We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!
Taekwondo
Out_of_Bubblegum
Posts: 2,220 Member
Main board for Taekwondo discussions.
0
Replies
-
How often do you guys spar at your school?
We typically spar twice a week unless it's a sparring focus week.0 -
Since I only attend class 1x/week, I make sure it's a class that spars... we tend to spar anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes, depending on the exact class and what the objectives are, but sparring is always a part of our black belt classes.
0 -
I guess it depends on the week, but our school also has a specific sparring class on Fridays. I try to go to that class whenever I can. We do spar in our regular classes, as well, but there isn't a set amount of sparring time.0
-
Oh - and I forgot.. when my daughter and I train together, sparring is always part of the training... but she picks and chooses when she trains, which isn't very often.1
-
What rank do you start sparring? The school I trained with started sparring right away at white belt. The school I just started we have not introduced sparring yet. I have all new kids from age 6 to 120
-
trackercasey76 wrote: »What rank do you start sparring? The school I trained with started sparring right away at white belt. The school I just started we have not introduced sparring yet. I have all new kids from age 6 to 12
We start sparring at 8th gup (orange belt in our school), but don't allow sparring in tournaments until 6th gup (green).
1 -
I go to a big school run by two brothers and a cousin who each run their own set of schools. The two brothers don't allow sparring until green (so, about 9 months in), but at my school run by the cousin we start at yellow belt. All together they have 11 locations, my grandmaster runs 3 of them.
For white belts we do "two kick sparring" where you take turns throwing kicks, or we do free sparring with no contact if they are capable.
Sparring is also a requirement at our schools. Wed and Thursday you MUST spar if you come. There's also an additional sparring class for mixed ages piggy backed on wednesday. We are a WTF school, so sparring for tournaments is a big chunk of the curriculum.1 -
Testing for my Red belt in just 5 days. The red signifies the blood of my enemies.
Maybe. LOL. I'm getting closer and closer to black belt. After this all I have left is
3 months at Red
3 months at High Red
3 months at Brown
3 months at High Brown
6 months at Bodan
1ST DEGREE.
In less than two years! What a journey this has been. The only thing I worry about is the running portion of the test (3 miles in 30 minutes). My school goes (at three months each).
white
yellow
orange
green
high green
blue
high blue
purple
high purple
red
high red
brown
high brown
bodan (6 months)
black belt
So just shy of four years. I think it takes 3 years to get second dan, but not sure. Either way I'm sure I'll be working towards it. 4th degree is considered master I believe.2 -
Good luck on testing, @Geocitiesuser Make sure to let us know how it goes.
I always saw Red as "Danger" - because though you have learned a lot about Taekwondo physically, self-control is still a challenge. It can also be seen as "Sunset" as you are nearing the end of colored belt training, and ready to enter a new journey as you transition from "learning how to learn" to "advanced beginner" - aka 1st dan black belt.
Our rainbow runs a bit different - but the essence is 9 colored belt ranks 9th gup through 1st gup, and 9 degrees of black belt. Typical for us is 3 - 4 years to get through colored belt, then it's 1 year/degree minimum time in rank, but black belts must do more than just put in their time. We are required to set and achieve certain goals, and may have other requirements set as conditions by our instructor/master before we are allowed to test, so it is uncommon for black belts to keep up with the minimum time between rank as the only speed limit.
I believe you are right on 4th being Master - that is what I have heard from others who are WTF (KKW) Black belts. For my organization, Master starts at 6th.0 -
We spar every class. Sometimes we have 15 minutes, others 5 but my instructor thinks it's important for us to do each time. Also, every belt spars with every belt. Higher ranks just try to flow with the lower ranks and we have seen major improvement in their sparring skills because of it. So whatever intensity they come at us with, we can do back to them. Thankfully most are fairly timid.1
-
I did it. Got my red belt. That marks 2.5 years of training so far.
We got lucky this time because bodans are testing for their black belts in a separate gym, so our test was exceptionally easy. I did great sparring. The people from other schools don't know my style so I got lots of really clean kicks to the hogu in. I sparred the guy who beat me in the tournament last spring, and I don't understand how. He has no control or finesse, just throws out kicks willy nilly. He too caught a lovely cut kick to the rib area.
I like sparring when it goes my way. about 1.5 years left to go before I have to renew my member ship as a blackbelt lol 4 -
I have only sparred twice in the year I've been in TKD. My class, until recently has been all red belts and above, except me and another student that's also yellow. When they're all sparring, we're pulled aside to continue working on our drills and forms. I liked sparring when we did it but understand why it isn't possible to have us sparring against them often. Luckily, I just learned our 3 new students from last session decided to stay for the next session so maybe sparring will happen more often among us lower belts.
Congrats on your Red belt GEO!!0 -
They had me sparring the black belts almost immediately after I got my yellow You get better by sparring people who are better than you, so I'm surprised they don't have you do it. Maybe they're taking safety first, but experienced fighters should be able to practice self control and work with you. Are you WTF ITF or ADA? WTF (what I do) is full gear but full contact. ITF is minimal gear and supposed to be lighter contact. Not familiar with ADA rules though. 1
-
Um...LOL, I'm not familiar with the acronyms. Everyone but myself and my fellow yellow belt have sparring gear. They use gloves and foot/shin guards. It's all fairly light contact, depending on your partner.
