06 March 2017

Martial Artists Sharing Ideas & ITF's Sine Wave Motion

About a week ago some friends and I came together to hang out and have a quick dinner. Since we are all martial artists, it didn't take long for us to start talking about martial arts in general, and pretty soon we were on our feet sharing ideas. It was indeed a most memorable evening and a great way for any martial artist to spend his or her time, with other like-minded people, putting egos aside and learning from each other. The stylists, myself included, in the video represent experience in the following arts: Kukki (WTF) Taekwondo, ITF Taekwon-Do, boxing, Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua, Wing Chun, Kickboxing, Taekkyeon, Jeet Kune Do, Mantis, Hapkido, and others.


One thing that stood out for me is how open those practicing Chinese martial arts are to the idea of "sine wave motion" in ITF Taekwon-Do. I've had conversations about this topic with people from many different styles with different levels of agreement or dismissal. But in my experience, the Chinese stylists always "gets" it. I've long argued that as long as people continue to try and interpret ITF Taekwon-Do in a historic Karatesque manner, they will simply fail to understand the new evolutionary path that ITF Taekwon-Do has undergone -- moving away from its Shotokan Karate roots to a more Korean kinaesthetic that is more in line with Chinese martial arts, than Karatesque Japanese martial arts.

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