Of Memes and Messages

If you are a martial artist, and you follow or have a following of martial artists in your social network, you no doubt have seen countless memes about the art and have read a plethora of different martial arts motivation posts. 

The sheer amount of toxicity that gets passed around as "a good post" in some of my network's mind has me absolutely staggered.  Although initial drafts of this post were written in a much more terse voice, I have scaled it back the best I can, because I remember a time when I didn't see the forest for the trees like I do now.  I took a class in college a long time ago, that really explored the messaging in pop culture and how it speaks to us.  It was an eye opening class, one that allowed me to see a lot of subtle messages in the media we consume that sometimes we don't even realize we're receiving. 

What I'd like people to take away from this post, especially school owners, is that your students are very likely going to hang (sometimes unhealthily) on everything you say and post.  My hope is that by pointing out some of the toxic messaging in this, I can get you thinking a little bit more about what you post. 

Let's take this example, a favorite among black belt instructors and school owners as a start:

First off, we attach a picture of the patron saint of all martial arts, the one and only Bruce Lee.  So of course, as martial artists, it must not only be true, but it must be some nugget of wisdom that came from the legend himself right?  No, google "should you be practicing" and you'll find the image of Bruce replaced with any number of other objects and graphics.  That's only one small problem with this piece, another is the messaging itself.

First off, as a working adult, with two kids and a wife that expect me to spend time with them, I can't follow this picture.  Yet, I can't help but feel just a tiny bit of inadequacy when I see peers or worse, instructors post this.  It makes me want to reach out to any instructor and ask them if this is what they really expect from their students.  Having the expectation that your students practice every waking hour of their life is not healthy.  It's not healthy to consider, and it is even more unhealthy to push on your students.  I'm glad as a teenager I didn't train in the social media era, because if my instructor had posted this, I might have quit all of my other activities and my job and tried this.  Hyperbole?  Maybe, but I hung on everything my instructors said - and had they said something like this, you better believe I would have tried.  There is nothing like unsupervised practice to bring out the absolute hardest to break bad habits for most people though - is this really what you want to deal with?

Looking specifically at this picture, the first branch starts a major problem with the message here. "Are you the student - yes or no".  Well, according to a lot of the other propaganda I see passed in the martial arts, I thought we were all life long students - so how can you even have a no answer?!  This is a paradox isn't it?  Let's ignore that glaring detail, and look at what happens when we say no which leads to the real problem with this piece.

"Find the most difficult technique - practice it".  How does this not infuriate you and immediately show you the invalidity of this piece if you know anything about instruction?  You don't get better by practicing the "most difficult technique" at anything.  You accomplish the most difficult technique of anything by being really, really good at what makes up that difficult thing - the basics.  If you don't understand the problem with suggesting that someone practice the most difficult technique as a proper course of action, you should maybe not be teaching.  Do you teach Moon-Moo to white belts?  No, you teach them Chon-ji, but by this picture's logic, we should be teaching white belts the most difficult form in the entire 24 form set.  I have seen with my own two eyes people who can do complex aerial techniques but couldn't front kick out of a wet paper bag.  It's toxic messaging at this point. 

Let's look at another aspect of this that is totally wrong - and sends a contradictory message at best and a hypocritical message at worst to your audience.  "Is there someone better than you?".

You, school owner or instructor or person of influence who posted, or is thinking of posting this meme; is that what the martial arts are you to?  A way to be better than someone else?  What happened to all the other memes about the only person we are competing with is ourselves?  What happened to humility?  You didn't think about that?  You didn't think...but you consider yourself a person of high quality or influence...hmmm.

Look, I get it, I'm not trying to be the fun police, and I get the lighter gist of this is that we could all practice more.  I'm telling you all, that there are better ways to get that message out there.  For instance, instead of a post like this, how about you take a picture of yourself practicing at some strange hour, or while on vacation, and making your own meme?  I have told my students on numerous occasions that when I was a serious competitor, I would watch TV, but get up and hold a stance for the entire run of a commercial break. 

Here's another pair I can't stand:






Ok, these messages are true, but only by default.  Of course the master has failed more than the beginner has tried, he's been doing it for years.  Same with a black belt who "never gave up".  Is this what you want your experienced students to see - that you are equating their only difference to a beginner being the number of times they have failed or the lack of "quit"? 

You want to know the real difference between a beginner and a master?  How about X number of years of dedication to the arts?  What about precision, and technique mastery, of hours sweating, and missed family events for testings, tournaments, seminars?  How about years of self study, of networking and self motivation to be the best martial artist you can be because you surpassed the title of beginner about 6 months into your training?  Did we suddenly forget all of them in an attempt to create a saccharine message for potential new students? 

There are no similarities between a beginner and a master, and there is a heck of a lot more to a proper black belt than just a no quit attitude.  Do you really want your new students to read this and think "all I have to do is survive in class a long time and I'll be gifted a black belt"?  Because, when I read this, that's what I see.  If you are going to bemoan the "participation award generation" for being too soft, perhaps make sure you haven't posted messaging to advance that mentality no? 

Here is by far the worst example of this meme:



With respect, to GM JR West, this is just a completely illogical statement spawned from the pools of over-romanticized nonsense.  Let's spin this another way - if your doctor walked in to your hospital room on the day of a surgery and said to you that he still considered himself a beginner - would that fill you with confidence?   If my hip doctor had said "Well DK, I have done over a thousand of these surgeries, but I still consider myself a beginner at it" I would have walked out.  Beginners are supposed to make mistakes, and that is ok.  If you aren't holding your black belts and masters to a higher quality level than a beginner, you are doing it wrong!

