|
|
Tournament
Breaking Practice |
Saturday,
February 4th |
|
Tournament
Breaking Practice |
Thursday,
February 9th |
|
Tournament Breaking Practice |
Thursday, February 16th |
|
US
Taekwondo Tournament |
Saturday,
February 18th |
|
Taekwondo/Grappling/Weapons
Cancelled |
Saturday,
February 18th |
|
Weapons Class - Not
Cancelled |
Saturday,
February 25th, 11:00 am |
|
Grappling - Cancelled |
Saturday, February 25th, 11:45 am |
|
Junior Class - Cancelled |
Saturday, February 25th,
11:00 am |
|
Junior Belt Test |
Saturday, February 25th, 11:45 am |
|
Adult Belt Test |
Saturday, February 25th at 12:30 pm |
Please note that the Junior Belt test will be at 11:45
am on Saturday this month! There will be no Adult or Junior Classes on
Saturday, February 25th. There will be no Grappling Class on Saturday,
February 25th.
As a reminder to all the sparring students, no sparring classes
are held on the
night of Junior Belt Testing. Parents should expect the Junior Belt Test
will be approximately 1 - 1.5 hours long.
%20(2).jpg) |
On February 18th, US Taekwondo is sponsoring a winter tournament.
All students are encouraged to compete in this tournament. If
you are interested in competing, please contact Master Huffstutler
for registration information.
|
For the next several
newsletters, the Healthy Living section of the newsletter is
going to focus on Self Defense. This month we are
introducing a basic concept of providing for your own security
based on a curriculum description that I found on a web site by
All Out Defense, LLC. The curriculum introduces the
concept of a four part strategy for personal safety. I
have summarized and annotated their strategy in this month's
newsletter. We are also going to ntroduce the concept of
Levels of Awareness. We will reference Levels of Awareness
in the self defense class frequently during the next several
weeks.
Four Part Strategy to Personal Safety
The four part strategy consists
of Awareness, Avoidance, De-escalation, and Neutralization and
Escape. Each of these strategic components of
personal safety are described in detail below.
|
Awareness |
Description |
Your personal safety begins with
awareness. Plan where you are going, understands
dangers that might be present, plan to minimize your
exposure to dangers, and finally pay attention to your
surroundings. |
|
Examples |
-
When going
to a shopping center, park in well lit locations
-
Walk close
to the curb and avoid walking near doorways and
bushes
-
Vary a
running or walking routine by using different routes
and times
-
Pay
attention to people around you
For other
examples, see
Personal Security in our April 2005 newsletter. |
|
Avoidance |
Description |
As part of the
awareness process, you may identify a possible
situation. The response to the possible concern or
situation is to avoid it. |
|
Examples |
-
You have identified that
a great deal of crime has occurred around a store
that you frequently shop at and decide to shop
elsewhere.
-
You leave your office
building and enter a parking lot where you notice an
person lurking in the shadows, and you
decide to return to the office.
-
You are at a party
and/or bar and notice that people are losing
control of their behaviors, and you decide to leave
the party.
|
|
De-Escalation
|
Description |
De-escalation
occurs when you are unable to avoid the situation.
The purpose of de-escalation is to, through verbal and
non-verbal communication, defuse a hostile situation.
There are two approaches that can be followed to
de-escalate a situation:
-
Be assertive
and use command language to control the situation.
In this instance, a person may simply say "No" with
confidence and forcefulness.
-
The second
approach is to use control to talk a person out of
action. This does not mean being submissive.
Regardless which
verbal approach is followed, you should have your hands
and body in a ready position. On the
No Nonsense Self Defense web site,
the author suggests the following three things NOT
to do or say:
-
Do NOT
challenge him/her
-
Do NOT
insult him/her
-
Do NOT deny
what is happening
More reading is
available on the
No Nonsense Self Defense website. |
|
Examples |
-
Say "No" clearly and
assertively.
-
If the person seems to be
seeking to provoke you to give your assailant a
reason to attack, you may want to respond with a cold,
unemotional tone. Essentially, you do not
give them the emotional response they are seeking.
-
If a person uses the
approach give me whatever or I will hurt you, you
might respond with "If you do, you will not like
what happens." On the surface this appears to
violate rule 1, but it does not. An example of
violating rule 1 is "if you do, I will kick your
butt."
|
|
Neutralization |
Description |
Neutralization
describes the final step in the 4 step process. If
you are unable to escape the situation and unable to
de-escalate the situation, then you are in a position
where you must defend yourself physically. In this
situation, you must seek to neutralize your assailant so
that you can escape. It is critical to note that
your goal is to escape at the earliest opportunity.
