Five Kicks in Taekwon-Do


There are only five kicks in Taekwon-Do!

Well five “groups” of kicks anyway.

This is the theory according to World Champ Brendan Doogan in this enlightening and entertaining video.

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Power Breaking and the Theory of Power

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.

Snippets of amazing old footage

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.

Breaking Class

In this video former Breaking World Champ Mr Brendan Doogan coaches two classes on breaking. See how he teaches junior belts how to break in a way that builds their confidence and ability in a fun way. For the senior class Mr Doogan encourages the students to “go crazy” with the execution of their techniques to build the power required for big breaks.

If you are interested in improving your breaking, or an instructor wanting a few new ideas for how to teach it, this video is for you.

Classic ITF Tournaments: World Champs 1994

Here is some classic (never before seen) footage of the 1994 ITF World Champs in Malaysia. It is 42 minutes of video that gives an idea of what this tournament was like.

Some people say it was the best World Champs ever. Some say the worst. Anyway – it was big! They had the opening ceremony in an outdoor arena with demonstrations from all the main countries.

You will see 3 minutes in the now infamous bout between a Kiwi Matt and Master Mark Hutton (then a 4th dan) where the Kiwi broke his nose – effectively counting him out of the patterns competition later in the tournament. Master Hutton never lets us forget that one.