Again, I get it, martial artists like to believe they are humble and like to teach the message that there is always something to learn.  Here's the problem - if you don't just inherently know that there is always going to be more things to learn by the time you get to black belt, then you haven't been paying proper attention.  If you have to remind your student body of this over and over with memes on social media, you are not teaching properly.  Also, and again, way to belittle your advanced rank.  Why even differentiate with rank if this is the way you feel - just go back to the myth that there never were any colored belts and that a black belt was just a white belt that got dirtier and dirtier over time practiced. 

I'm not a person to not offer better alternatives, here's a few I do like that get the same messages across in a better way:



This sums up being a black belt kind of perfectly.  This speaks so much more to what makes a good foundation for an excellent black belt and eventual master - way more so than the previous examples.  It does this without minimizing the work or the accomplishments of your existing body. 

Here's another one, aimed at beginners that I love - because it really makes a great solid point, again, without looking at established ranks:



A simple message, that gets the point across.  Hell, I'd rather be a bad black belt than a dude sitting on the couch. So this message even motivates me, a sixth degree black belt!

These two messages are some of the examples of a messaging type that gets the proper points across.  You're not preaching a lifestyle of unchecked physical conditioning, or bringing down your existing group of students in the hopes of attracting new students by minimizing the amount of work that goes into martial arts accolades - you are using actual positive motivation. 

Memes and messages are powerful, and as school owners, instructors or even people of influence, we need to be aware of what we are really saying when we post things. 

Koenig's Anatomy of a Form (Part 1) Overview

Introduction

I've been working on this for a long time now.  For all of my writings on Taekwon-Do, this is by far the longest I ever worked on an idea before I put proverbial pen to paper.   When the idea came to me, I thought "this is revolutionary". I felt that way, because I had never seen an articulation of forms the way I had in mind. Now, granted I am not the most well read martial artist, so perhaps someone has done something like this, and if they have, I apologize for trying to take credit. I haven't seen it though, so I became inspired. 

After a while, mostly spent moving things around in Visio, listening grudgingly to my wife (a 3rd dan, who I have come to trust on many matters); I decided "this isn't that big of a deal".  It was at that point I was content to let this project die on the PCs I copied said Visio files to.  They'd be deleted in a few more months when I realized how silly I was for thinking that I could do anything actually insightful.

Finally, I decided that I am just going to put this out there, and maybe teach forms with this as an underlying method.  My hope is that at least one person who sees it says "wow, this is great - I never thought of forms like this" or even better, if they can use this to help teach forms themselves.  I think that it will help people take a look at an aspect that a student (or themselves) is struggling with, and help them find exactly what they need to do to improve that aspect. 

The basic idea of my anatomy of a form came from two places.  First, as I get older, and I'm not able to train the way I'd like to, I wanted to prove to myself that I could really contribute to the art without being a person who trains religiously.  There is a heavy stigma though, placed on the instructor who doesn't train like they did in their youth.  I think this is unwarranted, and believe that as long as you are involved in the art in some way, you are connected to the art and can have valuable insights.  I feel like only martial artists seem to think that you can only have something critical to say if you are training like a 20 year old.  

It also came about because I was thinking about what makes a form a good form.  I started to think about all the moving parts of a form, and realized that it is really difficult to articulate all that goes on in a given form.  That led me to realize I had never even seen an all encompassing description of it written.  I started to write about it months ago, and realized that writing alone wasn't going to do it justice. So this post is my attempt to illustrate all that goes on in a form.  Let me say that Visio is not the perfect media for this.  Forms are not flat; they are not 2 dimensional.  Many of the sections of these illustration that you see are happening at the same time as other parts and some are happening because of other parts.  It's hard to put something so dynamic down on on paper.  Forms, good forms are like a complex factory machine, there are a lot of moving parts, many you would never see by looking at it from the outside.  You have to know the moving parts are there. These illustrations I hope are a way to highlight the things you may not be seeing. 

  

Here's a quick reference for what you are going to see.  Try not to get too hung up on the lines and the shapes.  Again, a 2 dimensional medium is not the best way to describe a dynamic 3 dimensional movement, but sometimes, it is what we have. 

Lines:  

• Red Lines - These are the extensions of mental mastery.  These are places where your mind is doing more of the action than the physical side of your body.  
• Green Lines - These are what I call facilitation lines.  I use the green lines when something directly facilitates another aspect.  
• Blue Lines - These are what I call "lead to" lines.  They differ from green lines in that you can theoretically have one side without the other.  

Shapes: 

• Circles - These are intangible attributes.   
• Squares - These are the tangible physical attributes of the form.   
• Ovals - Ovals are the "in between" They are attributes that bridge the intangible and the tangible.  

Section 1 - The Mental

My graphic starts with the top most attribute being "Mental Mastery".  Mental mastery is a very slippery concept because it encompasses so many things.  All movement starts with a thought to move.  So all martial arts start with a mental idea to do so.  Our breathing, which facilitates our life and all vigorous movement, is controlled by the mind (consciously in some cases, subconsciously in others).  At our most basic levels of movement our mind is our engine.  Although breathing is going to play a bigger role in the movement section, I am including it in this breakdown because it is a physical attribute that is directly controlled by the mind.

Moving beyond the basic motor functions, our mind is where memorization occurs, and this happens in several capacities.  First we have to memorize what the techniques are - this is what I call this technique positioning.  For example, knowing that a certain punch in a form is meant to be high section, but also, knowing what "high section" means and where a technique that is "high section" goes.  Next we have application of the technique.  In forms, application of the technique is what sells the effectiveness of the technique.  In order to do a good form, the movements have to look like they would work.  You can have the correct technical positioning, but also, be clueless on its application.  Many times someone who has this shortcoming will look dispassionate;  their movements, robotic or static.

