Need Help With Lesson Plans For TKD

[Donovan Jakob]

If they're capable of coming up with their own ideas, I'd help guide them through that, and focus on creating ideas for the ones who are less creative.

This is currently what I am trying to do. A lot of times they will come up with something and I will encourage them, explain what I like about it, and suggest things that could be better. I sometimes also do an exercise where I have 3 different people name 1 kick and then have someone try to figure out how to use those 3 kicks in a combination and teach it to the class. This is after I have done the same exercise where I put all three kicks together a few times first.

TKD is an eclectic art in that the forms, sparring, and self-defense tend to have relatively little to do with each other. In every TKD school I've trained in, there is a self-defense portion of class that has barely anything to do with the kicking or forms (any kicks in the self-defense are usually a coincidence).

Yeah I have heard that kicks in self defense are generally not used. Often times situations start close and kicks are meant for a longer distance, and if your fighting someone who knows how to grapple your giving them your leg to play with.

With the forms, you have a number of blocks and strikes. You can put those together. For example, you have the knife-hand blocks and knife-hand strikes in Taegeuk 3, those typically go together pretty well in punch defense. Same with palm blocks and elbow strikes. Typical TKD self-defense is that beginners will do punch defenses that are simple block & counter-attack, intermediates will use combinations and maybe grab to pull into a strike, and advanced will turn it into an armlock used for a take-down.

Ya know, I have thought about some of the practicality in forms, but I get caught up in other aspects of class that I haven't experimented with them enough. I will set aside some time to experiment with these with some of the advanced belts.

In my main school, the only difference between the adult TKD hand grabs and the HKD hand grabs was the level of detail we went into. In TKD we would do bigger motions instead of detailed smaller motions, and we would end techniques with a punch instead of a break. I also plan to do something like this with my implementation of BJJ into my TKD curriculum, in that the level of detail I plan to teach (before black belt) is equivalent to the tots BJJ class. If I'm going to average 5-10 minutes per week on grappling instead of 3-5 hours per week, then I'm going to focus on the core elements instead of the details.

These are some great points and ideas. This definitely gives me a place to start and expand off of.

If you use the Taegeuks, you may want to look into a book called The Taegeuk Cipher, which offers a self-defense curriculum based on the Taegeuk forms.

I will absolutely look into this book, that sounds very helpful. Thank you.

I would look into creating your own document or subscribing to a martial arts school management system. There are a few good ones out there, but my TKD Master and my BJJ Professor both use kicksite.

I will look into that website as well.

It's funny, because I was getting notifications from both schools from the same phone number (and the schools are 1700 miles apart).

Oh wow. Why were they coming from the same phone number? Does the website text on the schools behalf? That is funny though.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

Can you tell me the following information?

1. Your school's belt order (including belts with multiple colors, such as a blue belt with a red stripe down the middle).
2. How that belt order is arranged (i.e. my old school had white and yellow as beginners; purple and orange as intermediate; solid green and 1-stripe green, solid blue, 1-stripe blue, and 2-stripe blue, solid red, 1-stripe red, and 2-stripe red as advanced).
3. How many stripes per belt (and does it change at higher belts).
4. The timing between stripes.
5. The timing between belts.

Belt Order:

• White
• Yellow with a black stripe down the middle
• Yellow
• Orange
• Green
• Blue
• Brown
• Red with a black stripe down the middle
• Black

3 Stripes per belt, does not change for any belt.

Timing between stripes I am unsure of, my initial thought is that they are evenly spaced throughout the timing of belts, but only if it is earned.

Timing between belts are as follows:

• 2 months for white, yellow/black, yellow, and orange.
• 6 months for green, blue, and brown
• 9 months for red
• 1 year for red/black

 

[Donovan Jakob]

For the most part, I don't see too much of an issue. Many TKD schools don't do hand techniques outside of what's in the forms, and instead work a lot on kicks, and it can be a lot of bagwork for the kicks. Combos are usually in the kicks.

This is what my old school did and what our current school does.

