U.S.U. Tae Kwon Do Club

As I am leaving Logan and about to pass on the USU Tae Kwon Do Club to another instructor, I've been asking myself the question "What is the central essence behind Chung Do Kwan training?". What makes it unique, what is included, what is excluded? How are things done? How does it compare to other martial arts? What are some of the central philosophies and guiding principles? For some martial arts I could come up with a list of techniques that "are part of the system" and others that "are not part of the system". But, the way I have been trained, and the way I train, and the way I teach, this is not so. There are of course "standard" drills, forms, techniques, and methods we use. But there are also a lot of other techniques that I've learned in my Chung Do Kwan training that encorporate "non standard" techniques or techniques that have been adapted from other martial arts. I also look at my leadership in the Chung Do Kwan Alliance and the various methodologies they represent. Normally we train in no-contact sparring, but 5th Dan Ron LeBlanc also teaches some Olympic-style full contact sparring. Which he has trained personally in, and even had two students that took the Idaho state championships in for their division (they would've gone onto Nationals but didn't get the paperwork in time). 5th Dan Don Richardson also has 5th Dan in Judo, and rank in Shotokan, Juijitsu, and Tai Jutsu, and he has incorporated some of these techniques into his Chung Do Kwan training. 5th Dan Steve Glass, has rank in Aikido and he teaches concepts he has learned from Aikido. Although primarily we are a kicking oriented art, my training under 3rd Dan Ron Squibb has included breakfalls, throws, sweeps, grappling, joint-locks, and ground kicking. So I had to ask myself, what part of Chung Do Kwan training is firm and what part is flexible? So I came up with some things that are pretty set: formality, philosophy , and training methods. Oh, before I continue, I must state that this essay is not an official statement but merely my attempt to express what my training represents.

Formality. Class is always pretty formal. With students bowing into and out of the do-chang, to their instructor, their partners etc. And we have a pretty standard way of running class. Attention (Cha Raht), bow to flags (Kuk-E-Ah Tae O, Kyong Ya), instructor (Sa Bum nim Ka Kyung Ya), member-ship oath (We as members, train our spirits and bodies according to the strict code. We as members are united in mutual friendship, we as members will comply with regulations and obey instrucotrs), kneel for meditation (Ong-Yo), warm-up, basics, bow to instructor/head student. Spread out for forms, bow to instructor. Forms ran by instructor, remain in last position until told to return to Joon-Bee with "Go-Mahn". Bow to instructor/head student. Two lines for sparring drills. Bow to partner after each drill. Go back into lines for warm-down. Turn around and fix uniform (Dui-lo Do-la do-bok Go Chee Ghee"), face flags and bow, face instructor and bow, meditation. Up, bow to instructor/head student and bow. "Soo Roong Goot", class dismissed. Thats the pretty standard "template" and we don't deviate from that too much. Some classes in the U.S. give all commands in English some use Korean, but the format for class is pretty much the same.

Philosophy is first that Tae Kwon Do is for self defense only! Not to go out and hurt others by being a bully. We only actually use the techniques we learn on the street to defend our life, the lives of our family, or country. A second part of the philosophy is the priorities. One of our primary priorities is learning self defense, over learning tournament sparring. A part of this attitude is emphasis on power in technique. The goal is to learn technique that is strong enough that it can kill or incapacitate with one blow. If my technique is too weak, my fighting is useless, no matter how much speed I have. Being able to apply what I learn in class on the street requires that I learn how to hit hard, hit fast, and move out of the way! Another aspect of this approach is that our approach emphasizes first of all using striking, secondly using kicking techniques , and thirdly we learn how to deal with hand techniques, grappling and throwing. Striking has the advantage that it's simpler and easier to use under situations of high stress, and if used against vulnerable target area's can incapacitate or kill an agressor. Thus being an effective way to prevent an attacker from continuing to hurt me. Our philosphy with striking is that I want to use those parts of my body that are already best suited for use as a weapon. For example I use my ball and heel of my foot because they are a very hard surface, already used to taking a lot of weight and abuse. I don't use the top of my foot, shin or toes, because they are either inheriently weak or they require special training to become useful weapons. We emphasize kicking since the leg is three times stronger than my arms, and much longer. Thus it can be an excellent tool to use against a bigger stronger opponent. We also learn hand techniques and how to deal with them, since it is very common for an assailent to try to punch at my head or body. And if I learn proper hand techniques I can generate a lot of power that allows me to unload at close range to high targets (ie. head). So we also work at getting strong hand techniques for close range and high targets harder to reach with kicking. Other techniques, going under what we refer to as "self defense" are important to learn as well. Learning how to execute and get out of a good choke is vital for self defense. As well as learning about charging tackleing, pushing, bear hug, throws, sweeps, hand grabs, etc. There are lots of common grappling moves that are important to learn how to deal with in a self defense situation.

