Effective Taekwondo Kicks

Taekwondo, as distinct from Karate or most other martial arts, put a great deal of emphasis on kicking. Even the name means ‘the way of the foot and hand’. Most other martial arts focus far more on the hands.

Those who want to progress and even master Taekwondo will do well to learn and master the five fundamental kicks. This is certainly not everything in the martial art, but it is solid foundational knowledge.

There are five kicks that need to be executed with a degree of fluid precision only obtainable after constant practice.

The first two kick to practice are-

Front Kick

This strikes an opponent in front of you who is about one leg length away from your body.
Lift one knee toward the target while rotating the foot of the other leg outward. Hit the opponent /target with the ball of your foot while pushing forward with the hip behind the leg.

The momentum generated by the hip as you rotate your other leg is part of the force behind the kick.

Side Kick

This will work effectively against an opponent on your side.

Raise the leg you going to kick with. First raise the knee so that it bends toward your torso. Keep the foot of your other leg pointing forward.

Now kick by stretching the leg toward the target, opening your hips. Strike with the outer top of your foot (not your toes).

Practice these kicks till your body can perform them as one fluid motion. You should be able to do this as a reflex action.

After you develop some proficiency with these kicks then you can look at the hooking Kick, Back Kick, roundhouse Kick.

Effective Taekwondo Kicks

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Self Defence for women Sydney

The possibility of being physically attacked is very real. Muggings, sexual assaults and domestic violence are real world problems, and far from being blown out of proportion these abhorrent tend to be underreported. Some statistics say that 30% of women have experienced at least one act of physical violence. We can partially reduce the risk of this by avoiding dark alleys and living is safer suburbs, but there is no way to entirely avoid the risk of violence.

Taekwondo training

Martial art training is about being able to defend oneself in an emergency. We all hope an emergency never occur, for nobody wants to be attacked, but sometimes there is nothing we can do about the situation we find ourselves in.

Good martial arts is about avoiding injury. We don’t want to be injured ourselves, and we should look at avoiding injury in the assailant as much as possible. This is no easy task. Both the techniques required and our reaction to the situation require training and skill.

The often overlooked factor in an assault is our reaction. Most people will panic, or have a bad reaction to the rush of adrenaline. Unfortunately just being aware of this is little help. In order to deal with stress and panic we have to confront these things on a regular basis. Martial arts competitions are one of the few experiences that help with this. By completing in martial arts individuals slowly learn to deal with adrenaline, and learn to respond in an effective manner even when threatened.

Another overlooked aspect of an assault is the ability to react without thinking. Violence is instant. We cannot calculate a response, we have to a react on reflex. This requires a fair deal of experience. We cannot simply look at a book or video clip and think we understand what we should do when the time arrives.

This brings us to a modern habit, of trying to learn martial arts through online training courses, something not possible prior to the internet age. These online lessons might have some value as supplement material for those already practicing martial arts. But on their own they are not sufficient. Without physically engaging and practicing with an opponent the online lesson is useless.

Self defence Classes

Learning some martial arts helps us deal with stress and the disorientation of an emergency. It teaches us to react intuitively. It can also help us be physically fit and socially connected.

Online lessons are not enough on their own. Participation is key to learning. Take some real martial arts classes and be better for the experience.

Martial Arts Classes

Best and Worst Martial Art for kids Sydney

Good martial art training is about making us better individuals, something that impacts every area of our lives, and the lives of those around us. This type of training should encourage discipline, honesty, humility and co-operation as well as the more obvious virtues of physical fitness and the ability to defend ourselves.

A martial art is bad if:

• Its focuses on just harming the opponent. We want to avoid injury, and defend ourselves without killing the aggressor.
• If it never progressed past its military origins.
• If it limits us to a set of moves. Restriking bad habits is one thing, getting stuck in a rut is another.
• If it is all about film performance and display. This is choreography and dancing. The participants are probably fit, if nothing else.
• If it doesn’t encourage discipline or respect for others.
• If it has become obsolete over time.
• If it was designed to help foot solders knock cavalrymen off horses. When was the last time you were attached by a moan on a horse?

Any martial art is bad if we simply neglect it, or form bad habits.

Best and Worst Martial Art

Learning martial arts Sydney

Even the greatest achievers had hurdles to overcome. Motivation, enthusiasm and perseverance are all necessary parts of getting ahead. But sometimes it’s about getting some skill or habit right, knowing that we cannot progress till we get this one thing right.

Frustration and failure can go either way, working for or against us. Sometimes this type of thing can really motives us to get things right; or we can take a defeatist attitude and give up. This seems to be a choice we consciously make, and we can always change an earlier defeatist choice latter on.

Some learning points

• SMART has become a popular acronym in many education courses. It breaks down to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based Goals.

This means set realistic goals that you can achieve and measure. Being able to see legitimate improvement is great for motivation. And there may well be some unmeasurable, less blatant improvements as well. Like just feeling more confident.

• Learn according to style and subject. Some people learn only by doing. Others learn first by observation, and then by doing, by applying what they observe. A few people learn a lot by books and study, and then rapidly gain skill by applying what they studied. Most of us find that we learn in different ways according to the subject. But participation / doing is always part of the learning process.
• Use technology. If there’s is an app for monitoring you progress, then use it. Or just video yourself to get some insight into the things you get right and wrong.
• Individual training is good. Group training is good. There is no reason why we have to choose one over the other. Have both on a weekly basis.

Martial arts training Sydney

A good teacher and regular classes are the best way to develop martial arts skills. All the better when this training help us in other aspect of our lives.

