From: the_dojang-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: the_dojang-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: The_Dojang-Digest V6 #375 Reply-To: the_dojang@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: the_dojang-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: The_Dojang-Digest Sat, 31 July 1999 Vol 06 : Num 375 In this issue: the_dojang: Re: TaeBo/Kickboxing Fitness, Yada, Yada, Yada the_dojang: re: TaeBo the_dojang: Open letter, forwarding... the_dojang: Re: The_Dojang-Digest V6 #374 the_dojang: REminder: dobahks for Sarajevo the_dojang: Korean Tigers Demo and AllStar TKD Competition (fwd) the_dojang: Re: The_Dojang-Digest V6 #374 ========================================================================= The_Dojang, serving the Internet since June 1994. ~725 members strong! Copyright 1994-99: Ray Terry, California Taekwondo, Martial Arts Resource Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe the_dojang-digest" (no quotes) in the body of an e-mail (top line, left justified) addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To send e-mail to this list use the_dojang@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and online search the last two years worth of digest issues at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! Ray Terry, PO Box 110841, Campbell, CA 95011 KMA@MartialArtsResource.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Abramovitch Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 16:42:48 -0700 Subject: the_dojang: Re: TaeBo/Kickboxing Fitness, Yada, Yada, Yada Well, having 2 young kids means I don't get out of the house at night which means that my only chance to practice anything remotely resembling the martial arts these days are the kickboxing fitness tapes, such as TaeBo, etc. I can attend one kickboxing fitness class at the gym at work. Funny thing is that the guy who teaches it, Jeff Huling, was on the US TKD team for 6 years, so he's pretty good. Also, I sweat a lot more in his class than in any of Billy Blanks' workout tapes. A few useful data points: 1) Jeff really knows his stuff. He has let go more pearls of kicking wisdom than I got from my old TKD master in the entire time that I was an upper belt under him. Jeff will just say, "Here's a better way to do a jumping kick" and it works. 2) However, he rarely corrects people's techniques during the aerobic portion of the class. One female participant has very high kicks (dancer I think), but keeps doing roundhouses when Jeff calls out side kicks. Lots of other folks have very poor technique (as they are beginners at this P/K stuff), but Jeff doesn't interfere with the workout to micromanage everyone's form. 3) We hit pads for 20 minutes in class. He corrects technique a bit then. 4) Nobody seems to have gotten hurt. For me, all this is a counterexample to the mythos that: 1) A TKD instructor will necesarily correct everyone's technique. 2) It's absolutely necessary that they do so. Most people there realize the limitations of what they are learning. Most folks will avoid entering the UFC after watching 5 minutes of the Billy Blanks Kickology tape. As for the tapes, I actually have reviewed quite a few of them in my search for decent late night workouts. I have this on a web page at http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Danny_Abramovitch/cardio_kb_rev.html I have yet to post my list of music that works for this stuff, but you can do this to a lot of rock anthems. (For example Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistable" works really well, but "Addicted to Love" fails. Half of Springsteen's "Born in the USA" album works, many ZZ Top tunes, some Who, etc.) Note that nobody in the previous posts were talking about folks getting injured doing the tapes, but rather in classes lead by unskilled instructors. I find generally speaking that the instructors on tape are relatively safe and most have studied enough to know what they are doing. Since the kickboxing fitness (cardio kickboxing is a trademarked term) thing lies between martial arts and aerobics, instructors tend to come from one area or the other, with Laura probably being the exception. As such, they will likely be missing some piece of knowledge. As for the tapes, I would judge that (modulo being overpriced and over hyped) Billy Blanks has done a good job of learning the aerobics part. For anyone with experience, I'd forget the 2 tape set and simply buy the advanced workout tape. However, if you know nothing about kicking and punching and try that tape, you'll probably injure yourself, since the instructional part is on another tape and this one is pretty fast. Good things about the tape are decent music, simple combinations, sweat level is decent, and it can be done with minimal floor space and not much equipment. Bad things about it are that there is too much hype, that no Billy, you cannot be watching me from the other side of the TV, that there is too much hype, that there are not enough kicks, and that the tapes are too expensive (i.e. they try to make you buy $60 worth of tapes when the real workout is on a single tape) Coming from the other side, the best of the aerobic instructors seems to be Janis Saffell. She is the only one that I'd say has really learned the techniques properly. However, she tends to overchoreograph her tapes which makes them harder to learn. Furthermore, her tapes require a lot of floor space. Still, if you have the room, she's got a 90 minute workout that will drench the floor. Few of the rest can get me sweating anywhere near the appropriate level for one of these classes, although some have redeeming features. (Not Keli Roberts, though.) Anyway, it may be good, it may be bad, but right now it's what I've got. The stuff will get you sweating, which is more than one can do in many martial arts classes. This is the final point. This stuff will get you more fit, and therefore is probably a good addition to