Strengthening exercises can be done in class or outside of class. Some students want to get in a workout, but others have the mentality of "I can do that at the gym". This is one of those things that I think it's inclusion or exclusion from the curriculum is fine, depending on the instructor's style and the student's wishes, and it's not in good faith to discredit a class in either direction.

I appreciate this. I should be doing more strength training, but I would like to improve my TKD-specific training first since that is what people are in a TKD class to do.

Schools I have been in often have sparring only on certain days, and that incudes TKD, Muay Thai, and MMA.

I should have mentioned this in the original post. We do sparring classes every Friday.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

I've heard of a similar system from someone my Dad worked with. Instructors needed to initial each requirement in order for students to be allowed to test. Maybe Donovan could give stripes after a certain number of initials, and then allow to test upon completion of the entire form?

Or have the sheet broken into sections per stripe.

Having instructors initial a form before testing is also a good idea. We test on more than just completion of a form though. A lot more goes into it such as behavior in class, technique, whether the techniques snap into place rather than just throwing them out there, do the stance and technique land at the same time (more for the intermediate and advanced belts), and im sure there are a couple others that Im not thinking of in this moment. But I guess these are the things I would write down and have instructors initial on.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

I like you system if you have say, 30+ kids.
But otherwise I find them unnecessary.
I do scratch my head at a 3rd who is unsure what to teach unless they are young.

Yeah I understand that at my rank I should be able to do this without a problem. It's one degree away from master for crying out loud. I will not accept my 4th if this continues to be a struggle though. It's not easy announcing this people. I appreciate that most people are helping me and giving some good advice though. Not a single one is going unconsidered. I am trying to be as good of an instructor as I can. I don't like wasting people's time and money. Also I am, in fact, young. I am 21 and was thrown into teaching when I was 15. I did not realize at the time that this was going to be something long term, and at the time it wasn't something I wanted to do. I have grown, as I said in a couple of replies, to appreciate it and I want to take it seriously. I do understand what you are saying though and I agree, which is why I am trying to learn what I can from multiple other, more experienced, martial artists.

 

[isshinryuronin]

Yeah I understand that at my rank I should be able to do this without a problem. It's one degree away from master for crying out loud. I will not accept my 4th if this continues to be a struggle though. It's not easy announcing this people. I appreciate that most people are helping me and giving some good advice though. Not a single one is going unconsidered. I am trying to be as good of an instructor as I can. I don't like wasting people's time and money. Also I am, in fact, young. I am 21 and was thrown into teaching when I was 15. I did not realize at the time that this was going to be something long term, and at the time it wasn't something I wanted to do. I have grown, as I said in a couple of replies, to appreciate it and I want to take it seriously. I do understand what you are saying though and I agree, which is why I am trying to learn what I can from multiple other, more experienced, martial artists.

Have you considered changing schools? This may cause a step backwards for you in some ways but may prepare you to take three steps forward in your development in the long run. Consider where you want to go in TKD and then chart a course to that destination though the seas may be rough. TMA is an adventure I've had for many decades.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

Hmm,
Set down and Write down everything you have learned up to 3rd Dan. Then organize it into meaningful blocks (by belts or otherwise). Keep it basic at the lower levels and add as people get higher in rank and age. RECOGNIZE exceptional people and PUSH them in a constructive way. This cannot be overstated and should NEVER be overlooked.
Your goal is to make every student better than you. This means continued training for you and extre knowledge for exceptional people. This mMUST be in your tool bag. If that means extra classes or external training for you, so be it.
Most importantly, if you truly have exceptional athletes, don’t hold them back. Learn how/where/when to get them into training for the next level. Nothing is more priceless than photos with students with gold medals at AAU/WT events.

Thank you for your reply.

This is very valuable advice. I have made a spread sheet of different techniques that are learned in every belt up to 3rd Degree. However it was specific to forms, I can take this Idea and expand it to include kicks outside of forms, kick combinations, as well as footwork. I do my best to push everyone to be better and give everything they have and encourage and compliment those who are doing it. I try to be an example, as well, of not giving up even though something is hard and tiring. This gets a little difficult though because, though I am young, I have issues with my knees that I have yet to get checked out. But I still do my best be a good example, encourage those who are giving they're all, and encourage the ones who aren't giving their all to do so.

