A step foward

[Ian wallace]

Hi friends in T.S.D,

a growing problem in T.S.D is to keep it staying traditional there seems to be a "craze to change" by that i meen techiniques are becomeing more like a gymnastic show the ,motavation seems to be only happly concelled when a supper flip is added in a techinique,
A few thoughts:
how did this come about?
how can we stop it?

 

[Makalakumu]

To put it simply, you can't change what other people do. If they want to start performing jumpy flippy stuff, they will. You can, however, control what you do. If you don't think MA should be about that, then in your school, don't do that stuff.

The bottom line is that all crusades ultimately fail and it is a far better use of one's energy to focus on your own beliefs and goals in regards to MA. And in this way, you'll take your practice to an even higher level.

 

[MBuzzy]

Note from Korea - Something very interesting happened today in my class that I was going to talk about. We were trying to get pictures to promote our TSD class on base and asked Sa Bom Nim to do just the kind of flashy move that you are referring to. It is possible that this was a translation issue, since sometimes his english isn't so great, but we had a hard time even convincing him to do a jump spin kick. He told us that the martial artists who do those kinds of things here are mainly the movie stars.

Moral of the story is, at least here in Korea...the art has managed to stay very traditional without the flashy gymnastics. Sa Bom Nim Ch'oe has only left Korea twice and has trained in TSD for almost 30 years.

 

[Ian wallace]

your correct in alot of ways as hard as it may seem, althow martial arts, to realy work cannot rely on such movements it will misslead them give the wrong type of confidence out and should people really need to defend themselfs they could fail becouse of this mindset.

 

[Master Jay S. Penfil]

Greetings to all,
This is a sore spot with most “Hard Line Traditionalists”, myself included…

First we must always ask; whose tradition are we following?


Most of us like to think that we are following KJN Hwang Kee’s tradition, but with all of the splintering of organizations, with each new KJN making his own enhancements to what he passes on to his members (not all for the better), we see adaptations that in many cases have NO martial integrity at all.


As we become involved in “Open Tournaments” and the emphasis is placed on fancy gymnastics movements as opposed to “Solid Martial Arts/Field Applicable Technique”, we see a serious watering down process in effect.


I will be the first to say that those who are doing all of the fancy gymnastics movements are great athletes, and have to be in great shape to perform the movements that are winning the hearts of the judges in such competitions, but I would love to have any of them show us the “Martial Applications” to the movements, and be able to successfully use them against a real attacker… it just isn’t going to happen.


How many of you saw the show “Fight Science” this past Sunday evening? It was an interesting show, with a very scientific look at different martial systems and the power generated by their techniques. They showed a guy from Australia who is supposed to be some kind of world champion. He was in phenomenal condition and demonstrated great kicking ability, but during the weapons segment of the show he chose to demonstrate what he called, “The Japanese Bo”.

I hate it when practitioners say that they are going to demonstrate (for example) the “Japanese Bo”, and come out with a skinny little balsa-wood stick, spin it around like a baton (with chrome sections to reflect the light) and call it “Martial Arts”. This guy went on to discuss how such spinning technique could be used to block other incoming weapons and deflect arrows!!!

Anyone who has ever learned “Traditional Bo” technique and kata knows that if you are spinning you’re “Stick” in such a fashion and your opponent pokes his weapon inside the trajectory line of that stick, it is going to stop spinning on contact, unlike an airplane propeller that has a motor driving it with all of that torque.


I would like to see a clear separation in ALL tournaments for “Traditional” hyung/kata and those “Home-Made” for such competition.



In closing, to get directly to your point; You will not find any gymnastics techniques in Ryu Kyu Kempo, Tang Soo Do, Shotokan, S h i t o-Ryu, any of the original families that became the collective body of Tae Kwon Do, etc. as they were originally developed and incorporated into the art that was passed down. To me, if it doesn’t have “Martial Integrity” (real life street application) it doesn’t belong in me dojang…



These are my thoughts on this subject…




Yours in Tang Soo Do,




Master Jay S. Penfil



TANG SOO!!!