Right now, I can honestly say that I am excited about the future of Pro Form Tae Kwon Do. The new system is pretty close to finished and I am looking forward to working towards my 4th. I am also happy to hear that my old training partner, Mr. David Metzger, will be moving to the area and is wanting to train with us as often as his time will allow. I will enjoy working with him again. We always knew just how to push each other to get the other to work at our top ability. We competed with each other, but always in a friendly way. It will be a great way to rekindle my competitive spirit. I am also excited to be training in Hapkido. I have been curious about the style since college and never really got a chance to do much training in it. Now, that has changed due to the Hapkido online program. Between videos posted online and webcam based training sessions crossed with live training and seminars when I can make it to them, the Hapkido Online program is a great opportunity. For that, my thanks goes to Mr. Jon Ferguson, who is putting his time, talent, knowledge, and love of the martial arts for the benefit of everyone.
It is an exciting time to be a martial artist, with information be exchanged in ways and to degrees never before possible. The thing that I would like to remind all martial artists everywhere of is that we must maintain quality for the sake of the sanctity of the martial arts. Rank is fairly artificial, but it does provide a good 'carrot' at the end of the stick to encourage hard training, but it is not the rank, but the skill which should be associated with that rank that we should all seek. Shortly before my 1st degree Black Belt test in Tae Kwon Do, a friend of mine asked me if having my Black Belt was important to me. I sat back and pondered it for a moment and responded, "I would rather have Black Belt skill and no belt than a Black Belt and lack the skill to back it up. If I have a Black Belt, I want to have earned it properly and have the skill associated with it." I stand by that statement.
Too many schools are selling their students short and cutting corners or lowering standards. Everyone loses in the end. If this trend continues, in a few generations, the overall skill will diminish as will the overall knowledge. Someone needs to keep high standards so that the martial arts can continue to positively impact lives through effective self-defense, through character development, through physical fitness, through sportive competition, through spiritual and moral education. This is what Pro Form seeks to be. Pro Form Tae Kwon Do seeks to be a beacon of high standards, a repository of knowledge and skill, and an academy to pass on all these things to future generations. To the other schools which seek to do this as well, I wish all the best of luck, even if we may sometimes disagree the best way to do this, that is fine. I do not believe that any style, system, or individual has the one best way to teach the martial arts. I applaud anyone with high standards and skill who is preserving knowledge and passing it on the to future generations.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
This is the official blog for Pro Form Tae Kwon Do of Martinsburg,
WV. I will be putting up various articles on aspects of Tae Kwon Do and
martial arts training in general. I will confess that I am not used to
blogging, but like in martial arts, I hope that with consistent
practice, it will get better. Please keep that in mind and check back
often. Hopefully things will get better as time goes on.
Changing Systems/Styles
I have had to switch styles and systems various times throughout my martial arts career. I started in wrestling, then Karate, then Japanese Jujutsu, then Tae Kwon Do, later Tang Soo Do and Soo Bahk Do, and along the way, Aikido, Iaido, and a little bit of a few other styles. I can say definitively that changing styles or switching systems can be both a pain, but can also be a great thing to motivate me to figure out what makes each system different and a cause to examine my skills and figure out what new things I can learn from the new system, while keeping the good things from the old.
I bring this up because I know many of the students are a little hesitant at the prospect of changing from WMKS to Pro Form. I think that many of the new combinations will be advantageous from a sparring perspective. The old combinations are not wrong, just different. The old combinations will still be useful in sparring, just no longer tested. The new combinations are an additional set of skills to add to sparring. The forms will not be changing, as those are dictated by tradition, but as students hit the Black Belt levels, more of the applications will be explored and practiced. By the time a student has made it to Black Belt, the colored belt forms should be known well enough to be able to break them down for the purpose of analysis and partner practice with the 'hidden applications.' Prior to the Black Belt ranks, it is probably best for students to focus on correctly performing the foundational moves. No real changes need to be made to the forms, and I really do not feel that I would be in any position to be the one to do so anyway. The situational self defense is being expanded and improved. In regards to that, self defense should be the most effective, up-to-date method available, so of all the parts of the curriculum, it should be the one which changes most as time goes on. As instructors learn better techniques, they should be included, either augmenting or replacing older techniques. Terminology has been updated to reflect the strong Korean heritage and history, while keeping a few terms dealing with martial arts around the world, and particularly in America.