Our school does not train specifically for tournaments. Some students want to, and we modify their training slightly that's fine. We train to have fast and powerful kicks when doing sparring and kicking drills, and good technique and snap when doing forms. The problem is, in tournaments now, with the electronic gear, you can't hit too hard and you have to hit in very specific spots or your hit doesn't count for anything. We don't want to train people to throw weak kicks just for a shiny piece of metal, unless that is what they specifically want to train for. In general, we train to throw powerful and effective kicks.

I do need to get training elsewhere because, being the main instructor at this school, I myself do not get to learn and grow much. When I am able to, which will hopefully be soon, I will do this.

I appreciate your time and advice. Once again, thank you.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

Have you considered changing schools? This may cause a step backwards for you in some ways but may prepare you to take three steps forward in your development in the long run. Consider where you want to go in TKD and then chart a course to that destination though the seas may be rough. TMA is an adventure I've had for many decades.

I don't want to change schools. Not permanently at least. I would like to visit other schools and learn new things and bring them back to this school. The people at this school are more than just my "students" they are friends in the adult class, and kids who really need help that I care about in the kids class. I have also thought about doing a different martial art for a little bit such as BJJ, Japanese Jujitzu, or mui tai. Just so I can get to learn new things again. But being a good instructor in the school I am currently at is important to me.

 

[skribs]

Belt Order:

• White
• Yellow with a black stripe down the middle
• Yellow
• Orange
• Green
• Blue
• Brown
• Red with a black stripe down the middle
• Black

3 Stripes per belt, does not change for any belt.

Timing between stripes I am unsure of, my initial thought is that they are evenly spaced throughout the timing of belts, but only if it is earned.

Timing between belts are as follows:

• 2 months for white, yellow/black, yellow, and orange.
• 6 months for green, blue, and brown
• 9 months for red
• 1 year for red/black

That's weird that yellow-black comes before solid yellow. (I think you also missed solid red). Also a bit weird that most of these don't have a stripe, except for the first and last color.

I would probably do stripes like they're done in my BJJ class. Set an amount of hours that's appropriate based on the length of the belt. For example, if you have 5 classes per week, make it 10 classes required per stripe from white to orange, 25 classes from green to brown, 40 classes for red, 50 classes for black. Once they get to that many classes, start assessing them for rank.

We test on more than just completion of a form though. A lot more goes into it such as behavior in class, technique, whether the techniques snap into place rather than just throwing them out there, do the stance and technique land at the same time (more for the intermediate and advanced belts), and im sure there are a couple others that Im not thinking of in this moment. But I guess these are the things I would write down and have instructors initial on.

So have checkmarks for behavior, precision, snap power, etc. Or only give the checkmark for a technique if they meet the standards for the technique, not just that they know it.

 

[Flying Crane]

Yeah I understand that at my rank I should be able to do this without a problem. It's one degree away from master for crying out loud. I will not accept my 4th if this continues to be a struggle though. It's not easy announcing this people. I appreciate that most people are helping me and giving some good advice though. Not a single one is going unconsidered. I am trying to be as good of an instructor as I can. I don't like wasting people's time and money. Also I am, in fact, young. I am 21 and was thrown into teaching when I was 15. I did not realize at the time that this was going to be something long term, and at the time it wasn't something I wanted to do. I have grown, as I said in a couple of replies, to appreciate it and I want to take it seriously. I do understand what you are saying though and I agree, which is why I am trying to learn what I can from multiple other, more experienced, martial artists.

Donovan, it sounds to me like your instructor did you a disservice by dumping the teaching on your shoulders at a young age, and when you didn’t want to do it. Let me be clear: you do not ever need to apologize for that. Not everyone wants to teach, not everyone should teach, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The fact that you have come to enjoy teaching and you want to do a good job with it, is commendable. The fact that you recognize that you are struggling and need help and are seeking it out is something that I really respect the hell out of.

