Translating the Martial Arts can be a nightmare. What does it all mean. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Cantonese, Mandarin. Then there is Russian, Israeli, Vietnamese – the list goes on. Let us stick to the basics here and just look at the names of the styles and what country they are generally considered to be […]
Smashing Boards and Bricks
When I started Taekwondo in the 1980’s with the United Kingdom Taekwondo Association (UKTA) breaking boards in colour belt junior gradings was a big thing. You had to break a wood or plastic board to pass any grading from, as far as I recall, Green Belt. Black Belts were required to break house bricks. Breaking […]
Hapkido
In the 1990’s I had also read about Hapkido, a Korean martial art which included similar striking and blocking techniques to TaeKwonDo and joint locks and manipulation similar to Jujitsu. It’s history can be traced back in a Korean linage and Japanese linage which came together over a hundred years ago when Yong Sool Choi […]
Choi Kwang Do
So I starting TaeKwon-Do in 1987, as I progressed I became more and more interested in gaining new knowledge. The easiest way to gain an overall view of the martial arts was to buy magazines, Combat, Martial Arts Illustrated and TaeKwonDo Times. I enjoyed TaeKwonDo but wanted to try different styles. I came across another […]
TaeKwon-Do and Me – The Instructor
After eight years in Taekwondo, in 1995 as I was progressing to Black Belt I was encouraged to start up a Taekwondo club in Banbury. After an International and National Instructors qualification I decided to take on the challenge. The internet wasn’t a popular option for marketing in the mid 1990’s so it was posters […]
TaeKwon-Do and Me
My training in Tae Kwon Do began in 1986 whilst serving in the military at Hereford, I wasn’t in the Special Air Service but I was stationed at their Headquarters as a Staff Clerk. An MOD Policeman, Paul Eden invited me to attend his Tae Kwon Do class in the gym. My only experience in […]