Kukkiwon seminar this week in Los Angeles

msmitht

2nd Black Belt
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Is anybody going? I will be there for 4 days. Those in charge have decided to combine the instructors course with the examiners course. As I have already done instructors course twice I am NOT thrilled about spending extra time but it gets the job done for the other course I guess. I will be giving daily updates on what we covered. If I hear the words "you are awesome" by any of the speakers or teachers I'm going to walk out.
 
I really wish I could make it, but I'm not able to.

And he is right, YOU ARE AWESOME!
 
Is anybody going? I will be there for 4 days. Those in charge have decided to combine the instructors course with the examiners course. As I have already done instructors course twice I am NOT thrilled about spending extra time but it gets the job done for the other course I guess. I will be giving daily updates on what we covered. If I hear the words "you are awesome" by any of the speakers or teachers I'm going to walk out.
Good luck. I attended the Chicago one. Makes sense to combine the instructor course and examiner course. My observation was that It doesn't make a lot of sense to do the examiner course if you have not done the instructor course.
 
registration and orientation done. call time was 8am. Had additional form to fill out as did everyone else. had to wait in line for 30 min to turn in that form and make sure that i did not want to do the Instructors course too. They stopped hard selling me on it when I broke out my Instructors cert(class 3). After that I got to stand in another line to get my ID card. It took three people an hour and forty-five minutes to get all of the ID badges to the right attendee. Unbelievably slow and a waste of time.
Speakers from Korea had translator. The translator was not great and he stumbled on words a lot. Lots of bowing to people I've never seen or met.
First impression: Poorly organized
on a good note the last speaker from Kukkiwon spoke in good English about the rules and how we should conduct ourselves as students for the next few days. I liked his demeanor and he spoke from the heart about Taekwondo. Hwang In Sik was there too. I hope he will be leading the poomsae. He is Awesome.
 
The good, the bad and the Ugly....
Good: Poomsae with Hwang In Sik was awesome. He is inspirational to watch and has a genuine love for teaching. we went for about 5 hours on 1-4 and the first 3 BB poomsae. Good drills and attention to detail.
Bad: Korean terminology. It started out OK by repeating the names of stances and blocks but then the professor, who's name i forget, sat us down and started going too fast and didn't have a mic. I would say that over the next 30 minutes he lost about 90% of the non Korean speaking audience. In the end he was just talking to about 3 people answering questions about the proper wording of blocks that i couldn't even hear or understand at the speed they were speaking.
Ugly: lets start with the guy next to me who, during Taeguek 1, says "we don't practice these forms". I felt bad for him as I saw this in Chicago years ago and again at the 2nd course I took in LA. Why would his instructor send him to the seminar unprepared? He tried hard but his fundamentals were off and it showed. There were many who tired easily and were in poor shape. many could not kick higher than solar plexus and most side kicks were not good quality or fully extended.
The Coup De Gras was the announcement that those doing only the examiners course would be tested tomorrow night and could leave then. Originally we were told all 4 days had to be attended for one or both. Was too late to modify my hotel reservation for Friday night but i cancelled Saturday. Out 128 bucks and stuck in a room for a night I don't need or want to stay in. I was looking forward to 4 days of knowledge and training and now told that we are being dismissed after only 2 long days.
Does not seem right to me but I am not in charge.
 
I have a comprehensive report of the same seminar in Chicago, which I attended, but it's too lengthy to post here. Anyone interested shoot me a pm and I can e-mail it.
 
Having read Andy's review of the the course in Vienna, Arch's review of the course in Chicago, and now Mssmitht's comments about the course in LA, it all sounds very similar:
  • Lots of waiting in long lines
  • Lots of difficulty dealing with the various languages involved
  • Lots of general disorganization and confusion in terms of course logistics
  • Mostly just a review of how to correctly perform poomsae
Hopefully over time the course will get better. Hats-off to the brave souls suffering these early iterations!
 
What a day. started at 9a.m. with roll call and then a couple lectures on regulations when it comes to promotion exam for Poom/Dan. It was mostly good info about what should be expected. it was followed by a small warm up, stretch and over crowded poomsae practice. We then took turns Volunteering to go out and do poomsae so that others could practice scoring us. After a short lunch we were given hints about what might be on the exam and what to read up on. More crowded poomsae followed by 1.5 hour work out that was fun but not challenging. It left many winded. More regulations and more poomsae followed by a Mock poomsae exam for those only doing the Examiners course.
At 830 we were dismissed for 15 minutes and then went to another small room for our written and poomsae exams. The written exam was simple but oddly worded.I think I missed 3 out of 25. A desk and chair would have been nice but the floor worked. Poomsae was easy for most. A few of the senior ranks struggled and not due to age or injury but lack of practice. Finally we finished and we were told to come to closing ceremony in 15 minutes. They gave us nice certificates and there were many bows and handshakes and a group picture. Walked out at 10:24p.m.
A long day and was full of knowledge and fun poomsae training. Only real negative was the length of the day.
Another Cert for the wall.
 
