Master Hutton has a little dig at the way he sees patterns performed at competitors in recent years, where the athletes have no core. They drop into their movement over-emphasising sinewave to the detriment of core power.
Master Huttons demonstrates the knifehand strike from Dan-Gun tul and shows “there’s your sinewave, there’s your techniques… and there is your core!”.
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.
Spend any amount of time in a dojang and you will see some guy (and it is more often than not a guy) whose moves look, well, clunky. They have a tense stiffness about them, a forced attempt to generate power. Trust me I know I was that guy (and still am on occasions).
Instructors faced with the clunky guy almost invariably say “try to relax”. Of course as soon as anyone tells you to relax you are likely to find yourself completely unable to do so, in fact, you are likely to actually stiffen up more. Akin to the experience of being told not to think of a pink elephant, the first thing that pops into your mind is a pink elephant.
Dan-Gun Tul is the pattern required at yellow belt level. This video features yellow belt Rebecca Chitty alongside ITF Patterns World Champion Miss Melissa Timperley, coached by Master Paul McPhail.
Although this level of critiquing may not be necessary at yellow belt level, it is hoped this video provides helpful tips to improve performance at any level. Some of the points raised by Master McPhail in the video are:
Correct intermediate positions for knifehand guarding block, twin forearm block and knifehand side strike
Correct finished heights and hand positions on various movements
Avoiding turning the fist before the end of the punch
Performing the pattern is Miss Rebeca Chitty, a yellow belt from Paul M Taekwon-Do in Auckland, New Zealand. Performing alongside her is Miss Melissa Timperley, ITF 3rd dan Patterns gold medallist in 2013 from Auckland New Zealand. The video begins with Rebecca performing the pattern alone, followed by an analysis of her pattern compared to Melissa. Then Melissa performs the pattern at the end of the video.
These lessons were created for my own clubs while we were closed due to the Covid19.
The pattern Choong Moo contains two different types of front strike. The first is movement 2, the knifehand front strike, and the second is movement 13 with the reverse knifehand. The heights and other details are explained in this video.
Our first LIVE Expert Coach interview – broadcast in our Members Facebook Group on 21 March 2020.
