Some Moves for Thought

Today I just wanted to show everyone some pictures and descriptions of the some of the moves I have learned so far. When beginning, you are a given a set of kicks punches, and blocks to learn, starting off with the easier ones and as you go on and build your strength the harder the moves get.

The one of the first moves we learn as a student is how to block. There are many, many ways to perform a block whether it's with your arms or feet.

This is a low block:


This is a high block:



This a square block:


This is a double knife hand block:

There is also a blocking kick that is called a crescent kick where you kick across the front of you making a crescent moon shape. I wanted to show you a picture but it is too hard to see. So I am gonna show you a little video instead if you will go to this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KhBxXLWl_4

Next you learn kicks. Some of the kicks are shown as follows:

Front kick:



The most powerful kick in taekwondo is the side kick:

Tournaments cont

Friendly competition is a good thing. It inspires us to do our best so that we can win. Even though winning isn't everything, we definately still like to win. The best part of friendly competition is that no one really loses. Yes, someone comes in first, but everyone learns and has fun. Most of all, everyone has bcome a better martial artist because of how hard they prepared themselves for the actual tournament.

Tournaments set an artificial that inspire students to push themselves harder, learn their forms, faster, and generally focus more in class. Taekwondo tournaments offer a division for you age and rank, whether you just started of whether you've trained for years. All ranks do their forms at the tournamen. White, yellow, orange, and senior orange belts compete in one-steps while green belts compete in point-sparring.

Forms competition is judged on a 1-10 scale using half points. Some of the things the judges look for are: correct moves, timing, precision, balance, stances, and focus. The competitor with the highest score wins. In the event of a tie, the competitors who have tied will be asked to perform their forms again and whoever the judges think performed better will win. In forms competition, you will recieve two chances to successfully complete your pattern. However, students who take a 2nd attempt to complete the pattern will be given a one-point deduction in the overall score. In the event of a tie, you will only recieve one chance to successfully complete your pattern.

For one-step sparring and point sparring, two competitors will be put up against each other and the winner advances to the next round untill there is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place winner. The criteria for onesteps are the same as forms.

Tournament Coming Up Soon

I have my first Taekwondo tournament coming up on March 27th. Something of which I am very, very excited about. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect. I can't wait to see all the other schools and see what kind of talent they have. I would love to see how I measure up to other yellow belts. These tourneys are a great to show your skills, ability, attitude, and respect that you have for Taekwondo America. In this sport, respect is everything. Disrespecting one of these black belts could potentially be one of the biggest mistakes one can make, especially since they can do spin kicks higher than one's head.

I am almost ready to compete. I have just a couple more moves to learn. One of the great things about getting ready for your tournament is that you will already have all the moves learned for when test time comes up shortly after the tournament. It's a win-win situation, and personally that's kind of situation I would like to be in, that's just me. Therefore, I will ready to achieve orange belt status way before test time. I am very excited about that cause it takes all the pressure away. So wish me luck and in the next post I will give you some tournament edicate.