Thanx for the report! That's very much appreciated.

Ugly: lets start with the guy next to me who, during Taeguek 1, says "we don't practice these forms". I felt bad for him as I saw this in Chicago years ago and again at the 2nd course I took in LA. Why would his instructor send him to the seminar unprepared? He tried hard but his fundamentals were off and it showed. There were many who tired easily and were in poor shape. many could not kick higher than solar plexus and most side kicks were not good quality or fully extended.

Seriously? "We don't practise these forms" like in "Taegeuk 1-3" which aren't needed for competition or the Kukkiwon Poomsae in general?

I mean, one of the reasons for Kukkiwon to come up with the instuctor courses and the examiner license is unification and setting standards. If people don't accept and don't even perform the Kukkiwon Poomsae then they shouldn't get a Kukkiwon Dan, IMO.
 
Thanx for the report! That's very much appreciated.



Seriously? "We don't practise these forms" like in "Taegeuk 1-3" which aren't needed for competition or the Kukkiwon Poomsae in general?

I mean, one of the reasons for Kukkiwon to come up with the instuctor courses and the examiner license is unification and setting standards. If people don't accept and don't even perform the Kukkiwon Poomsae then they shouldn't get a Kukkiwon Dan, IMO.
I agree
 
...Poomsae was easy for most. A few of the senior ranks struggled and not due to age or injury but lack of practice...

One of the unwritten rules at our school: if you're teaching it, you're doing it. Just last week the head of our schools called all the Black Belts to a 3-hour special practice on Saturday afternoon (he felt some of were getting too sloppy) and we spent three hours doing the first three forms, working on getting the details right. And there he was, right along with us, practicing, trying to improve his form.
 
One of the unwritten rules at our school: if you're teaching it, you're doing it. Just last week the head of our schools called all the Black Belts to a 3-hour special practice on Saturday afternoon (he felt some of were getting too sloppy) and we spent three hours doing the first three forms, working on getting the details right. And there he was, right along with us, practicing, trying to improve his form.
Some do and some watch.
 
If people don't accept and don't even perform the Kukkiwon Poomsae then they shouldn't get a Kukkiwon Dan, IMO.[/QUOTE]
Is what they are trying to fix
 
The good, the bad and the Ugly....
....
Bad: Korean terminology. ... In the end he was just talking to about 3 people answering questions about the proper wording of blocks.
.... There were many who tired easily and were in poor shape. many could not kick higher than solar plexus and most side kicks were not good quality or fully extended.

It's interesting that different people call a kick by different names. On a youtube video of a Colombian tv show, they called the tornado kick "mom dolyeo chugi", which I thought was a name used for spinning hook kick. They also called the axe kick "chico chugi" which I never heard before. I thought, "that sounds like "guy kick". It's at about 5:25.


In regards to physical condition, TKD is not a good martial art IMO for the average middle age person with a gut and poor flexibility. To me, the beauty of TKD is fast and high kicks.
 
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It's interesting that different people call a kick by different names.

The school I attend uses some interesting terminology too. I think it's because the head of our instructor is kinda old-school?
  • We call the roundhouse kick is an ap dolyeo chagi rather than a dolyeo chagi. So "front turning kick" rather than just "turning kick". I've heard some people say that's to emphasize that you chamber by lifting the knee to the front before turning, and I've heard other people say it's to distinguish the kick from the kind of roundhouse where you strike with the bottom of the foot, toes bent.
  • We call the skip roundhouse baleun bal. "Fast foot."
  • We call the long front stance ap koopigi rather than ap koobi. When I asked why, I was told "that's the older name".
  • We call the spinning back hook kick a hwe chook. No idea why. Would love to know.
  • We call the jump spinning back hook kick jugo hwe chook. Again, no idea why.
  • We call the jump front kick eedan ap chai. "Second-level front kick."
I think the names we use are our school are less common than the names I usually see in print.

In regards to physical condition, TKD is not a good martial art IMO for the average middle age person with a gut and poor flexibility. To me, the beauty of TKD is fast and high kicks.

I agree...but as a middle age person with a gut and poor flexibility, I still think it's fun. :) It's definitely increased my flexibility quite a lot, but the gut persists more than I would like. Also, when I get really tired I have to take a break, because I'm tired of my spraining old-man joints whenever I push myself past tired. Better to catch my breath, cool, down for a moment, then resume, rather than risking injury.

The reason I stick with it is because it's the only workout I know of where an hour-long workout flies by so fast! It's either keep doing this, or succumb completely to the cold decay of time. :)
 
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