Three Things You Must Know about Patterns
by Mark Banicevich, IV dan
More correctly, this article should be called, “Three things must you know about every movement in all of your patterns”, but that is too long for a title.
When we learn Taekwon-Do patterns, we commonly begin by learning the sequence of movements, and then practicing them to perfection. The problem with this method is that we frequently fail to understand each and every movement. General Choi never taught patterns this way. Furthermore, one element of General Choi’s Training Secret of Taekwon-Do is:
“To understand the purpose and method of each movement clearly.”
That is what this article discusses. The three things must ye know about every movement in ye patterns are:
1. What is it called?
2. What is it for?
3. How does it work?
To know what a movement is called, you must know its stance, tool, height, technique name and stepping – preferably in Taekwon-Do terminology in both English and Korean.
You must know whether the technique is an attack or a defence, and you must know the appropriate targets for the tool. You must know the body facing and line of each technique. You must also know where the technique finishes, and how it gets there, including the intermediate position.
When you know what a technique is called and what it is for, knowing how it works is simply a matter of practice. You can achieve this through a progression of spot exercises, line work, pad work, pre-arranged exercises and free sparring.
1. What is it called?
The name of a technique comprises of five parts:
a. its stance and whether it is left or right
b. its tool and whether it is left or right
c. its height
d. its technique
e. its stepping.
A completely unambiguous technique name includes all of these elements. This enables instructors to call out a technique and expect students to know exactly what it is. It also enables you to learn patterns from a book.
Let’s take movement two of Chon-Ji Tul, “forward stepping right walking stance (right) (fore fist) middle (obverse front) punch”. This is a complete and unambiguous description of the movement. It is performed stepping forward, into a right walking stance, performed with the right fore fist. It is middle, and it is an obverse front punch.
In the interest of efficiency, common terms are assumed, so we usually call the above technique “right walking stance middle punch” (“orun gunnun so kaunde jirugi”). Then we say, “nagagi”, “forward stepping”. However, this is different from “forward stepping right walking stance (left) open fist middle reverse side front punch”, which also fits that shorter description. (The word “left” in this example is unnecessary because a reverse punch in a right walking stance must be performed with the left fist, by definition.)
2. What is it for?
What distinguishes Taekwon-Do patterns from dancing is that every movement we perform has an express purpose in attack or defense (“with few exception”, as General Choi would say).
If you don't know this purpose, you might as well be dancing. Taekwon-Do is a martial art of self defense. Unless you know what every movement is for, you are not learning self defense.
This means, as General Choi said, you must “understand the purpose and method of each movement clearly.” To achieve this, you must know four things about every movement:
a. whether it is an attack or a defense
b. the target of the technique which you hit with the tool
c. its facing and its line
d. how the movement passes through the intermediate position to the finished position.
The first of these elements is fundamental to understanding what a movement is for. It is the starting point for the other three elements.
If you know it is an attack, what are the appropriate targets for attack? The fore fist can be used to attack many targets, including the philtrum, sternum, solar plexus, jaw, point of chin, floating ribs and lower abdomen.
If you know it is a defense, what are the appropriate targets for defense? The forearm low block is used to block an attacker’s hand or foot directed at the defender’s lower abdomen. The target will usually be the tibia or the back forearm. Targets for blocks are included with block descriptions, and there is also a diagram relating blocking tools to targets the page after the previously mentioned diagram.
When you know all of these things, the method of the movement is often obvious – but your instructor can smooth out any minor errors for you. If you are punching the solar plexus with the fore fist, it is clear that the fore fist should travel in a straight line to the target. If you are blocking the tibia with a forearm low block, it is no surprise that you must cross on top at shoulder height, and block downward and outward to the target.
Most movements are half facing, full facing or side facing. The tool is centre line, chest line or shoulder line. It is important to know these things.
You must understand where each movement begins, the intermediate position through which it passes, the finished position, and the trajectory your body and each limb travels to get from start to finish.
It helps to practice a new movement slowly, to get the feel of it, before you try it out. Sometimes it helps to practice one limb at a time, then put them together. For example, the twin forearm block is easier to master if you try one hand, then the other, then both together.
3. How does it work?
With an understanding of what a technique is for and how it should work, it is time to do it. You need to practice new skills in closed way, progressing to an open way. That is, you practice them in controlled situations, progressing to uncontrolled situations:
a. spot technique
b. line work
c. target work
d. pre-arranged exercises
e. free exercises.