Application of technique and technique positioning feed into each other.  As someone's positioning increases, their understanding of the application can grow, and vice versa.  This won't hold true on every technique - some things need to be shown first, but as you flow from the right side of the mental to the left, you notice that the whole thing repeats.  Each step, in a clockwise cycle increases the effectiveness of the next and it never stops.  

Where "technique positioning" is the static, stopped position of the technique, the bottom 4 technique blocks (from a mental standpoint) would be considered the techniques in motion.  In a good form, the end of a movement is usually a stop, and your accuracy of your technique is often judged here.  There is more to a technique than just the beginning point and the end point.  The bottom 4 blocks are the techniques in motion. 

Surely you have had a student, or saw a student who can throw a beautiful round house kick, but their bottom foot never pivots enough to really release the power of that technique.  This is what the bottom 4 blocks represent in the mental side.  I believe the movement of the technique and the end point of the technique are unique aspects of having a good form so I have separated them.  Simply stated, in terms of moving in that clockwise cycle, once you have a beginning and an end point, you can begin to refine the in between.  

As this cycle repeats over and over again, more mental mastery attributes are gained.  Confidence increases, mental discipline increases, fear is abated, and understanding of the art is gained.  I would like to list everything, but I'd have no room in the diagrams to post anything else!  Suffice to say, the mental aspects of form training are extensive and many are often overlooked.

Section 2 - Movement

We already established that all movement starts with a thought and that breathing is what powers our body.  If we do not breathe, we're not going to be able to move for very long before we pass out.  Afterall, no instructor has ever been heard saying "now hold your breath" to a student doing anything.  Quite the contrary, "breathe" is advice given for so many things.  Students who are struggling with stamina, students that are nervous, angry, or upset - a typical first piece of advice is always to "just breathe".  We take it for granted I think, but breathing is one of the most fundamentally important things we do in life in general, let alone in martial arts training.  Breathing allows us to make the small and large movements we perform in the martial arts.

Small movements are the subtle things we do.  These are weight shifts, hip turns, head and eye movements.  I would classify them as the micro elements that make up actual movement.  These happen before an actual technique is even initiated (like a look, or a head turn) or, like hip rotation or a weight shift, happen during the actual technique. These subtle movements, or the lack of them, can have huge ramifications for a form.  Without a focus on small movements, forms will rarely leave a mediocre state.

Large movements are the movements that aren't part of the actual technique.  I am thinking primarily of stepping, turning and chambering.  Though you can argue that chambering is part of the actual technique execution, I would disagree.  Chambers can vary depending on the technique and the intent of use of the technique.  With very few exceptions turns and stances are not tied to any particular technique, and chambers are the same way.  We see this primarily with how fighting differs from forms.  In fighting, we try to disguise our kicks by throwing them all with the chamber of a front kick.  Though we would never do this in forms (unless, it was called for), that versatility makes chambering belong, in my opinion here in the movement section, and not a part of any defined technique.  If you do not properly chamber your technique, you cannot properly execute it.  So a successful technique depends on this long movement.  The same is true of turns and stances.  These large movements are the foundations of the techniques, if the foundation is bad, the technique is bad.

Negative movements are the stops after each technique in the form.  This is such an important part to doing a good form.  Negative movements keep the proper pace in the form.  Without it, you have movements bleeding into each other, which looks sloppy, or too much pause which makes the form look robotic. The proper negative movements should be a learned execution just as any movement is because they can vary, from technique to technique and from form to form.

Furthermore, negative movement isn't just movement to movement - it's also about the start and stop of the whole technique.  Having the proper stop time means your punches, blocks or kicks don't waggle to a stop, but have stillness factor.  This comes only from refining your movements over years of practice and accomplishing balance in all aspects of your form.

The culmination of small movements, and large movements with the correct stop time in between is body control.  Body control is the figurative balance point where the physical movement and the mental understanding of how to move meet.  Combined with technique positioning from the last section, we end up with a strong foundation for technique execution.  A person with body control knows where everything goes, and gets it there the correct way. 


Section 3 - Technique

On the heels of movement comes the technique portion, and "on the heels" couldn't be more apt.  Think about a single technique, executed from a ready stance, or if in the middle of a form, the stop of the last technique.  You breath in, look in the correct direction, see the target of the technique, set your hips and your weight the right way, chamber - all of the movement section items happen and happening - then: technique!  Your movement items drive the technique.

You'll notice there are a lot more items on this segment of the chart and this is because the technique would be the macro level of everything going on in the form.  Technique is the easiest part to see and the place where many a black belt and master stops looking for improvement.  Still, as we see above, there is plenty of nuance even in technique execution.

On the mental side of things, we see that memorization, technique positioning and application of the technique all factor into the stances, blocks, punches and kicks.  In other words, we need to know how to throw the correct techniques (memorization) and why we throw them (application) to where (positioning). We practice this every time we do a form so this cycles.  Every time we do a form we strengthen, for better or for worse, our mental understanding of what we are doing.  I say for better or for worse because the more times an instructor lets a student make a mistake (for whatever reason) that mistake gets strengthened just like any positive attribute we'd like to encourage.  Furthermore - this is the pitfall of self training.  If one thinks that they have a form "down" and begin unsupervised practice, they could solidify things that are not only poor, but flat out incorrect.  This will obviously make repairing that mistake that much more difficult.

On the physical side, we see a green relational line between the mental side's technique positioning and the physical side's body control.  Body control, which we know from the movement section is balancing point of all the physical movements and their correct end points.  These are really mirror images of the same thing.  Body control deals with the physical stopping, technique positioning deals with knowing where that stop should occur.

