Hey all,

I'm a daddy!! My wife Zoe yesterday gave birth to baby Ariella at 3.55am after a horribly long labour, but mercifully quick birth! She was out hours before the final stage was expected to start and only after two pushes!! First class!

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Just watched 'The Foot Fist Way'- it was awesome! Anyone else seen it?!

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I originally trained with the ITF and have recently joined a TAGB club. I have had fun re-learning my patterns, as the TAGB don't perform 'sine wave' in their patterns as I was taught originally with the ITF.

I must admit to being confused as to why some schools/organizations perform patterns a certain way, while others differ....I had assumed that everyone that studied the patterns as created by Gen. Choi would perform them the same...!

Watching clips on YouTube for example you can see a big difference between, say, a TAGB person and an ITF person performing the same pattern.

I found this article which explains that sine wave was a relatively recent modification by the General and some schools still practice patterns in the 'old school' way (ie. with a hip twist) and neither method is really better or worse than the other.

So, if now if you meet someone from another association who makes a comment about your patterns technique, you can explain why you do it like you do!

Here's the link:  http://www.raynerslanetkd.com/ARTICLES_Patterns_Sinewave.html

PS. Obviously, I'm not disrespecting any organizations or styles and saying anyone is better than another- we all just do what we're taught!

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If you think you know all about Tae Kwon-Do, try these obscure facts!

• General Choi Hong Hi’s pen name was Chang Hon, which translates as Blue
Cottage.
• Bob Howe was one of the first people in the UK to be awarded a black belt in Tae
Kwon-Do in 1970. He later became the first chairman of the TAGB.
• To reach 9th Dan – Grand Master in the TAGB requires a minimum of 48 years
continuous training.
• The patriot Ahn Chang-Ho chose his pen name Do San (Island Mountain) after
seeing Hawaii during his emigration to the USA in 1902.
• General Choi Hong Hi achieved a 2nd Dan in Shotokan Karate in the early 1940’s
while studying in Japan.
• In the video game Tekken, the character Hwoarang performs part of pattern Hwa
Rang in his opening sequence.
• The monk Won Hyo died in 686 aged 69.
• The blocking tool for U-shape block (digutja makgi) is reverse knife-hand (sonkal
dung).
• October 3rd is celebrated in Korea as Dan Gun day.
• Only 2 patterns in Tae Kwon-Do start with an attacking movement, Ul Ji and
Tong Il.
• In 1983 General Choi replaced the 2nd Dan pattern Ko Dang, (named after Cho
Man-Sik a nationalist politician who was executed by the communist authorities in
North Korea), with pattern Juche (based on the philosophy of Kim Il-Sung “the
great leader” of North Korea). The TAGB and many other organisations have
never accepted this change.
• The 24 patterns in TAGB Tae Kwon-Do have a total of 968 moves.
• Grand Master Jhoon Rhee (the father of American Tae Kwon-Do) invented foam
safety sparing gear in 1972.
• Buffy the vampire slayer star Sarah Michelle Geller is a brown (red) belt in Tae
Kwon-Do.
• Reflex kick (bansa chagi) involves running at a wall then springing off to kick in
the opposite direction.
Instructor : Phil Thomas Schools : Milton Keynes / Banbury
AVALIBLE ONLINE AT : w w w.TAGB.ne t / w w w.TAGB.inf o
• In 1982, General Choi Hong Hi graded 19 North Koreans to 4th Dan and 25 to 3rd
Dan after they had spent just seven months training in Tae Kwon-Do under
Master Park Jung Tae.
• In the 1970’s television series “Kung Fu”, the part of Master Kan (mentor to David
Carradine) was played by Philip Ahn, eldest son of Ahn Chang-Ho.
• Base of the knife-hand (sonkal batang) is only used to attack one target – the
clavicle.

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Hey, to all you fellow TAGB people....!

I was wondering about gradings, as I have my red belt grading coming up (funnily enough I already got my red belt with my previous ITF club, but the TAGB instructor wants me to do it again!) and I'm not sure what to expect.....

With my previous ITF club, they stuck pretty rigidly to what it said in the training sylabus- specific kicking drills, patterns, etc. Do the TAGB gradings tend to be the same? I've seen the examination sylabus for the red belt grading and it doesn't look so bad so long as they do exactly what's written down!

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I watched the latest Jean Claude film yesterday- it was suprisingly ok! His usual stuff has been pretty awful of late (Derailed?!!) and this one isn't vastly different in terms of plot or acting, but it has much better fight scenes than usual. His main adversary is played by Scott Adkins who (according to imdb.com) who was trained by the TAGB by Master Ron Sergiew! British viewers may also recognize him from TV programs Holby City and Doctors!

This is film is overall pretty good and reminscent of earlier movies.

Check it out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0827521/

Tags: Movies

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