TKD UPDATE



TKD Lesson (1 hour)

Started off mixed.  Warmed up with Chon Ji and things looked strong.  My kid is still punching off center often.  I'm pretty sure it's because they want to see what is in front of them, and they're uncomfortable having their own fist in the field of view.  Punches looked much stronger though.

Wheels fell off a little when we ran into a problem I've dealt with before.  My kid always jacks up the back stance and faces their torso the wrong way.  I always correct it.  However, my kid has now ingrained the incorrect way to do it into their motor patterns, to the point that they think that IS the right way to do it.  Sorta like when you misspell a word so often autocorrect now defaults to the typo instead of the correct word.  So today, when teaching a twin forearm block, I kept telling my kid to face their shoulders the right way into a backstance for it and they were ADAMANT that I was having them do the backstance wrong.

"Everytime I do the backstance, it's like this!  How come we're doing it differently this time?"

"Because every time you do it, you do it incorrectly and I have to correct you.  This time I'm trying to get you to start out correctly."

Wasn't received well, haha.  It's the balancing act between letting things be "good enough" in the beginning to move onto more material vs everything being perfect from the get go.  Something that has to be communicated to the student.

Speaking of twin forearm block, it's this.



So what the hell is this?


This is closing the distance and setting up for a diagonal downward elbow strike



Fun fact: that photo is actually from a school I trained at in Portland OR for a hot minute.

But yeah, that's how I interpreted it and taught it to my kid.  We brought the front hand in a little closer to the body, but the idea is the either parry a punch and move to the outside OR just use the hand to jam and clinch, and then take that hand that is high up and use it to slam the elbow into the opponent.  Taught my kid about going for the eyebrow/temple and opening up cuts.  Showed them a scar over my right eyebrow and told them the story of how it got opened up by a headbutt, and then covered their eye and showed them how they couldn't see any attacks on that side.

Maybe not all children's martial arts programs talk about opening up cuts, blinding opponents and attacking them where they can't see, but what can I say: I'm unique.

We drilled moving forward into that stance, and did some elbow work on a thai pad and the kicking bag.  Kid figured out to twist their hips into the elbow on their own.  Proud of them for that.

That block was the next part of the sequence of Dan Gun.  In the form, it's followed up by a face punch, which you could still do if you jam up the opponent, but having that backhand so high up makes it a little tough to generate power compared to just bringing down an elbow.

Wheels fell off again when we worked on transitioning stances.  My kid has a bizarre habit where they act like a marionette the instant you touch them.  My kid can balance on 1 foot on their own just fine, but if I hold their shoulders or feet to put them into position for something, they just collapse all their weight into my body and go limp.  After they fell to the floor a bunch of times, I called off what we were working on and gave them some water. As much as I'm trying to let them get some little victories, I have to cool off too sometimes.

Mrs was home, so I got to show my kid how those "grab behind the back" brakeaways looked on an opponent closer to their size.  They tried it on their own and enjoyed it.

From there, we worked the newly learned elbow strike onto a thai pad.  This led to a discusison on infighting vs outfighting.  Got to relay my warstories to my kid about always being an infighter. I then let my kid choose the next activity.  They wanted to drill roundhouses and then the teep-roundhose combo.

From my kid "Roundhouses are my favorite thing to do"

Me "It's a shame that isn't from Tae Kwon Do", haha.  My kid thought it was cool they were learning a variety of martial arts at least.

Finished the day with a "stand on 1 foot" challenge.  Was cool to see my kid have some balance there.  They did a great job.  We even fired a few front snap kicks at each other.


After a little cooloff, whole family went for a 2.5 mile run with the kid on the bike.  We got rained out yesterday.

And on the physique front, the wife gave me a hard time yesterday while we were getting ready for bed because my abs were still visible after a day of fake thanksgiving food, so that's a good sign.