This is really where Visio fails me, because the relationship between the next parts and the parts before are really happening on top of each other, or at the same time as each other or even inside of each other.  Think of it sort of as a Russian matryoshka doll (the dolls that are the same but smaller and smaller inside of each other).  Speed and Power and Timing combine in a balance to lead to our kicks, blocks, punches and stances.  These are not all isolated from the movement section, the movement section again, powers the technique.  For the purposes of breakdown though, we'll dive a little deeper into the relationships between speed, timing, power and balance first.

Speed, Timing, and Power are special players in this anatomy.  They are all in their own right worthy of their own breakdowns in contents.  Although my goal was to break a good form down to its most basic parts, there is simply too much to unravel in this section to fit neatly on a chart.  Perhaps someday I'll write a follow up examining this section even closer.  For now, we'll recognize that power is derived from a number of sources.  Weight, muscle mass, and strength are going to play a part in power for instance.  Speed is probably the most faceted of this triad.  Speed can be broken down to raw speed (the actual time it takes to travel a distance) and the illusion of speed (that being how fast a technique looks). Timing is the practice of the balance of technique position and body control.  It is the execution of that culmination.

These three attributes are unique in that they all directly play off of each other.  Power and timing are one of the ways to create the illusion of speed for instance, and speed and timing make a technique look powerful. even if, from a kinesiology perspective it is not.  When these three attributes are combined in the proper proportions you attain balance.

I am not limiting balance to standing on one leg but rather every concept we spoke about in their correct amount for each technique.  This is a balance of the optimum speed, power, timing, positioning and body control.  All techniques should execute from this position and if so, you end the physical side of this chart with well executed punches, kicks, stances and blocks.

Section 4 - The Big Picture

This, my fine readers, is a form - it is any form you do.  All of these items are happening, some at the same time as others, some that are strengthening other sections, while others are making corresponding sections happen at all.  If you are with me so far, my hope is that this can help you troubleshoot a form more effectively, by allowing you to see an X-ray of what is going on at all times.  I believe a person could use this, to look at a student, identify a weakness and then follow this guide to a root cause for correction.  In the least bit, I believe it can be helpful to identify and resolve issues more systemically - rather than relying on older methods which feel more like "shot in the dark" methods than an actual troubleshooting.

In the next post, we'll take a look at how to use each section to effectively troubleshoot issues in forms.  

How To Be A Better Martial Arts Student

I'm going to start by saying that I am going to skip over the baselines to a degree. Every Dojo and Dojang has its own set of baseline rules.  It should be obvious that following those rules is going to be the first step in becoming good at the arts.  The basic rules of the training location should always be followed, as a sign of respect and pride, things like not walking on the mats or talking in the gym should be a given.

Protocol - Look the Part, Play the Part

The martial arts are not a quick fix to any problem.  You are going to be training, hopefully for a very long time and following the protocol of your school is very important.  Things like having the proper responses to instructors, kiaping when appropriate, bowing when appropriate and last but not least, having a clean and proper uniform are all common standards in schools.  Sadly, my experience is that instructors have to either remind students too often, or have to prompt them every time for things the students should be doing on their own.  

This is all about engagement with the arts and it starts with a clean uniform.  You may have seen the viral post on social media about the career military soldier and his story about making his bed every day.  He goes on to say that everyone needs to accomplish something every day, and even if you have a total bad day, you'll at least be able to say you made the bed.  Your uniform is that for your training.  If your uniform is clean, patched, and not wrinkled - no matter how bad of a class you have, you can at least say you looked good doing it. 

It comes down to pride, something you should have an excess of.  Although not as uncommon as it once was, you are a martial artist.   You are learning to control your body and mind in ways some people can only dream of, that's an accomplishment that should garner pride.  To paraphrase one of my favorite writers: pride is the invisible steel rod that keeps our neck stiff when the world would see you hang your head.  If you are proud of what you do, show it, by never forgetting your protocol.

There are two very positive benefits from always having proper protocol, one for you, and one for the class.

Personally, minding your protocol will help you build mental discipline.  When you refuse to lose focus because of tiredness and remember your protocol, you are building mental discipline. Mental discipline is a big part of your martial arts training and its importance cannot be stressed enough.  Mental discipline or toughness is what will carry you through adversity.  It's how the martial arts help you handle failure, which will catch up with everyone once in a while.

The benefit that taking personal responsibility for your own protocol provides to the rest of class is energy.  By having proper protocol you can remind, or in some cases jar proper protocol out of your classmates.  You don't have to scream and foam at the mouth,  just having consistently good protocol in a lull can really energize the class. This makes it not only more fun for your classmates, but also for your instructor.  

Teachers should also be calling out good protocol! Acknowledging a student with good protocol in a class that is sagging can be all it takes to bring up the energy of the class and set the proverbial ship straight.

Finally, high ranking black belts and masters - the whole class is watching you and taking their lead from you, so, you especially need to be on top of these things. When you slack off, the class learns that it is ok to slack off - this is not ok.

Attitude is Everything and You Are in Control of it!

Everyone has an off day, and everyone has days where they don't want to be training.  It is important to remember that if you took the time to come to class, you should get something out of it.  Approaching everything with negative energy is only going to bring the class down and make the whole environment more toxic.

Once again, the more engaged you are the more you will get from the class.  We used to do organized brief meditation at the beginning of our classes.  This exercise is the perfect place to abandon the stresses and chaos of your day.  The stresses of your day are completely irrelevant to your training, and as such has no place in your school.  Meditation (either organized by the instructor, or taken on your own while you wait for class to start) can help you achieve the best attitude for training and learning.  At the end of class, I'd invite you to meditate again, and see if you have found any insight into the day and your life.  This is one of the hidden benefits of martial arts training.  It allows us, in my opinion to step away from our everyday self, which often will lead to a better over all day. Though my TKD school isn't the most spiritual of training halls, it doesn't mean that the opportunity for it to be is absent. 

