Ground Self Defence is something often overlooked by Taekwon-Do schools.
This clip shows a snippet of a 45 minute video for our Members, that gives the essential instruction of ground self defence all instructors should be teaching.
Thanks to Mr Phil Thompson for his incredible knowledge and generosity.
Members watch the full video
DON’T FORGET TO WATCH No. 10 – Paul McPhail performs Juche forwards and backwards
For my 5th degree black belt grading in 1993 I thought it would be a cool idea to perform Juche Tul forwards then backwards for General Choi.
The plan failed miserably as I started the backwards part… I hadn’t even considered the possibility that General Choi would take offence to it. He turned his head and refused to watch. I figured… well… I may as well carry on now and struggled through to the end.
I passed the grading so I guess the General had forgiven me by the day the results were announced.
Here is the footage of the pattern at the grading.
For the 1st to 2nd dan grading we have Ground Self Defence as the syllabus requirement, and this video shows the course where Mr Thompson introduced this to our instructors
TKDCoaching was again privileged to film Grand Master Kim Ung Lan in a very special training session. Grand Master Lan spent over an hour with students of an Auckland club, in a surprise visit in 2017.
Grand Master Lan is well known for his generosity, kindness and authenticity. A true Grand Master who is so happy to share his knowledge.
Kiwisport is a program from Sport New Zealand aiming to promote sport for school-aged children. Master McPhail, acting as the Kiwisport Coordinator, devised a programme aimed at introducing Taekwon-Do to kids in a fun way. This includes the active sport side, as well as the martial arts discipline and culture. A number of schools initially took up the programme and now the results are beyond expectations. Over a thousand kids are now taking part each year, it has spread to secondary schools, and a number of our instructors are able to be instructors full time because of it. Lianna McCartney, Instructor at Zeal Taekwon-Do Otahuhu, has been at one of the schools and kindly told us how things were going:
The classes run for 45 minutes, giving a brief introduction to a lot of different aspects of Taekwon-Do. They have been learning some of the Korean terminology, and core values (or “Tenets”) of Taekwon-Do
From there they work on technical skills, self-defence, and punching and kicking pads.
As you can see from the Redoubt School newsletter, the kids are really enjoying the classes and eagerly await each lesson.
There has been a lot of interest from students and teachers who have been given a taste of Taekwon-Do, and want to find out more. For them, there are lots of local clubs to visit, try an introductory lesson, and join up. For International Taekwon-Do and Sport New Zealand, this has been the perfect launch to a fun, interesting school sports programme.
Over a decade has now passed since the Founder of Taekwon-Do passed away. Every now and then I reflect that most of the people in my classes, even senior black belts, never got to meet and train with General Choi. That is a great pity as he was certainly a legend – an amazing figure and source of incredible knowledge.
In April 2002, practically on his death-bed, Gen Choi travelled to the United States to fulfil his promise to Grand Master CE Sereff to teach a course for his students. That was considered his last IIC. The previous September was the last full course, held in Jamaica shortly after the devastation of 9/11. As you will hear him say at the end of the video, the world was chaotic and people were afraid to travel. But 30 fanatical Taekwon-Do students gathered in Jamaica regardless to learn from the man himself.
Over two decades have now passed since the Founder of Taekwon-Do passed away. Every now and then I reflect that most of the people in my classes, even senior black belts, never got to meet and train with General Choi. That is a great pity as he was certainly a legend – an amazing figure and source of incredible knowledge.
In April 2002, practically on his death-bed, Gen Choi travelled to the United States to fulfil his promise to Grand Master CE Sereff to teach a course for his students. That was considered his last IIC. The previous September was the last full course, held in Jamaica shortly after the devastation of 9/11. As you will hear him say at the end of the video, the world was chaotic and people were afraid to travel. But 30 fanatical Taekwon-Do students gathered in Jamaica regardless to learn from the man himself.
This footage was shot by myself, Mark Banicevich and Graham Patterson – the three Kiwis at the course. It’s not high quality, but nevertheless it is valuable, historic footage to be cherished.
General Choi always encouraged us to ask questions. In fact before each course, he would approach some seniors privately and encourage them to ask lots of questions at the course. He usually wouldn’t discuss techniques much before that – preferring instead to save that for the seminar.
These videos show some techniques that have since been modified slightly since Gen Choi’s passing. The various organisations around the world have sought to standardise techniques as much as possible so it is natural that decisions had to be made on certain points that were ambiguous. The point here is that over the last decade some of these techniques have been changed so check with your instructor before quoting Gen Choi from this video. And in many cases there was no right or wrong answer on how a technique is to be performed. Gen Choi himself would show different variations at different courses. And he modified techniques over time too.
General Choi was most gracious and generous with his time, and was always careful to repeat his key points so they were clear. Sometimes though he would not quite understand what was being asked and go on a bit of a tangent. It was tricky to try and push for an answer sometimes without being disrespectful, so I would normally just stand and wait for as long as I could comfortably get away with – but sometimes eventually you just had to bow and sit down.