Training methods. Our training methods are pretty standard. We teach in standard basics, forms, various sparring drills, and breaking. We first teach people slowly how to go step by step to learn each technique in basics. As they advance we go faster and begin teaching combinations. There are some particular combinations that are favorites, but this somewhat changes from one instructor to another, but the standard rule is that single technique for beginners, combinations for ranking belts. With everybody needing to go back to the basics to learn proper form, speed, and power in individual technique. In different martial arts the "theory of power" is different and often characteristic of different martial arts. By "theory of power" I mean the physical methodology for transfering destructive energy into my opponent with a punch, strike, or kick. 5th Dan Ron LeBlanc likes to say "Tae Kwon Do is applied physics and biomechanics -- there ain't no magic!". In Chung Do Kwan the theory of power is almost exlusively rotational energy driven from rotation at the hip. In this way we never throw our weight but keep the body in good balance, this makes us less suseptable to a throw while creating maximum power at the same time. In the basic exersizes we force the students to learn how to generate power by rotating the hip and shoulder. One way this is done is by having the students learn long and low stances for basic exersizes. This ensures a good solid base for maximum power. By having stances that can take maximum impact thus allowing strikes and kicks with maximum energy. As well as forcing the student to get hip rotation in each movement. Which builds the concept of building power by throwing the hip. My instructor Ron Squibb likes to say that by forcing the student to do basics with exagerated motion, having the striking hand go from way back with low/long stances forces the hip to rotate to keep balance. By doing this hard this increases the torque which then helps the student to utilize the hip rotatation to put more power in the technique from the get-go. This allows students to generate good power at a relatively early stage. As well as ensuring that the stances are "square" either precisely square forward or square sideways. This ensures maximum hip rotation. We also teach students to move without tension with only the striking surface and stance tightened at impact to take the energy in the strike. Moving with tension slows the technique down and takes all the power away from it, as striking energy is totally dependent on the speed of execution not muscle tension. Striking without tensed striking surface or solid stance doesn't alow energy to go into the strike as it is absorbed (by damaging) the striking surface or the stance (by toppling the person executing the technique over). Chung Do Kwan instructors also tend to be quite exacting in ensuring that students do basic movements properly with good form, power, balance and accuracy. If you can't do the movements well in basic exersizes, you will be worse in forms, and still worse in free sparring. Basic exersizes are the building block to good technique both in forms, sparring, and self defense. In forms we use the traditional Chung Do Kwan forms originally taught in the Chung Do Kwan, by it's creator Woon Kuk Lee, as well as the Kuk Mu forms created by the Chung Do Kwan's second headmaster Duk Sung Son. These are a good set of forms for learning self defense, and fighting skills, and have been used succesfully for that purpose in some cases for several centuries. Forms also allow the practice of some extremly violent moves that just can't be practiced safely in any other forum. Forms also allow practice for dealing with multiple attackers. As almost every form assumes that there are multiple opponents spread through the training area. And forms teach awareness of, and the "attack speed" necisary to deal with multiple opponents. We teach one-step, 2-step, 3-step, 1-step no set, instant sparring, particular combinations, no-contact free sparring, as well as some grappling. Step sparring is an excellent forum for practicing techniques that are too violent to use safely in free sparring, but safe enough to be able to do safely with a partner. No-contact free sparring allows me to throw full power techniques without hurting my opponent. Full contact sparring with pads have the problem that pads restrict movement, and the strongest techniques still allow me to hurt my opponent anyway. Good full contact training will require gettting hurt no matter what the protection or rules are -- period. For proffesional fighters this can make sense, but for the rest of us -- probably not. Sparring with light contact, teaches me to pull my technique rather than letting it land full power, so I only learn how to throw weak technique. The problem with no-contact sparring is that if I am not concentrating I may not realize when I've been had, thus I can become overconfident. And I don't learn how to land a hard blow on an actual opponent. The first part requires that I teach to be aware when technique would have landed and "taken care of me", this takes concentration and a lot of effort. I also want to train to hit very close and very hard to my opponent, this again takes a lot of concentration and effort, to do safely. We deal with the second part first of all by training to hit hard on focus mitts, shields and heavy bags, and secondly by breaking. So by training hard with concentration, no-contact sparring can be a very effective tool for learning fighting skills. For advancement in Dan rank we require heavy breaking of up to 5 boards for both hand and foot techniques. Preferably being able to break with any of our "standard techniques". We break with elbow, punch, palm heel, knife hand, back fist, hammer fist, ridge hand, front kick, side kick, roundhouse kick, back kick, wheel kick, cresent kick, and any kick flying. We don't break with head or knee's because of the danger to the person doing the break. The wheel and cresent kicks aren't as stong as the other kicks and thus not used for most of the power breaks, but are used for lighter breaks. Some argue that another problem with no-contact sparring is that you don't learn how to "take a hit". This is somewhat true in that on the street I'm likely to get knocked around quite a bit more than I'm used to in no-contact sparring. However, I consider this part trivial, because on the street, adrenaline will honestly do more for my ability to take pain than training ever will. Also hard no-contact training will undoubtably include a certain amount of clashing and crashing and in general getting "knocked around". And secondly on the street if my knee is smashed in, or testicles crushed, or throat taken out, or eyeballs crushed -- I'm going to be out and out cold no matter how many "hits I've taken before". The aim on the street is not to hit hard in a strong area and "see how much abuse they can take" but hit hard to a weak area to incapicatate.

So that's pretty much a summary of my perspective of Chung Do Kwan training and how it's distinquished from other styles of training methods. As I stated before this is not an official statement of the Chung Do Kwan Alliance, but is my attempt to express what I have learned from my instructors and seniors.

Erik Kluzek, Nov/12/1996