General Choi Hong-Hi

Here is a collage of pictures of General Choi Hong-Hi that I made. He was the father of Taekwon-Do, and worked on creating it until he founded it on April 11th, 1955. He died in 2002 and was born on November 9th, 1918. Without General Choi, this blog, these classes, us as Taekwon-Doins, would not exist!

Green Stripe Releases

Today at the Friday Mt. Charleston class, I had Gino (blue belt), Roman (green stripe) and Reznor (green stripe) perform the green stripe releases for the rest of the class and relatives watching. I am so proud of their spirit! Here is a video below:
This video is only of Gino as the defender, Roman's and Reznor's aren't here. The two green stripe releases have two attackers 'the bad guys' and one defender 'the good guy.' There are two releases; one where the attackers grab each one of the defender's wrists, the defender releases himself and re-grabs the attackers' hands, and kicks the attackers with side kicks. Then, for number two, an attacker grabs the the defender from behind, while the other attacker runs at him from the front. The defender hits the attacker with a front kick, then does the bear hug release (this is learned at gold stripe)and the releases are done.
Good job, guys!

Cassie vs. Sam- Was This A Point?

Instant replay! Cassie vs. Sam- did Master Bosse make a mistake? At first sight, it looks like Sam actually got a point right there, and that Cassie's punch might not have counted! Did Master Bosse not see? Watch the instant replay- you decide!

My answer: at first, I thought that Sam's punch or backfist might have counted as a point, but after watching it in slow motion, I saw that Sam missed and, even if Cassie turned her head, her punch landed, thus earning her a point. Wow, Master Bosse is REALLY good at spotting points- this scene is so fast, I wouldn't have been able to tell!

If anyone would like to discuss this, you can comment on this post.

End Of The Month Tournament Sparring Video

Here is a movie I made containing video clips from yesterday's free sparring at the End of the Month tournament set to music. We don't have any of the patterns, but the free sparring here is pretty cool!

End Of The Month Tournament

Yesterday was the End of the Month Tournament at the YMCA.(Above Pictures) For all of you students from the Whitney Ranch and at Mt. Charleston, you are allowed to go, too. There were more people than last time, but still not as many as their used to be. All of us Taekwon-Do students need to come to the End of The Month Tournament!

I came in first place in patterns and first place in sparring. Then, we had a team spar against Cassie, Master Bosse's granddaughter- a 3rd Dan black belt and a champion in free sparring. It was me (1st degree black belt, Jose, (red belt) Sam, (red belt)and Eric (1st degree black belt)as a team against Cassie. We each took turns sparring her- but our team lost 10-0! Let's win against Cassie next time- Cassie, if you're reading this, be sure to come!

Today, at Taekwon-Do at Mt. Charleston, Master Bosse's son Master Joe Bosse visited. With both of them, I learned alot about chambering my leg when doing a side kick and how to move to the side and block or attack while free sparring correctly. I also just figured out that my stances are often messed up when doing patterns because I just focus on my hand and feet techniques instead of my stances, too, even if I know how to do them pretty well.

Today, Gabriel got his gold stripe and Richard got his gold belt. Congratulations!

For all of the students from the Whitney Ranch class and the YMCA, tommorow on Thanksgiving there won't be any class, unfortunatly. When I went to the Whitney Ranch and later the YMCA, since there was no Taekwon-Do on Thanksgiving I would practice at home. If you would like, try practicing your patterns, doing push ups, sit ups and leg lifts, stretching, and if you have siblings also in Taekwon-Do, help them out or have them help you, and free spar with them and/or do your step sparring or releases.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Taekwon-Do Over Snow

Above:
Picture One: Our Shoveled Driveway
Picture Two: Me Doing A Side Kick
Picture Three: The Beauty of the Mountain