I know that the Pro Form system is being set up in such a way that it seems like there is a lot to memorize, but in truth, there is so much information which exists today that it is actually tough to cut it down to a realistic amount for each belt level. As such, we want our students to be considered experts in the field of martial arts. We want students to be experts not only in the physical sense, but also the mental, spiritual/emotional, and the moral sense. Martial arts is a vehicle by which we improve ourselves as we journey onward in life. Martial artists should learn to protect ourselves from physical assaults as well as other physical problems, such as obesity, diabetes, or heart disease. We learn to protect ourselves emotionally by being more confident, and therefore less likely to be insulted or hurt when others try to bring us down. We learn to be better morally by being strong enough to resist temptation to do wrong and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. The group projects which we will be doing will help others, and in doing so, allow us to build within ourselves a spirit of giving.
The simple fact is that regardless of what is changing, it should be faced with the idea that it is an adventure which will help us all to grow. Students will be given time to adapt to the changes and special considerations will be shown during the first few tests as students try to make the change-over. Keep in mind, we are all having to adapt, but it is a journey that we go on together. Let us all help each other!
Changing Systems/Styles
I have had to switch styles and systems various times throughout my martial arts career. I started in wrestling, then Karate, then Japanese Jujutsu, then Tae Kwon Do, later Tang Soo Do and Soo Bahk Do, and along the way, Aikido, Iaido, and a little bit of a few other styles. I can say definitively that changing styles or switching systems can be both a pain, but can also be a great thing to motivate me to figure out what makes each system different and a cause to examine my skills and figure out what new things I can learn from the new system, while keeping the good things from the old.
I bring this up because I know many of the students are a little hesitant at the prospect of changing from WMKS to Pro Form. I think that many of the new combinations will be advantageous from a sparring perspective. The old combinations are not wrong, just different. The old combinations will still be useful in sparring, just no longer tested. The new combinations are an additional set of skills to add to sparring. The forms will not be changing, as those are dictated by tradition, but as students hit the Black Belt levels, more of the applications will be explored and practiced. By the time a student has made it to Black Belt, the colored belt forms should be known well enough to be able to break them down for the purpose of analysis and partner practice with the 'hidden applications.' Prior to the Black Belt ranks, it is probably best for students to focus on correctly performing the foundational moves. No real changes need to be made to the forms, and I really do not feel that I would be in any position to be the one to do so anyway. The situational self defense is being expanded and improved. In regards to that, self defense should be the most effective, up-to-date method available, so of all the parts of the curriculum, it should be the one which changes most as time goes on. As instructors learn better techniques, they should be included, either augmenting or replacing older techniques. Terminology has been updated to reflect the strong Korean heritage and history, while keeping a few terms dealing with martial arts around the world, and particularly in America.
I know that the Pro Form system is being set up in such a way that it seems like there is a lot to memorize, but in truth, there is so much information which exists today that it is actually tough to cut it down to a realistic amount for each belt level. As such, we want our students to be considered experts in the field of martial arts. We want students to be experts not only in the physical sense, but also the mental, spiritual/emotional, and the moral sense. Martial arts is a vehicle by which we improve ourselves as we journey onward in life. Martial artists should learn to protect ourselves from physical assaults as well as other physical problems, such as obesity, diabetes, or heart disease. We learn to protect ourselves emotionally by being more confident, and therefore less likely to be insulted or hurt when others try to bring us down. We learn to be better morally by being strong enough to resist temptation to do wrong and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. The group projects which we will be doing will help others, and in doing so, allow us to build within ourselves a spirit of giving.
The simple fact is that regardless of what is changing, it should be faced with the idea that it is an adventure which will help us all to grow. Students will be given time to adapt to the changes and special considerations will be shown during the first few tests as students try to make the change-over. Keep in mind, we are all having to adapt, but it is a journey that we go on together. Let us all help each other!
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