General Choi always told us we should first learn every technique as a spot technique. From the appropriate ready position, perform the technique to the right, return to ready position, perform the technique to the left, return to ready position, and continue (vice versa for defense). This is the best time for an instructor to correct technique, because it is easier to keep out of the path of other students, and other students need not wait while the instructor corrects one.
Once you are performing the movement correctly, you practice the technique in line work. In this way, you repeat the movement to train your muscles to remember the correct method.
It is not until this point that General Choi advocated learning the pattern – after you have performed every new technique in the pattern to this level. However, to master the technique, and develop the best patterns, each movement must be developed as an open skill.
When you are comfortable using the technique alone, it is time to perform it against a target. The technique can be performed in focus exercises using a partner or focus pad, and in power exercises using an air shield or bag. These exercises utilize a stationary target.
The next step is to practice the technique with a partner in pre-arranged exercises. These include all forms of step sparring (and result in great techniques for grading), and exercises.
Finally, you should try to utilize the technique in free sparring. Initially, try semi-free sparring to consciously use the technique in certain situations. Ultimately, the goal is to unconsciously use the technique in free sparring.
Three things must ye know
General Choi used to challenge our understanding of techniques by asking three things. “What is tool? What is target? Show me.” If you know what a technique is called, you know the tool. If you know what it is for, you know the target. If you understood how to do it, you could show him.
The key points from this article are summarized in the sidebar below. Know these three things about every movement in your patterns, and you are a long way towards performing the best patterns you can perform. Moreover, you will have better step sparring, better free sparring, and a greater range of techniques if you ever need to use Taekwon-Do to defend yourself or others.
1. What is it called?
a. What is the stance and is it left or right?
b. What is the tool and is it left or right?
c. What is the height?
d. What is the technique?
e. What is the stepping?
2. What is it for?
a. Is it an attack or a defense?
b. What is the target for the tool?
c. What is its facing and its line?
d. Where does it finish, and how does it get there?
3. How does it work?
a. Perform it in spot technique to learn the method.
b. Perform it in line work to practice the technique.
c. Perform it against targets to develop focus and power.
d. Try it with a partner in prearranged exercises to understand the technique.
e. Try it with a partner in free exercises to use the technique.
Source :http://www.itfnz.org.nz/taekwon-dotalk/articles_threethings.html
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Power Breaking
by Gray Patterson, IV dan
Best Male Competitor, 13th ITF World Championships
The ITF has two categories of 'breaking' - power breaking and specialty breaking. Power breaking involves striking a stack of multiple boards (or other suitable material) with enough force to demolish the target. Specialty breaking - 'special technique' and 'free specialty' - is essentially the gravity defying act of kicking a target that is placed well beyond one's normal reach, or breaking multiple targets with 'Matrix'-like style.
"Just do it"
Power breaking is a true test of one's mind power - your ability to take charge of your body, and make it do something that might appear to be dangerous, or a touch masochistic. 90% of power breaking comes down to simply backing yourself and going hard. For most people, developing total commitment to the task will lead to the greatest improvements. If you hit something hard enough, regardless of whether or not your technique is textbook perfect or even if you hit the target flush in the centre, it will break. The last 10% of the equation is 'fine tuning' - the focus and technique that will give you the edge when competing against an equally committed person.
Conditioning
Before you think simply take an attitude of complete reckless abandon, there is some important ground work to undertake to both reduce the risk of injury and increase your confidence to the point where it no longer seems like a daft idea to go launching your body parts at a stack of boards.
One of the most important synergists to fully committing your limbs to striking solid targets is undoubtedly conditioning - the act of developing one's own personal armor. Conditioning takes time, and a lot of it, so it's not something you can necessarily achieve by turning up to training a couple of times a week and doing a few pushups on your knuckles. You've got to start slowly, and maintain a conditioning regime to get any real benefit.
There are many different theories about conditioning, but probably one of the most effective methods I have used basically involves repeatedly striking a solid surface with the attacking tools that require conditioning in a manner not dissimilar from that which you would use to knock on a door. The 'knocks' are fairly quick and light, and are maintained for a comfortable period of time. The force of the knocks and the period for which they can be maintained will increase as the body becomes conditioned.