regular martial arts training. I mean, if you are looking to try the stuff and an unfit TKD Blackbelt tells you that they will teach you the kickboxing fitness stuff, are you really going to believe them? Okay, that's probably 4 cents. I'll stop now. - -- Danny ------------------------------ From: "Laura Kamienski" Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 20:20:25 -0400 Subject: the_dojang: re: TaeBo >>I tend to beleive that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. >>Jason Swanson >>3rd Dan TKD >>Lincoln, NE I tend to believe that _no_ knowledge is more dangerous. Sometimes 'a little knowledge' wets the appetite for larger portions... Laura lkamiens@ptd.net http://home.switchboard.com/LKamienski ____________________________________________________ "The destination is not the purpose of a journey; death is not the purpose of life." -Thich Nhat Hanh ____________________________________________________ ------------------------------ From: "Ray Terry" Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 08:47:31 -0700 Subject: the_dojang: Open letter, forwarding... Forwarding... Ray Terry rterry@best.com - ------------------------------------------------------- AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MARTIAL ARTS COMMUNITY Dear Fellow Members of the Martial Arts Community: I am writing this letter because I need your help and no, I am not asking for money just a little of your time and effort for what I believe is a cause that should be important to all of us. I am a Taekwondo instructor in San Francisco and have been teaching my art for over 31 years. I know that some of you will react negatively when you hear Taekwondo since you believe that Taekwondo has become a sport and is no longer a martial art. Let me simply say that I and many instructors that I know, teach the martial aspects of our art in addition to the sport aspect and feel that both are equally important. However, it is not my intention to get into this seemingly unending debate at this particular time. As I am sure you can understand, many Taekwondo practitioners are extremely excited about their art being included in the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in the year 2000. In fact I was recently having lunch with a number of Korean and American Taekwondo masters who were very enthused about the exposure that they felt the Olympics were going to provide for Taekwondo. I hated to rain on their parade but I had to ask them if they understood how American television works. I informed them that if the network that is covering the Olympic Games, in this case NBC, is not convinced that there will be millions of viewers extremely interested in watching Taekwondo coverage and furthermore that these viewers are sufficiently affluent to purchase the products of the programs sponsors, Taekwondo will probably be relegated to a 10 second spot on MSNBC at 4 in the morning and consisting of some poor athlete lying on the mat with a broken nose. The Taekwondo masters were somewhat shocked at this revelation and this is why we need your assistance. Now I can just hear some of you saying as you read this, "I am a Karateka or a practitioner of the Greek art of Pankration, why should I help Taekwondo?" You should do it for a number of very good reasons. First, we are all traveling down the same path, working towards being better human beings through our study of our individual martial arts. The longer you study the arts, the more you begin to realize that we have more similarities than differences. It is in all of our best interest to show the media and therefore the world that we are capable of overcoming our differences and working together for something we believe in. Judo paved the way for Taekwondo in the Olympics and it looks like these arts will be paving the way for Pankration to re-enter the Olympic venue in the year 2004. Any martial art that has any aspirations of appearing on the greatest sports stage in the world, the Olympics, its practitioners should do every thing they can to support both Taekwondo and Judo coverage. It only makes sense that if we can show the electronic media that we are interested in coverage of the martial arts currently in the Olympics, that it will make it easier for the arts to get coverage in the future. We need to show them that we are united in our appreciation of martial arts coverage on television and then maybe we might start seeing more and better Kick Boxing matches, Karate and Kung Fu competitions and even Sports Jujitsu at a time when more than total insomniacs can watch. It is up to you; if you want more martial arts coverage on television, then give us a hand. Now you are saying, " but what can I do?" I am glad you asked. The individual who ultimately decides what gets coverage at the Olympics is NBC Chairman, Dick Ebersol. Please take the time to drop Mr. Ebersol a line politely requesting in depth coverage of the Olympic Taekwondo and Judo competitions. He can be reached at NBC 30 Rockerfeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. Please do this as soon as possible because these decisions are being made now by the network. I want to thank all of my brother and sister martial artists in advance for being willing to make a difference by doing something positive and constructive and not just talking a good story. With your assistance we will be successful but now I would like to turn my attention to another group in the martial arts community, the martial arts related businesses. The martial arts suppliers such as Century, Macho, Jhoon Rhee Sports, Inc., AWMA, OTOMIX, Tiger Claw, Vision USA, Inc., Kim Pacific; the martial arts Management organizations, EFC, ACMA, Easy Pay, NAPMA, Global Financial etc.; the martial arts media electronic and print, the many periodicals such as Taekwondo Times, Black Belt Magazine, Martial Arts Training and Taekwondo Reporter; Panther Productions, Turtle Press, even some of you