Sydney Martial Arts

People in the late 20^th century tended to believe a few myths about learning and the brain. Popular science and psychology taught that our learning ability plateaued off after a certain age, and that our brains inevitably lose skill and function as we approach old age. But this is largely discredited today. We now know that we can continue to learn throughout life, and that mental exercises can partly, perhaps almost entirely, prevent mental problems as we age.

Constantly learning new skills is a great way to stay mentally alert. Even if the skills are mostly physical in nature we are still using our brain to coordinate our body, and that has great benefits.

The process of achieving something is good for our psychological well-being. Martial arts like karate and taekwondo are especially good for this as they are both mental and physical in nature. And being a long term endeavour there is always more to achieve.

Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of having learnt a new skill is the decrease in some forms of brain activity. This might seem counterintuitive, but the short answer is that over time we learn to perform new skills with less effort. We may even learn to do it without paying attention.

The learning of a new skill actually causes physical changes in the brain. Neurons in our brain will form connections as we learn, and this link is further fortified as the skill is repeated. The act of stimulating one neuron will excite other connected neurons, activating a network of connections when a skill is practiced. Over time our brain will physically grow bigger or more interconnected through continual learning. This is a far cry from the old misconception that our brains inevitably decay over time.

There is frustration in learning, but this is more than compensated for by the benefits. We feel better for the accomplishment and can perform new skills with minimal effort.

Self Defence for Kids Sydney

Children have some advantages in learning. For one thing there are fewer preconceived ideas, so there is less to unlearn. Another advantage is that skill learnt in the youngest years are available for the rest of their life. Perhaps the best Martial Arts for Kids Sydney wide is taekwondo or Karate.

Best Martial Arts for Kids Sydney

When we play contact sports we should wear a mouthguard. This includes contacts sports like martial arts.

Mouthguards will not prevent an actual impact to the face, but they can greatly reduce the damage of an impact. It is the difference between a bad bruise and losing a tooth.

Martial arts is about impacts to the body and about avoiding impacts from others. This is more true of Taekwondo and Karate than many other martial arts, and more true of any martial arts over other sports. It makes sense to use a mouthguard to protect against high-head kicks and other potential impacts from your opponent.

Types of Mouthguard

Custom made mouthguards are a more expensive option, but they are almost always the most comfortable. Statistics suggest that there are fewer injuries with custom made mouthguards, but this may be because individuals are more likely to wear a mouthguard that is comfortable.

Dentists make custom mouthguards by taking a mould of the individual’s teeth. Make sure to specify that the mouthguard is for sports purposes, as dentist also make mouthguards for night breathing and as antisnoring devices.

Generic mouthguards are available for under $10.oo. Sometimes these will fit an individual well, but usually they are a compromise solution. It might be a good idea to keep one of these as a backup.

Hot mouldable mouthguards are another option. These moderately priced mouthguards will mould to the shape of your mouth after being inserted in hot water. They can be a fairly good fit.

Breathing

Good breathing is essential for all sports, and for life in general. The correct way to breathe is through the nose. A mouthguard should make this type of breathing easier. Breathing through the mouth will reduce the nitric oxide in the body, which compromises performance. Mouth breathing is also bad for the teeth as it causes a dry mouth.

Salt Lake City in the USA is hosting the world’s largest Taekwondo Event from the 2^nd to the 9th of July 2018. Around 5000 athletes will attend the competition, along with thousands of spectators.

These national championships will include many of the best taekwondo athletes in the USA, including may who have represented the country internationally.

Large events like these are possible with Taekwondo because the sport is popular, widespread and has consistent rules wherever it is practiced.  Interestingly, mixed martial arts is also popular because of the difference between the various martial arts practices.

Competition Taekwondo takes training to another level. An individual can learn a fair amount by Taekwondo practice, but the experience of competition teaches individuals how to deal with the adrenalin and stress of confrontation, while still remaining in a relatively safe situation. These are life lessons that can only be learnt by experience.

Live streaming of some of the events is on the Utah Sports Commission and Taekwondo USA Facebook sites. 

Self Defence for Kids Sydney

Martial arts like karate and taekwondo get children active in ways that benefits their physical and mental wellbeing. In additional to its health benefits the martial arts teach discipline, self-esteem, responsibility, social respect, co-operation and team work. Of course martial arts are the best option for self-defence, but they also encourage the peaceful resolution of conflict.

Martial Arts Class

People with mental health issues tend to benefit from exercise and physical training. A martial arts school is especially good for this type of mental health benefit as martial art training also teaches useful life values regarding sincerity, achieving goals, and healthy living.

Improvement in the quality of life tends to noticeably improve an individual’s ability to cope with and manage mental health disorders. It is too easy for the mentally ill to give up and remain socially isolated. This is a habit that gets worse over time and becomes harder and harder to break. Becoming socially active helps give an individual a broader perspective on life; they see that there is more to life than their present experience of mental illness. Social isolation tends to reinforce the false impression that their mental illness is entire world.

Both the physical and the psychological elements of martial arts will help with mental illness. Being physically fit is beneficial if only because the individual does not feel as helpless. It can be of further benefit because being physically fit will alter body chemistry to a certain degree, perhaps enough to reduce the extent of the illness. There is psychological benefits is martial arts in being goal driven, in personal development, is seeing personal improvement, and in interpersonal competition. Being physically and mentally active is always beneficial for mental health.

Best Martial Arts for Kids

Children may be less likely to suffer mental illnesses, or be able to reduce the extent of the illnesses, with martial arts training. Conditions from depression to problems with aggression can be helped with the socialization and competition of Taekwondo or Karate. Kids learn to defend themselves without injuring their opponent. And to overcome obstacles without malice. Personal development is beneficial for all of life’s challenges.