Bear in mind that you are not trying to punish yourself, but simply put the attacking tools under a little stress. The human body is actually reasonably clever, and will set about reinforcing the stressed area in a similar fashion to which it mends broken bones. You can discreetly do this type of conditioning virtually anywhere - at home, in the office, wherever, by simply knocking your fore fist, back fist, knife hand, etc, on walls and other solid objects. I reiterate that this should probably be done discreetly. Ball of the foot and footsword can be done any time you're barefoot, by simply tapping them on the floor as you continue with whatever else you are doing.
Although conditioning takes time, children and adolescents shouldn't attempt this type of conditioning. It may deform their softer, growing bones.
Other useful conditioning tools, such as punching bags or heavy pads, can be used by anyone. Hitting a softer target that provides some resistance will help to develop the muscles and joints used when executing techniques, and teach the body the type of balance correction and body weight shifting that is required to hit through a target. Smaller focus pads are great for speed work, but they aren't all that useful for developing power. They fly away when struck, offering little resistance.
When it comes to practicing on boards, you may like to consider wearing shoes, or placing some padding (e.g., a thin piece of foam or a folded towel) over the boards to reduce the sting and prevent skin tearing when performing repeated breaks. Further, breaking a smaller number of boards more frequently is an excellent way to harden your tools and develop technique.
Eventually, through continued conditioning, you will be able to overcome the body's propensity to back off at the last second in fear of injury, and the ability to overcome this reflex is very important.
"Just do it"
(with complimentary steak knives)
Once you can get in there and "Just Do It", it is developing your technique - the 'fine tuning' I mentioned - that will enable additional improvement and actually make it a little easier to break the target.
When preparing for a specific event, such as a grading, a tournament, or a demo, practicing with the same materials as those that will be used "on the day" whenever possible. Different breaking materials behave in different ways when you hit them. Boards, for example, come in three types - pine boards, UMAB peg style plastic rebreakable boards, or 'Polar' style slot together plastic rebreakable boards. All three types have markedly different characteristics in terms of how they are to break, so you can't compare one type to another (i.e., a single polar board is not 'worth' two pine boards, or whatever). The difficulty of breaking pine boards will vary widely, from tinder dry and very easy to break, to virtually dripping wet and difficult to split with an axe. Polar boards tend to be fairly dense, so they sting a bit more than the UMAB peg boards when you hit them. Polar boards don't flex anywhere near the same amount as UMAB boards, so they can 'pop' apart when struck sharply. Multiple UMAB boards require a good deal of penetration to separate due to the gaps between the faces of the boards, but this means you are less likely to injure yourself than with the denser pine and Polar boards.
One of the major elements of technique that will help you, regardless of the technique you are performing, is focus - being able to strike the target exactly where you want. As I mentioned earlier, if you hit something hard enough it will break, but you make your life a whole lot easier by hitting boards in the centre. This is particularly true when using rebreakable boards, as they are designed to break only in the centre. If you hit a rebreakable board above the centre or below the centre, it takes extra force to create enough leverage to separate the board.
Most of your ability to 'focus' and steer your attacking tool towards a specific spot relies on your eyes never leaving the intended point of impact until that point is no longer there (because the target is broken). From 'go' to 'woah' your eyes should stay fixed on the same spot, just like a golf swing where you keep your head down and eyes on the ball until the ball is sailing down the fairway. If you take your eyes off the target not only are you unlikely to hit the target in the intended spot, but your body can't be sure when to brace for impact, leading to potential injury.
Something else that can be developed with practice is 'how you hit something as hard as you can'. The Taekwon-Do encyclopaedia contains the formula for 'power':
P = ½ mv2
Power = (½) x (mass) x (velocity)2
Basically, if you throw as much bodyweight as possible (through using correct Taekwon-Do technique, incorporating as many muscles in the body as possible) as fast as you possibly can, you will achieve optimum power. The usefulness of this is still only as good as your commitment to hitting the target with 100% effort. You can have all of the ingredients in the formula working well up to the point of impact, but "second thoughts" will slam on the brakes faster than the Roadrunner when he reaches a cliff edge. The key is maintaining momentum through the target, not just to the target
Source : http://www.itfnz.org.nz/taekwon-dotalk/articles_power.html