Class Participation

As your belt level changes the novelty of class will wear off.  Many martial arts boil down to a large amount of repetition of a relatively small number of skills.  It is not unreasonable for people to fall into a rut of "just going through the motions". 

Try to be an active participant in every class.  I frequently tell my students to "accomplish something small every night".  Eliminate one small defect or mistake you are making per class.  There is always something that needs to be worked on and can be improved.  You don't have to revolutionize your training every night, but if you focus on small corrections each class you will soon find that you have improved dramatically.  Furthermore, think about what you are being taught!  This is an art, the things you learn need to be adapted to fit you the student.  This doesn't mean that you can perform however you want, but it also doesn't mean that you can just go through the motions and move on to the next lesson.  You need to digest what is shown to you, and find what you can learn from any given lesson.  Some lessons will be just filed away as information you'll need if you ever decide to teach the art.  For instance,  I may not be able to do jump spin kicks the way I could in my youth, but I still have to teach those skills, so they are still important.  Other lessons will relate directly to your personal martial arts tool set but rarely does it just improve you "out of the box".  Incorporation of a new concept or skill requires work, it doesn't just happen because the instructor showed you something.    

Another aspect of good class participation is questions.  It's unfathomable to me that my students will always understand everything I am saying during class.  The fact is that sometimes something won't resonate with a student.  Further avoiding the "going through the motions" rut is questioning your instructor.  You need to do this within the norms of your school of course, but no instructor worth their salt should be frustrated by proper questions from their students.  Answers may need to be deferred until after class in some cases, but should always be welcome.  Again, this is an art, it is not math, where everything is a constant to everything else.  

Hold Yourself Properly Accountable

I am not about to write a paragraph or two about taking your training too lightly.  The above paragraphs go a little in that direction, but I find that more people are too hard on themselves rather than not taking training serious enough.  

I see too many students worried about what the person next to them looks like rather than worrying about what they are doing.  Students need to know that every time they execute any technique they are not under the microscope!  Still this concept escapes people.  I saw on social media a student say that they don't like their instructor to watch them when they are preparing for a test.  If you are afraid to make mistakes during class, how could you possibly handle the pressure of a test?  These are unrealistic expectations.

Though your school norms may differ, my opinion is that classrooms are for practice.  Every class is not a test, or even worse a real life self defense experience.  I don't believe most people can effectively learn under that sort of pressure, and just because some can and thus will be very good, doesn't mean that it is an effective way to train.  So my message to my students is - don't put more pressure on yourself during class than is required.  Show up, work hard within reason, learn, smile, have fun and get something out of class.  You will make mistakes, it's expected, but don't shake your head when it happens, and especially don't disparage yourself under your breath or worse out loud.  One of the desired traits in any black belt is resilience.  If you can't pick yourself up after your instructor looks at you and dishes corrections, why are you even training?

The bottom line is that you should strive to make improvement without taking it to the level where you never allow yourself to make a mistake.  The only place I'd allow for that level of pressure is a test, a tournament or an actual self defense encounter, and even then, 2 of the 3 I might argue with as what is "on the line" in a test and tournament is still not as important as what is on the line in a real defense encounter.

Final Thoughts

I wrote this article thinking back so many years and wishing someone had told me how to be better at class.  So many times in my career I was worried about how to have better stances or better kicks, and there was never any shortage of answers to those questions.  As I look back on that time, I can't help but think that maybe if someone told me how to be a better student in general, all that kicking and stance stuff might have just come naturally.  Some of the things in this piece are my own opinions and may not apply to your school's culture.  I do hope though that you found some broad quality in the advice I am offering.

Keys to Good Form Execution; Mindfulness

Back in 2015, I wrote a very heavy post about different states of mind and learning forms based on my experience and with conversations with both a psychologist and a physical therapist.  I used research with experience and wrote something that was more suitable for a college course paper rather than an accessible blog post.  A recent black belt testing, and a few posts on social media got me thinking about mindfulness again and its importance in forms.

Mindfulness is a very deep subject.  It can be taken to many levels, but for this post I'm going to stick within the bounds of what I call physical and abstract mindfulness.

Physical mindfulness, to me is understanding what it is you are trying to do in a form, in order to "sell" the form.  If you do not understand what you are doing, your movements will not look genuine and you will look weak.  A great example of this is when the form calls for a high kick, and the practitioner abandons good technique to try to reach the height requirement.  This is an example of a lack of physical mindfulness.  If the intent of practicing the form is to master the practical application of the techniques, then the practitioner must abandon kicking high to keep the integrity of the technique.  I can't recall ever hearing any instructor of my own, or anyone ever saying, "that was a great low kick, but you must kick higher".  If anything I have heard "that's a great high kick, now kick lower."

It is not always the inflexible or out of shape practitioner kicking too high and looking sloppy.  Sometimes the young and extremely talented students kick too high as well.  We all love to marvel at the physical abilities of some of our students and athletes on Youtube, but at the end of the day, being able to kick straight up in the air isn't that practical of a skill. I have never seen a TKD form from any flavor of TKD actually call for that, but even if they do, aside from "artistic" competitions (sports karate), I see very little practicality in this ability.  While it should stand to reason that being able to kick straight up in the air should grant the kicker a devastating ability to kick at traditional heights, my experience is to the contrary.  It takes a tremendous amount of practice and effort to kick straight up like some can. My opinion on the matter is that, that time would be better spent differently.  Learning to kick at a traditional height, without telegraph and with proper technique is worth a lot more in my eyes. 

