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Discover the secrets of Taekwon-do

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• What is the ‘real’ history of TKD?

• Where do TKD patterns really come from?

• What are stances for?

• Where is the realistic self-defence in TKD?

• Why do we have so many blocks?

• Do the patterns contain 'secret' techniques?

• Where are the chokes, throws, joint locks, and more?

 

 

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Taekwon-do is a fantastic art, but so much of it remains a mystery to the student and instructor alike  

 

 

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1) What is Taekwon-do’s real relationship with Karate?

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The history of Taekwon-do makes little mention of its fundamental relationship with Karate; despite, the fact that our founder General Hong-Hi and many of his advisors held blackbelts in Japanese Karate (a modernised version of Okinawa Toude).  

 

The source of much of the TKD patterns is often thought to be the ancient foot fighting art of Taekyon. Yet Taekyon bears little resemblance to Taekwon-do's beautiful patterns. However, even a cursory glance at the 'modern Karate' kata will tell you how similar they are to the TKD Tuls.  Yet an exact comparison has never been published before.  

 

 

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2) Where is the ‘real’ self-defence in Taekwon-do?

 

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Does your training prepare you for:

 

• being grabbed and seized 

• being bear hugged

• being strangled

• having hair pulled 

• being thrown 

• being head locked 

• being thrust against a wall 

• being repeatedly punched with hook punches 

• being head butted? 

 

If not then is does not adequately prepare you for the eventualities and ‘real life’ attack patterns of violent aggressors. Violence takes many forms and they do not all look like long range kicks and punches.

 

Taekwon-do is a fantastic art that deals well with all manner of long distance attacks. But modern training has become very sport orientated and doesn’t prepare the student well for the variety of ‘realistic’ attack patterns that we know violent aggressors use.  

 

With the advent of social media and CCTV we now know that violence is horrible and takes many forms. Anyone can become a victim of it. Youtube abounds with examples of people being victimised by violent criminals but violence does not look the same to everyone.  If you are a child or a woman in a domestic violence setting, your idea of violence will not look much like the ‘trained doorman’s’ experience of the same thing.  Violence takes on many faces.  This is why it is essential to have the appropriate response trained to deal with the specific form of attack.  

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So why does Taekwon-do training, and modern Taekwon-do especially, focus specifically on the types of 'long range' attacks that are rarely the form of violence one encounters in the ‘real world’ ?

 

 

'Are we perhaps missing what Taekwon-do is actually designed for?'

 

 

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3) What are stances for?

 

For years many of us have been mistakenly led to believe that stances are either for:

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1. Leg conditioning or 

2. Standing still  

 

 

But there are much better ways to strengthen legs than standing still.  Furthermore, violence and fighting is dynamic so standing still is only an option if your opponent is down and incapacitated. Yet we spend so much time training these special devices of balance and strength that there simply must be a unique fighting purpose to each one which dictates why we select it and not another.  So how do we find this out?

 

 

 

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4) Why do we have so many blocks to do the same thing?

 

Taekwon-do has simply 100’s of blocks and variations.  Why?  If we are only defending against straight/round punches and kicks why do we need so many ways to do this?  Will this not cause confusion?  Are there some blocks that seem just a little contrived and possibly dangerous to the defender?  How can we find out the answers to these questions?

 

 

'This book answers all these questions and more!'  

 

It culminates over 20 years of Taekwon-do practice and 10 years of academic research.  It is essential reading for all those who love Taekwon-do but want to really understand it.  I wrote this book because I love Taekwon-do!

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