It's November, and it was our first snowfall of the year at Mt. Charleston. The trees and mountains were surrounded by low misty clouds and up high, Cathedral Rock looked like it had been sprinkled with sweet powdered sugar. The rocks, plants, hills and driveway were blanketed in a few inches of snow; deep enough to sled on but not quite as deep as it could have been- last year we had over three feet of snow, and even more in some areas! It was a not-quite-winter wonderland, except for the fact that the snow in our really long driveway was going to turn into treacherous ice overnight! That meant no driving anywhere- we wouldn't be able to go to get groceries, to go to my Shakespeare and Key of Liberty homeschool classes, and to go to the red and black belt class! As a surprise for my dad and so that we would be able to drive places-especially the red and black belt class- I gathered my younger brothers (Roman, Gino and Gabriel) grabbed some shovels and started to clear the driveway. Since our driveway is so long, it took over and hour, but we kept scooping and pushing the snow and slush out of the way, determined to clear it. I realized that not only would this be a great surprise and our ticket to town, the students for the Friday Taekwon-Do class would be able to park somewhere. Cheering, "Taekwon-Do Over Snow!" and talking of how great a surprise it would be, we finished the driveway. Perseverance and teamwork really pays off!

A word about profiles

If you are a poster on this blog, you won't want to add anything to your profile you don't want anyone else to know. You can write your interests and about yourself, as well as add a picture. For us, it is really just for this blog's readers and each other to read, but in the interests section if you click on something you wrote it will take you to a list of other bloggers that also have that interest. If others do the same, they might come upon your page.

Don't worry, no one can contact you unless you put up your email address, but if you don't want people to know your birthday or where you live, please don't add it. Profiles are optional and are just fun for us Taekwon-Doins and possible students to look at.

To add to your profile, either click on 'edit profile' when you are on the dashboard (the page your are taken to when you first log in) or click on your name in the blog poster area to the right of this post, and choose 'edit' on your page. Then you can write your favorite things- music, movies, books, and other interests. You can add your birthday, too if you'd like, but if you are younger than 13 it won't let you, so if you want to add your age just put it in the 'about you' section. They also allow you to do other things, which are simple to figure out, and some things aren't worth adding or are pretty neat. You can upload an image for yourself- it can be of you or an icon image that you like from the internet.

So that others can know where you take Taekwon-Do, you can put that in the 'location' area- Whitney Ranch, Mt. Charleston or the Heinrich YMCA -instead of where you live.

Taekwon-Do Videos

Here is a video of General Choi Hong-Hi, the creater of Taekwon-Do, teaching. It's in Korean, but it's great to find a video of our founder.




Above is another video, that shows ITF Taekwon-Do techniques and lots of breaking! It also includes General Choi Hong-Hi.



Above is the third video, which is mostly free sparring. In this movie, it seems to be full contact, but in class we never use full contact, so that no one gets hurt. This one doesn't always show people with good technique, but there are some pretty fast foot movements that are worth the watch.

Mt. Charleston Friday Class

Master Bosse says that I get to teach classes on Fridays! This is another class in addition to the Monday and Wednesday classes. I did okay, but the order of things that we did wasn't so good and I stuttered sometimes. I'll do better next time! I think that everyone enjoyed the class, and I know that I did.

Picture One: Stretching
Picture Two: Playing a Slapping Game
Picture Three: Turning Kicks
Picture Four: Our Do-Jang
Picture Five: Side Exercises


We do Taekwon-Do inside now at Mt. Charleston. Snow will come soon, but though it has been warm lately it gets dark out too early to do Taekwon-Do outside. Our do-jang is a basement of a large house and our floor is covered in belt colored interlocking foam pieces. It looks awesome! On our wall is an American flag, a Korean flag, and three pictures: the ITF tree, the LVTKD logo, and a drawing that has General Choi in it. We have a Wavemaster, two small kicking pads, two large kicking pads, and two of those handheld black kicking pads with the handles. We also have a mat to roll and do step sparring on.

Taekwon-Do Baby Picture

Turning kick! I'm glad my sister enjoys Taekwon-Do so much!

Taekwon-Do Baby!

My little sister Jessi is 15 months old (older than a year) and she watches everything. She's watched us practice Taekwon-Do, and decided to do turning-kicks! She even exhales when she does them! In this movie, you can't hear it, though, because I muted it- too much background noise. I also taught her how to do a sitting stance. She doesn't do them in this video much, though, except for in once part, shortly. So cute and amazing! Taekwon-Do really can be for anyone, even a one-year-old! Look out for this future Taekwon-Doin!(I wonder if she's the first 15-month-old ever to do Taekwon-Do?)

Halloween

This Halloween, I carved a pumpkin into a Las Vegas Taekwon-Do Club Pumpkin! Here are some pictures.