September Newsletter

As we begin a new school year, I also expect to return to the standard newsletter with more complete articles.  We will all of our students a successful school year.

Schedule Change

The Taekwondo class schedule for Saturday is changing.  The new class schedules are:

11:00 am to 11:45 am - Junior Taekwondo (ages 6 - 11 years)

11:00 am to 11:45 am - Weapons Class

11:45 am to 12:30 pm - Junior Taekwondo (ages 6 -11 years)

11:45 am to 12:30 pm - Grappling Techniques/Junior Sparring

12:30 pm to   1:30 pm - Adult and Teen (ages 12 and up) Taekwondo

12:30 pm  and later     - Adult Grappling

The new schedule will be effective starting September 9th.

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 to be approximately an hour and a half long.

Symptoms of flu include:

Complications of flu can include bacterial pneumonia, dehydration, and worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes. Children may get sinus problems and ear infections.

Flu viruses spread in respiratory droplets caused by coughing and sneezing. They usually spread from person to person, though sometimes people become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Most healthy adults may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5 days after becoming sick. That means that you can pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick.

The single best way to prevent the flu is to get a flu vaccination each fall. There are two types of vaccines:

• The "flu shot" – an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle. The flu shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.

• The nasal-spray flu vaccine – a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for “Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine”). LAIV is approved for use in healthy people 5 years to 49 years of age who are not pregnant.

About two weeks after vaccination, antibodies develop that protect against influenza virus infection. Flu vaccines will not protect against influenza-like illnesses caused by other viruses.

October or November is the best time to get vaccinated, but getting vaccinated in December or even later can still be beneficial. Flu season can begin as early as October and last as late as May.

In general, anyone who wants to reduce their chances of getting the flu can get vaccinated. However, certain people should get vaccinated each year. They are either people who are at high risk of having serious flu complications or people who live with or care for those at high risk for serious complications. People who should get vaccinated each year are:

1.) People at high risk for complications of the flu:

• People 65 years and older;

• All children 6 months to 5 years of age

• Adults and children 6 months and older with chronic heart or lung conditions, including asthma;

• Adults and children 6 months and older who needed regular medical care or were in a hospital during the previous year because of a metabolic disease (like diabetes), chronic kidney disease, or weakened immune system (including immune system problems caused by medicines or by infection with human immunodeficiency virus [HIV/AIDS]);

• Women who will be pregnant during the influenza season;

2.) People who can transmit flu to others at high risk for complications. Any person in close contact with someone in a high-risk group (see above) should get vaccinated. This includes all health-care workers, household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children 6 to 23 months of age, and close contacts of people 65 years and older.

Some people should not be vaccinated without first consulting a physician. They include:

• People who have a severe allergy to chicken eggs.

• People who have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccination in the past.

• People who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks of getting an influenza vaccine previously.

• Children less than 6 months of age (influenza vaccine is not approved for use in this age group).

• People who have a moderate or severe illness with a fever should wait to get vaccinated until their symptoms lessen.

If you have questions about whether you should get a flu vaccine, consult your health-care provider or catch me (Wade Weatherington, MD, FAAP) in class sometime.

As people progress in martial arts, it is common to begin reading more and more about vital points and pressure points.   Whole books are devoted to how to hit vital spots on a person and cause pain, unconsciousness, or even death.  The very first one step self defense technique taught to our students includes 3 counter punches with the last punch made to the temple of your opponent, a vital point. 

So are vital points the magic spots on your opponents body that when pinched causes your opponent crumple similar to Spock's Vulcan Nerve or Death Grip from Star Trek?  Well, not quite.  There are places on the human body that are sensitive and when struck can be debilitating, e.g. striking the groin.  However, there are at least two issues with vital points:

1. Not all people are built the same.  While pressure points and vital points exist, there is always the possibility that your opponent has a high tolerance for pain or even a minor defect that makes a pressure point or vital point ineffective. 

2. Unless your opponent is tired or inexperienced, the person will probably defend themselves from strikes to vital points. 

So what do we do with vital points?  In our self defense and grappling classes, we will teach you some of the vital points that can be used to control or incapacitate people.  In our Taekwondo classes, many of our one steps will teach you specific vital points to strike. However, as a rule, pressure points and vital point attacks are not a significant part of our regular classes.  Some of the adult black belts have studied other martial arts that focused more on these techniques and others have studied these outside our class. As you progress into the higher belt ranks, you will probably learn some of these techniques from our adult black belts.

If you are interested in more information on vital points and pressure points than our taught in our class, you will need to look at information outside our school.  There are web sites and books that claim there are over 200 vital points on the human body.  If you pursue more information on striking vital points or pressure points, be aware that you are not allowed to practice unapproved pressure points or vital point striking in our school.  Further, many publications that talk about how to practice using vital points and pressure points also advocate light contact and limiting the number of times (3) that a particular pressure point or vital point is practiced on during a day. 

If you are interested in learning more about vital points, you can explore web sites such as:

• http://www.barrel.net/vital_points.php

• http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=423

• http://tkdtutor.com/09Techniques/Other/PressurePoints.htm

Note: Permission to use the pressure point graphic granted by Barry Nauta Copyright (c) 1994-2006.

Weapons training and advanced techniques are taught on Saturday at 11:00 am. to 11:45 am.  Currently, the class practices using Nunchacku and short sticks. In addition to learning to use these weapons, focused open hand training and advanced self defense techniques are also intermixed with this class. The The weapons class is open to juniors who have attained at least brown belt and any interested adult (age 13 and older).

September Schedule