach quality martial arts and they train us hard!

I think that, as you continue to train, you will find that your initial ideas about ATA were totally wrong. Things like and If an ATA school is not good, it's not around for very long. We train the hell out of our instructors to teach quality martial arts. Yes, just like any large group...

I hate to be nit-picky, but punctuation and grammar go a LONG way!

Man, I have got to get back on this board more often!!!!

<answer deleted>

Keep up your training. Always nice to see a fellow ATAer on the board - welcome!

This is true. There's a reason I call her SWMBO - She Who Must Be Obeyed.

My governing body is the ATA, and I am a 6th Degree Black Belt. We train with the Songahm forms.

Congratulations! You've learned the basics. Now you will begin to learn the art! Enjoy the ride!

That's one problem. That's the other problem. I actually don't walk on that many eggshells. I am NOT politically correct (as folks in here may have noticed), so I tend to speak my mind openly. But yes, it does get annoying when people get all whiny about it. As far as the McDojo...

And your point is what? He learned the forms from Gen. Choi and taught them until he designed the Songahm style.

Okay. Thanks for documenting that what I said was correct.

My timeline is correct. GM Lee learned the forms from Gen. Choi. His handwritten notes are on display in the ATA museum. He taught the forms until 1983, when he started developing his own style (Songahm) and teaching the new forms.

Taekwondo. He learned the forms from Gen. Choi.

I will disagree with that. His first instructor was the late GM Haeng Ung Lee, who founded the ATA. He has acknowledged that many times.

My biggest peeve is people being promoted that shouldn't be. I'll judge at tournaments and see someone in a Black Belt ring do a form and I'll ask myself, "Why is this person still not a Yellow Belt?" My second is XMA. I think that speaks for itself.

I have never found anticipation of rechambering to be a factor. I guess that's because we train for heavy impact on the bags and when we do repeats, we stress that the second kick should be as powerful as the first. However, if the student knocks the bag over on the first, it makes the second...

In our instructor training, we are taught to do it as praise-correct-praise. Find something positive to say about what they did. Show them one thing they can do to improve it. Praise them when they do that thing.

This is the millennial entitlement attitude. Your instructor needs to tell them to suck it up.