It is not just the broad strokes of kicking and flexibility though.  As I hinted at earlier in the post, the "what" of what you are doing is essential to the "how" of what you are doing, and is thus, very important to "sell" the form.  This is true of advanced techniques and forms, but is super important in lower forms and basic technique.  There is nothing more awe inspiring than a master level student executing a basic technique in a way that says "I have no idea what this is actually doing".  Of course, I'm using "awe inspiring" here facetiously.  It happens though.  Regardless of rank, you should know what the techniques you are executing are doing.  If you do not, you can't possibly look good executing them.



Abstract mindfulness has to do with what is in your actual mind while you are executing the form.  I've spoken at great lengths about the importance of what is going on in your head both in a previous blog post and in my classes.  During a performance of a form (be it in a test or tournament), I believe nothing should be in your head.  You should be 100% focused on the form itself and you should be so familiar with the form that you don't even have to think about what you are doing.  Think about the basic movements you make in your day to day life.  You probably don't put too much thought into getting out of bed, walking down steps, putting on your coat, sitting in a seat, or getting into your car.  The process is largely not thought about and these movements are all in a state of auto-pilot. When learning a new form, students should look at the learning process as the start to making their form operate on that same auto pilot level.

As I have said in the past though, the auto pilot level is just the beginning to really mastering a form.   To be truly good at forms, you need to go a step beyond autopilot and actually be conscious of what and how you are doing, what and how you are doing.  You need to focus on the form, but rather, you become so focused in on the form, that you can completely abandon the thoughts required to go movement to movement, and can instead focus on breath control, timing, power, stance depth, hip rotation, etc.  After years of operating at this level of heightened auto pilot, you'll find yourself as close to mastery as possible.  In this practicing style, there is no room for doubt, no room for on the spot reflection and under the breath swearing at yourself for mistakes.  Only the moment is important, and dwelling on the past moment is a distraction from the current. 

There is no secret to accomplishing any of this.  It starts with attitude.  The thoughts of practicality need to be set aside and the simple fact that to be a well rounded artist requires care and effort in forms as well as fighting.  Stop caring about why when it comes to forms in general and only care about how.  "How can I get better at this" should only ever be your thought, as opposed to "this isn't practical".  You have to do forms regardless if you are going to stay in a traditional art, so why not make the most of it?

After this, there is effort, but effort involves a lot more than a sweaty uniform.  Think! Think about what you are doing when you are practicing.  See the techniques hitting someone, stopping something.  Feel it, in your head.  Don't just go through the movements, because it doesn't take a black belt or a high rank to do that.  The real work is done in your head.  Simply put, the form isn't teaching you how to kick and punch in a practical situation, but it is teaching you how you should be focused in a real world situation.  When your body moves on auto pilot, and you can actually control your thoughts in those moments, you'll be able to focus on your well being and defending yourself from attack.  This is the true power of mindfulness.

Finally, set aside your ego.  Take the time to understand what you are doing and ask questions! Too many students seem afraid to ask questions, and I'm not saying that as an instructor but as a student who was often times the only person ever asking questions.  Whether you are learning for free, or spending a fortune, you've set off to learn something, so swallow your pride and ask questions when you don't understand something.  This is especially important when you are corrected and don't understand why.  As long as it is asked with respect, I don't know an instructor worth their salt that wouldn't love to answer any question you might throw at them.  Instructors, after all, do not like just going through the movements either.

Extended Break

So it's been a while again hasn't it my fine readers?  Things have been crazy on my end.  I got a promotion at work and returned to full time employment.  I also had arthroscopic hip surgery to correct a condition that has affected me since 2005. 

Just last week I was cleared to kick again since September.  Even though I am allowed to kick, it is only until it starts to hurt, which is usually after the 4th or 5th kick or semi deep stance.  My recovery will be long, lasting well into January and although physical therapy is going well, I'm growing antsy. 

Now that my life is returning to a semblance of normalcy, I think I am ready to start thinking about the deeper side of Tae Kwon-Do. 

Hopefully I can continue the momentum and continue to write things that at least 2-3 people really enjoy! 

Back to Basics: Having Fun

After my sixth dan test, I fell into a lull and contracted a bit of "whatsnextitis".  The lack of new forms to learn, and no more built in carrots to grab because we have no more physical testing past 6th left me feeling very empty.  I carried this for months until just recently and let myself go a bit. I'm not all about the rank or anything, (as I am not officially a sixth dan yet, and won't be for a few months), but I lost the love for competition long ago, and proving myself to myself at a test became an easy goal to drive my motivation to improve. 

During the Chin Mu Kwan national test and tournament, I had the honor of co-teaching a morning workout / warmup.  While an old friend and mentor was doing his portion, he had the group of students do Dan-Gun a bunch of times, each time working on a different aspect of forms execution.  His last rep though he called for the group to do the form for fun.  A bit of a lightbulb went off inside my head, and I realized that for a very long time, I had forgotten how fun Taekwon-do is...just to do.  I had been spending so much time and energy analyzing TKD that I forgot to have fun along the way. 

I once knew what having fun meant in regards to Taekwon-do.  For me, it started with Friday night sparring classes with the legendary black belts of the past when I was a red belt.  It was doing forms in my yard, sometimes barefoot in the snow, because why?  Because Taekwon-do, that's why.  It was visiting other schools or hosting people from other schools, long late night discussions about how awesome this master's form was, or that master's fighting.  It was laughing at the absurdity of the arts, and marveling at their beauty with good friends.  It was board breaking, or brick breaking, sometimes in the parking lot, um...without your instructor's knowledge.  It was tough competition, and having people around you to push you to your limits and holding you there and sometimes it was absolutely insane multi hour training sessions with your best TKD friends, crashing on their couch, and waking up the next day to do it all again!   