instructors who always appear in ads telling the rest of us how many hundreds of students you have in your chain of schools; all of you who make your livelihood from the martial arts community it is your turn to step up to the plate and go to bat for us. We need someone or a group of businesses to come forward and be willing to sponsor coverage of the Olympic martial arts competition. I am sure that if you contact Mr. Ebersol he will be able to direct you to the right person to get it done. The martial arts community is challenging you not just to "talk the talk, but to walk the walk." It is time to give back to the community but this gesture on your part will be a good business decision and will certainly have its financial rewards. Millions of martial artists from around the world will be watching your advertisements and they will be thankful that you were willing to go to bat for them. Let me end this letter by encouraging all of you to work together now and in the future for the betterment of all martial arts. Focus on your similarities while appreciating the differences that make each art and each martial artist unique. Peace. Yours in the Martial Arts. Prof. Bill Dewart Academy of Tae Kwon Do San Francisco, California tkdbill@pacbell.net ------------------------------ From: LJSFLEM@aol.com Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 14:50:43 EDT Subject: the_dojang: Re: The_Dojang-Digest V6 #374 I am fairly new to the Digest, but need some advice. I have been a student of TKD since 10/98 starting at the age of 48 (female). I have been progressing with promotion tests approx 2 months apart. I attend classes most weeks 3 days. In the school we are expected to test. I have never seen a student not "made ready" according to the Head Instructor for testing. There is an ever increasing amount of injury to students. Fractures, sprains, knees, backs, shins, broken hands, and as a result, lost student members. Students are instructed to spar without proper equipment and other students are told to purchase the equipment due to insurance regulations and they are then instructed to spar with students that have no equipment or at least minimal school equipment. I started to look at other schools in the area, and have found two styles of TKD. My present rank is blue belt. Comments would be appreciated. Lorraine ------------------------------ From: Judi Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 19:10:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: the_dojang: REminder: dobahks for Sarajevo Hi Folks! I'm resending this message. Please reply email to me directly since I sometimes have difficulty reading the digest posts. Thanks! - ---------------------------------- Members, please consider sending your old uniforms, books, training materials, equipment to Sarajevo to help those less fortunate than we are in their pursuit of the Martial Arts. The URL below is a link to letters and photos recieved by a newgroup member. The letters are from Nedzad Kapic who is finding a way to join people through Martial Arts. http://www.acdk.org/ and then choose TaeKwonDo in Sarajevo If you are interested in assisting Nedzad, his students and our collective cause , please email me directly. I'll be sending a box of supplies when enough is gathered. thanks, Judi cjudi@sprint.net Oriental Sports Academy - Ashburn, VA - --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.bcity.com/osa U.S. Headquarters of the Korean Tigers Learn Discipline. Earn Respect. Build Confidence. Practice Self-Defense. Judi Sprint DNS Service Ph: 703-689-6224<*>F:703-478-5471 <-------------------------------------------------------------------> The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better. -- Barbara Pletcher ------------------------------ From: Judi Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 19:32:18 -0400 (EDT) Subject: the_dojang: Korean Tigers Demo and AllStar TKD Competition (fwd) Saturday August 7 at Chinn Aquatics & Fitness Center 13025 Chinn Park Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22192 phone: 703-897-8900(WOODBRIDGE) OR 703-724-0700(ASHBURN) 703-519-5797 ( ALEXANDRIA) OR EMAIL ME cjudi@sprint.net **THE WORLD FAMOUS KOREAN TIGERS WILL BE PERFORMING AT 12:30 PM ** TICKETS $10 ADULTS, $7 CHILDREN UNDER 9 YEARS OLD 1999 DC AREA - ALLSTAR COMPETITION DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS AUG 3. ADDITIONAL $10 AT THE DOOR for late registration. USTU and WTF rules apply. Registration begins at 8:00 am Poomse and Gyoroogi Competitions begin 9:00 am 1ST EVENT $40 2ND EVENT $10 3RD EVENT $5 Also there will be Open Competition (Board Breaking) in the afternoon Judi Ashburn Dojang ------------------------------ From: "Darlene" Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 19:41:11 -0700 Subject: the_dojang: Re: The_Dojang-Digest V6 #374 Ray, Thanks for the great info on the Rotator Cuff. It sounds like you'll be minimizing for a month or so, but you've said you've been through this before, so you know what you're in for. I hope it pleasantly surprises you and you are allowed a shorter recovery this time. Could you tell us where you information is from? Thanks. Darlene Port Hadlock, WA ------------------------------ End of The_Dojang-Digest V6 #375 ******************************** Support the USTU by joining today! US Taekwondo Union, 1 Olympic Plaza, Ste 405, Colorado Spgs, CO 80909 719-578-4632 FAX 719-578-4642 ustutkd1@aol.com http://www.ustu.com ===================================================================== To unsubscribe from this digest, the_dojang-digest, send the command: unsubscribe the_dojang-digest -or- unsubscribe the_dojang-digest your.old@address in the BODY of an email (top line, left justified) addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com in pub/the_dojang/digests. All digest files have the suffix '.txt' Copyright 1994-99: Ray Terry, Martial Arts Resource, California Taekwondo Standard disclaimers apply.