In a fight, you may be able to stun or temporarily
disable an assailant, e.g. a sucker punch, so that you
have an opportunity to escape. If you fail
to escape at the first opportunity, you may not have a
second chance to escape before being seriously injured. |
|
Example |
-
A person grabs your wrist.
You break the grip, kick to the groin and escape.
-
A person grabs you from
behind in an attempted choke, you perform a basic
shoulder throw, and escape.
|
Levels of Awareness
Many different self defense classes will establish color coded
levels of awareness (threat levels). The color codes and
number of color codes (levels) will vary depending on the
instructor, but will have the same basic order. For our purposes, we will
use three levels of awareness with the following color assignments.
|
Color Code |
Description |
|
Green |
Green is the most secure level. A
green level of security implies that you feel as secure
as possible and could go to sleep without fear. This
level of awareness might be associated with being at
home. Many people spend their lives at this level
of awareness and put themselves in risky situations. |
|
Yellow |
Yellow is a standard level of awareness
when you are in relatively secure
environments, e.g. the grocery store, pumping gas, in
your work place, etc. At this level you are aware
of your surroundings and paying attention to people
around you. |
|
Red |
You are at a
red level of readiness when you feel like you are being
watched or stalked, when you are entering a vacant
parking lot, when you are in a less secure part of town,
you have a feeling of uneasiness, a person is entering
your personal space, or when you have a problem, etc.
At this level of readiness, your hands will be out where
you can use them to defend yourself and you might have a
weapon in your hand, e.g. a set of keys, a ballpoint
pen, etc.
At this level of
readiness, you are into the 4th Step in the Strategy introduced
at the beginning of this section. |
If you are interested in further reading on this subject, I
suggest that you explore the following web sites
Our students usually participate in tournaments between February and May.
In this newsletter, we will provide a little guidance on tournament breaking.
Next month's topic will be Forms Competition.
Breaking competitions are
judged on the following factors. The weight assigned to each factor will
vary depending on the specific judges and the tournament. The following
chart arranges the judging factors in a normal order of importance.
|
Breaking Success |
Typically, the martial artist will have 4 breaking stations.
Normally, only one break will occur at each station. However,
the martial artist can perform double simultaneous breaks, e.g. a
double front kick break. The martial artist will be judged on
whether all breaks were made and whether multiple attempts were
required to break the boards. |
|
Technical Difficulty |
As the
martial artist progresses in rank, the judges will expect the
martial artist to perform more difficult breaking techniques.
At the end of this article a basic table is presented that ranks
kicks by difficulty, for example a spinning front kick is more
difficult than a simple front kick without a spin. |
|
Presentation |
When
the martial artist prepares to perform the breaks and is performing
the breaks, the martial artist's spirit, focus, balance,
coordination, and power will be judged. It is important that
martial artist demonstrate their power and focus during the breaking
event. |
|
Physical Difficulty |
The
tournament breaking will also evaluate the physical difficulty of a
break. For example, breaking two boards is harder than breaking one
board. Concrete blocks are not typically used during
competition breaking. |
|
Breathing |
Breathing is not usually a key element of the evaluation, but can be
critical to helping the martial artist relax during the competition
and perform their breaks successfully. Just prior to
performing the breaks, the martial artist should use a simple deep
breathing exercise to relax and focus their mind on the breaks.
By taking the time just before the break to breathe deeply, not only can the martial
artist be better focused, but the presentation can be more
impressive. |
The following
table lists various types of kicks by difficulty. The
difficulty of the kicks increase as you move down the table or
left on the table.
Acrobatic kicks and double kicks are very difficult to perform
successfully, are not listed in the table, and are outside the target audience for this
article.
|
Dfficulty Level
|
Difficulty Level
-----------------------------> |
|
Round House Kick |
Jump Roundhouse Kick |
Spinning Round House Kick |
Step over, Spinning Roundhouse Kick |
Step over, Spinning, Jump Roundhouse Kick |
|
Front Kick |
Jump Front Kick |
Spinning Front Kick |
Step over, Spinning Front Kick |
Step over, Spinning, Jump |
|
Side Kick |
Flying Side Kick |
Jump Side Kick |
Spinning Side Kick |
Spinning, Jump Side Kick |
|
Axe Kick |
Jump Axe Kick |
Spinning Axe Kick |
Step over, spinning axe kick |
Step over, spinning, jump axe kick |
|
Hook Kick |
Jump Hook Kick |
Spinning Hook Kick |
Step over, spinning hook kick |
Step over, spinning, jump hook kick |
|
Back Kick |
Jump Back Kick |
Step over, back kick |
Step over, jump back kick |
|
The martial artist can also perform hand breaks, but hand breaks
are typically not scored as well in Taekwondo tournaments. Some possible
hand breaks include: the palm strike, the chop, or just a simple punch.