I went to nationals, an event I don't usually attend (mainly because of the cost of travel) because my instructor was being promoted to ninth dan by our grand master.  I expected to just be helpful in whatever way I could, thinking, I'll teach a class, judge the low rank testing, ref at the tournament and then witness history and go home.  Instead, I had a "ghost of Christmas past" kind of experience by hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones.  I got in touch with a part of me that had been lying dormant for so long, but was starting to stir.  Tonight though, I realized what it was.   

I'll never stop being analytical, I'm too into that aspect of the art, and in a lot of ways that too is fun for me.  I have a million ideas sloshing around in my brain, books that I want to write, podcasts that I want to record and videos I'd love to make.  Hopefully by having some fun again, the motivation to reach for these goals will follow.  I started to think about what forms I find the most fun just to do and decided to share my list of my favorite forms and why I rank them this way.  If you know me on Facebook, I'd love to discuss with you, even if you don't know all of the forms on my list - because, well, talking forms is the natural extension of thinking about forms - which I am usually doing all the time anyway.  Plus people love lists!  They say they don't, but they always read them :) So here we go!

10.  Moon-Moo - This form is awesome and shows the sheer power and magnitude of what TKD can do.  It is by far and away the hardest of all the TKD forms (including Juche, sorry ITFers) and for that reason it needs to be on this list.  I'm ranking this at the bottom though, because only the extremely gifted can do this form the way it is meant to be done.  It needs to be on here, but it is not in any way what I would call an accessible form.

9.  Ko-Dang - I love Ko-Dang because the form spends a lot of its time going backwards.  For us, this form falls in the testing to attain master, and I think it silently and subtly tells you something about yourself in that regard.  It is a challenging and unique form, that is the perfect length.  When I finish Ko-Dang, I know I did a form, but I don't feel like I ran a marathon (I'm looking at you So-San).

8. Se-Jong - 24 distinct movements, named after one of, if not the greatest Korean king.  It is a very unique form, and I find the architecture of the form so fascinating.  The back half of the form, from the round kick to the end are some of the coolest technique strings we do in all of the 24 forms.

7. So-San - Sometimes you just want to climb the tallest mountain, or run a marathon.  For this, there is So-San.  An upper body technician's dream, So-San is long and dynamic.  One of the many lessons learned here is that you don't have to be crazy physically improbable (I'm looking at you Moon-Moo) to be extremely challenging.  One of the greatest forms to demonstrate the raw power of TKD, So-San is 72 movements of non-fluff, basic techniques that demand to be done strong from start to finish.  It comes with the added bonus, that save for Moon-Moo,  you'll never think any of the other 23 forms are too long after you learn So-San.   

6. Yoo-Sin - I could gush all day about Yoo-Sin.  A real, tradional feeling form that borrows generously from several Japanese forms, Yoo-Sin is chock full of nuance and great TKD techniques.  It is an amazing tournament form when practiced by someone who really cares to master the form and is a hallmark of what a good TKD form should look like.

5. Sam-Il - I love Sam-Il, and have since I learned it.  Another very dynamic form, it has what I call flashes of brilliance (sequences like the U blocks and the waving kick, and the standing in place side kicks) but has some repetition that really doesn't make that much sense (mainly in the middle portion of the form).  I still think very highly of this form, but feel like for a few movements, they architects were phoning it in. 

4.  Gae-Baek - For a very, very long time, this was my favorite form.  One of the most, if not the most dynamic of all the TKD forms.  The variation of techniques, the lack of repetition and the turning in place aspect of the form give it a feel (when doing it) that you are actually fighting (especially, if you know what all the moves are, or could be doing).  A absolutely incredible tournament form, Gae-Baek is one everyone should look out for once they hit black belt.

3. Tong-Il - there is a bit of mysticism surrounding the last form on the board, especially when that form is universally the last form.  While many Chang-Hon practicing orgs will often times tweak the order of the 24 they are doing, I can't say that I have ever seen Tong-Il not be the last the form.  The form is incredibly well crafted, and features several movements that have their own meaning inside the greater context of the meaning of the form (See Stuart Anslow's book, From Creation to Unification to learn more).  Tong-Il features slow movements mixed with fast movements and really has a very unique feel to it.  It's a very fun form to do.

2. Chon-Ji - Simply stated, no single form has taught me more about Taekwon-Do than this one.  Its simplistic moves give insight to the foundational skills that hold all of TKD together.  After 23 some odd years, and with 6 degrees of black belt, I am still learning things about myself when I practice this form.  If you aren't - might I suggest you do Chon-Ji some more?

1. Yon-Gae - I love this form.  There is something so fun about executing a flying knife hand strike in the air, with the timing at the height of your jump as opposed to on a landing.  The opening sequence of this beautiful form makes me feel like one of the legendary fighters in a Shaw Brother's film (I may have practiced this form once or twice, or maybe more than that while making Saturday morning Kung Fu movie sounds).  The form which in my mind has two very distinct parts show a Yin and Yang nature of the art, featuring slow and methodically strong movements, through the hook kicks, giving way to fast and frantic turns, blocks, and strikes culminating with a double jump back side kick, one on each side!  It is an amazing crescendo ending that really makes this form great.

What are your favorite forms?  Drop some words in the comments, or hit me up on Facebook. 

Yoo-Sin - A training guide

Yoo-Sin is the Mt. Everest for the black belt looking to transition to higher Dan and in our organization to the Master rank.  It is a popular form and like Ko-Dang for us, is a form that is quite easy to learn, but can be extremely difficult to master.  Before I go any further, as one of my favorite forms, I probably take some liberties in this form and will thus write those down here.  Yoo-Sin more than many forms is a great form to show that you understand what should be happening as well as what is happening.  The CTF does an older version of this form, not conforming with many of the videos you see on youtube.  Just keep that in mind as you read this.  Let's dive in!

