hardheadjarhead
Senior Master
Michael Billings said:Other kicks not found in TKD:
But the big difference is the use of legs as weapons in ways other than kicking, e.g. for buckles, checks, sweeps, etc.
- Scoops
- Knife-Edge (as vs. side thrust kick, which we also to teach)
- Vertical Heel (reference Five Swords for those that know the extension or older Tracy version where it is included)
- Thrusting Sweep
- Inverted ball kick
- Twist Kick
Still, the power, focus, balance, of TKD kicks ... and you just plain spend so many darn hours doing them, as compared to the average Kenpoist, means that their kicks MAY look better given an equivalent time in the Art.
Bad news, it takes Kenpo guys so long to promote between belts, we usually saw TKD guys get to black in the time it took us to get to blue or green. Problematic when it is an open tournament and you have a 7 year brown belt that can ... and does win the Black division, no other training than kenpo, either.
-Michael
Good point: The time difference in ranks and how it affects perceptions in skill. We see this in a lot of systems. At my school it'll take a person about five years to get to black. Across town, two years. It took two of my second dan women six years to go from second to third because they messed around. Other schools take a person from white to third in eight years.
The kicks "not found in TKD": Hard to say, not having witnessed them. We have something called a twist kick. Some of the others sound the same as the ones we do.
I'd ask people to note that TKD is hardly a monolith. If you have a bad school in your town and judge ALL TKD by what they do or fail to do, you're permitting yourself a narrow world view. Not all schools practice Olympic style fighting. Not all schools limit themselves to that. Granted...and I admit this freely...there are a LOT of cruddy TKD schools out there that lack balance in training. But there are also some very good ones that focus on pragmatic self defense.
Regards,
Steve