During February, we will spend time during several classes to
talk about tournament breaking and practice some basic tournament breaking.
If you or your child will be competing in breaking competitions at
tournaments, you should consider the following:
-
Attend one or more of the February classes where tournament breaking
will be practiced - see the calendar
-
Identify a breaking routine that incorporates the most difficult breaks
that you or your child can perform successfully
-
Line up people to hold your boards during the competition.
Sadly, holders selected the day of the competition often flinch when you
or your child attempts the break resulting in a failed break
and a loss of points.
-
Practice before the competition. Master Huffstutler can help
arrange time for juniors to practice before or after class with a
parent.
We have spent the past month focusing on throws. Jason Saylor has also
been working with the youth in the weapons classes on throwing techniques, e.g.
hip throw and shoulder throws. We have spent a lot of class time working on the footwork and understanding how to step in close to your
opponent.
This month's featured technique is a roundhouse sweep kick. The sweep can
be used for grappling or for self defense. The sweep was recently
re-introduced in the Wednesday night self defense class.
|
Step |
Description |
|
|
| 1 |
Start in a basic standing position.
Your opponent steps toward you with their left foot. |
|
 |
| 2 |
Sweep inside with the bottom of your
right foot into your opponents left foot behind the ankle.
Note: For self defense, drive a low roundhouse kick into your opponent's
Achilles tendon. |
|
| 3 |
Continue the movement off balancing
your opponent. |
|
| 4 |
Depending on your
position, you can also push back on your opponent's right arm or
shoulder to help the sweep be more successful. |
|
|
9th Gup - Orange
Belt |
|
Jessica Tri-Rudolf |
|
|
|
|
8th Gup - Yellow Belt |
|
Jacklyn Asher |
Jasmine Asher |
David Bruewer |
Elizabeth Drury |
|
Dylan Pence |
|
|
|
|
7th Gup - High Yellow
Belt |
|
Jason Bunge |
Austin Hampton |
Carson Powell |
Chandler Powell |
|
Matthew Schroeder |
|
|
|
|
6th Gup - Green Belt |
|
Tyler Ballaver |
Randy Jones |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5th Gup - High Green
Belt |
|
Lizzy Jones |
Maria Pollard
|
|
|
|
4th Gup - Blue Belt |
|
Nichol Trudel |
|
|
|
|
3rd Gup - High Blue Belt |
|
Eva Clendenin |
|
|
|
|
2nd Gup - Brown Belt |
|
Aiden Dower |
|
|
|
|
1st Gup - Brown Belt |
|
Jake Elwell |
|
|
|
|
Taekwondo students can purchase a Fighter
Package for $99 that contains all the equipment required for
sparring: helmet, shin and instep guards, forearm guards, mouth
piece, chest protector, and groin protector. This
protective equipment is a must for anyone sparring.
Prices stated may be
in error and prices are subject to change. |
|
 Continue
your workouts at home!
WaveMaster
Bags can be ordered in the office - great for extra practice this winter
from your home. |
|
%20(2).JPG) Version
2.0 of the supplemental CDROM is complete. The CDROMs are offered in
four varieties: beginners, intermediate, advanced, and master. The
CDROMs are designed to allow students to hone techniques outside of the
classroom and to supplement the techniques taught in class. Some examples of
new material includes grappling self defense techniques, new one steps,
grappling techniques, etc. There are also multiple views of many of
the forms for students preparing for their next belt test to use as
reference. The CDROMs sell for $25 each.
|
Beginners |
Free to new school students. This CDROM contains the basic
Taekwondo information and forms needed for the orange belt and the gold
belt. |
|
Intermediate |
This CDROM includes a number of self defense
techniques and grappling techniques in addition to the forms and
requirements for high gold to blue belt. |
|
Advanced |
This CDROM includes all of the intermediate content,
many more advanced one step techniques, and the forms for high blue belt
to black belt. |
|
Master |
This CDROM includes everything. Students must
have obtained at least black belt level to purchase this CDROM. |
|
Special Thanks to
http://go.to/martialclipart for the use of the free martial arts clip
art.
Animated Gifs from the
Animation Factory
If you wish to be removed from
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|
February