I think you should not even have discussions about your rank and what you ought to be able to do at your level. It is irrelevant and those discussions will be counter-productive. Put it out of your mind. You are on the right path, and I think the community here can see that. Keep at it.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

A lot of TKD schools are run by Masters that are great teachers but horrible mentors. They teach everyone the same way, regardless of whether that person is a white belt or a 3rd degree black belt. In those schools, there is never a transition point between teaching and mentoring. Never a point where you stop learning from a rote curriculum and start learning more about application.

My Master is that way. Everything I've done to prepare for my 4th degree test (both when I was attending his school, and now that I'm back in town to test) has been rote curriculum items. Sparring is the only testing item where I will have any creativity. Classes are primarily about the curriculum. In fact, when I was teaching, I was encouraged to focus more on the curriculum and less on being creative, because he wanted me teaching his stuff in his school.

I plan to go a much different route. But I could see how someone who got to 3rd degree by following directions would be unprepared to take a leadership role, when they've never been taught how to lead.

I'd say most of this fair.

The class was always taught as a whole, often times advanced belts would do something different than the intermediate, and the intermediate different than the beginners. But not transferring from curriculum to learn about application is spot on if we are not talking about sparring. Self defense application was never something we talked about. But, at least at my old school, we did drills and were encouraged to apply those drills on Friday sparring classes. I don't remember a lot of those drills to teach to my classes, and I have come up with a few on my own. There are concepts that I am sure we have gone over at my old school, that I don't remember now, to be able to expand upon.

When it comes to techniques, the way I teach them now is the way I was taught them, and to me those are "correct." We have changed some that Kukkiwon changed but only the ones we find to be reasonable. The ones we find to be reasonable, of course, is how much they differ to the way I, the other instructor, my master instructor, and my old instructor (the one who now owns the school) were taught. I'm not sure if this is what you mean by "his things his way" nor am I sure what exactly is wrong about this if I am correct. But I would like to hear your perspective.

To me, I think I have earned my 3rd Degree based solely on the techniques I can do and how well I can do them, however, I have gotten rusty while focusing on teaching, so im not so sure I'm where I should be anymore. But teaching wise I definitely am not at a 3rd degree level. And as you have stated, I have not been taught how to lead, I've been trying to figure it out on my own. In some areas I believe I'm doing great, but in others I have little to no idea how to navigate it, and I'm just trying to do the best I can.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

Donovan, it sounds to me like your instructor did you a disservice by dumping the teaching on your shoulders at a young age, and when you didn’t want to do it. Let me be clear: you do not ever need to apologize for that. Not everyone wants to teach, not everyone should teach, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The fact that you have come to enjoy teaching and you want to do a good job with it, is commendable. The fact that you recognize that you are struggling and need help and are seeking it out is something that I really respect the hell out of.

I think you should not even have discussions about your rank and what you ought to be able to do at your level. It is irrelevant and those discussions will be counter-productive. Put it out of your mind. You are on the right path, and I think the community here can see that. Keep at it.

These words are extremely encouraging, you have no idea. Thank you so much.

I do want to be clear in that I still respect my instructor and I am in no way intentionally bashing or shaming my instructor. He has done many great things for me I just think this where my struggles started and I want to course correct.

 

[Donovan Jakob]

That's weird that yellow-black comes before solid yellow. (I think you also missed solid red). Also a bit weird that most of these don't have a stripe, except for the first and last color.

Yes I did forget to include solid red in the first list. That is my bad. It's weird how many different belt orders there are and that what belts are even included are different.

I would probably do stripes like they're done in my BJJ class. Set an amount of hours that's appropriate based on the length of the belt. For example, if you have 5 classes per week, make it 10 classes required per stripe from white to orange, 25 classes from green to brown, 40 classes for red, 50 classes for black. Once they get to that many classes, start assessing them for rank.

So have checkmarks for behavior, precision, snap power, etc. Or only give the checkmark for a technique if they meet the standards for the technique, not just that they know it.

Those are good ideas, thank you.