The opening movement of the form is a drop slide left into a straddle stance and executing a twin rising elbow strike to either side.  I want to put a question mark at the end of that sentence because although that is how I was taught to execute the technique, I can't find any written examples to corroborate this.  Most videos show people simply raising their arms.  Your mileage may vary on this one, so check with your instructor / org on how to properly execute this.

The next two moves feature a unique movement.  Depending on who your instructor was, and how he interprets these moves, you either throw two elbows, or two punches behind your head.  What I'd like to focus on here is the footwork as I have seen all matter of movement here and I am strongly opinionated on how this should be done.  Since you are already in a straddle stance, you slide, slightly in the direct of each punch.  YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR FEET OFF THE GROUND AND STEP and staying still while you execute the hand techniques is flat out.  Phew!

Next I execute  the single knife hand block, while rising in my stance (sometimes up to the balls of my feet, sometimes not - depends on the audience / venue).  Dropping back into a deep stance with the punch.  This is a great place to show some good contrast!  The slow deliberate knife hand should naturally accentuate any straight punch for which the faster the punch the better.  A key here is to have proper reaction force.  Another place many students go sideways is they throw that block and leave the other hand on the hip waiting for the punch.  Not only does this look silly, it defies the theory of power - bottom line, there is no reason not to have a reaction force hand on the single knife hand (and I don't care what anyone's books or even instructors say about that).

Another nuance is the outer forearm block.  The 45 degree stance is a challenge for people for a long time here.  This is going to have strong ramifications for the ending of your form, so making sure you hit the perfect 45 is key.  Timing is also important here.  This is a step out, outer forearm block.  Get your hips involved (nuance) and land with perfect timing here - or you will look bad.  Make sure you turn your head and see the 45 for your circular block.  Now the cadence changes slightly.

Adjust to straddle is a subtle movement, your foot travels only a few inches, but your hand on your hip needs to come off and execute a proper scooping block.  It has to travel WAY farther than your foot, so you really have to start moving the hand before you even think of moving your feet to hit the timing here.  Be careful not to end up with a "magic block" (if you recall, a magic block is one that doesn't really have a flight path, it just appears where it is supposed to end).  It is very easy to magic block that scoop.  The punch that follows should feature good hip motion.  Don't throw your punches only with your bicep.  If you do, it won't have the speed or power to match the good scoop you just threw.  After stepping correctly foot to foot, this section repeats on the other side.  Symmetry is the key here.

The cadence should change here again, and smooth reverse knife hand blocks in a 45 degree facing front stance yield to fast shift to straddle middle punch.  This repeats, again, symmetry is so important.  You want to look as able bodied on one side as you do the other.

Nuance takes a bit of a back seat for a few movements.  Of course we have the X-block grasp and pull into the punch, but technical accuracy is what is going to win you the day here.  You aren't moving, so although this is one of the more complicated moves you'll do, since you aren't moving just be technically sound in execution and you will look your best.  Landing with a reverse punch off of a front kick is probably the most awkward thing you'll do in this segment.  Body control is the key, control the kick, re-chamber high and land with power.

Continuing forward, just keep the cadence smooth and execute the following techniques with proper power and timing and the form will be looking good, although beyond the halfway point the step forward to C ready stance facing down the back line feels like a natural halfway point to me and marks the return of the nuance of this form.

We come out of ready C with a symmetrical double upset punch.   It is important to not rush this because it is the same thing on both sides and they are relatively easy moves to execute.  Many students rush this and the next sequence of inner blocks / reverse punch into the step up and slow horizontal punch (or forearm strike, depending on how you look at it) in natural stance. 

The nuance here is to kind of "milk" it for that slow move.  That's your chance to catch your breath before the fast paced ending.  Not that you can actually "rest" mind you, but if there is a place to re-center and gather your wits about you, it is right here. 

Like the other symmetrical movements.  The U shaped punches follow the same advice, slow, steady, complete the techniques, let them live a full life. 

Sliding into the straddle stance and executing the inward outer forearm block, is a simple enough move, stance definition tends to be a student's undoing here, particularly turning the toes to be parallel. 

Waving kicks and the associated blocks can be a real challenge here.  These are quick, low movements - too much emphasis on them and not enough emphasis on the upper body movements, or vice versa tends to be where many students go wrong.  This (not the crescent/sides that follow) are the hardest part of this form to really get right.  The first waving kick ends on the first chamber of the protected outer forearm block.  The second wave ends and lands with the timing of the protected inward outer forearm block and that flows right into the first side hand strike. The timing is so essential here. 

Crescent kick side kick is a matter of body control, and is ultimately a physical challenge.  The big tells on if someone did their homework is, do they lower their hand for the crescent kick in mid kick, and like everything else, don't sacrifice technique for bad height on your side kicks.  Your body control is tested a bit more here as you have to land in a straddle stance. 

An important nuance is landing that last side kick and dropping the 9 shaped block.  You don't want to "fall" into the 9.  Control the rechamber and set your foot down.  Take your time through this sequence and know how to throw a 9 correctly and all will be fine here.  Turn the foot first and throw the downward hammer fist to come to the final piece of advice I have. 

Many people know the ending of this form is right out of the Japanese sets and you may feel the desire to throw your knifehand blocks Japanese instead of Korean (assuming you watch a lot of forms videos and know the difference.)  It is important to remember that you are not a Japanese practitioner and probably can't do it as good as them, so stick to what you know. 

That's it, a very nuanced form, one of the best and a personal favorite of mine.  Enjoy!