I will tell you what I tell my students: kick correctly as high as you comfortably can when practicing "high kicks" rather than overreaching and delivering a poor kick. If low is ankles, middle is knees, and your high is torso, then so be it. Do it correctly, with power, and with snap. Each time you practice, try to do the kicks correctly just a little higher each time. You may never get the height that a sixteen year old the same height as you can, but you can get a personal best.
Kelly was right on the money about an effective low kick versus an ineffective high kick. Not to mention that those head level kicks are generally considered poor choices in self defense. Also, most of the forms in taekwondo do not require you to do vertical splits. People just do them because it looks cool.
Lastly, remember that the purpose of a martial art is not to straight jacket you but to provide you with tools to use. Use those tools in the way that suits you rather than in the way that suits someone else. Each person's taekwondo looks different from that of those around them. They look the same in the sense that they are doing the same techniques and the same set of forms. But each person is unique and will focus on different techniques.
From your posts, I always get the feeling that you have a very strong love of taekwondo. Remember that your taekwondo will change with you. Taekwondo is an art that you can do for life. As you get older, you grow and mature. Likewise, your taekwondo will do the same.
Just keep training. Don't compare yourself to the kiddies. You are an adult. If you are in my age range (I'm forty three next week), chances are that you will not have the flexibility that you did when you were younger (I do, but I was never very flexible to begin with, so that isn't saying much, lol.), and you may not have the speed. But you will have more of an immediacy to your techniques that only comes from years of training.
Do what you do the best that you can. Who needs high kicks when you can throw hurtin' bombs at their torso and knees?
Daniel
Manny, This statement by Daniel was exactly what I was thinking (more or less) when I first read your post, and I also tell my students.......do what techniques you can... the best
you can and the rest will take care of itself.
You and I and many others on this board are
TEACHERS! that is more important than worrying about how high you can kick. We have an obligation (Giri in Japanese) to impart our knowledge to our students so the arts do not die (no matter what art it may be) and to help people get through life.
Do you think that your students like you because you can kick high? or punch fast?
No.......
I do not think so.
The reason is that you show a true love for the art you practice and teach, as well as, a true concern and care for the students in learning what you teach.
I started Ju-Jitsu when I was 18 and now I'm 46 and have been teaching for 20+ years. There were questions I had to ask myself at a certain point:
Are my throws, locks and goundwork as fast as they were?...Nope.
Are my kicks and punches as fast and as high as they were?....nope.
Am I as limber as I was?.....nope.
On the other hand......
Can I execute the tecniques properly and more precisely and get the most out of the tecniques with the least exertion?....yes.
Can I teach my art competently and completely?.....yes.
Can I show how much I care for the art and my students?....yes.
Can I impart that knowledge to them?.....Yes.
Think about that and ask yourself.......which of the two is more important?
I did and that's why I continue to teach.
Michael