When I did spar with the higher belts they took it easy. One in particular I especially liked. He encouraged me to do several moves in continuous motion. Much more realistic than me kicking, making sure my foot lands just so then getting back into defense stance.
Over the summer sessions we were mostly focusing on variations of Take-downs and foot/hand coordination with partners. I had a lot of fun on the TD's.1 -
Sounds like it might be ITF, but you should definitely ask which form of TKD you're learning.1
-
I will have to ask. I didn't know there were variations.0
-
Yes. The biggest variations are WTF and ITF. WTF is the "olympic" Tae Kwon Do that is mostly sport based. When you see TKD at the olympics, they're doing WTF sparring.
Sparring is different, The poomsae are different, and I think some of the curriculum in general might be different (we practice very little grappling in our WTF school). We tend to do a mix of ITF and WTF forms though.1 -
Geocitiesuser wrote: »They had me sparring the black belts almost immediately after I got my yellow You get better by sparring people who are better than you, so I'm surprised they don't have you do it. Maybe they're taking safety first, but experienced fighters should be able to practice self control and work with you. Are you WTF ITF or ADA? WTF (what I do) is full gear but full contact. ITF is minimal gear and supposed to be lighter contact. Not familiar with ADA rules though.
The black belts also get better sparring under belts. First the learn to control their power and technique and with the under belts you never know where the strike is coming from so they get better at expecting the unexpected and reacting accordingly.
1 -
Tonight is double sparring class for me. 2 hours of sweating in a foam helmet! And I wonder why I'm worn out by the end of the week. I'll be assisting with class before then too.
I had to look up 1 step sparring because I never heard of it before. Sounds like it's biggest with ATA and traditional styles that don't wear sparring gear. Once in a while our grandmaster will make the black belts spar without gear (only helmet footies and cup) during their maintenance tests. Always fun to watch, can't wait till I can participate!0 -
Geocitiesuser wrote: »Tonight is double sparring class for me. 2 hours of sweating in a foam helmet! And I wonder why I'm worn out by the end of the week. I'll be assisting with class before then too.
I had to look up 1 step sparring because I never heard of it before. Sounds like it's biggest with ATA and traditional styles that don't wear sparring gear. Once in a while our grandmaster will make the black belts spar without gear (only helmet footies and cup) during their maintenance tests. Always fun to watch, can't wait till I can participate!
1 steps is old-school for sure, @Geocitiesuser - originally 1, 2 and 3 step sparring were designed to be a transition into sparring, a choreographed combination to teach distance and timing to a specific attack. Some schools require students to create their own 1-steps for testing as well.0 -
Oh yeah, they're big on the one step sparring. I believe it goes up to 20. Once we learn up to that level we re-learn it , but in reverse. And yes, it's part of regular sparring. They remind us to try to incorporate those moves in sparring. Haha, not that I've had a chance yet. And no, we don't use any gear for the one-step moves or TD practices or anything else except sparring.
When my daughter tested for her red belt last month they had her whole class line up in attack mode and come at her one by one as she performed each of the 1-20 in one continuous stream. All I could do was watch in awe.0 -
Off topic, but I love when people walk past my office and eye my belt rack and trophies/medals. lol.1
-
I have one of those for my daughter's belts. I don't want to invest in one for me until I've earned more belts. They really are a nice display of achievements. What are those black vertical stripes on your belts?0
-
There is a striping system (it's different for the black belts but they have one too).
Each class you take is one black stripe. You need 18 classes minimum to qualify for testing. They stop giving stripes after 20 so it doesn't get silly.
Each white stripe represents being qualified to test (classes attended)
Each red strip represents being invited to come test and signifies you know you're curriculum.
Our kids also get green stripes, they get a green stripe for every three good behaviors at home or school signed off by their parents, they need a minimum of 3 green stripes, and get an award for 10 green stripes.
The black belts get a series of yellow, blue, and red stripes signifying where they are in the process towards the next dan.0 -
Wow - that's a lot of stripes! We have a maximum of 3 stripes.
1 Black stripe, only given with the belt from testing, to signify a unanimous decision by the judges at testing.
2 Colored stripes matching the belt color of the next belt, to signify progress within the belt. 1st one is earned by demonstrating of all required forms, 2nd one is by demonstrating all required material for the belt (forms, 1-steps, basic techniques), and signifies readiness to test.
The only marks on black belts is rank, which is sewn on, not striped.0 -
Wow, now that's organized!! I think that's great about how the kid's outside behavior is brought into it too.1
-
I have a box of broken boards. Has anyone done anything interesting with theirs? I also have my son's boards. So many boards!0
-
I never kept my first broken boards for the reasons you just stated 0
-
I have seen them turned into belt holders before.0
-
I was keeping them but they became too much so no, I ended up tossing them. Sometimes I regret it but I need the space in my house. Lol0
This discussion has been closed.